Hell Week...

Okay, so Hell Week is officially over! Yay! For those of you that don't know what I am talking about - my Hell Week is USANA's annual Convention. USANA is a MLM (network marketing company), so all the associates that want to come to Convention come and it is basically a big party/tradeshow/celebration thing all in one. This one was actually really cool (my first, so I don't have a comparison), but there was a cool new product launch of an energy drink, so there was a lot of excitement. Anyway - the reason that it is known as Hell Week to the USANA employees is because we are forced to work it. So, I have been working about 14 hour days, on my feet the ENTIRE time - literally, we are not allowed to sit down - and talking with associates, selling product, etc.... It is crazy! Considering that is about as different from my regular job as it can be, it was kind of fun - but, wow was it tiring. So from Tuesday though Saturday I was working from 6:30/7 in the morning until 8-11:00 at night (depending on the night).

Considering Greg went out of town for part of it made my life even more interesting having to come home to two high-energy dogs after I was SO tired. Plus, he took our truck, so I borrowed my mom's car to get to work, and let's just say that I am not used to turning on/off my own headlights - and yes, I left them on and ran my mom's car battery dead on Friday night. Luckily, I have a FANTASTIC brother-in-law (and a pretty great sister too), who came over bright and early Saturday morning and tried to jump the car for me. When we couldn't get it to work quickly, he instead let me take my sister's car to work, and he spent his day fixing my problem - THANK YOU JAY AND JANEAL!!!!!!!!! Considering I was so tired and stressed out by that point that I was in tears, it was VERY helpful! Also, thank you Mom for letting me take your car - and then for not caring that I am an idiot and ran the battery out. ;)

I am SO glad it is over - But my poor feet are going to need a couple weeks to recover I am afraid. On the plus side - it was really fun to see the associates that sell for USANA since this whole network marketing idea is so foreign to me - it was exciting to understand how many people are involved on the other side. Okay - I am going to finish enjoying my couple days off!

:)

Hunting!

So - We went hunting this past weekend, and had a GREAT time. Greg is going back up this weekend, and then back up again halfway through next week and staying through Labor Day. Unfortunately for me, I will be working as it is USANA's HUGE Convention next week and I will be working from 6 in the morning til late every night - crazy! So, in preparation for this, it felt great to go up camping and relaxing this past weekend. For those of you that were there, you know that us girls pretty much relaxed, ate and played all weekend while the silly boys went out chasing Bambi - well, Greg got an elk tag, so he was watching the rest of them chase Bambi while he eagerly tried to find elk. Lucky for me - none of the boys were too ambitious so this weekend was unsuccessful! Now that I can't go back up - if he gets one, I don't have to see the ugly part! ;) Although, I did teach Odie how to run with me on the 4-wheeler, which was just great for his high energy level! If only I could take the wheeler on the road around town here - I would be set! ;) As always, I am HORRIBLE at taking pictures, so I literally didn't take any until my uncle took his 6-month old grandson on his first 4-wheeler trip - Jaxon is SO dang cute, I had to take a picture. And then, Madi and I had to take a picture since Greg finally got a hold of the camera. So, enjoy the only 2 pictures I have of the weekend... I promise - I will make them take one of Greg in his camo - it is pretty dang cute!

Martina, Breaking Dawn and Tests!

I had a fantastic weekend this last weekend! I had to share. So, Friday afternoon a girl comes in my office and says "Martina McBride tickets?", I said, why of course! So, I went to the Martina concert on Friday night with some of my girls and had a great time. She is a fantastic singer and put on quite the show at the amphitheatre. The plus side is that apparently this happens often at work (since I work for USANA), so I already have my name on the list for other great ones coming up (DMB and Toby Keith)! So, after the concert, I had to rush home to make it to the release party for the book "Breaking Dawn" at the Bountiful Barnes and Noble. It was a madhouse! Luckily I did not have to wait outside with the THOUSANDS of fans that were in line, I had RSVP'd to the release party, so I could go inside and join the festivities and line on the inside. I was there for an hour or so, but it was SO worth it. I spent the next two days reading the book and I loved every minute of it. I finished it late Sunday night! Let me just say to all the Twilight fans - You will LOVE this 4th book. Everything kind of comes together in a very cool, and unexpected way, but there are definitely some hardships. All-in-all it was a great book! Anyone that reads it - please call me so I can talk to you about it!

While I was busy with my book, Greg was busy with a final project/test thing that he has been working on for weeks. I am very proud of him - after working all day at the office, he would come home and work on it for days - then he worked on it al Friday night and ALL day Saturday. Not his usual idea of fun! But, his hard work paid off, he turned in the test at midnight on Saturday (exactly when it was due) and his teacher sent him an email back 7 minutes later saying that his project was BY FAR the best one turned in and he is getting the only 100% in the class. Considering this is one of this last Construction Management classes, he was very excited and very proud of himself. So Yay! I think he congragulated himself enough though because that meant that on Sunday he rounded up is hunting gear and convinced me to go to Cabela's and Sportsman's for some last-minute items. He is very excited about going hunting with the guys this year since it will be his first bow-hunt that he actually is drawing a tag.

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekends! And if you are a Stephenie Meyer fan - get to reading!!! (If you haven't already!).

Animal Lover...

So - Mindy Eyre posted on my comments to the post below that her and Marty were just talking the other day about how Greg and I are so good at seeing the animals in Yellowstone - It reminded me of a story and I just HAD to share: You see, when I go to Yellowstone with Greg's family, I always make the joke that because I am such an animal lover that I am "one" with the animals, so I know where they are at because they tell me! I don't know where it started, but it had been going on a couple years and they just laughed at my joke and said - okay Jackie, whatever you say. So every year they tell me to use my powers to find the animals - but they never believed in my powers ;) - Until a couple years ago... After all day without seeing hardly anything, they were teasing me to tell the animals to come out and I said - okay here goes (I put my hands to my temples and closed my eyes for a dramatic effect) and said - "K, I wanna see a bear, and not just in the distance, I wanna see a bear in the road, right next to our car." I am not even kidding, it was less than 20 seconds later, we turned a curve in the road and had to come to an abrupt halt as we waited for a big ole' black bear to walk all the way down the road (crossing a bridge), walk right next to our car, and then cross the road right behind our car. My brother and sister-in-law were in awe! So to continue the joke, I kept saying things like - I wanna see a wolf, a moose, etc.... In the next couple hours, we saw three wolves circling an elk (to attack), a couple more bears (but definitely more in the distance), and then on the way back to camp, we saw a moose just off the side of the road. His family never lets me live that down and now they firmly believe in my powers!

I really do have all the luck - but don't tell them that! ;) Have a great time in Yellowstone Mindy!

Wow!

So - I know you are all thinking what a slacker I am not having time to post in over 2 months! Wow! Well, you are all right - I am a slacker. ;) I have just been enjoying summer nights too much and been so busy! Greg and I celebrated our 5-yr anniversary on July 15th, so for the 4th of July, we took off for a week of camping. We went to one of our favorites, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We had the BEST time! It was so nice to just relax together and have no agenda or timeframes - in fact, we didn't even make any plans - and the biggest suprise of all - Greg didn't even bring his laptop and even managed to turn off his cell phone for part of the time - Wow!!! We went to dinner and a play in West Yellowstone one night, kayaking at Hebgen Lake one day, we rented a boat on Yellowstone Lake another day, went hiking in the Tetons and even had time to eat dinner at the Yellowstone Lodge that we have always wanted to (as well as roasting marshmallows and hanging out at the campfire)! If you know me at all, you know that I am horrible with taking pictures, in fact if it weren't for Greg, I wouldn't even take a camera anywhere - I think I might be the least girl-like of any girl I know (mostly when it comes to pictures)! But I did manage to take a couple, so here they are (looking as staged as ever...;)):

(the only picture of the two of us - seriously we are horrible at pictures) - this was in the boat on Yellowstone Lake.

This was also in the boat - when Greg nearly flipped me out of the boat. If you can see, I am pointing to myself since I am soaked clear through all my clothes - He hit a big wave and the boat flipped really fast somehow and the whole side of me went into the lake and Greg pulled me back in by my one foot - it was great fun, but SO cold on the way back into shore.

Fantastically cheesy picture - the best kind!

So this is a Grizzly Bear right off the side of the road. See where the pavement ends and the flowers are? - That is where we were standing a couple minutes before (with a group - we weren't the only crazies) - but a ranger came and yelled at us since clearly that is a bit close to a freakin' Grizzly bear!

Other than that, just regular life in the summer: working and then doing stuff outside after work to enjoy all that sun. Greg is really busy at work right now, so he is working around the clock with that and school. I am busy trying to put my house back together after our remodel - I know, it has been forever! I will have to take pictures of the remodel that we did and put them up - maybe that will be one of the next blogs I do, once I finish putting my furniture back in it!

See y'all later! I hope everyone is in good health and doing well...

Introducing Gianna Grace LaVanway!

Gianna Grace LaVanway was born on June 2, 2008 at 9:05 PM and was 7 pounds 11 ounces and 20.5" long. She is extremely healthy and beautiful and a perfect shade of pink (according to the nurse!). Not surprisingly, she has lots of that hair we all have been waiting for! Here are some pics of her first night here: (JaNeal is doing fantastic as well, she only pushed for 10 minutes, so she is faring much better than when she had Jamison and pushed for 2.5 hours!)

I love her already!!!

Baby Gianna Grace LaVanway!!!

All righty everyone - I have another new niece to meet!!! Technically, I don't know too much right now, but I wanted to post on my website before I went to see Janeal and Jay in the hospital. Here is everything I do know as of 9:11 PM on Monday, June 2:

Janeal was up all night last night with slightly painful contractions, but they were about 20 minutes apart, and they stopped this morning, so she didn't take any action. However, about halfway through the day they came back stronger, but still very irregular. So she called her doctor and after talking to the nurse this afternoon, she was told that it could be false labor and to get in a warm bath and drink a big glass of water and if the contractions are still there and painful - then come on to the hospital. She got in the bath about 5:00 tonight (with Jamison running around the house!) and my mom got there at 5:30 to check on her. My mom found her in a lot of pain and with contractions closer to 3 to 5 minutes apart. So - my mom hurried her onto the hospital where Jay met her there straight from work.

At the hospital, she was admitted and checked and she was already dialated to a 7!!! (I know - my sister is stronger than I thought!) So, in the knick of time, she was able to get an epidural (apparently it was a debate on whether or not she could have one - a debate that Janeal was NOT happy about). But, she got one, she is much happier and at about 7:30-8:00 tonight, she was dialated to an 8 1/2. Gianna apparently wasn't down as far as they wanted her though, so they were hoping to wait for a little bit (now that Janeal wasn't in as much pain) and see if she would drop.

So now it is 9:15, and that was the last update I had gotten, so there is a very good chance little Gianna is here already and I just don't know yet! My mom had to bring Jamison home and she just put him to bed, so she is on her way over here and she and I are heading up there. I will bring my camera and get a couple pictures of a little Gianna with a lot of hair! :)

Stay tuned..... updates to come shortly........

More Avery Grace Johnson!

Okay - here are some pictures of the newest member of the Johnson clan - my niece!

Announcing Avery Grace Johnson... (i think).

I should get actual pictures of my little niece tonight, but this is one from the hospital. Her name is Avery Grace Johnson and she was born on Mother's Day and she was 6 pounds, 11 ounces. She looks pretty dang cute and I am very excited to go see her in Idaho in the next couple of weeks!

Yay for the Cure and Baby Avery!

What a fun-filled weekend - as most people know, Saturday was the Race for the Cure. Well, all the girls (and Pat!) ran it and I am happy to report that Mickele and I ran together and got our best times ever - somewhere between 28.06 and 28.25 minutes (my clock timed it longer than an actual 5k, so we are somewhere in that range) - Yay! Considering the first couple minutes were weaving in and out of the 16,000+ people there to race, that is pretty dang good! (and the fact that is 3 minutes better than my previously fastest time) - Thank you Mickele for kicking my butt and making me go fast and Thank you Jasmine for all the work-outs that make us want to die - but help us out later on! :) It was also very nice to run in celebration of my mother-in-law who is almost a full-year breast cancer survivor and going strong - Yay Carrie! See the picture below...

In other news, baby Avery Grace Johnson was born on Sunday afternoon up in Idaho. She appears to be beautiful and healthy and right now is MUCH calmer than her older brother Hunter ever was. Ryan and Amanda are very happy about that and while I have not seen her yet - I am very excited about my new baby niece! Pictures to come!

Another Adventure.

So Greg and I went down to St George/Zion on a whim this weekend. Well - we went two weekends ago on a whim, then we purchased a trailer down there and had to leave our 4-wheeler and trailer in my aunt's yard so we could pull the new trailer home - a whole other story... So, we had to go down to St George and pick up our 4-wheeler this weekend. After running my best time at the Salt Lake Marathon 5k (YAY!) Sat morning, we took off. We had a great, even though it was quick, time and even had time for a good hike today and a couple small 4-wheeler rides Sat night and Sun morning. Although - we did have a hiccup since the campground at Zion was full, so we had to pitch a tent on the side of the road in the dry-camp areas. That was interesting, yet very fun - changing clothes on the side of the truck with virtually anyone who wanted a show able to watch - good times. Anywho - here are a couple pics from the hike today and the 4-wheeler rides. (Excuse the lovely hair-do's here - this was day 2 and remember where we stayed - definitely no bathrooms or showers!) One last note - there is a new art gallery down there with a fantastic photographer - one of the best I've seen for this type. Check his stuff out: www.davidjwest.com.

Dogs and Ferrets.

One thing I learned today is that my dog (Odie) wants a ferret. Not just any ferret - a white one at Petco in Bountiful. I am not sure what he wants it for, or what he thinks it is - but he loves it. I had another round of dog training tonight with Odie and this time we met at Petco for some additional stimulus. For those of you that don't know - Odie has some stranger anxiety/aggression issues and he is in dog training with my neighbor the dog trainer to try to fix these so that we don't end up with a problem down the road. So - we went to Petco tonight and Odie met the love of his life - the ferret. He loved this thing to the point that we decided to make the ferret the reward for his training because he could care less about the actual scrumptous dog treats that I had - all he wanted was to stare at the ferret, and cry. In fact, when we left, he gave the glass that was separating him and the white ferret a kiss and then cried the entire way home (he laid down in the car and just cried). The ferret did appear to return the love and watched us the whole way out of the store. So, I don't think Odie learned a whole lot tonight, except for the fact that he loves a ferret. On the plus side, 4 new people came up to him and pet him and as long as he was watching the ferret - he couldn't care less (normally this would involve him freaking out and barking very mean-like).

Okay - so enough about that - Someone needs to step up and show me how to do this whole blog thing! I don't even know how to post pictures! Thanks Mickele for finding me - and for the new pictures on your blog - you looked like you had fun at Nascar!

Happy Friday!

Finally...

Okay - I finally did it. I started a blog. It only took months of nagging and prodding and begging (okay, so noone actually begged, but you get the point)! Now, I know many of you will make bets to see if I ever come back to this blog, so if a pool gets started - I want in!

Since the only people reading this will be people who know me, I don't feel inclined to write the typical "all about me" lead-in, but I don't really know what else to say at this point, so here goes:

I am Jaclyn or Jackie Johnson, formerly Sessions, and I live in Woods Cross, UT. I am a Project Manager at USANA Health Sciences which may be news to some of you considering I recently switched around a little bit. I was working for a marketing/ad agency for 5 years as a Product Manager, then I went to a company called Basic Research for 8 months. It wasn't exactly what I had planned, so this brought me to USANA which has been great so far! I am married to Greg Johnson, who works for Okland Construction as a Project Manager / Superintendent (depending on the project he is on at the moment!). We will be married 5 years in July (CRAZY!) and we have two beuatiful boys - no, not kids, but dogs! We have a 4yr old Beagle named Chance (aka Chancey Bear, Chancelor) and a 2yr old lab/border collie mix named Odie (aka Ode, Odio). While we planned and searched for Chance; Odie was an accident - but don't tell him that! Greg and I thought we had the willpower to wander through the Super Pet Adoption and just look, but apparently we did not. When I stuck my hand in his cage and he rested his head in my palm - I knew I was done for :).

I LOVE to camp and hike. In fact, Greg and I have spent most of our married life camping and hiking in between work and his school. Greg also loves to mountain bike, but unfortunately I think I have dragged him down in that department since I am not so good at the downhill part of that equation! I also really like to run, although I seem to be a bit cyclical in keeping up with myself - I will keep you all posted on that progress. Greg and I used to have a camp trailer where we had many fantastic memories, but one of the last memories in the trailer was of our accident in Oregon (along the Oregon coast) last summer where it was totaled! Luckily, we finished out our trip, but the trailer did not fare so well. Not to worry though - the search is over - we have now purchased another trailer to replace and I am SO excited to be the proud owner of a trailer again. We are just starting to prepare our list of all the places we are going to go this year - I am SO excited!

Well - that is about it... Considering I have no children and that seems to be a popular post-topic; you will likely hear a lot of random stories about my boys (Greg and the dogs) as well as work and the fun places we will find this summer! I also love to review movies, so stay tuned...

Welcome to my blog!