28 Weeks

I hit 28 weeks on November 23, 2010. 7 months already. Time is going by too fast.

In other news, Eric and I are buying a house in Payson! We are supposed to sign papers tomorrow and hopefully we can move on December 4th. Eric and I are really excited but I'm trying hard to not stress out. I'm sure everything will work out.

16, 20, 24

Here are some small baby bump pictures. We'll start with week 16 (4 months) which really isn't much.
August 31, 2010

Next is 20 weeks (5 months)! The halfway mark and also the best day ever because we got to find out what gender the baby is.
September 28, 2010

Finally 24 weeks (6 Months). Time is going by too fast!
October 26, 2010

We're having a...

We went to my ultrasound appointment yesterday, Sept. 28th. It was really cool. It was crazy to watch the baby move, to see it's bones, the heart beating out of it's chest, see a brain, toes, fingers, and lips! I loved it! When it was time to see the gender the foot was in the way. The tech had to poke a little to get the baby to move. Finally we got the shot and she showed us that what we were looking at was a baby GIRL!! I am really excited! I wanted to go buy something cute and pink right away! Everything looks good. All measurements are good and no signs of anything to be worried about. They decided my due date is February 11th. So only 4 days earlier. We got the ultrasound on DVD which is exciting. I've already watched it once. Eric is excited. He even picked out a cute pink shirt for our baby girl!

Well I'll have more posts to come with summer outings we took, birthday celebrations, and posts about how I'm not fitting in my clothes anymore. :) Thanks everyone for your support and kindness in being excited for us! We are really grateful for all of our blessings, this baby girl, our families, and friends!

June 7, 2010 The day our lives changed forever!

It was a Monday and Eric stayed home from work that day because he was sick. I came home for my lunch break to see how he was doing. I decided I would take a pregnancy test because I was late, but I wasn't too late so I wasn't too worried. If Eric wasn't home I wouldn't have done it but I just happened to have one in the cupboard (I'd had a couple of scares in the past). The next thing Eric heard me say was, "Oh NO!" in a voice filled with dread, "Eric, you better come look at this!" This is what we saw.

Eric's response when he came and looked at the test, which I had placed on top of the pregnancy test instructions so he could see that + meant pregnant, was "Hmmm, huh, well..." while leaning against the washer for support. He offered to drive to the store when I went back to work to buy some more tests to make sure this one wasn't faulty. :) I took almost a 2 hour lunch that day and didn't even eat anything because my nerves were going crazy. Eric has handled it pretty well and he is really excited about it now.
Needless to say I pretty much went through four of the five stages of grief; denial, anger, depression, and acceptance. I had anxiety for the rest of the week and by Saturday had taken 4 pregnancy tests. The last test I took was digital, just to make sure. :)


Once I decided the tests weren't lying I decided to accept it and deal with it. I wasn't sick until the end of June and I started puking in the mornings. It wasn't fun and it was hard to be excited about being prego when I didn't feel well.
I was able to hide it from my co-workers until August. Except for the 2 I told and one of the guys that heard me throw up one morning before anyone else had come in. We told Eric's family when we took a trip to St. George with them. Post coming about that. We told my family at different times. I told Kristie and Kimberly when we went to Lagoon with them in June and I wasn't going on any of the roller coasters. We told my other two sisters when we were at their houses. Then on the 4th of July we finally told my mom. We were sitting at the table talking with my mom and some of my sisters. Eric made a comment to my mom and said, "Well my mom says that pregant women will always get a bed at her house." It took my mom a minute before she said, "What did you just say?!" So it was pretty funny.
My due date is February 15, 2011. We find out if baby Johnson is a boy or girl on September 28th 2010. Eric and I are really excited to find out what it is! I'm going to go buy something right after I find out. :)

Random happenings between January and May 2010

Here are some pictures of things that happened between January and May.
I made my first roast in my new crock pot I got for Christmas. It took me 4.5 years to finally give it a try and it wasn't too bad. This is actually a picture of my second roast.

Self potrait of Eric and I.

I babysat my 1 year old niece Janessa and I liked this picture of her in her our love sac. She looks so tiny!

Then I babysat my other 1 year old niece, Lyla, and decided to do her hair. The poor thing.

There's her smile! It's a good thing she loves me!

The only other exciting thing that happened was in April when Eric finally got his new car. I already did a post about that.

January 2010

To bring in 2010 we went to Kimberly's house for a party and sleep over. Here are some pictures of us playing games and bringing in the new year with our apple cider.

I Missed a Few Important Events

I can't believe I forgot to post pictures of my awesome Halloween Costume for 2009! I also never posted about Christmas. I'm more behind than I thought. We'll just post some pictures since I can't remember too many details.
Here is my awesome costume. Thanks Hot Topic! :)

As you can see I had to make some minor adjustments to make it modest.

Here is Eric carving the pumpkin.


Christmas 2009 was spent at the Johnson's house. Eric and I spent too much money on each other. We had a great day! Eric picked out some really cute skirts and tops for me.

I picked out some awesome pajamas for Eric! He loves them.

Annual Beard Family Christmas party. It was a lot of fun!

Eric's New Car

Eric finally found himself a new car. We sold his Dodge Dakota and found him a car that weekend. We got it in April. He got a 2007 Mazda3 hatchback and he is loving it! We got a good deal and have really enjoyed having it. (We did not buy it from a dealership!) Here are some pictures.

What the What.

Before I start I should apologize that it has been forever and a day since we blogged, and that this will not be a fun informative blog, but a rant about bad customer service. And it contains two numbered lists. I don't care if you don't like numbered lists. It was easy to format it this way.

About a month ago I went to the Mazda dealership here in Orem and told them what I was looking for and how much I was willing to pay. I test drove a couple cars, talked about numbers, and decided that a new car would have to wait until I sell my truck on my own, because the dealership wouldn't give me much for it. I talked to the salesman and clearly conveyed what I wanted, how much I was willing to pay, and that I couldn't proceed until I sold my truck. I did tell him it was okay for him to call me and let me know if they got something in that was what I wanted and for the price I wanted. This first visit was a positive experience and I left feeling like I might give them my patronage.

Since then I have received a call from the salesman at least once a week to tell me what they've got in stock and let me know what is going on. This is totally fine, I agreed that he could call me, and I provided him with my number. So while I don't necessarily want him to call me weekly while I still haven't sold my truck, I told him he could and there is no one to blame for this but myself.

Today I got an interesting call from him. He told me that he has another customer looking for a truck such as mine and because of this he would be willing to give me more for it, and that they have some new inventory in that fits my needs, and my budget. I think this is the cat's meow because now I don't have to keep trying to sell my truck and I can get a new car. So as soon as I got off work I head down to the dealership under the impression that what he said was true.

When I got there he showed me the car that "fit" what I wanted and he took the key to my truck to figure out exactly what they would give me for it. I took the car for a drive and it definitely fit the "want" section of my criteria, and when Kassi saw it she agreed that it was really nice and that if they had good numbers for it we could get it.

So we went back to the dealership where the salesman I've now talked to on multiple occasions handed me off to another salesman to finish things up. This is still okay, I don't care who finishes things off as long as they match the numbers that I told them over a month ago, and that they had full knowledge of when they called me. The new salesman talked to me for a few minutes and then left to discuss numbers with his boss (whatever that means) and came back with the following 4 awesome sales points for the car that I had driven.


1. He was generous enough to say that he was giving me 1500 for my trade in, and then tell me the price I could pay for the car after the trade was $472.00 higher than the car is listed at on their website. This is not the price for a similar car, but the exact same car. This salesman was so nice he basically told me I could pay extra and that he would take my trade as nothing.

2. He offered to let me pay $91 more per month than the number they already knew I would be willing to pay. This is 45% higher than what I told them. Think about that in terms of your annual income. If you got a 45% raise would you do a joyful cartwheel? I would, and I can't do cartwheels.

3. He told me I would get to make this higher payment for an entire year longer than what I had told them I was willing to pay. There is a pattern here, these first three things are not good, do you think the 4th one will be? What's left for this guy to try and gouge me on?

4. The interest rate. This is my favorite of the 4 selling points. He didn't come out and tell us what the interest rate would be. We figured it out. 9.3%. Really. It's like the punchline of the dumbest joke ever. 9.3% Pretty big of you Mazda salesman, prettttty big.

After we picked our jaws up off the floor we told him this was nowhere near what we talked about and he continued to tell us how nice the car is, and how it has new tires and how they weren't making very much money on it, and we told him it wouldn't work, got our truck key back and left.

Many readers may be thinking that all this is my fault for going there in the first place, and to that I would respond "Who asked you?" Just kidding. It is my fault for going there, giving out my phone number, and expecting them to perform one honest task. I knew what they were when I picked them up, or something like that. That being said, there are 3 things that really bother me about this experience.

1. They knew what I wanted and what I was willing to pay. If they didn't have it they shouldn't have called me and told me they did. If what I want is unrealistic for this dealership they should tell me so I can either revise my expectations or go somewhere else. They don't need to waste both their and my time.

2. Did the second salesman sabotage the deal so that the first salesman wouldn't get the commission? If guy #2 sells the same car to someone else tomorrow it helps his bank account right? Something a little fishy that the first salesman seemed to think this would work and the second guy was miles away from a viable deal.

3. I can't think of a single thing I did that made this guy think I might belong on the short bus, but he treated me like I did. Who agrees to ridiculous terms like that? Did you think I wouldn't notice that you raised the price, gave me nothing for my trade, indentured me for an additional year with a burden that is 45% higher than I agreed to and at an interest rate that is (conservatively) 3% higher than I could get by financing it somewhere else? Just because I use run-on sentences doesn't mean I can't do basic math.

Here's my final thought. What percentage of the population is both dumb enough to agree to a deal like this, and smart enough to be able to earn enough money to afford it? Apparently enough to keep this dealership in business.

Kassi says she has a Disneyland post she is working on. Thanks for reading.

Oh, and Kassi's work is having a drawing for an Ipad. To enter you have to become a fan of Fibernet on facebook and if Kassi gets enough of her friends to become fans she will get a free ipod so you should probably do that for her if you haven't already. It will make her marvellously happy.

September 2009 Best Month Ever!!

September is my favorite month of the year because it is my birthday month. This year September was a lot of fun for us. We started the month off with a family camping trip to Palisades Reservoir in Manti, Utah. Every Labor Day weekend my family gets together for our annual camping trip. It has usually involved a campsite with flushing toilets and showers. That shouldn't surprise anyone that knows me well. :) Eric and I got to try out our new tent and it was nice. We also had my brother-in-law's sister drop by and take some family pictures. It is hard to get us all together so our camping trip was the only opportunity to do it. They turned out pretty good considering we were camping.
This is a picture of all my sisters. Left to right: Kristie, Kelly, Kassi, Kimberly, Katie (Kimberly and I should have switched places and then we'd be in order from oldest to youngest.)


Now for the FUN part of September (That's right, I don't find camping fun, even if there are flushing toilets and showers). Eric and I planned a long awaited trip to DISNEYLAND!!! The happiest place on earth! I have never ever in my 25 years been to Disneyland and it was on my list of "Things I want to do before I die" list. Eric was nice enough to let us go so we could be there for my 26th birthday. I tried to be as frugal as I could in the scheduling of it so I could have some money to spend on overpriced Disney souvenirs. We went to California for 5 days and spent every one of them at Disneyland. Needless to say I got to see everything there I wanted.
We flew to California on September 19th in the early AM. We flew Jet Blue and landed in Long Beach, California which happens to be where Eric's brother, Ben, is serving his mission. We did not get to see him but we waved as we drove through. Our Hotel was right across from Disneyland. It was clean and decent. We dropped our luggage off and they held it for us and we walked across the street to the happiest place on earth!
I have so many pictures I want to put up that I might have to do another post of just pictures! I found out on the last night we were there that our camera was on the lowest resolution so they look fine on a 2 inch screen but not any bigger. I was way bummed. So we ended up buying the Photo CD of all the pictures the Disneyland workers take of you on their nice cameras. It made up for our blurry pictures.
Here we are on the plane! We look tired because it was about 7:30 AM. I really liked flying Jet Blue!

I got sick at Disneyland on our first day there. I was way bummed. I didn't get any breakfast, little sleep, and it was really hot for being September. I got the worst headache and didn't even have any medicine because it was in our luggage we left at the hotel. So I found their sick room and they were nice to let me lay down. I took a nap and felt much better. We couldn't check into our hotel room at that point so that's why I couldn't go there. Eric was nice and bought me a bracelet with my name on it while I was sleeping.






September 20, 2009


September 21, 2009 Happy Birthday Kassi!

This is the morning of my birthday and I wore my Minnie Mouse t-shirt and Cruela was not going to be seen in a picture "with that Rat!" So she opened up her fur coat to cover it up. Great way to start off my birthday!


For my birthday lunch I made reservations at the Blue Bayou restaurant. I ate their famous Monte Cristo sandwich and they brought me the best free dessert I've ever had! They even lit the candle for me! Did I mention I got in to Disneyland for free on my birthday? That was their promotion for 2009. Unfortunately we came home the day before Eric's birthday so he didn't get in free.



September 22, 2009




September 23, 2009
The last couple of days we were there Halloween decorations started popping up everywhere.

There are more pictures that I want to post but I will do that later. We had a great vacation and got to see a lot of cool characters. My favorite rides were the Indiana Jones ride, which we rode a few times, and the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Oh, and we ate at Denny's like, 5 times while we were there. It was just outside of Disneyland. So I got to eat french toast a lot and I loved it!