For those interested, my journey to Rascal Flatts can be found here.

I own a car.
I could never say that until yesterday. I'll say it again, just cause I can. I own a car. All by myself.
Granted it's not quite as fun as Lianne's Lexus or Aubrey's Mazda 6, but hey.
It runs and it's mine.
This is not a picture of my car. My car is sitting in front of my house and I would take a picture of it, but it's dark outside. This looks just like my car. Same strange, purple-y color and everything. But my car doesn't have a big blue sign that says 1997 on it.
My bank now owns my soul, but only for a year. Maybe less than a year if I can pay it off quicker.
This whole car owning/buying business is stressful stuff. Maybe not to anyone else but it has been for me. Loans and titles and bill of sales and registrations...
I think ownership should be determined by who has the key. If someone hands over the key, it's yours. Period. End of transaction.

The countdown begins! In exactly 78 days I will be in Denver, Colorado. At exactly 7:30 pm, Mountain Standard Time, I will be at the Buell Theater in Denver, Colorado. At exactly 7:30 pm, Mountain Standard Time in Denver, Colorado, I will be viewing Wicked, The Musical live.
I'm paying good money for this trip so it better be good. I'm so excited.

I know, I know. I'm a blogcrastinator, and a bad one at that. I'm fully aware that this post is about my Halloween adventures and it is already into November.
It's partly not my fault. Stupid computers.
Anyways, lets focus here. The Johnson house was a little scarier than usual this year, a la spook alley extraordinaire, courtesy of Aunt Bert, Chloe, Taylor, Sophie, and Walker. And they did a rather nice job if I do say so myself.
We were quite the highlight of the neighborhood. Most kids went through at least two or three times. By the time I got around to having my turn, it was starting to show the wear and tear and we eventually had to pull it apart before someone got hurt.
Now, these pictures don't quite capture the mood. It's hard to take scary pictures when you either have to use a flash and light everything up, or just take a picture in the dark. So just use your imagination here. Pretend its dark and there's fog and there's creepy Halloween music in the background.



Skeleton head lights that lined the sidewalk.

Front porch graveyard.

Window art.

Giant, hairy, glow-in-the-dark spider.

Tunnel o' death.

This guy was my fav. When you crawled past him he predicted your future, in a scary Halloweeny manner of course.

Treasure hungry skeleton.

Flying skeleton ghost. I love how this picture turned out. Once you crawled out of the tunnel, he was supposed to swing down and scare you.

I'm confused. Is that a costume?

I find it sad that I have nothing to say. I'm a total blank. Empty.
My poor blog has been forsaken. I'm sorry blog. Please forgive me.
I guess stuff has happened to me...
I finished my new season of ER. It was fabulous, but I'm left feeling anxious because I want the next season. NOW!
(For explanation of anxiety, click here.)
I went to Rocky Point Haunted House with Melissa and Hollie.
Almost died. Okay not really. Just almost peed my pants. Had to use a port-a-potty. Gross. I don't remember the last time I actually resorted to one of those things.
Went and saw World Trade Center. It was interesting. Worth seeing I guess, but its not how I would have made the movie.
Worked on the wedding book I'm making for my cousin. I'm getting so good at Photoshop!
Gave in and broke out the winter coat and all my cute scarfs. If I'm gonna be cold, I'm at least gonna look cute doing it. But that in no way means that I will be happy about it either. (Shiver.)
Melissa, Jesica, and I have been having quite the adventures for the past couple weeks. But as of right now, I'm having a hard time recalling those adventures. All I can pick out of my blurry memories is lots of loud, annoying laughter and IHOP hashbrowns.

We had quite the shindig at our house on Sunday. Almost the whole family showed up and we celebrated with Hawaiian haystacks and yummy Costco cake.
Taylor is way excited about his Shrek playdoh from Aunt Bert.
Yummy food.
Cousins
Cousins
And more Cousins
Stressed and somehow, still smiling.

I apologize for not finishing my tremendously exciting vacation updates. I was tired and sore and I just plain didn't want to.
I'll just sum it up by saying it was hot, but we had lots of fun.
So, I've been feeling overly creative lately. For the past month or two it seems everywhere I look I find myself thinking, "Ooh, that would make a neat picture."
I was kicking myself when I forgot to take a camera to Lake Powell. Everything there is just beautiful and I wanted to feel all photographer-like by taking millions of gorgeous nature photographs.
It wasn't until after that I realized I wasn't really equipped for what I really wanted to accomplish. My camera is nice and small and digital, but the zoom isn't great and I just don't think the results would be quite what I want.
So I did something I haven't done in quite a while.
I bought film. Yes, good ol' fashioned camera film.
I borrowed my mom's camera. It's very nice with a pretty big lens. It just isn't digital, which is a big convenience factor.
I decided to suck it up and take it with me to California. I had fun taking lots of pictures of birds and things stuck in the sand.
I was sad to see they all didn't turn out exactly as I had imagined. But hey, it was my first try.
So, I've posted some of my better shots. But beware, you are venturing into my world of very amateur photography.

Vacation Update 3 and 4-
I'm cramming two days of fun into one post. I was too tired to do it last night, so bear with me.

Spent Sunday morning in Old Town San Diego and stopped by the Mormon Battalion visitors center.

Cooled off at Coronado Beach.

Got a face full of sea water.

Explored the way neat Hotel del Coronado.

It was too dark to take any pictures of the outside, but trust me. It was cool.

I wasn't as snap happy today, so I don't have the pictures to tell the tales.
We started off the day with a trip to Tijuana. I can explain it just as easily as having a picture.
Rode a bus over the border.
Walked around shops for an hour or so.
Realized that every shop had exactly the same merchandise.
Finally learned to ignore all the Mexican's yelling, "Senorita, I have just what you're looking for!"
Bought a cute cowboy hat.
Waited in line for an hour to get back over the border.
It was really hot today, so some parts of that adventure weren't as enjoyable as they could've been.
Came home and took a short break before heading off to Seaport Village.
Went to the Padres baseball game and won!
Way to go Josh Barfield, game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth!

Vacation Update 2-
Still on vacation. Still having fun. Starting to wear out. (Tired legs.)
San Diego Zoo...

Hung out with the polar bears.

These guys were fun to watch.

Rode a turtle. (I know, I know. Crooked.)

These monkeys were "grooming."

Grandpa Orangutan.

Aww...baby panda bear.

Vacation Update-
My trip is going great so far. It's only been a few days, but we've already had enough fun to make the trip worth it.
Day two was SeaWorld. Thanks Aubs and Jason for the tickets!
Here's a brief overview.

I got to hold a starfish. (Yes, I know it's crooked.)

I got to see a shark. (Don't mind the flash.)

I got to watch the dolphins.

I got to feed the dolphins.

But best of all, I got to play with the dolphins. Thanks Chris for the best B-Day surprise ever!

Sam and Ripley!

Happy birthday to me...I now am twenty!!
Turning 20 sure does have its perks. I'm already a better rhymer than I've ever been before.
Wow, two decades later and here I am. Seems like just yesterday that I was being born.
Well, not really. I don't really recall that day. Although I must say, I think I heard more about it today than I have the whole rest of my life combined.
I discovered something today. Having a birthday on a Sunday is about one of the most unbirthdayish things that can happen.
For example, I can illustrate, quite plainly what I mean.
Let me give you a run down of what usually happens at my house on Sundays.

8:30-Drag our butts out of bed
9:15-Stumble into church
1:15-Stumble back out to the car
1:30-Finally drive home because Mom's been talking
1:35-Drag our butts back to bed and take a Sunday nap
6:00-Wake up from our naps and eat dinner
7:00-Crawl back into bed and watch TV
1:00-Fall asleep one last time

And here's the run down of what happened today.

8:30-Drug our butts out of bed
9:15-Stumbled into church
1:15-Stumbled back out to the car
1:30-Finally drove home because Mom's been talking
1:35-Drug our butts back to bed and took a Sunday nap
6:00-Woke up from our naps and ate dinner
7:00-Crawled back into bed and watched TV
1:00-Fell asleep one last time

There were a few minor changes, but that was basically it. The only variation was my constant whining and the occasional outbursts of "It's Birthday Time!"
No one cared.

I was about to give up on the whole birthday thing. My faith in today being a special day had all but diminished.
However, Dad saved the day and was able to redeem himself by supplying me with a kick-ass present (iPod speakers) and some yummy, yet quite untraditional, birthday cake (Tiramisu).
Now that I'm getting to the point in my life where anyone under the age of 7 wouldn't hesitate to call me "old," I was bracing myself for the cliche scenario of trying to blow out more than enough candles needed to set off the smoke alarm.
But with either my family's unpreparedness or their determination to downplay the meaning of "one-year-older-and-wiser-too," I was left to scrounge for my own candles and was only able to dig up three previously used nubs of wax.
They were all yellow too, which I thought was strange.
But if we look at this in perspective, I think all in all, the day was great.
I didn't have to go to work, I didn't have to do any dishes or fold any laundry, and I am now counting down the days until I give myself the best birthday present ever. Vacation in So. Cal! (More on that later.)
So if in order for this great celebration of me to take place, I had to sit around all day and sing Happy Birthday to myself while the rest of the family napped, I'll take it.
Cause I'm going to San Diego and they're not! Ha!

I just returned from the happiest place on earth. No, not Disneyland. (Although I will be going there at the end of the month!)
I'm talking about Lake Powell!! It may not have coined the name happiest place on earth, but it is for me.


Don't laugh. I have delicate skin.


Dad, Chloe, and I took a great hike.


Our tin can. Er, houseboat.


Cleanliness is a must. Even while camping.


Check me out in all my skiing glory.


Slalom baby! I almost drowned trying to get up.


Headfirst! Aren't I daring?