Keepin it short and sweet

My last post was about how shocking it was that october had come so quickly. And now here I am with only one more week until november! we are starting to make our holiday plans and a whole new type of stresses comes along. Which family when and where back and forth back and forth! Part of being grown ups and married I guess. It's fun having so many people wanting you around for the festivities! Just like my mom says, now we have two families to love us!
This past weekend we got to spend time with our best friends and the entire Anderson family. Friday we were total little kids at lagoon with Craig and Lindsey. It was my first experience with Frightmares and I was plenty entertaining for Trevor. We decided haunted houses aren't worth the money if I hide behind his back the whole time and scream. That night we watched a scary movie and I felt like we were teenagers again! We were cuddled as close as can be and  all four of us had our eyes covered. So much fun! We finally called it a night around 2 am because our deep conversations weren't making sense anymore. 
Me and the anderson ladies spent the entire day Saturday in the kitchen, preparing for Marissa's farewell on Sunday. She leaves for Seattle tomorrow and it's going to be a huge adjustment for everyone! This is one of the times it's awful being so far away. We had to say our goodbyes on Sunday. It's such a bittersweet feeling. She's going to do amazing!
Life doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon, I'm ok with that.

October Already?

I can't believe that this semester only has 2 1/2 months left. It feels like Trevor and I just barely moved back up to Logan. I have such mixed feelings about graduating this spring. Some days it seems like It can't come soon enough, and other days I hope it never comes! I had a weird realization today when I figured out that I will miss being a student. After 15 years of practice, I must say I've gotten quite good at it! I don't know what i will do out in the real world when I don't have tests every four weeks, and grades to look forward to remind me that I'm getting mostly A's in life! At the same time It will feel so great to have my degree, and know I stuck it through. I love our life as students. Me and Trevor have a pretty great routine going to the library, helping each other study, lunch breaks together, and dropping each other off at classes. I Love it! Enough for both of us to stay in school forever? Probably not. Oh well, back to studying. Only  7 months to graduation!

What I've been up to lately

My latest Craft project!! Our awful navy blue living room needed something new so I decided to get crafty. So I figured doilies and a canvas would be a good start! Add a little paint and the amazing mod podge and WALA ( no idea how to really spell that ) You can see the underlying white doilies because my camera sucks but they look really cool when it catches the light just right.

Also, I've caught onto this little treat lately that is amazing and everyone wants the recipe for! here it is!

Ingredients

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tbsp softened butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar (maybe more)

3/4 cup brown sugar (maybe more)

Pretzels

1 bag  semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Combine peanut butter and softened butter in a large bowl with a fork or whisk, or in a stand mixer.  Add the sugars and mix to combine.  At this point if the filling will roll easily into balls without sticking to your hands you’re ready to go.  If not, add a little more of each sugar until you reach a consistency that is easy to roll (I used about 3/4 cup of each sugar).

Use a teaspoon measure to scoop the filling.  Roll each portion into a small ball, then sandwich them between two whole pretzels.  When all the balls are rolled and successfully sandwiched, stick the whole tray in the freezer for about half an hour.

Pour the chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and heat at 30-second intervals, stirring occasionally until completely melted.  Remove the pretzel sandwiches from the freezer and quickly dip each half-way into the melted chocolate.  Return to the tray and repeat with remaining sandwiches.  When all are dipped, return the tray to the freezer to set up completely.  Store the sandwiches in the refrigerator until serving time.

26.2 baby!

I guess the last post on our blog was 2 weeks before the marathon!! Well it's over now thank heavens. And what an adventure. Dad drove up Friday night to hang with me and get ready to race. We went to dinner, overloaded on pasta and picked up our packets. The race expo was insane. I automatically was wondering if I now belong to this crowd, this group of crazy people who will run till they die. Everyone was wearing their last race t-shirts, or their 50 miler shirts to prove they were die hards. Not sure my plain pink t-shirt exactly labeled me as competition! The next morning we were up at 4:30 Am, and walking to the buses. That drive in a regular car 14 miles up black smith fork canyon is long... in a school bus, it's eternity! The whole time I was in my head wondering if I'll be in an ambulance in 5 hours or not. We got to the top and ended up getting in the bum portapotty line ( aka the slow one!). It also started raining pretty heavily, which made my anxiety about the race triple. with 5 minutes to ditch our drop bags and get to the finish we made it down the hill sporting some sexy garbage bag rain ponchos. Before I knew it we were running. The rain would let up for a minute, then pour hard for ten. I got rid of my poncho in a moment of hope, only to get dumped on even more. By mile 10 we were completely soaked! The cold water felt really great on my feet, but everywhere else was just cold.  It was the hail that really made me feel crazy. Why do we do this to ourselves? Me and dad were doing dang good! We only walked 2 times the whole race and it was about 1 block both times.  I felt better than I ever would have imagined. We put our headphones in at mile 14 to get some pump up tunes, and my ipod kept shuffling to church hymns! I was getting so frustrated!Mile 18 was probably my favorite, my 3rd wind. Then at 20 I hit the dreaded wall and just wanted to be done! I knew if we stopped I would not be able to get my feet to keep going.  I kept hearing the finding nemo quote in my head... "Just keep running, Just keep running, running running" Dad was such a great motivator. When I say I couldn't have done this without him, it's 100 % true! I was intensely relieved to see the finish line and all those who were there to support me. My besty Ash was the first one I saw and it made me want to cry! I looked ahead to see Trev, Chan, Addi and Fin and seriously almost lost it. I knew I couldn't have dad  drag me across the finish line so I kept it together =). Dad, you got me through the last 6 months, and right to the finish line of one of my biggest goals in life. I can't even express how much I needed your support and patience through all of this. You deserve a medal just for being an amazing dad. Hopefully I've forever proven that I'm a Johnson!!Besides you, Trevor definately had to be patient with me. Through injuries, bad days, and crazy races you've always been my motivation to just make it to the finish line! We're both so glad it's over. As of today, I'm never doing that again! But we'll see tomorrow;)

Just keep running...

My race is in 12 days. Me and dad ran 19 miles today and I couldn't imagine running another 7 on top of that. What did I get myself into? I could have never imagined the emotional journey this would have turned into. I have figured out so much about myself while feeling healthier than I ever have. I really do love to run. I think I just put too much pressure on myself. And on my body. I've had some really painful injuries as of late, and every time I've been conviced that there is no way I could keep going. But somehow I do. Last week I was running my usual course when i happened to come upon the TOU half marathoners. The 14th mile of my course just happened to be the last mile of the half. Unfortunately it was right when my bum hip gave out on me as well. All the race spectators were cheering me on like I was a participant! "you can do it" "you're so close"!! The worst part was that I could see the finish line, and all I could think about was not finishing my marathon and  having all my hard work wasted! It was quite the emotional moment! But with some fierce Chinese acupuncture and heafty counseling coming from the husband department I made it through. And somehow had my longest run of my life today. I wouldn't even be this far if it wasn't for trevor's tolerance, and dad's patience. My dad makes a dang good trainer. I should be his proof of success. At least we'll see next Saturday if I actually do succeed. What a journey.

Home Sweet Home!

Well me and Trevor have officially been in Logan over a week now and it feels so great to be back. Senior year seemed mostly like a daunting task that I just needed to get started on. Not one that I wasn't excited for, just anxious as well. We moved back into our little house in only a few days. I'm hoping to get some decorating in this go around but we'll see. Trevor started back at the hotel in no time. I wonder sometimes how that place functions without him? We are both facing some crazy scheduling tasks, but I think we can handle it. I started my senior practicum at Juvenile Probation and am in love with the work I'm doing. I wish I could say the same about my school work! For some reason tests and essays have become even less appealing than normal. First week of fall semester down, only fifteen more to go. It's a different experience up here with a huge portion of our friends graduated. Logan seems lonelier without the gang together. We also decided to try a new ward this year and mix things up for a change. We went to a married student ward for the first time yesterday and it went great! It feels so good to be back into our routines and what feels like normal life. It's hard not to love a place like Logan. For some reason it just feels like it loves you back.

Canada eh?

The grand finale of our summer... CANADA!!! Yes I, Haley Anderson, got to be the person who crossed the border for the first time with Trevor. HaHa and oh what an adventure it was. One of my cousins that I adore with all my heart was getting married! And they just happened to be Canadians. How could we resist the trip? So we hopped in a mini van along with grandma and Aunt Tonya, placing our lives in the hands of Uncle Tim and Bud. 12 hours later we were in Canada! And trev discovered that it's a lot like the states, just with more fields and cooler temperatures. The first day we were there we got to go to the Cardston Temple, and attend the session where Tiff took our her endowments. It was so special to us! Much too emotional though, reminding me of when I got to go through and how amazing it is for the first time. Then, because we only had two days there we decided to do some sight seeing. We all settled on Waterton National Park. Driving right into the park we came across a Black bear in the middle of the road! It was like animal planet in 3D baby, only better because it was real life! Later we saw another bear as well! We did everything we could including eating 2 of the finest hotdogs in canada, the famous waterton Weiners. they actually were quite delicious. And of course, we had to stop at the Welch's chocolate shop!

Grandma and Aunt Tonya decided to shop around in all the boutiques main street had to offer. Pretty much the only thing trev found entertaining were the creepy animal binoculars.

Instead he decided to try and teach me to skip rocks right on the shore below the Prince of Whales lodge. I love this place because we've come here every trip I've ever taken to Canada. Me and the girls would go right up to the ledge and throw rocks over. I was always too afraid to get close to the edge so I would throw them from much farther back. I think a few of them got hit in the head. Oops!   After our 1 day of being tourists we got to spend a whole day immersed in on of the most gorgeous wedding's I've ever been at! Tiff, The bride, asked me to sing at her reception as well so we practiced all day long to try and remind me how to carry a tune. The temple ceremony was incredible and I felt so blessed to have attended. It went by so fast and then we were back in the car for 12 more hours. It was so worth it though. We had so much fun on our last minute adventure. Once we came home we had 24 hours to pack and be ready to head back to Logan. Now here we are,ready to start a whole other type of adventure come Monday. Senior year! It feels like we never left. Home feels great.