Hi FAMILY! We Love you ALL!!

Well hello!!
Yes it's be quite some time since we have updated (I** have updated) the blog!
We've been soooo busy with school especially as we head into the second half of the semester.
Our new house is absolutely wonderful.




I don't know if all of you know this, but Jordan's sister (Jessica) and her husband (Justin) and their toddler (Avery) and Jordan and I all moved into a new town home together! We all were a bit nervous about it at first, I think, but it has turned out to wonderful and it has been such a fun fun fun experience to be with them and especially to live in the same house as Avery.
She is sooo cute and we feel blessed to be related to her.
SO-We live in Bloomington, which is kind of a separate area south of St. George which is more family oriented.

Our scoot scoot is broke right now, which has actually turned out to be ok because my parents gifted us with mountain bikes! WE LOVE THEM!




We are sooo happy to ride them together, and also alone depending on the school day. Transportation is definitely a shuffle now that we live a bit farther away from the college.


Speaking of school....
ITS HARD! And SOoo much fun :)
BUt it will be soo worth it once we're done.
SO far, the plan is that I have 1 full year left of classes and then my senior piano recital the following summer.
I'm a year behind because I basically started college over when I changed majors and got into the music program and DIxie, and the program is vigorous and very demanding and takes almost a full 4 years to complete.

Jordan has about 2 full years of classes left, and he is doing so well. I have not updated our Scholastic Blog because we've been busy, but one of these days I'll upload his most recent projects.

Here is something that I had Jordan make for me so we will print it on sticky vinyl and put it on the car window :)













I think it's pretty accurate :)



Recently, our thoughts have been turned to searching for schools that have a graduate program in Graphic Design. They are few and far between but my hopes hopes HOPES are that we can go to one of the schools in Chicago or Minnesota (there are none in WIsconsin :*( Being closer to home will be WONDERFUL! ESPEcially because hopefully we'll be starting our little itty bitty Johnson Family by then!! :) :)


The leaves are still turning colors, some trees take longer than others to finally turn colors, so there's still plenty of green around here! THe sun is still hot in the afternoon, but the heat is in at night to keep us comfy.
Yes you should wish you lived here...( I'm talking to you dad :) haha
My dad has been SO into road biking (Lance Armstrong style) and he rides hundreds of miles a week on his bike (unless it's snowing).

SO: When my dad found out that ST. GEorge has 300 days of sunshine a year.... he perked up, because that pretty much means that he could ride his bike 364 days of the year (Give or take 1 days of sand storms hahahaha!!!)






Biking has become my family's new hobby together, from all across the nation where we live, we are united by this new family LOVE for biking!!! Every single one of us, from Portland,Oregon to Ogden, Utah to Provo, Utah, all the way over to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then all the way down St. George, Utah!
We love it so much, and I'm so happy and I love my family sooo much.
My little sisters are growing up, it's CRAZY! :)

We are very much looking forward to our next Gagnon-Palick/Bernaden family trip to San Diego/Newport Beach in Spring! My mom is the planner:

We are GIDDY about how fun it will be (we're going to the zoo there too!) Grandpa Bernaden is coming (hopefully he surfs with us in the ocean like he did in FLorida!! haha), Aunt Kathy and Aunt Debbie are coming too!!! We ARE SO EXCITED TO VACATION WITH THEM!













Alright, I've got to get back to life-but this has been a fun update.


We miss you all so much,
AND----
Just so you know, we plan on coming home to Wisconsin for Christmas!!! :) :) :) :)

YAYAYAYAYAYYY~!~~!

We are so blessed to have so many friends and family that love us, and we are so grateful for you.

Love,
Jordan and Melissa Johnson

Looking Ahead...

--Birthday Update--
My brother Peter and I have the same birthday February 20 so when Jordan and I went up north for my birthday, we spent time with Peter and Tina and Angela to celebrate all of our birthdays, and also to go to the Salt Lake City Temple with Angela!! :) :) It was sooooo much fun to be together:)


WELL:
I thought I would write about the things that Jordan and I are looking forward to, in the next couple months or so...

Coming up this week-

1. I work EVERyDAy(as usuaL) at the Library
2. We work Tues/Thurs @ the GolF CouRse
   
3. Tuesday-Our Math Test which we absolutely love!! MAth mAtH maTH!
4. Wednesday-Jordans BiG website project is due!
5. Friday-I think I perform in my Piano Performance Class
6. Friday-The StArt Of SpRinG BreAK!!!!!!YAYAYAYA!!!!

Next Week-

1. Mon-Wed in Las Vegas for Danny, one of Jordan's best friends', Birthday!
2. Thursday ANGELA AND ELDER SCHOFIELD (ok *FORMER Elder*but thats how I know him haha)(He is Jordan's last companion on his mission-they were in delafield 2gether)
   
3. ~~~~~TUACAHN THEATER~~~~~ to the concert of the cd: Nashville Tribute to Joseph
   
4. WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR THE NASHVILLE TRIBUTE TO JOSEPH
5. Friday-Sunday ANGELA and Elder Daniel Schofield will be here to have fun, hike, golf, hopefully saturday either go to Zions Park or the Grand Canyon!!:)

Looking Ahead-

1. Hopefully Peter and Tina can come down to play with us soon!!!!**************************CONGRATS ON THEIR NEW HOME PURCHASE!!!!***************
2. Perspectively the weekend after Spring Break, or two weekends after, Jordan will have a brothers Golf Weekend
   

Further Ahead...

• We have a big PALICK FAMILY OUTING in WISCONSIN w/Spouses and w/lOVe at the end of June and beginning of July where Jordan and I are planning to spend some time in
• 
• Wisconsin for 3 Weeks + and hopefully I can get my darn braces back on! :)
• Canada Trip in July for McMurry Family Reunion, we will fly there from Wisconsin! :)
• A HOT HOT SUMMER working at the GOLF CouRSE and doing lots of outdoors stuff during summer in St. George :) Very Excited, and happy to have a break from school.
• Angela and her ROommate Courtney are SOO darn cute and I love spending time with them. Courtney is finishing Aesthetic School, and she is SOOo good at what she does. Also she sells Mineral Makeup, some of which Angela soo GRACIOUSLY baught me for my birthday, and OH do i LOVE makeup now :) Its so much fun.

• We love spending time with Jordan and his sister and brother-in-law Jessica &Justin and their little Avery :) Its so much fun. So I put a picture of Avery combing my hair during Christmas here:)

Well HeLLO!

HI! I'm not sure why I'm writing this, caus really I should be in bed, but Jordan is playing his favorite video game NBA 2K9. ??? yup. But I love it, caus he let me try it one time with him... but I messed up his team somehow and he almost lost, ahahaha. He said they scored 20 points in 2 minutes when I was playing for him! YIKES!

Here is probabaly the biggest issue in my life-and what this post is dedicated to:
Bacteria. Germs. Cooties. Fungai. Microorganisms.
You know what I mean. Everyone knows it by a different name.

They stress me out so much.

They are the reason I spent over thirty minutes in the shower tonight, the reason I couldn't wait to come home- so that I could take a shower and use my new anti-bacterial bar of Dial Soap and scrub and scrub, wash my hair, wash and wash, and MOST ESPECIALLY-------use my bar of Dial Soap to scrub the skin next to my hair line. Why?
Because it makes me sick to my stomach to think about how my hair products clog my pours and caus me to break out.
This is the reason that I left the house today feeling gross like I wanted to turn around and take a shower, even though I just spent time doing my hair and makeup.

How does this all relate? Clogged Pores caus bacteria which causes acne.
Oh and it stresses me out so much.

After we got married, Jordan and I went shopping at Costco and bulked up on good stuff like body wash, Oreos, Etc. So, we still are on our 2nd bottle of Dove Body Wash from our 3 pack.
Well Dove ain't doin for me anymore.

So this week I finally went out and bought bar soap, because after we stayed at the Holiday Inn hotel in Newport Beach, California for Jared's wedding, I brought home the bar of soap from our hotel room, and i really enjoyed it, because I like the feel of the tight dry skin, because it makes me feel like there is no oil clogging my pores after I shower.
So I bought a bar of Dial Soap (ok well a pack of 3 for only like $2.19 :)

Why did I chose this kind? ----Well here is the reason behind the dillemma:
My "nice" and "name brand" "Dove" body wash.... DOES NOT SAY ANTIBACTERIAL ON IT.
So here is my thought process:

Why would people want to buy soap, to WASH their body with... that doesn't kill germs...fight bacteria...etc? I don't understand the point of getting in the shower just to wash the dirt off your body, but not wash the bacteria and germs? Lets be realistic here, who really checks the back of the soap/body wash/shampoo that they buy to make sure it says "kills bacteria" or "antibacterial" ? Well I do now.
And let me tell you: To find soap/body wash that is antibacterial (at least at Smiths) you have to look for the Sub-Heading of the Hygiene Section. So it says: "Body Wash" and then next to that section is the "antibacterial soap/bodywash" section. Stupid right? Who wants to buy soap from the section that is not part of, but only nEXt to the "antibacterial soap" section? pointless to me.
Anyways, I looked it up today on wikipedia, the greatest, but not for research papers, and found some information about my enemy:

"All liquid hand and body soaps contain antibacterial chemicals. Triclosan is a common ingredient, as is alcohol. Since there is a great variety of bacteria, effectiveness against any given type of bacterium does not ensure that it is effective against unrelated types. These are generally only contained at preservative level unless the product is marked antibacterial, antiseptic, or germicidal. Triclosan, Triclocarban/Trichlorocarbamide and PCMX/Chloroxylenol are commonly used for antibacterial and deodorant effect in consumer products."

Take a read at that article. It will explain much to you.
So this whole situation where too much antibacterial may lead to not a good situation is explained here.


So:

1. When I spay the whole house, couch, bed, pillows, countertops, closets, bathroom with Lysol before every trip up north,
2. When I wash my hands and pump the soap over and over again JUSt because I'm washing my hands in a dirty bathroom at the gas station,
3. When I wash my hands after every hair-touching episode over and over with antibacterial soap,
4. When I Purell instant hand sanitize my phone with tissue daily to get rid of my face/hand germs that constantly are in contact with my face and hands (therefore causing the side of my face next to my ear break out in consistant cycles),
5. When I Cringe at the thought of my makeup brush containing yesterday and last weeks dirty face bacteria and particles,
6. When I SERIOUSLY cringe at the thought of my dish scrubber being filled with more bacteria than a pile of dog poop, (therefore I really have nothing to clean my dishes with, because everything that ISN'T NEW ...is contaminated),
7. When I think twice about itching my face or neck because I don't know how dirty my hands are and because ALL I'm thinking about is how many germs I might be about to put on my face,
8. When I tell Jordan not to touch my face,
9. When I don't want to hug Jordan after he's played basketball because his sweaty body will clog my pores,
10. When I hate sleeping in sheets that I haven't washed in less than 3 days,
11. When I carry my mini-purell bottle in my backpack and use it every time I'm nervous, before AND after I play the piano (c'mon that is understandable right? Who KNOWS how many people have picked their nose before playing on any of the pianos at school? or Wiped their nose, etc)

......................so....
..............................When I do all these things...
...........................................................................I'm really not doing myself a favor, I'm actually doing something that may turn out to be a not-so-good thing............

Oh well. Better clean than not, right?

.... but the first bar of Dial Soap is already almost gone :)