My minor identity crisis

This is a very unsettling feeling. I don't even know who I am anymore! Could it be that I, Emily Brynn Oldham Johnson, actually like to COOK!!!??? I've been resisting this for some time, now. Actually, ever since college when my views on cooking were that it took lots of time to make and clean up, was expensive, and in the end only made me gain weight. I literally lived off of trail mix. But recently I had Jana e-mail me a recipe that she had made once that was so yummy, and as I looked at it I thought, "Wow, that looks hard and like a really big pain.....I can't WAIT to try it!" Now THAT was a strange feeling! What's more, on Tuesday I spent the morning at Velika's learning how to make bread. BREAD! Something I SWORE I would never do!

I really don't know what has changed. Maybe it is budgeting in both time and money for cooking, or maybe my confidence has increased a little, or maybe my maternal/domestic instincts are finally kicking into gear. Or maybe it's that I have the most appreciative and complimentary husband in the world. Or maybe it's that I realized that cooking isn't so boring when you can get creative and make things just the way you want them without mindlessly following the directions on a box. So anyone that I have ranted to about how much I hate cooking - don't listen to me! I have fought this feeling long enough....

I love to cook!

And I'm good at it!

(Just imagine Chariots of Fire playing in the background)

Just because I think it's funny...

Marty was speaking at a stake relief society thing in Gilbert today, and he was talking about "likening the scriptures unto us." So Jana saved the day and photoshopped some pictures for him. Thanks so much Jana - they are awesome! And because I got such a kick out of them, I thought some of you might, too!



Marty as Mormon



Marty as Moroni.



Marty subdues.

Of course these pictures aren't to scale. If they were really Marty, the muscles would be WAY bigger! :)

A Good Day

Brynn wants to wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day!

I love Marty!!! He's just...perfect! You know how when you're dating, you kind of evaluate whether or not guys are "your type?" Well, Marty is just my type of guy! I love him SO much! He really knows how to make things special for me without blowing our whole savings account which we have both worked hard for!

Anyway...

Here is Brynn eating the famous heart-shaped pizza! When Marty and I were first dating, he sent a heart-shaped pizza to my office and then recruited one of my friends to make sure that I would wait there while the pizza came. The poor girl. When it finally did come, I was like, "Oh no, that's for the other Emily. Well, see ya, I'm off to class!" So she finally had to blow the surprise and just tell me that Marty sent me a pizza. And he's done it every year since - this is pizza number four for me. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to find a place that just sells heart shaped pizzas all day on Valentine's in AZ, so he's had to just beg random pizza places to do it. He said it was a little embarrassing this year - I guess the driver was the one who ended up cutting into a heart this year! But Valentine's Day wouldn't be the same without it! So thanks Marty!

I thought I got a picture of the pizza, but I guess I only got one of Brynn eating it (go figure).

Also a tradition for us is a red rose and Choxie chocolates - my absolute favorite thing in the world.

And Marty got a Valentine's Day balloon for our little spoiled sweetie. She won't even put it down long enough to eat. :)

I was kind of lame this year! I actually worked really hard on this professional cake (I thought) that...sort of turned out. But of course Marty was appreciative!

I had been saying for a long time that I wanted to go to Oregano's for dinner on Valentine's Day, but I didn't want to wait for like four hours, so I kind of blew off that idea, and we decided to do a picnic instead. We have this really cute heart -shaped picnic basket with our names monogramed on everything and fancy wine glasses, etc. (we got it for our wedding), so I got it down and Marty said he would be in charge of food.

We drove for a while and he wouldn't tell me where we were going...it was a SURPRISE, which I love. And we pulled up...drum roll please...at Carl's Jr. I was like, "oh.............GREAT! HOORAY...uh....that's WONDERFUL Marty...." And then he drove right through the parking lot and back onto the road. "Just kidding!" But later he pulled into the Oregano's parking lot! I guess he called ahead at like noon to have the food ready at 6:15 for pickup. I didn't even know you could do that! I love that boy. :)

We took it to Freestone Park and had a nice little picnic and then walked around the lake and the little waterfall, and I thought it was romantic. :) Sigh.....I love Marty.

After that we took advantage of the fact that we had a baby-sitter and we hung out in the hot tub for a while, which is something we've been wanting to do for forever, but we always have Brynn with us so we haven't. I'm not gonna lie though, it was pretty cold when we got out!

Well, that was our 3rd Valentine's Day as a married couple, and I can't wait for sixty or seventy more with Marty! Have I mentioned that I love him?

This picture is just a walk down memory lane. It was our first Valentine's Day we ever spent together. We got all dressed up in formals with a bunch of friends, the guys made a nice dinner for us, then we went to a ward dance...a very casual ward dance. :) Yes, we stood out just a little.

Now the bad news: I took Brynn to the doctor today because it's been over a week now and she has still been coughing a lot. Well, apparently she has croup, AND a sinus infection, AND she is just developing an ear infection. She is our brave little girl - she has been so good through it all! We got some anti-biotics for her and I think she should be feeling much better soon.

All better

Wow, it's been quite a while since my last update. When that happens, it's usually because I have some daunting task ahead of me (like posting holiday pictures) that I am procrastinating. This time it's just because we've had sickness running through our family and I think everyone is finally over it.

Luckily, I was sick before Brynn this time so at least I knew what she was going through. There she is on the couch eating a rice cake and watching her Barney DVD. It's still strange for me to see her just sitting there on the couch because she usually doesn't sit anywhere for more than about 5 seconds. But that is where she spent quite a lot of Thursday and Friday.

Fortunately, she is feeling much better now! We had a beautiful day here in Mesa and Brynn was pretty excited to get out of our stuffy house.

Tonight for Family Home Evening we played a game that I guess Marty got from Jeff and Jana called, "Does it Float?" Originally it went with a lesson about tithing, but I don't really think Marty cared about the origins. The kid in him really came out and he got SO excited to play! I went along with it but was very pleasantly surprised to see how much Brynn loved it! It was so cute to see her poke her little head above the bucket and peer in curiously to see the outcome. There are a few items we tested for float-ability.


And our lovely bucket full of water in the dark.

Our lesson was to learn about our NEW PROPHET!!! President Thomas S. Monson, whom we love and sustain. We tried and tried to get Brynn to at least attempt to say "Monson," but she was feeling pretty rebelious tonight.

Other than that, there is not much else I can think of to report. That may be a good thing...I'm sure I'll let you all in on the next disaster that an 18 pound, walking, light-of-our-lives causes in our house.