So, I have been loving the colors of food! During the summer, there are so many colorful ways to prepare meals. I know, I am kind of strange, but when I make something especially pretty, I like to take a picture of it and now I am going to share my random food pictures with all of you wonderful people who actually look at my blog! I invited my husband to help me blog, but he really didn't seem that interested (as in he said "yay" in a very sarcastic tone). That is sort of okay with me because it means that occasionally I can put up pictures of him that he may not appreciate all that much and I have control over what pictures of myself go up on my blog. :)So this is the marvelous fruit salad that I made. To be honest, some of the fruit was not quite as good as it often is, but it was so pretty! It had watermelon, red and green grapes, nectarines, peaches, blackberries, and blueberries. It was yummy but huge. It took us nearly a week to eat all of it!
This I made tonight. Our garden is producing an abundance of squash and we don't really know what to do with it all. I have lots of things to do with zucchini, but not a lot to do with squash. We also have lots of tomatoes. So, I threw them together and it looked pretty but needed something green. Therefore, I added green peppers! So pretty and SO YUMMY!This is not quite as pretty as the others but it still looked cool in the pan and was very yummy as well.
Now you have seen some of the yummy and pretty food we have eaten this summer and also something of my random mind.

Pan Dulce!

So, I have been craving pan dulce, or sweet bread forever, but since my sweet husband loves it too and can no longer eat it, I haven't purchased any because I didn't want to make him feel bad. Yesterday I was out with my siblings and they were getting ice cream and there just happened to be a panaderia next door. I couldn't resist any longer. I ran over and got some of my favorites. I was sad because they didn't have any with anise in it, but I did get some of my favorites. Eating pan dulce, of course made me think about Mexico and some of my favorite people. I can't believe it has been over a year since we got home. I miss you guys! And I miss all the yummy Mexican food that was so cheap there and is either not available here (like Manzanita Sol!) or is more expensive!

My Dad

As this last weekend was Father's Day, I just wanted to say how awesome my dad is. He has always been there for me. He is always willing to help his family, even if is the most inconvenient time for him, or if what we want is not so easy. He is always helping friends and family with computer problems, moving things, or anything else they need help with. This can include driving out to Michaels with the van to get our Christmas tree because Mom decided to take the Honda, digging in the tent trailer for a denim quilt (the one we wanted was of course on the bottom!) or rearranging the sprinker system a million times until it works that way Mom wants it to. He is dedicated to his calling as the executive secretary and serves to the best of his abilities despite it sometimes taking him away from his family. He works hard to provide a living and has good friends among those he works with and associates with.

My dad is the best dad in the world. He loves his family and he loves the Lord. Best of all, he shows that love through word and deed.

I am especially lucky because in addition to having a fantastic father, I got a great father-in-law as well!

Life is Good

Sometimes the repetitiveness of life can make us think that our lives are stuck, that we aren't moving anywhere, that we are boring. I've found, espcially through writing letters to missionaries (first Wesley, now Natalie and my brother), that there is always something interesting going on in our lives, even when we don't catch it at the time. For example, I am now working as a secretary for NuSkin while the regular secretary is out for surgery. I really don't do much at work. I basically get paid $10 an hour to read my book, play on the computer and occasionally answer the phone. I work 9-5 M-F. Pretty repetitive right? It is, but nearly everyday, there is something that happens that makes the day more interesting. The other day, I was sitting there reading, when we got half a dozen boxes delivered. The only markings on them said NuSkin. There was nothing to help me determine where they belonged. I called Benji (another secretary who is upstairs) to see if she could help me. Nothing. We called half a dozen different departments to find out where they belonged. We finally figured out that they belonged to the productions manager who had gone home two hours before. This really doesn't seem like that interesting of a story, but while called those people, I had a brief conversation with each one. I have only been here two and half weeks and yet I already know a bunch of people as well as a little bit about each. If you keep your eyes open, you can always find the progression and the blessings in your life, even when you feel like it is dull and repetitive.

Video Games

There are some days when I am absolutely opposed to video games/computer games. They take up time that could be used being productive, they can become addictive and many of them are simply mindless killing, which never did anyone any good. They take up all of my husband's attention to everything: the house, the garden, the dishes, the time and especially me. Of course there are also days when I love video games because they take up my husband's attention and I can do what needs to be done. This week has not been one of those weeks when I love video games. My husband stayed up way too late playing blow 'em up games when both of us were already tired, he wanted to play the computer as soon as he got home from work, while I was trying to get dinner ready, and today he has totally lost track of what time it is when we really ought to be driving home. I understand that he feels that they relax him and I want him to play and have fun, I just wish sometimes that he would choose a less stressful time for me, to focus all of his attention on the screen. I do admit, that there are a few computer games that I like, really just a couple and they are fun, especially when we play together. Really, I would just love a little bit more moderation.

Update

Well, I haven't posted anything for a really long time, so here is an update on the Johnson family! Wesley is working for Teleperformance in Orem. He just got a shift change so he will now be working from 7am to 6pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. We are very excited that he will have Saturdays off so we can play like normal people. We live in Provo and just finished planting our garden. We are looking forward to zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, cantalope, carrots and onions. I would have loved to have had peas, but I didn't get it together in time. I don't have to plant any flowers, because those who we are renting from have a million flowers planted. We also have five fruit trees and lots of grapes. Hopefully we will have a good harvest; it is our first time doing this, so we will see. This week I made a rhubarb pie for Wesley who has never eaten it. I got the recipe from my grandma and with a little tweaking (to make it gluten-free!) it turned out great. Our car works great, though we aren't fond of the car payment and in general life is pretty good. We are not sure how school is going to work with Wesley's job and paying tuition, but we will see. We applied for Federal Aid and are now in the process of jumping through the hoops to get it. Overall, life is pretty good. We see our families at least once a week and often more than that. Last week, we babysat my siblings while my parents went to San Diego. We had a pretty good time, but were happy to be back at our house where the bed is not so big, although I am pretty sure Wesley misses the fact that my parent's bed is adjustible.

Finally!

After three years, I am no longer employed by Maceys Grocery Store. I have had three front end managers, many front end supervisors, been a front end supervisor and worked there longer than most people. There are some people that I will miss not working there, but as it is the grocery store that I know best, I will likely continue shopping there. I am very happy to be done working at Maceys. I desperately need something new. I am now employed by SOS Staffing, which is really just a temp agency. I am hoping to get a decent amount of work from them between now and the end of August when I will begin student teaching at Elk Ridge Middle School in South Jordan. It is something of a commute, but the teacher will basically give me free reign and we will see what happens.