DIVAS!

This blog is an ode to my two DIVAS!! First is my sweet princess Miss Pretty! She has been such a trooper through this whole journey with my dad. D has been such a great daddy to stay home with her when I need him to and Gramma Johnson has come down a lot to play and help out to! Thanks so much!
Miss Pretty is growing like crazy and getting so big! Last night I broke down and cut off some of her hair. It was getting so straggly in the back and I wanted it even, so here's a pic of her with her new hair.
After all of our exhausting trips to the hospital. . . She didn't even have the energy to take out the sippy!

Gramma Lloyd bought her a water table and she thought that was the coolest thing!

Her first beater. I made whipped cream and she got to lick off the beater. Yummmm. . . . . The Johnson playland, otherwise known as our family room! We charge a $2 admission to go into Miss Pretty's college fund! :)
She is saying lots of new words and crackin' me right up! She says: car, juice, shoes, dadda, momma, cracker. She's also started drinking out of a straw and thinks she's so cool now! It's fun to see her getting so big, but I wish it lasted longer!

On to my other DIVA. . . Miss Pretty's cuz, my niece, Baby Sis. We celebrated her 1st birthday last week. She wasn't too interested in her cake, but she tasted it. She got lots of cute things for the celebration. Miss Pretty got her her first baby doll and Baby Sis chewed on the baby doll's head all night! Happy Birthday!

A D D I C T I O N

2 1/2 weeks ago I got the phone call that I have been dreading my whole life. Something had happened to my dad and we needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Since that day, we've been through a whole range of emotions: sadness, anger, heartbreak, anger, humility, love, friendship. . . .
Yesterday, my dad was moved out of ICU and into a recovery room. I can't begin to explain how greatful I am to my Heavenly Father for keeping him here on this earth. It's only through His mercy that my dad is still here. It's taken all the faith that I could muster to trust that He would do what's right for our family. 3 times, we almost lost him and last Sunday, I really thought it was it. Dad went into cardiac arrest. I know now, that the comfort I felt on the way up there, was not that of loss, but of hope. Throughout this experience we have grown so much closer as siblings! Life tends to get busy and pulls away from the things that truly matter in life: FAMILY! So I am very greatful that through all of the sadness and heartache, I had my family to pull me through. We've also seen the amazing compassion of others, friends, family, who have come up to visit "our" waiting room and brought us delicious meals, snacks, comfort and friendship. I am so overcome with gratitude for them!

We have crossed a huge bridge to get where we are now. But now, the hardest part of all begins. . . healing. With my dad awake, he's started to talk a little bit about what happened. I think part of me was expecting him to wake up and be miraculously healed from his addiction. But that is so not the case. It's hard to see him struggle physically, for the drugs. And it's even harder to see him try to wheel and deal with the nurses, dr's and my grandma for them. We are at a crossroads with his addiction. He can either get the help that we truly know he needs. Or he can continue to let this addiction ruin his life and eventually kill him. I guess my biggest fear is that he'll choose the latter and after all that we've been through these past couple of weeks, I'm not sure that I could handle that. Addiction is such a powerful thing that Satan has put on this earth. It's taken someone that I love soooo much and turned him into someone that despise at times. We will hope for the best and be supportive.

Here are some pics of our shinnanigans on the 4th floor of the U of U hospital. We've met some amazing people there that will never fully know how much they've impacted our lives! Aaron, Tiffany, Kate, Whitney, Stephen, Dave, Tara, Dr. Coles, Dr. Steenbeck, the cute janitor that was so good to clean up after us, and many many more!! Thanks!

Daddy it's Sunday. . . you missed church. . .

Daddy, it's Sunday today. You're starting to open your eyes a little bit and I'm pretty sure you've figured out that whatever you were trying to do, it didn't work. I just wanted to let you know that we're all wanting you here so much! All these little grandbabies that are being sent to our family right now need their grampa! So it's time to get better and plan a camping trip and make your favorite daughter chile verde, eggs and hashbrowns!! I love you!

Wake me Cuz I must be Dreaming!!

Most of my blogger followers have probably seen my updates on Facebook and have been thinking WTF? Here's my update:

On Wednesday, my dad overdosed on some prescription medicine. A jogger found him up Big Cottonwood canyon off a trail and he was really out of it. She was a nurse from Colorado who is definately also an angel!! He stopped breathing and she administered CPR until the ambulance arrived. He ended up being life flighted to the U of U where we've been camped out since. The doctors aren't sure what he took or how much and so they thought the effect would wear off after some time, but now they're not sure. They're measuring his brain activity. It's been seizing so they've been giving him antiseizure medication to help it stop. We are in limbo right now.
It feels like a big bad dream that we've been in for 4 days now!! It's very surreal to be in there and see him hooked up to so many machines!
We are so blessed with an AMAZING family and I couldn't have asked for better brothers and sisters! Heavenly Father truly knew what he was doing when he created this family! He knew that we would need each other throughout these trials with our dad! This has definately humbled me like you couldn't believe and has brought me to my knees quite often! The power of the priesthood blows my mind and it has been truly awsome to have that power present throughout this experience! Even if you're not a religious person, I ask you to keep him in your hearts and pray for him and for our family. We have seen each other through a lot with our dad, but we will need everything we can get with this one!

Thank you so much for all of the kind words and prayers and everything that everyone has sent or brought up to our family!

I Dream of Dreamy!

Today was Miss Pretty's 15 month checkup and here are her stats:

Weight: 21 lbs 1 oz (23%)

Length: 32 inches (80%)

She had to get 2 shots (devastating for both her and I). Dr Dreamy was so sweet as usual and she kept shootin' him cheezy grins! He said that everything looks great and she's right where she should be! She has become quite the girlie girl and it's so cute! Of course she loves her blankies (luckily we have two). But she's discovered a love for purses. Here she is toting around her princess purse. She carries it everywhere. She is so much fun and has such a fun personality! We discovered that she has 2 molars coming in right now. Poor thang!
Mommy and Miss Pretty on the 4th. She's my snuggle bear.

Lastly. . . my lil' blog stalker to the right has been showing that someone (s) from the "Lancer" page keeps checkin' out my page. . . just wantin' to know who you are? I know one of them has got to me my Montana girl Katie, but anyone else. . . leave me a comment so that I know who you are.

First Comes Love. . . Then Comes Marriage. . .

We had a fun and relaxing 4th of July. Our friends' the Paredes Fam came over and we BBQ'd it up! We lit some fireworks as you can see and surprisingly enough, Miss Pretty wasn't scared of them.

This past weekend was the big Johnson wedding. D's bro Matt got married in Idaho Falls so we headed up there for a fun filled weekend. Miss Pretty had a blast and loved seeing her Gramma again! She was so cute and snuggly with her and it was fun to see them get some bonding time in! The wedding was beautiful (I got a bit frazzled chasing Miss Pretty here and there and everywhere, so I was sweatin' up a storm)! Although D did say afterwards that we should have had shirts made that said "I survived a Johnson wedding!" It was really good to see all the family that came for it and the Bride and Groom looked blissful and gorgeous! Mommy, Daddy and Miss Pretty. We were able to have the photographer take a pic of the three of us, so once I get that one, I'll post it too.
Miss Pretty loved being in her foo foo frilly dress.

D's mom makes wedding cakes and this is her recent masterpiece for the wedding of course.

My favorite part about this weekend was seeing Great Aunt Suzee from hotlanta! It was the most fun visiting with her! She took Miss Pretty for a ride on her Jazzy. So cute! Love you Aunt Sue!

Weebles Wobble but They Don't fall Down. . .

First we'll start with a bit of good news. . . .drum roll please. . . .I have a new job! I interviewed this past week for the head Secretary job at East. And today we finally got the much anticipated good news that they were very impressed with my experience and would like to offer me the postion! Yay! It's quite a substantial pay increase for our little family, which will be nice! We can finally take a vacation (long awaited honeymoon perhaps)! The only bummer is that I work all year long (I know, like normal people) but for someone that's had summers off for 5 years now, that's a bit hard to adjust to!

We've had quite the busy month of June. I enjoyed my limited week and a half off :(. This past weekend, Miss Pretty and I went up to Pocatello for a bridal shower. D's brother Matt is gettin' hitched and we had a shower for her. It turned out way cute and at times funny! We're really excited to welcome Steph into the family and I'm excited to get a new sister in law! It's quite the adjustment for me though because it's just been me for almost 8 years now, so i'm feeling a little territorial, but I think it's going to be fun! She's an RN at a hospital in Idaho and at one point D's gma asked her if she had any experience in the psych ward! We got a good laugh out of that one!

Miss Pretty had fun spending some time with Gramma and Grampa Johnson! She spent most of the time making the rounds up and down the hallway and around the kitchen saying "cracker" and "HI". Here are some pics of Grampa pushing the girls on the swings. She loved it and would have stayed in the blue dolphin all day if it wasn't getting cold!

She's been quite the helper in the kitchen these days. Now that she's on the move, we've barracaded the stairs off and she just walks around and around getting into whatever she possibly can while I cook! She loves the oven mits and had to try them on!

I bought her a baby bottle for her baby doll. You know the kind that the liquid magically disappears. Well she figured it right out and now carries her baby around (usually upside down by one foot) with the bottle and stops occasionally to feed her. It's way cute!
Today she found the plastic wand that turns the blinds up. I know, so child friendly right!! Well she thought it was perfect for prodding Graceroonie with it! Poor kitty!
And finally, I was able to get her mullet pulled into pig tails. I'm thinking this is what we'll do with it for the wedding next week. Perhaps put some red bows on them or something.

She's been doing so many funny things these past few weeks! She's becoming quite the walking expert! She loves to walk on her tip toes! She also loves the stairs and has to climb them every chance that she gets. She is a singer and a dancer. Tonight we were watching our favorite show "So You Think You Can Dance" and she was jammin' out! I'm pretty sure she'll be a dancer when she grows up. She has a new word this week: HAPPY! She's become the picky eater that I was hoping to avoid! I fed her everything when she was a baby so that she would be well accustomed to a variety of flavors and textures. . . . .didn't work! She's like her daddy! Currently, she'll eat bananas, spagetti, and sloppy joes! Such a well balanced diet! Talk about frustrating! If anyone has any ideas. .. . let me hear em people!

The nerd herd is preparing for the upcoming release of The Half Blood Prince movie. I've been listening to it on CD to remember what it was about because they have all merged together in my brain. I forgot how funny this one is, well except for the devastating sad ending but the "snogging" cracks me right up! We'll have to whip up a batch of Butterbeer before the movie!

I've also been reading this month's book club selection "Picture Perfect". It's quite different than anything I've read before. A bit racey at times, but good!

And I've become a fan of a new TV series on A&E called "The Cleaner". Besides the fact that it stars Benjamin Bratt who is positively srumptious in it, I love this show! You'll have to check it out sometime!