d.c.

I love Mormon Messages. These people make me want to be a better person by being more like them. They seem so cool. My friend Jenny introduced me to Sheryl. You will love her video. I plan to be friends with her when we move to D.C.





Yes. We are moving. In August. [Me, that is. Brad moves first in July.] I'm so proud of Brad. He'll be graduating from BYU with not only an outstanding GPA but a fantastic job. In August he starts working as a naval reactors engineer at the Navy Yard in D.C. I'm really excited for the move. I've always loved and wanted to live on the east coast. Lots to do, though, before then.

yesterday i turned 25 AND some other stuff happened

Yesterday was the first day of spring and my birthday. I had a few birthday surprises this year. My coworkers were wonderful, surprising me with a lot of great things. My mom always does birthdays well in our family and it was fun to see her card and packages and to talk to my parents and siblings on the phone. I received a million nice facebook messages, texts, calls and voicemails from so many wonderful family members and friends.

And then there was Brad.


He took me to dinner at Carrabbas. Both our hostess and waitress asked if we were celebrating anything special. He told them it was my birthday. We enjoyed a very nice dinner together. Once our plates were cleared, the entire wait staff brought over a bowl of ice cream with birthday candles in it. They sang happy birthday to me. Then our waitress really surprised me by saying, "Amanda, Brad has a special question for you."


Didn't see it coming one bit.


You can, though. Enjoy watching Brad's proposal. I love that boy.

Untitled from Amanda Johnson on Vimeo.

st. patrick's day limerick contest

Imagine Learning is having another great contest! In honor of St. Patrick's Day today, create your own limerick and add it as a comment to our blog post. The winner will get a $20 gift card to Target. Can't quite remember what a limerick is (I couldn't either)? Fret no more...

i also love a good book [and wreath]

[I love this wreath. My friend Lacey made it for me for Christmas this past year. It's made out of pages from an old novel. It adorns my bedroom wall.]

For some reason I have really been struggling to keep up on reading books lately. I've decided I need to set a goal of how many books I want to read each month, because it alarms me at how slowly it's taking me to finish the book I'm on right now. I also have an entire shelf of my nightstand dedicated to books that I have been meaning to read for, oh, the past two years or so. Every time I look at it I think, "What would Miss Door think of me now?" [Miss Door was my kindergarten teacher. I was the first student in our class back at Dunbar Elementary to read a book all by myself. All I know is that it was about trains and after I read it to the principal they gave me a pin to wear all day because I had arrived.] I'm a pretty fast reader, so the only excuse I have for not having read much over the past few months is that I haven't consistently opened a book. But that's all changing. The goal is to read two to three books per month.


Any favorite books of yours that I have to read? I would LOVE to hear about them. I always love recommendations.

i love a good week

I thought the only time I had something scheduled for every night of the week was during December. Apparently saying goodbye to February and hello to March is reason to celebrate as well. This past week's notables include:

• M: Utah Chamber Artists' concert, Bernstein & Mozart: The Long and the Short of It. (Great job again, Carter, you know how much I love Rex Tremendae.) 
• T: Quiddler and frozen yogurt with Brad and the Dulgarians.
• W: A Tale of Two Cities at the Hale Centre Theatre to watch one of my dear friends star as Lucie Manette.
• T: Dinner and catching up at Paradise Bakery with my bestie Karin.
• F: Dinner with L and Steve in Layton before we drove up to stay the night at their place in Logan.
• S: Snowmobiling up Logan Canyon with L, Steve, and Brad. First time I've ever been when no one's gotten stuck.

It was a fantastic week.

 [The play, the Jensens, the boyf and I, the canyon]

this is for L

When did cupcakes become the new creme brulee?


Look at this fancy smanshy packaging and production from the La Jolla Groves (delish restaurant at Riverwoods, by the way) bakery, all for a cupcake.

journaling

One of my best friends Amanda gave me a charming little journal from martadesigns a few years ago for my birthday. I flipped through some of my old entries. I love how simple it is:

dear diary

today

sunday, 19 april 2009

i love the smell of

fresh laundry

i love the sound of

my dad's voice

i love the taste of

lemon cookies

i love the sight of

open fields

i love the feel of

chapstick on my lips

I'm not that great at writing in my real journal. Sometimes when my mind is thinking about many different things, I like to write down in my journal all my thoughts. Usually when I go back and read these entries, I'm embarrassed for myself and feel like I sound crazy and want to rip out those pages. If I were writing in my journal now, this is some of what I would write:

• I need to read books more often. I actually think I read more for fun while in school.
• It really wasn't a lucky break to not have to take any math in college. Wish I knew some statistics.
• Modern Family is surprisingly hilarious. Phil's my favorite.
• Brad has a great family. It's no wonder he's so great.
• My prayers are always heard. I can think of multiple things that have happened in the past few weeks that prove it. I am loved.
• Grapefruit do funny things when dropped out the car window while going 80. Try it.
• I really admire my sister and brothers.
• I would visit Chile every year if I could. Better, I'd own a house there.
• Parts of Arizona snow. A lot. And it's pretty.

[Prescott, Arizona]

valentines

When was the last time I made a valentine- third grade, perhaps? Well, this Valentine's Day was special:

 And then I got some of these, amongst other things:

the family: a proclamation to the world

This is Wordle. I copy and pasted the text from the family proclamation in both english...

 and español.

happy sunday

All good things require effort. 

That which is worth having will cost part of your physical being, your intellectual power, and your soul power. Let us ever keep in mind that life is largely what we make of it.

President David O. McKay

my deepest fear

Sometimes it's not good for me to look at blogs. I was sickies today and took off early from work, so I spent a lot of time blog stalking in bed. I love looking at blogs. I look at yours and I look at blogs of people I've never met but wish I could be friends with. I also look at blogs of people I used to be friends with and am afraid to speak to anymore. But sometimes it's just not good for me to look at them. Do you ever feel like you're the most un-talented, most un-interesting, most un-fascinating person you've ever met? That's how I feel when I look at your blogs and the blogs of people I wish were my friends and the blogs of people I've let slide away as friends. Today I was looking at some profiles of people on mormon.org. I love that people create profiles on that site. I love looking at them and watching their videos and then searching for their blogs to learn more about their incredible stories. And then that idea slips into my head again that I'll never be that caliber of a person and that I would have nothing to write my own profile about.


I'm trying not to do that.


And then I read this:


"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." Marianne Williamson

[Want something else lovely to read? Read this.]

oh, the places you'll go (in utah)

Please dine at a delightful little restaurant in downtown Provo called Communal. Thank you, Jenny, for turning 25 on Saturday and for wanting to eat brunch.  The french toast was a treat.

You can tell that the Cocoa Bean Cafe in Provo knows their audience when their best-selling item is named the “better than whatever cupcake.”  Thanks for not letting that get too graphic, marketing.

No matter what the month, Sonic drinks equates to wanting to be at the pool. (Ahh, the good days.) If it’s freezing outside, though, the next best option is to sip ‘em while playing Phase 10 and watching Hitch with friends.

 

The Aveda Institute is the best-kept secret in Provo. Where else can you spend $16 and receive a head, neck, and shoulder massage, another head massage/shampoo-conditioning while reclining in a massage chair, a style, a hand massage, a full-sized bottle of Aveda volumizing tonic, and a $16 gift certificate to come back? (Be willing to invest two hours of your time.)

I have yet to see anyone famous at Park City during the Sundance Film Festival. Maybe next year. No matter how many times I go to Park City and even though it’s in my current state of residence, I always feel like a tourist there. I love it. And I love fine dining.

Who knew these things existed in Utah? We took a detour on our way home from PC last night and stumbled upon the Midway Ice Castles. Kind of impressive.

 [PS, Please note that all of the pictures in this post were taken using Hipstamatic. Thank you, cool friends, for telling me about this app.]

baby got booth

Take a few minutes to watch this video my company recently made to promote our new conference booth. It's pretty fun. And as always, for more information about the fantastic company I work for, please visit the Imagine Learning website. You should also check out our blog!

there was a lot of shouting

Last night we went to my family's house for game night and played Last Word (my team won as I yelled out "hymen" for parts of the body starting with an h), Catch Phrase, and some other game that I don't know the name of-- Write to 100? 

Best.game.ever.

I will explain:

Roll 2 dice. Try to roll doubles.

When you roll doubles, start writing to 100 as fast as you can on your piece of paper. 

While you're writing, everyone else takes a turn rolling.

(They don't want you to win.)

 Once someone else rolls doubles, they steal the pen from you and start writing to 100 on their piece of paper as fast as they can.

(This is where the game gets intense.)

Play until someone makes it to 100. 

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

(There will be shouting, cheering, booing, blaming, stealing, and sweating.)

Play it. You'll be obsessed.

[Uncle Stuart, Syd, Amie, & Aunt Sandy: thank you for hosting game night. Note, this picture was definitely not taken during game night, but rather at my sister's October wedding reception.]

One game we didn't get to was the paper bag game. See an example below from this year's Thanksgiving. My 6'1" brother Aaron took second place. No idea how he did it.

paper bag flexibility from Amanda Johnson on Vimeo.

my new love

Heard this on the way to work this morning. I love it.

something i love about this place:

Leaving work today. Beautiful.

quite the juxtaposition

Of all days for there to be a White sale...

logan weekend

Have you ever played the game Last Word? It's turned in to be a tradition whenever I go visit the Jensens in Logan. You have a letter and then someone puts down one of their category cards (for example, T and titles of songs). Everyone starts saying words with that letter that fit in the category and the goal is to be the last person to say something before the buzzer goes off. I'm used to winning, but this weekend I was shown up by someone. He's better than me at every thing.


After my sister, L, made us a delicious homemade belgian waffle breakfast, Steve, Brad and I went to a few of the local gems in the area (thank you, Lauren, for ideas): 

• Pepperidge Farms Thrift Store (I spent $13 on 5 loaves of bread, 2 bags of goldfish crackers and 1 bag of milanos)
• The Sock Outlet (sadly, it was closed, but we tried)
• Gossner's Cheese Factory (delicious samples of both cheese and flavored U.H.T. milks)
• Hardware Ranch (lots of elk-- see pictures below)
• Aggie Ice Cream (we tried Aggie Bull Tracks and Aggie Blue Mint)
• The Beehive Grill

[We like each other. I just wanted to see the little elk behind us.]

Fun weekend!

utah bucket list: hill afb

So there are a lot of Utah things I haven't yet gotten around to doing in the five years I've lived here. I think everyone's seen the movie The Bucket List, right? Using it as my inspiration, I'm happy to say that as of December 2010, I have my own Utah Bucket List-- a list of all of the places, events, and things I should at some point do in this state. My deadline? The end of this coming summer.

Saturday we went up to Hill Air Force museum. Located near Ogden, this museum has about a million old, legitimate Air Force planes. It was really fun to see all of the planes. The most fun, though, was probably to hear Brad tell me any fact, description, or engineering piece of information about any single plane in that place. I don't know how he does it.

[I love these old planes. Please remember that Ohio is the birthplace of aviation. It says so on our license plates.]

[I'm sorry that I'm unable to tell you what any of these planes are.]

After the museum we were able to go somewhere I've never been before: an actual military base. Thanks to Brad's Department of Defense personnel status, we drove up to the entrance gate of Hill AFB, showed the armed guard B's military ID, and drove around for a bit. We went to the exchange, the commissary, and saw some real planes on the runway (F-16? F-18? F-14? Again, I apologize for being so ignorant.) I also asked lots of questions about military ranking systems and learned a lot about the Navy.

Other notables of the day: seeing one of my favorite mission friends and her husband who live just minutes away from the base, getting a rock chip in the windshield of a car that's not mine, eating lunch at Chipotle in Bountiful, spilling an entire cup of soda on the front seat of said car, stopping at Anthropologie in Salt Lake, learning that my boyfriend takes full advantage of his concealed firearm permit, and finishing off our day of military appreciation by watching Top Gun. Take my breath away.

Suggestions of things to add to my list?

this place is a dream

I've always wanted to go to the Tree Room, one of Robert Redford's restaurants at Sundance. Well, we came up with a few excuses to celebrate, so we went up there for dinner last night. Delightful.

The Native American decor, the gorgeous wintry landscape outdoors, and the exquisite menu has made this restaurant one of my new favorite places to visit in Utah, if only just once a year (please note, the fanciness of this Butch Cassidy lodge is strongly reflected in its pricing).