We've done it again

Yes we've done it again, another semester is completed. We now only have one semester left until Rob starts rotations in the hospitals and comes out of his cocoon (the library). Can you believe it; we're almost done with two years of schooling. Yay!

Since another semester is over we of course had to do something fun to celebrate so we went on a road trip with Jason and Diana. Our trip started by driving to Springfield, IL Friday night. Our hotel looked like it could be the mortuary and what made it even funnier was the cemetery was right across the street. Saturday we visited the Lincoln Tomb. I thought the tomb was pretty neat. There are four statues on the corners of the tomb and they are made from melted cannons. Another neat thing about the statues is that they were built to represent the infantry, cavalry, artillery, and the navy from the time Lincoln was in office.

Once we were done at the cemetery we headed down to see the Cahokia Mounds. The Cahokia mounds are these mounds of earth that were discovered to have been built by people in the time of AD 700 to 1300's. The mounds were surrounded by settlements of people and apparently the mounds had different purposes. The one we climbed to the top of was the largest of the mounds and they think there was some kind of structure built on top. I thought it was pretty neat, especially to think it could have been the Nephites / Lamanites who had lived there.

While standing on top of the Cahokia mound we could see the St. Louis arch. We were that close so we figured we should go see it. We drove over to St. Louis and purchased a ticket to go to the top of the arch. The ride to the top was interesting, you climb into bubble like carts, the doors close and you're on your way up. Once you get to the top you can lean over and look out the windows. After we were done we headed back home.

Our road trip was a success. We all had so much fun just being together, driving and having a few hours to talk, not having an agenda so we didn't stress about being anywhere at a certain time, and not thinking about school. Yay for road trips with our best friends.

1. Finals week. "What finals week on your best things?" That's what you're thinking isn’t it? Well this wasn't a normal kind of finals week. Rob has been so stressed out this semester and really worried about his tests I thought the week would be pretty bad. For some strange reason it wasn't. Not once during the week did Rob come home grumpy or upset about his tests. He came home with energy and excitement. He danced around the house and pestered me. It was quite a change of pace for finals week. I enjoyed watching him come home excited and full of energy. Yes he pestered me quite a bit but it was worth it. I know he was still stressed but it didn't show.

2. Road trips with friends. What made it so fun was that Rob and I were together and we were with Jason and Diana. Did you ever think you could spend so much time in a car with people and never get irritated or tired of them? Well we did it this weekend. Not once did any of us get tired of each other. We all had a good time laughing and talking amongst each other. What an awesome weekend!

3. Ciara Barnes. Ciara made it on my list this week because her mom (Susan) sent me an email. In Susan's email she told me about a dream Ciara had about Rob. All I could do was laugh when I read it. It was so fun to read about Ciara's dream. It was all I could think about the rest of the day. Because it brightened my day and made me laugh I think I'll share it with you. Here's Susan's email about Ciara's dream....

Ciara had a dream the other night with Rob “Tiffany’s husband” in it. She said that he was not wanting to really “get into Thanksgiving, so he was sitting on the stairs (with his legs crossed, indian style) with his arms up in the air (middle fingers and thumbs touching), eyes closed (looking up) with live turkey’s gobbling around him say “ahmmmmmmm, ahmmmmm”. Then my nieces fiancé was at the bottom of the stairs doing the same things with groundhogs around him---tee heeee :-) How funny is that, we got to see her play it out…but you can just imagine how hilarious that was!

4. My phone buddy. So whenever we try to plan anything with the Bowlers it's usually Jason and I who have to do the calling. Rob and Diana both have a thing with calling people so Jason and I talk to each other on the phone the most. I refer to Jason as my phone buddy. The other day he called with exciting news. He is in the process of receiving a promotion and he called to tell me about it. Not only was he really excited about it but I was too. I was so excited for him it was almost like I was getting the promotion. I'm glad that my phone buddy knows he can call to tell me exciting news and I will share in his excitement by being just as excited.

Love you all, have a fabulous week.

People

Here goes nothin'.... my best things for the week!

1. My fabulous husband and those awesome re-connecting moments. We had one of those re-connecting moments yesterday and it was so amazing. When your hubby starts telling you all the reasons he loves you and how grateful he is for you it's such a sweet thing. I love it when those moments happen. I never doubt that he loves me but when he tells me why he loves me it makes all the hard work worth it. He sure is an incredible husband and I love him.

2. I know I'm a big baby and some of you might realize for the first time how big of a baby I am when you read this but I guess that's ok. I had some spare time this week and I was flipping through our movies trying to decide what chick flick I wanted to watch when I came across it. I put in the video my family had made for my Grandma and Grandpa Leake's fiftieth anniversary. While I was watching it I, here it comes..., started to cry (baby, I know!). I just started thinking about how much I love my family. I am so grateful to be a part of such an incredible family who loves being together. I miss being able to ride my bike with them every other day during the summer and cooking over the fire in the backyard. I love how they are always worried about us and if we're ok. I love that my sisters are so tolerant of me drilling them about the accounts of their lives since I'm not there to be a part of it. I love that they know what is important in this lifetime, families. So here's to my family! I love you!

3. Autumn Moberg. Autumn is one of my young women and I love her to death. She is on my list this week because of something she asked me to do for her. She is applying for an award given through the school district here in Downers Grove and she needed a letter of recommendation. Autumn asked me if I would write the letter of recommendation for her. So this week I had the opportunity to really think about what an incredible girl she is and I got to share how I feel about her with others. So I thought I would share it with you as well. This is the letter of recommendation I wrote for her.

Dear Education Foundation of Downers Grove District 58,

I am writing you this letter of recommendation in support of Autumn Moberg. It is her desire to obtain your recognition for the enthusiastic and selfless service she has given. Autumn is a person who thrives on using her caring and patient personality to give of herself for the benefit of others. As a young women advisor and a week long camp director, in the church Autumn attends, I have the opportunity to observe and support nine girls in their desires to serve those around them. Autumn is one who stands out above those around her. Her ability to lead her peers by using her positive and supportive attitude shines through as she offers ideas that are both creative and obtainable. While at the same time Autumn takes responsibility in following through with those ideas.

Autumn is continually offering her support and enthusiasm for service. For instance, she is currently working on learning a new skill in order to offer service to those around her. Autumn is learning how to knit so she can help make blankets for those who are without adequate supplies for the winter seasons.

From the time we met, two years ago, I knew Autumn was a special girl who will do great things. I look forward to seeing just what she can do with her determination and heartfelt desires. I am excited to see she is not only excelling academically but in her service of others as well. I am proud to recommend her for your Select 58 Recognition Award.

Sincerely,
Tiffany Johnson

Ok, those of you who are English wizards don't make fun of anything. This was my first time writing a letter of recommendation.

I was so thrilled that she had asked me to write her recommendation and I was more than willing to do so because she is such an amazing girl.

4. My last best thing for the week....CHOCOLATE. I love chocolate and I hadn't eaten any for quite some time so when we made little valentine chocolates for our activity this week, I was really excited. I had fun making them and of course I had fun eating them.

I hope you all have a great week. We love you all.

Auto show

Cars, Cars, Cars

Wow, this week was pretty awesome. It started off with the normal events but Thursday changed the whole feeling of the week. Diana's work donates money to the charity events for the Chicago auto show and in return they get tickets to the premier first look for charity night. The first look for charity night is a black tie event for those who donated money to charities and/or spent $225 for a ticket. This event is held the night before the auto show is opened to the public. Everyone at the event dresses up really nice and gets to eat lots of free food and sit in almost any car (some cars are locked or has someone standing by its side like a security guard). They even give three cars away to some lucky dudes, we weren't the lucky dudes.

Diana was able to get a few extra tickets this year so Jeremy, Rob's friend from school, and Ben and Beth, a couple from our ward, came with us. We were all so excited to go to the show this year that Rob even sacrificed a whole night of studying so we could leave right after work and get their earlier. Diana and I decided that in order to really enjoy the show this year we weren't going to stick with the boys the whole night while they stood at one car forever drooling. So we spent most of the night scoping out the food tables and all the desserts. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed looking at the cars as well as sitting in them, we just didn't stand and stare for a long period of time. We had a tendency to look and move on. After we would wander around for a while we would go back to where we left the boys and join back up with them.

Rob, Jason and Jeremy scoped out all the cars they dream about having someday and enjoyed having the whole night to admire them. Towards the end of the night the boys were still admiring their dream cars so Diana and I found a free photo booth to take advantage of. We took a few rounds of pictures then moved on to finding some flowers to take home. If you ask the boys they would tell you that we're thieves but really we were rescuing them from a life in the garbage can. So we did a good deed by taking the flowers home.

Ahh.... what a night! Nobody stressed about tests or work and we all spent the whole night enjoying each other, the atmosphere, the food and the cars. We haven't had that much fun and worry free excitement in a long time. It was definitely something we all needed.

I think we were still on a high from the auto show when Saturday came around so Saturday ended up being pretty fun as well. Our ward had a barbeque party; well it was catered bbq food so I guess you can't really call it a bbq party. Anyhow, we went over to the church for that and had a good time eating and talking to people then we headed over to Jason and Diana's house for games. Diana invited a new couple from the ward so we met Zach and Andrea Steele for the first time. We played games all night and laughed at the boys and their silly jokes. (I hope we didn't scare Zach and Andrea away) After a long night of bbq and games we headed home to hit the sack.

So there you have it. Our week all wrapped up in a few paragraphs. Now on to my three best things.

1. The auto show. Not because we were able to eat free food all night and rub shoulders with people who have more money than they know what to do with but because of how good we felt afterwards. Having a night, an event, that was able to wash all our worries and stresses away even for just a day was so amazing. And being able to experience it with friends made it that much better.

2. Having amazing friends like the Bowlers. I know they were on my list last week but this just shows how much they mean to us. It truly blows me away to know that in the short time we have known each other we have been able to get to know each other so well and truly care about each other. We met the Bowlers (Jason and Diana) right when we moved here to Illinois and we've been together ever since. Sometimes I think their the glue that holds Rob and I together (with our sanity I mean) during this incredibly stressful time. They are always there for us even when they can tell one of us is not in a pleasant mood. The Lord knows what you need to make it through trials and I think he knew we would need Jason and Diana.

3. Meeting new people. It was so much fun to meet the Steele's this week. They are both attending school at Midwestern and are busy studying but I'm glad they were willing to share some of their time to come play with us this week.

4. Talking to Aaron. Aaron and I had the opportunity to sit and talk all afternoon yesterday. Life gets busy and crazy sometimes and quite frankly sometimes I'm not the friend I should be so I had to make up some lost time with him yesterday. It was really nice to be able to sit down with him and just talk like we used to. I am definitely going to try and be a better friend from here on out so it isn't such a long period of time between our meaningful conversations.

Have a fabulous week everyone. I hope you’re staying warm.

Love you.

Party Time

Ok our week was kind of crazy. My poor hubby did not have a good week at all. He has been so stressed and bogged down with tests and to add to the matter the neighbors dogs kept him up late Sunday night. So he wasn’t well rested for his test Monday which led to an unhappy, stressed out Rob.

Rob studied like a mad man all week and I kept myself busy with my usual. By Friday it was time to party. Our friends, the Billings, were going downtown for a work conference so we were going to watch their kids that night. Once Rob was done at the library we were ready to have fun. Jason and Diana wanted to have fun too so they came over to party with us.

We stayed up late playing games, eating pizza and candy, and we spent a large amount of time playing the wii. The next morning Rob headed off to the library and I went outside to play in the snow with the Billings kids. We shoveled a lot of snow into two piles then we dug them out like igloos. Then we connected the two forts with a tunnel, actually it was more like two walls but that’s okay. Riley decided to start a snow fight with me so I of course had to really get her, I through lots of snow on her. Cameron and Kristen were busy making piles of snow balls and gathering ice cycles while Blake and I were building the forts. Once they had enough snowballs and ice cycles they were bargaining each other for trades. I got a good laugh out of that.

Once I made it home Saturday I was pretty tired. We kept our Saturday night pretty low key by playing a game of hand and foot with Jason and Diana then we watched a movie. By the time Sunday came I could hardly get out of bed because my back and arms hurt so bad from all the snow shoveling I did the day before. Needles to say once we got home from church I took a very long nap.

Here goes my best things for the week.
1. Great friends like Jason and Diana. When they found out Rob had been having a really hard week they did something very sweet. They bought him a bunch of different little things to brighten his day with notes to go along with each item. They also gave him an encouraging card to let him know that they cared about him. It was so sweet. I couldn’t believe that they put so much thought into lifting Rob’s spirits. I hope I can be as aware of their needs as they were with Rob’s Friday night. Thanks Jason and Diana for being such amazing friends to us.

2. Playing in the snow. Yes, my body hurt like mad the next day but I had so much fun playing in the snow building forts. I don’t like being cold and I don’t like driving in the snow but by dang it sure is fun to play in.

3. Taking a nap when you really need it. It felt so good to be so lazy yesterday.

4. My wonderful husband. He works so hard at school to the point I wonder about his health. He is doing all he can to do well in school and yes I hardly see him during the week but he sure is an amazing husband. I love him to death.

Well here’s to another week. This week should be fun so I’ll keep you updated.

Love you all.

Tiff