Welcome to Real Life

Summer is in full swing and some pretty big things have happened.

First is that I graduated from BYU with my Master of Accountancy degree. It was bittersweet - I am glad to be done, but I love BYU and have loved my experience in the school of accountancy.

It is also weird to be saying goodbye to people that I have spent the last few years with.

Me with friends from the ward Alyssa and Hillary

Classic picture with the sign. Alyssa did a great job and got the Y and the Tanner building in the shot as well.

In the Tanner Building (the business building) where I essentially lived my last three years.

About a month after graduation we went on a family cruise to the Caribbean. It will be the last time all of us are together for a while. Gillen left on his mission in June and the twins leave next summer. It was a great time! Great food and entertainment particularly! 

Kids with our servers Aleks from Macedonia and Winston from Jamaica. They were the best! Dinner was one of my favorite parts. Choosing from a wonderful menu every night and having it served to you. Not much better!

The Johnson young men on formal night.

We saw a lot of this. We stopped in Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.

Beautiful sunset.

When we got back we had family pictures taken before we sent Gillen on his mission.

We spent most of June getting this kid ready to go on a mission. He is going to El Salvador via the Guatemalan MTC. He will be an absolutely amazing missionary, but I sure do miss him like crazy!

Since graduation I am working full time for Larson & Company up in Sandy. I am living in Provo for the summer, but will be moving up to Millcreek in August. It has been a little bit of an adjustment from school to working full-time. I really didn't realize how much free time I had in school. It doesn't help that while being full-time I am studying for and taking the CPA exam which sucks up any potential free-time. I am hoping to be done with that in October and then I will feel really done with school. That's all for now!

Moab

Last weekend I took my first roadtrip ever and headed to Moab with my roommate Krista.

Here are the highlights in picture form.

Us as we headed out.

Double arch.

Park Avenue

Landscape Arch

Double O Arch.

Viewpoint on the way back from Double O Arch. I love the contrast. Also we had to walk on those stones to get down. 

Sideways Delicate Arch.

Up at the arch. It was so windy! We about blew off!

It was a great trip and a good way to relax before finals.

The Final Countdown

I graduate in approximately one month. Where on earth did this semester go? Senioritiis has definitely kicked in. I have been working on my "Must do my last semester at BYU list" which is coming along nicely. It is a bitter-sweet thing to graduate, but I guess I have to move on to real adulthood sometime. My most recent adventure was at trip to Denver for Beta Alpha Psi (the club I am an officer for). We got delayed both to and from Denver. My luck with flights as of late has been terrible - every single one delayed. Maybe it is a sign. For the most part life just keeps being busy. Between classes, working two jobs, volunteering in the tax lab, and a couple church callings I manage to stay busy. I enjoy being productive and busy though so this may not be too bad.:) My roommate and I are planning a graduation trip to Moab (since I have never been there - terrible I know for living in Utah my whole life). We are taking it the weekend right before finals - see previous comment about senioritis. Below are some pictures of the adventures thus far. My roommate and I try new recipes once a month so these are some of those and other treats. 

Twisted white and wheat bread (Recipe courtesy of Tami Van Dusen)

Homemade Pasta

Salted Caramel Cheesecake bars a.k.a heaven

Homemade potstickers, spring rolls, and coconut rice

Pumpkin roll

Red Velvet Cake - for Valentines Day

Ran into these lovely ladies at the Gonzaga game. 

Kacy (one of the roommates) and I at the Gonzaga game.

Krista and I went out to Utah Lake a couple weeks ago when the weather was too nice to do anything else. She is my cooking, exercise, and Moab buddy.

Utah Lake

View of the mountains from the west side of Utah Lake.

So ready for summer and more fun adventures!

Cooking Palooza

So over the break and of late I have been wanting to cook anything and everything. Sometimes (most times) this thwarts my healthy eating/weight loss plans, but now that school is in full swing my cooking has decreased so we should be okay. Anyways here are some pictures of what's been cooking over the last semester.

Bruschetta Chicken

Chex Mix

Layered chocolate cake

Fry Cakes (Grandma's recipe)

Gnocchi (a potato pasta)

Lemon Meringue Pie

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Homemade pumpkin pie from real pumpkin

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Mango Salsa

Massaman Curry

Greek gyros (not my picture, but I forgot to take one)

I'm loving trying new recipes and sharing good food with my great roommates. Bon Appetite!

Ironwoman Update

I am still working on finishing my lazyman ironman. It is actually looking like I will finish earlier than I anticipated - yeah!! I have learned a few things about myself. As I started this I thought it would be near unto impossible for me to workout twice a day (ironman plus my regular workout) for nearly a month. When school started I was working out a couple times a week on a good week - and now for nearly the last 2 1/2 weeks I feel like I have been working out all the time. The point is - I did something I didn't think I could do. The other thing I have realized is that I like exercising. I used to think if I didn't love running there was a problem - I have definitely realized there are loads of things to do to be active outside of running. When I workout I feel better emotionally and physically. I feel better about myself and it helps keep my migraines away. I'm so glad I've had this ironman, plus my awesome roommate Krista to help motivate me to work on this and get into better shape. Some days I'm so sore and tired, but it is worth it.

The other great thing about exercising is that I have still been watching what I eat (now with  more care to make sure I am still getting my nutrients) and have continued to see my body transform. I've been tracking both my weight and measurements. Here are some of the results thus far (I'm pretty stoked!) - Since the beginning of October I am down 16 pounds! I started taking measurements on the 10th of October and since then I am down 1 1/2 inches on my waist, 1 inch off my hips, 2 inches off my thighs, and 1 1/2 inches off my calves! I have realized that this, at least for me, is the only realistic way to get healthy - a lifestyle change. I'm learning to put better things into my body and simply making sure I'm exercising regularly. I've been taking some pictures along the way to document my progress, but I'm going to wait a little longer before I put some of those up. I don't want to go on about this forever, but this is a pretty big chunk of my life right now - so there you go.

The rest of life is also pretty good. I'm really enjoying my classes still, but am definitely ready for a break, Thanksgiving can't come soon enough. My brother, Ethan, gets home from his mission in less than a month and that is super exciting. Other than that I'm just keeping busy and enjoying life.

Apricot Scones

So I recently picked up this new cookbook. I really like Taste of Home recipes - pretty basic ingredients and they pretty much always turn out. I was so excited to get this and already have lots of recipes marked to try. The one for today was apricot scones. Scones as in the biscuit type item not the  fried dough we typically think of here.

They turned out really well for the first time. There is a topping called "devonshire cream" that I had never heard of but made to put on top. It is mostly cream cheese with a little whipping cream added in. It was really good! More recipes to come!

Happily Exhausted

Weeks just keep flying by. I find myself saying just get through this week and before I know it the weekend is here again. School is definitely keeping me busy. I have a class that started mid-October that is far more time than the one I had the first half of the semester so trying to find time to prepare for that has been interesting. Overall I really enjoy my classes. For the most part they are more focused on learning instead of getting good grades which I think makes classes more enjoyable.  Often I still find myself day-dreaming and wishing I could drop-out and go back to Europe and just travel. I miss it!

I also picked up another job as a TA for some of the assignments in the accounting jr. core. It has been nice to get some extra income, but it does take up some extra time in my week.

BYU basketball started!!! I am so excited for basketball season! Football and great is all, but I love BYU basketball! We should be pretty good this year and I 'm ready to watch it all.

The other thing taking up the vast majority of my time is a little thing called the lazyman ironman. This is something the student wellness department here at BYU puts on. You have one month, specifically all of November, to meet all the requirements of an ironman - 26.2 miles running, 112 miles biking, 2.4 miles swimming. This means I am doing one of those three things every day and on some days more than one. I'm still going to the RIPPED class in the morning with my roommate and have a Zumba class twice a week which makes for a very tired me most of the time. I've also been working on eating healthier - so in combination with everything it is cool to see the way my body has changed. I'll have to post periodic updates on here - as for now since the beginning of October I'm down 12 pounds and am going strong. (Shout-out to my Zumba teacher Andrea who suggested I blog about my working out and my progress.)

I've seen a lot of people doing gratitude posts since November started so I thought I would toss one into this post as well. I'm grateful to be at BYU and all the opportunities I have had while I have been here. I was talking to a roommate today about our experiences and some of the things we love about BYU. Some of them include: having a gospel perspective taught in classes, genuinely nice people, a chance to learn and grow about yourself in a spiritual environment, and the great people we've met. Take a second and think about what you are grateful for and what has helped to shape you.