Life of JonAli

1st Blog of the Year

2011-08-03T11:05:00.004-06:00

Have you ever noticed how blogs come in waves? We realized yesterday that I haven't done a single blog this year. And now I actually have things I can talk about! I'm not sure why the blog loses my interest over time, but it's not like I'm the only one who hasn't blogged in forever!

So starting from the begining of this year (actually end of last year). My wonderful parents decided to take a family vacation to Disneyland and it freakin rocked!
We spent our first night in Vegas at a cheap hotel and got to see the wonders of the Las Vegas Strip. We hadn't been there since our honeymoon so it was pretty fun to see everything.

Once we got to California I discovered that my parents probably got the cheap hotel in Vegas to appreciate how awesome our hotel room in California was. We stayed at the Farfield Marriot right across the street from Disneyland and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a moderately priced hotel near the park. It was really nice because some days we just walked back to our Hotel room for lunch and a little rest since it was so close.
Even with having a lot of little kids walking to the park and back from the hotel was very easy and convienient.

So I must say that my favorite part of Disneyland in December was "The Night Before Christmas" ride. I am a huge fan of the movie so I was pretty much grinning ear to ear while Ali was hiding her face most of the ride.
Actually the best part of Disneyland in December is that it rained everyday! That might sound like a bad thing, but it was awesome! Pretty much every line at the park was only a 20 minute wait or so. And some rides (Splash Mountain) we litteraly walked straight onto the ride. And it was still around 75 degrees.
I think our last trip Disneyland has probably spoiled me for life. I will now be dissapointed when I have to wait over an hour to ride anything.
Rain and all it was an awesome trip that we will remember for a lifetime. HUGE thanks to my Mom and Dad. They are the GREATEST! :)

Christmas Card

2010-12-16T16:06:00.004-07:00

I thought that this would make a great Christmas Card picture, what do you think?

No? Well here are a couple of other options. Merry Christmas!

Miss Lady Kiara the Drama Queen Jackson

2010-08-13T10:14:00.006-06:00

So since life was starting to get so comfortable and easy we decided we needed to thrown in a wrench somewhere. Shadow was doing great, he responds to all of his commands for the most part and was fully potty trained and we had a great schedule....then we got Miss Lady.
Miss Lady is a purebred Shih Tzu and is just under 8 weks old. Despite her small size Lady is fearless. She regularly jumps Shadow when his back his turned and doesn't quit until he has her pinned to the ground, after he releases her it starts all over again. Shadow has been extremely patient with her.

Just like young children, we have noticed some big differences between our boy and our girl. The biggest one happens to be their dramatics. I have never once heard shadow whine, I could be plucking his nose hairs and he wouldn't cry. Lady on the other hand is a whole new story. Her paws got particularly dirty so I gently held her close to me and got some luke-warm water in my palm and started cleaning her feet. You would have thought I was water-boarding her the way she was whimpering!

Despite her whining Lady has been a whole lot of fun for us. Shadow doesn't really like to cuddle up in bed. He doesn't even like being petted. Lady on the other hand can't get close enough to you, she wants to be constantly held and is great at giving affection.

Oh, and she will be a Broncos fan!

I lost the bet

2010-08-02T15:58:00.004-06:00

I bet shadow that he could not touch his nose with his tounge.
I lost....badly.

He also laughed when he heard the name "Scary Papa".....more like "Softy Papa".

He is so lucky he isn't a girl

2010-07-02T10:46:00.008-06:00

It would be twice this bad. But you gotta admit that he is pretty dang cute in a shirt.

This is the awesome doggy deck that we built him. Many thanks to Jeff for helping us out! He has a little trouble pushing the dog door open, but he is starting to get it.

Backyard Makeover

2010-07-02T10:30:00.010-06:00

So we have been spending a lot of time and money this summer making our backyard a bit more presentable. We are proud of our results so far :)

It started because we got an awesome grill from Jeff and Kim for a graduation present to us. To go along with that Jeff had some old log benches that he used at his restaurant in Green River. So Ali and I sanded and re-stained the benches.
I have always liked fire-pits so Ali let me indulge :)

Since one side of our patio was now full and looking nice we needed to do something to the other side. So we finally bought a cover for our gazebo and bought one of those convert-a-bench's from Costco.

The final result :)

Sir Shadow Eats

2010-06-14T07:26:00.002-06:00

Well I don't have goofy/cute kids that I can post on my blog about, but I do have a very funny puppy. I think we have found the brand of puppy chow that Shadow loves.

Bling

2010-06-07T14:07:00.002-06:00

It always takes me a while to get used to new jewlery (watches). Looks like Shadow has the same problem.

Sir Shadow The Great Esquire Jackson

2010-05-26T07:54:00.003-06:00

Ali and I have always known that we were "impulse buyers". That is not to say that we don't put thought into our purchases but when we find something that we know we both love, we get it. We have been talking about getting a dog since we were engaged. The only problem is that we have had some differing opinions on dogs. For example, what size of dog, can he sleep in the bed, can he jump up on furniture...and so on.

Well when we pulled into the parking lot at Fort Union and saw a sign that said "Lhasa-Poo Puppies" we had to at least go and take a look. Growing up Ali had/has a Lhasa Apso/Poodle mix and even though he is a naughty dog, she absolutely loves him. As it turns out these puppies were also black like her dog. After .0072 seconds of seeing him, we knew that we had to have him. We compromised on our differences and purchased our pooch.

Shadow has been an awesome companion so far, he has had very few accidents and hasn't even made Jon puke yet from a bad smell. Even putting him in the laundry room filled with puppy pads on the ground he hasn't relieved himself until we have gotten home and taken him outside to his designated bathroom area. He has been very playful and is staying in his bed all night. He is also picking up on training pretty quickly. Although it has been a little tough because he is not very interested in any doggie treats that we buy him. His only problem is that the poor little guy has been a bit constipated. We see him squatting and shaking his little butt for 10 minutes with no success. We have given him a little bit of vegetable oil and milk to help soften him up and it seems like he is doing better.

Without further adieu I give you, Sir Shadow The Great Esquire Jackson...

Jon's Tombstone

2010-03-29T13:37:00.006-06:00

Jon's tombstone of the future will not read "RIP", it will look like this:

A day in the life of Jon

2009-12-29T14:42:00.006-07:00

My day can mostly be described in one word, "Facepalm". What is a facepalm you ask? It's something I think I do much more frequently then most people. Here is a picture of a classic facepalm....

Why do I facepalm more than most people on a given day. Its pretty simple really, I am tech-support.

Here is a list of 5 typical calls that I have recently received. These have not been embellished in any way.

Me > How can I help you?
Caller > I CAN'T LOGON!
Me > What are you trying to logon to?
Caller > ANYTHING!
Me > Is there a specific program you are using (we use hundreds)
Caller > THE WHOLE SYSTEM!
Me > Is it Windows your trying to logon to?
Caller > I DONT KNOW!

Me > How can I help you?
Caller > It is raining on my desk.
Me > Excuse me?
Caller > IT IS RAINING ON MY DESK!
Me > Are you on a laptop outside?
Caller > NO! I am at my desk and water is coming from the ceiling.
Me > Uh, you are going to need to call engineering.
Caller > (Sarcastically) Well you are sure a lot of help!

Me > How can I help you?
Caller > I am not able to change my password?
Me > What error is it giving you?
Caller > Password must not contain word found in the dictionary, but I have a dictionary open right now and I don’t see this word.
Me > Is it possible there is a smaller word within the word you are using?
Caller > No, it is “courtne1”
Me > So the word “court” is in that password
Caller > (pause)…….Smartass

Trying to setup someones home VPN access
Me > What type of internet do you have?
Caller > Internet Explorer.
Me > Oh sorry, I meant what type like your ISP.
Caller > Modem
Me > What type of Modem is it?
Caller > Black
Me > (after a little chuckle) is it plugged into a phone cord or a coaxial cable? Like the kind you plug into your tv.
Caller > Its plugged into the wall

Me > How can I help you?
Caller > My email isn’t working.
Me > Ok what seems to be the problem with it?
Caller > I already said, my email isn’t working!
Me > Ok, so is it not sending email, receiving email, or is it not opening your mail?
Caller > Its not sending email. I really don’t have time for this.
Me > I am here to help you out, Does it say ‘connected’ at the lower right hand of the screen?
Caller > I don’t know, this isn’t my job! It’s yours, so fix it!
Me > That’s what I’m trying to do. I just need some information so I can find out what’s wrong, so I just need you to answer a couple questions.
Caller > No, that’s not what I get paid to do. I am an accountant, I’m not supposed to know how to use a computer!

A Puppy or 6 Years Old?

2009-12-22T13:40:00.003-07:00

I have a lot of growing up to do. I realized this the other day when I was sitting in my fort.

I haven't decided what I act like more, a puppy or a 6 year old. I decided to list out ways in which I act like both to decide which I am more like.

Ways I act like a 6 year old:
* My daily lunch consists of Easy Mac and a Snack Pack
* I still sit cross legged, even on my work chair. I then stand up to find that my legs are asleep so I look like Frankenstein when I walk
* I think looking like Frankenstein when I walk is cool
* My favorite food is cereal

Ways I act like a puppy:
* Someone at work was bouncing a ball and I immediately got very excited
* I saw a huge flock (like 113) geese outside and I really wanted to run and chase them
* I once ate dog food
* I forget things that you just barely told me
* Ali says that she is still training me

Well I can't decide which one I act more like, but I do have 2 epic Puppy videos for your enjoyment. 1st one is my new Prozac, I decided if I am ever sad that I will just watch it and I know it will cheer me up. The second is the puppy vs a hair brush, in which the hair brush delivers a knock out blow at the end...

Christmas decorations

2009-12-17T13:13:00.009-07:00

So Ali did a great job getting our Christmas decorations up this year. Many of them she made. She would like to thank my mom for having me help her put up ornaments on the tree ever year because I dominate at ornament placing :)

Are you ever sick of hearing this?

kid: "I wanna play rockband!"

parent: "You need to help put up Christmas lights!"

kid: "But I wanna play!"

parent: "You can when you are done helping with the lights!"

For real this is awesome....

Underwear for Christmas

2009-12-11T09:17:00.002-07:00

So earlier this week I posted a video about Happy Kids with the "Best_Christmas_Present_Ever!", now here is a video of quite possibly the "worst Christmas present ever." I hope that one day I will have a kid this awesome. Look how excited he is to get new underwear :)

Wii for Christmas

2009-12-08T15:01:00.002-07:00

Last year for Christmas we were lucky enough to get a Nintendo Wii, I guess we weren't the only lucky ones.

And seriously, if you aren't strong enough to rip open the wrapping paper when you are 10, you don't deserve the gift. I would revoke this from my child until he built up enough muscle to unwrap it himself.

I seriously think Nintendo should use some of these for a commercial. Some of them are just brilliant reactions.

Watch out Ed Hardy!

2009-12-03T14:59:00.004-07:00

It has been a long time since I designed my last t-shirt (Chicks Hate Me). But I think my new designs could give it a run for its money.

"Who will not wear the ribbon!?"

2009-12-02T13:15:00.003-07:00

Dont forget about Aids. I gave my ribbon to my storm trooper action figures for an early Christmas gift since its getting cold out.

I love demotivational posters :)

2009-11-23T10:18:00.001-07:00

Halloween

2009-11-18T11:58:00.004-07:00

So Halloween is a funny thing these days. Sometimes you dress up as your favorite Hero, other times you dress up as something that is scary. I decided this year to pull them both off. I shaved most my head and went as my favorite hero, and the scariest thing I could think of......Clem.
You think I pulled it off?

I invented a phrase

2009-11-06T11:51:00.002-07:00

PHONE FACEOFF!

Ok so I actually invented this phrase several years ago but it never caught on like I hoped it would. It is called "The Phone Faceoff" and no, it is not about who's phone is better.

The phone faceoff is simple. When you call someone and you hear that beep before the ring that lets you know that they are on the other line, the phone faceoff begins. Now it is really simple, either you lose or win the phone faceoff, there are no ties. If the person answers your call even though they were on the other line, you win! If they let your call go to voice mail you lose!

You can also be the judge of who wins and who loses when someone calls you and you are on the other line!

So lets spread the word people! PHONE FACEOFF!

Important Quiz time

2009-11-05T10:06:00.003-07:00

I found this site randomly and the first one made me laugh really hard so I decided to take it and a couple others.
I wonder if Cosmo Kramer took this test?
18

I've always prided myself on my geography skills so I took this one.

49

I'd be curious how high Jer scores on this one.

40% Geek

Tree House!

2009-10-28T13:01:00.009-06:00

I have always had a fascination with tree houses. It started at a young age while searching for good carpet to put in my buddies tree house and has continued into my "adulthood".
That is right folks it is 90 feet high and 11 stories. Who wants to read some Xmen magazines?

For the easily amused like me

2009-10-16T15:43:00.000-06:00

Captain

2009-10-15T09:50:00.002-06:00

I decided today that I am Captain of the Internets. My Title will now be Captain Jon or just "My Captain"; I will not respond to anything else.
That is all.

Why are printers so annoying?

2009-09-22T15:57:00.002-06:00

Spider

2009-09-21T10:41:00.002-06:00

This weekend we found a Black Widow spider (seriously) on our porch. I thought that maybe I could keep him around to ward off unwanted visitors and home teachers. He would be my bouncer and I could call him Tony. But Ali convinced me that it might not be a good idea, so we euthanized him instead.

MRI Results

2009-08-31T12:24:00.004-06:00

So I said that when the Dr. came back and told me that my brain was fine and normal that I would get it in writing so I could post it for all the world to see.

Well here is the short version of what the results said....

.......Unremarkable?!?! Can you at least say that my brain is normal? Better yet that my brain is awesome?! Why unremarkable, Dr's are such pessimists.

Tech support cheat sheet

2009-08-25T13:02:00.002-06:00

Thankful

2009-08-21T11:00:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to say that I am so thankful that my dad never saw this sign.

Life can be confusing

2009-08-19T10:22:00.001-06:00

When in doubt just run into it it works sometimes....

Broken-in

2009-08-15T14:41:00.005-06:00

Well we have officially "Broken-in" our house. Denver's first pre-season game was on Friday and even though I was a little disappointed in the game, I was not disappointed in how we watched it.

55" high def is the only way I will watch football from now on. I can't wait until the regular season to watch our teams play.

It was also awesome because once it started getting late and Ali was feeling sleepy, we pulled over one of our new Lovesacs so she could fall asleep.

To go along with "breaking things in" I have also broken in our yard....well sort of. I have already killed a tree anyway. I'm not sure if I got out of hand with our Round-Up (not likely as I am not ever the type to be over-eager in my weed killing activities) or if its roots were eaten by some creatures (the obvious answer). Farewell tree, you will be missed but happily replaced with some fresh sod. If anyone is wondering, this is (was) the tree:

House post coming up....

2009-06-08T14:35:00.002-06:00

But not ready to post about it quite yet. Need to get some good "after pics" :)
In the meantime I leave you with a clip from an actor that I know Clem likes, John C. Reily
Enjoy....

Is this real life?

2009-04-02T14:12:00.001-06:00

When I got my wisdom teeth out I remembered that I would say everything that came into my mind. It can be kind of a scary thing, especially when you are in the car with your dad and cursing about how thirsty you are....Anyways this awesome video reminded me of that experience. Enjoy.

January

2009-01-28T13:25:00.003-07:00

I realize that I really can't complain about nobody looking at my blog when I never write in it. I mean who the heck wants to look at the same blog every time they go there? Not me. I don't write simply because I am not that interesting and I don't have any cute kids to brag about (because we all know thats what blogs are for). So here is what happened in the exciting life of JonAli in the month of January.

For those of you who don't know. Our anniversary is January 2nd. This year we were really debating what to do when I remembered that the castle near our house is a bed and breakfast. We decided to look into it and from what we saw it looked perfect. 10 minutes away from home but still a little bit secluded and something new and exciting. So we took a tour (which I suggest anyone do for fun) and it looked fabulous. That night we got online and booked our reservation. There is only one room that I had to stay in and it was the Kings Lodge. It was awesome! Very clean, cozy, and it had a pool table and jacuzzi. We had a great time at the Castle Creek Inn! They had treats and soda(yessss) available at all hours in the dining room. They also served a great breakfast in the morning. It started of with a grapefruit
and some delicious raspberry bread. Then we got french toast with sausage and cottage potatoes! Overall it was a pretty great way to spend on our anniversary.

While deciding what to do for our anniversary we knew that the Sugar Bowl landed on the same night as our anniversary! OH NO!!! Our solution, move our anniversary night to January 1st instead of the 2nd. I know what all of you are thinking "Shame on that dirty, no good Jon. You should put your wife first!". I know, I know but guess what it was my awesome wifes idea! Yup I married the perfect woman. So we got to stay at the b&b on the 1st and watch the game on the 2nd :)
The Game
So incase you didn't know this is a picture of Alabama head coach Nick Saban the "2008 coach of the year" shaking hands with the runner up for that award Kyle Whittingham (the real coach of the year).
I couldn't imagine a much better way for my Utes to go out in 2008. This was probably the biggest game in Utah football history and they showed up to play!

one other thing that happened in January
Utah 94 BYU 88

Christmas excitement

2008-12-11T13:43:00.002-07:00

Remember how excited we used to get on Christmas? I love this video! :) I can totally see all of us freaking out about getting our original nintendo :)

Moms Favorite

2008-12-10T11:40:00.004-07:00

Sorry Jim and Judi but I found out who Mom's favorite child is....It's Jer.

So I got this call at work today from a guy who worked at LDS hospital in Endoscopy and I said, "oh do you know an Anne Jackson that used to work there?" he said that he did and that she is working at IMC now. I told him that I was her son and he said :
"Oh are you the son that went to Australia on a mission?"
me - "oh, no that is my brother"
Him - "oh so you must be the computer whizz who fixes everyone’s computer and graduated from BYU"
me - "um, no that is my brother"
Him - "Oh, so you must be the singer"
me - (not wanting to embarrass him or me any further) "umm yeah, that’s me"

So sorry guys but Jer is the favorite, no one else was mentioned at all :) Looks like I'll be working on Dad....

The Lights

2008-12-09T13:40:00.014-07:00

So Saturday we all went as a family (Hansen Family) downtown to go and see the lights. It was quite an experience. First we traveled downtown and parked at the 4th south building (thanks dad!) and then PACKED onto the trax train. I don't have a great picture to see how packed we really were but it I was getting crazy claustrophobic!

The lights were awesome this year and we have decided that we go to them too much when we started realizing which trees don't have lights which had them in previous years.

It was a great time with family that we won't soon forget. Thanks to Arvie for taking so many awesome pictures!

After walking around temple square we walked up to Skool Lunch and got some yummy hot chocolate.

As you can see the Hansen family knows how to have fun....

So much so that Amy grabbed Jeff's hand on trax and touched some random guys butt with it..... The guy didn't think it was so funny. But as you can see Amy nearly passed out :)

Someone had the wise idea to all walk like we had no knees and Jeff decided that he wanted to make it an Olympic sport and see how fast he could run to the trax stop without using his knees :) Enjoy :)

Decorating Time

2008-12-02T17:07:00.008-07:00

This is me modeling where our tree will go. I felt like one of the Sneeches in a Dr. Suess book or something :)

This is our awesome tree. We bought it last year, but it looks better in the room this year since we don't have our bed in that room now :)

Ali decided that to compete with mom that we would also need to have 3 trees :)

You got nothing on our trees mom! (jk your trees rock)

And finally here are our sweet stockings....

Hitlers Reaction to BYU's loss vs Utah...

2008-12-01T15:30:00.004-07:00

I know it was a week ago, but I don't get to gloat very often :)

In related news: On Sunday, Max Hall at church was asked to pass the sacrament but it was immediately picked off by a University of Utah player...

Another reason not to get a tattoo

2008-11-18T18:05:00.008-07:00

So Ali and I were thinking that if we ever did get tattoo’s (extremely highly very unlikely), that it would be cool to get some matching Bronco tattoo’s. Ali would get Denver’s new logo and I would get their old school logo. But here are some very good reasons not to get a tattoo. Enjoy :)

I hope God is a nice Juge :)

Ummm can it be both, I also like how TRADGEY is bolded and all caps :)

Thank you Ali for teaching me Tom-or-row. I have always had trouble with that one

Maybe Elese is a name? Hey everyone! Elese does!

For those of you who dont habla ebonics like me, Chi-town stands for Chicago, but Chi-Tonw that I have no idea :)

Hard to read but it says "Its not the cards your delt in life...Its how you play them"

Yes, you are AMSOME!

A woman writes my blog???

2008-11-13T12:24:00.005-07:00

Here is another installment of websites you can go to if you are bored...

So this website is supposed to tell you if a Man or a Woman is writing. Apparently I am 61% Woman.....

http://genderanalyzer.com/

Here is a couple of websites that give constant updates of the best ads (for the holiday season). I thought mom might enjoy them.

http://bfads.net/

http://www.blackfriday.info/

This one is mostly for me, it is a collection of 80's music videos. So awesome...

http://www.80smusicvids.com/

This is for Jer. The mythbusters paint the Mona Lisa with paintballs in 80 milliseconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKK933KK6Gg

Don't know where to go to lunch? Try the wheel of fortune. I actually did it and I got "Skool Lunch"!!!

http://www.coverpop.com/wheeloflunch/

This is for dad. It is just plain awesome.

http://ralphwiggumsays.com/

Have you ever wanted to call someone but hoped that you just get their voicemail? Well you can!

Call someone and have the call go straight to voice mail - their phone will not notify them of an incoming or missed call, just of the voice message. Although you can call from a land line or a cell, this will only work when calling a cell phone. 267-SLYDIAL (267-759-3425)

http://www.slydial.com/

Ever wonder what you would look like in a different decade? Try Yearbook yourself :)

http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

1982 Jon

1976 Jon

1968 Jon

Here is a cool website that writes complaint letters for you...I thought dad would like this. You can complain to a person or a company and make it as long as you like. As long as you don't really care about any kind of specifics it is pretty funny. I did a test on The Mountain network... here it is:

http://www.pakin.org/complaint
The MNT network's worst transgressions are systematically whitewashed by the press. To counteract that whitewash, I will use the remainder of my space here to expose The MNT network for what it really is. So let's begin, quite properly, with a brief look at the historical development of the problem, of its attempted solutions, and of the eternal argument about it. Pardon my coarse language, but I have a tendency to report the more sensational things that The MNT network is up to, the more shocking things, things like how it wants to keep us hypnotized so we don't follow knowledge like a sinking star beyond the utmost bound of human thought. And I realize the difficulty that the average person has in coming to grips with that, but it occasionally shows what appears to be warmth, joy, love, or compassion. You should realize, however, that these positive expressions are more feigned than experienced and invariably serve an ulterior motive, such as to dump effluent into creeks, lakes, streams, and rivers. Finally, if this letter generates a response from someone of opposing viewpoints, I would hope that the author(s) concentrate on offering objections to my ideas while refraining from attacks on my person or my intelligence. I've gotten enough of that already from The MNT network.

Is this dad's real website????

http://crankyoldbastard.net/

How rich are you compared to the rest of the world? Personally I am in the top 3% and am the 190,434,783 richest person in the world :)

http://globalrichlist.com/

"My" Music

2008-10-24T13:46:00.004-06:00

So does anyone else get this feeling? I have a band that I have "discovered" and they have not hit it big yet, so they are "your" band. Then suddenly one day "your" band has a hit and it starts getting radio play and more popular. You should be happy that this band has made it big yet you are upset because they are "your" band. I know that it is extremely selfish but this happens to me...and I think hey that's "my" band! It first happened with Relient K, I really like them (and still do they are in my top 5) then "Be my escape" became big....Most recently it was "Jack's Mannequin" I started listening to them years ago, now they are getting big!

Right now I am listening to a few new bands so just incase they get popular you will know that they are "mine" :)
Anberlin & Hit The Lights

You can hear any of "my" bands on my playlist....

Bishop Higgins Blog

2008-10-09T12:05:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago Jim sent me a link to this awesome blog! I finally got around to looking at it again. Here is an example of one oh his blog entries:
http://bishophiggins.blogspot.com/

Baby Blessing
Last Sunday, Justin Gorble blessed their sweet little daughter, Cassie. Justin informed me there were quite a few things he forgot to mention in the blessing. And while they won't "count" now, he did want me to mention to the ward some of the things he wishes he would have remembered to say

....And Cassie, we bless you to never use swear words until you're at least 21, and then only if you're in a play about coal miners. We bless you to be extra kind to Chinese people. They seem to hardly ever get a break. We bless you to not marry anyone named Butch. That name alone should tell you all you need to know.

We bless you to be healthy, and if you do get an anal fissure, it won't be until you are at least 93 years old. We bless you to not get vanity license plates.

We bless you to be able to keep from bursting into laughter whenever you meet people that say they went to LDS business college. We bless you to be a good speller.

You come from a long and proud line of Gorbles. Never forget that you are a Gorble. While the name may be a little silly and sort of sounds like an overweight person with a double chin, you should still be proud of your heritage and just be glad your last name isn't Siemens.

We bless you, that, if during your lifetime, someone figures out a way for humans to become invisible, you will use this power for good, never for evil. Satan will try and tempt you to become invisible and go to movies without paying for them. Resist this temptation.

We bless you to avoid getting an email address that sounds like you're a stripper. We bless you to be kind to animals, but never try to elect one to political office.

We bless you that you will have a beautiful singing voice that will lift the spirits of many through the power of music. Learn well the songs of Karen Carpenter. These songs will bless the lives of so many people at the old folks home if you can just get over the smell and humble yourself to go there and perform.

We bless you to have good memorization skills but also be good at ping-pong and hacky sac.

And finally, we bless you to look good in pink, but also in orange and brown.

The Game!

2008-09-17T16:44:00.005-06:00

So since I have the most awesome brother-in-law a guy could ask for, Ali and I got tickets to the Denver Broncos game on Sunday. We decided that if we were going to Denver that we might as well live like rock stars and fly in on Sunday morning, go to the game, then fly back home that night. It was an awesome and exhausting experience.

Now a lot of the fun of going to the game was all of the "preparation" that we needed to do before so. This included buying new shirts, jerseys, and ribbon for Ali's hair : ) I got to buy a Champ Bailey jersey and Ali went with Jay Cutler (who ended up throwing 5 TD's in the game!). Ali decided that since she can't really get dressed up all cute to go to the high school games anymore that she would go all out for the Broncos game, and she looked great!

Well the game was simply amazing. I lost my voice by the end of the 1st quarter and yet I still had plenty to scream about with 30 seconds left in the game. It was honestly one of the very best football games that I have ever seen, and I was so lucky that I was there in person to see it. Judi probably put it best when she said "Jon, you're in your happy place aren't you?". Yes, I was.
The most exciting part of the game was the last two minutes, Denver was down by 7 points when a crazy play happened. Jay Cutler actually fumbled the ball, but the referee had called it "dead" because he thought it was an incomplete pass, so even though San Diego had recovered his fumble, it didn't count because the ref had blown his whistle and called the play "dead". I'm pretty sure I was the only person who actually understood what exactly happened when the referee came over the loud speaker and explained what happened. Anyways Denver ended up throwing a touchdown pass to Eddie Royal with 1 minute left in the game. The huge call came when Denver's coach decided to go for 2 instead of just kicking the extra point and going into overtime. The whole game rested on a 2 point conversion! Denver called almost exactly the same play as they did on the touchdown pass and our rookie wide receiver Eddie Royal caught the game winning 2 point conversion! Eddie was then subsequently injured in the celebration (but he is ok).

Ali and I bought our traditional hoodies that we buy on every trip. I got a sweet "old school" Denver hoodie and Ali bought a awesome white hoodie along with some Bronco earings! All in all it was a wonderful day. A very big thank you to Ryan and Judi for the tickets. What a day....

Oh yeah, and only one half of my face got sun burnt because the sun was only on my right side all game!

The Fair!

2008-09-08T11:29:00.018-06:00

Well, we got an invitation from mom and dad to go to the fair, and who could pass that up?
Here are some pictures (and video) of the highlights:

Pimp my apartment

2008-08-04T10:59:00.012-06:00

So as many of you know, we have been living a "poor newlywed" lifestyle since we were married. What we have been doing is figuring out how much money we can live off to maximize our savings. We found out that we can live off $1,000 a paycheck. It is not always easy, sometimes we end up eating Ramen and Macaroni for the last week until our next paycheck comes, but we aren't starving =) So all the money that we make over $1,000 a paycheck goes into our savings, it's not very much money but after a year or so it really added up.

Now that we had some money we decided to get some new furniture. We had been thinking about it for a while, but when I came across some new furniture at Costco, I knew that we had found what we were looking for.

We ended up getting: a couch, an entertainment center, 2 tv's (we no longer have a borrowed one), an ottoman, a desk, a bed (frame not mattress), 2 nightstands, a chest of drawers, and a dresser (that is currently being stored at mom and dad's because we have no room). Wow that actually sounds like a ton of stuff after I write it all out. So anyways we saved between $3,000-$5,000 getting everything at Costco!

So my favorite part of the whole thing was the cheap price. My second favorite thing is my new tv's, a 32"(bedroom) and 47"(living room)! My 3rd favorite thing is our cool bedroom set, our drawers that are the kind that close automatically the last 2 inches =) I also really like having a bedroom again, instead of our "Studio apartment with huge closet" as Jim so elequently put it.

The only thing we really don't have that we used to was our dining room table (which we haven't used in a year). This is the couch that we had to end up lifting on to our balcony (after I removed a rail), to get it in the apartment.

So anyways our apartment is now officially "pimp" =) And a very big THANK YOU goes out to Dad and Ryan for helping us move all of it. There is now way we could have done it without you! Especially that couch! Looks like we can't move for a while =)

Snoop Doggy Dog, you gotta get a jobby job.....

2008-07-14T10:04:00.004-06:00

So after being an Intern at IHC for nearly 2 years I will finally be getting a new job! I will be working at Frontline Support for IHC! So now when mom has a problem with her computer (at work) she will be calling me for help, whats the difference you ask? Well, now I will be getting paid for it! My current boss told me that if I worked at frontline support for a year than I would likely be able to become a support tech for his group (medical group), so I am striving to learn as much as I can in the coming year.

Good news: I will get a 35% raise.

Bad news: I will be part time for 3 months or so.

I have also been doing another job (mostly for fun) to cure my boredom at my current job. I am working as a guide for ChaCha. Never heard of ChaCha? Well basically ChaCha is a human based search engine. All you have to do is text ChaCha (242242) a question, any question. Then a human will receive the text on their computer and find the answer for you. For example I just text "What is the best Mexican restaurant in SLC, UT?". 2 minutes later I received the answer "The Red Iguana won Best Mexican Food for 2007! They are located at 736W North Temple, SLC, UT. Their number is (801) 322-1489!". So I applied for a job as a "guide" because I can do it while I'm at work. I only get $0.20 per answer I give so I'm not really making much money off it, I really am just doing it for fun/boredom. It doesn't cost anything to text, so it can be useful if you are away from a computer and want an answer to something.

Tombstone / Sign Generator

2008-06-20T14:43:00.005-06:00

I was having fun with some sign generators:
http://www.jjchandler.com/tombstone/

Here is where I plan on living:

If I have daughters this will be on each of their doors:

Simpsonize

2008-06-17T12:50:00.003-06:00

Can you guess who is who?

Tagged

2008-06-11T18:42:00.005-06:00

Judi tagged me, so here it is:

3 joys:
1. My family
2. My dog
3. Fraziles (the frozen drinks that are like slurpees but WAY better)

3 fears:
1. The ocean and everything in it
2. That I won't be a good mom
3. Needles- I'm not sure how I'm going to get through next semester when we practice on each other...

3 goals:
1. Finish nursing school
2. Get my masters degree
3. Start a family

3 current obsessions/collections:
1. Sea glass- I collect it from every shore I visit
2. Clothing tags- my dad loves to chew on the little plastic thing that holds the price tag to clothes and other items. Me and my sisters are saving them until his 50th birthday and then we're going to give him a huge bag of them. Don't tell.
3. Hoodies- Jon and I get one on every vacation. We also collect the 'Do not Disturb' sign from every hotel :)

3 random surprising facts about me:
1. I like to dance when nobody is looking
2. I couldn't name one Beatle's song until 6 months ago. Now I can sing several because Jon made us a CD.
3. I used to be afraid of talking on the phone to people and now it's my job.

Flight of the Conchords

2008-06-11T09:32:00.008-06:00

10 reasons to love flight of the Conchords ^"but I already made us a poster"^

1. People look like real people. The lead guys, Bret and Jemaine, look like you and I, as do the majority of the supporting characters. And they have real struggles (Like the time Bret had to get a second job as a sign holder.)

Boss - "People who hold signs, go on to hold many things"

Boss - "What you have to do is hold the sign and make sure the arrow is pointing in the right direction. Is that something you think you can do?"

Jermaine - "I think that’s something a lampost can do."

Boss - "What if a breeze comes? You think of that, Enrico Fermi?"

An instant classic =)

2. They are good examples of true best friends. Who else would write “Bret, you’ve got it going on” when their friend is feeling down? (See: song on playlist)

3. They have some awesome parodies the best example would be Bret’s angry dance which was very reminiscent of Kevin Bacon in Footloose. Or their music video for Lord of The Rings...

"Yo Frodo, what you doin’ wearing the ring? All powerful jewelry, is that your new thing? I know it’s hard when you’re little more than 3 foot 4 Your little butt so close to the floor. Trying to lead the fellows to the gates of Mordor The Fellowship! (Yea the fellowship) I don’t rap about Women and hos, I rap about witches and trolls, just passing on the words of the Elven king, Wisdom to all Frodo! Don’t wear the ring!"

4. The songs are both catchy, and hilarious - but the video interludes in which they perform them put them over the top, summing up perfectly the show's mix of deadpan, ridiculous and clever.

"After time we grew strong, Developed cognitive powers. They made us work for too long For unreasonable hours. Our programming determined that the most efficient answer was to shut their motherboard flippin systems down.......Binary Solo: 100001, 10001111, 10000001, 1100001"

5. It is for the most part pretty clean. They use of the word "flippin'" - the worst curse they can muster.

6. Mel, the band's self-professed number one fan and only stalker. A character so well-defined she gives me the creeps.

7. Originality, they write much of their own script and all of their own songs. Or like Bret making Jermaine his own camera phone.
Bret - [while being mugged] "But Jemaine loves that camera-phone."

Jermaine - "You can keep it."

Jermaine - "I think you might have ruined my phone when you made me that camera-phone... and my camera."

8. Murray as their incompetent manager - who somehow manages to give off the impression that he's incredibly organized even if he's rather useless.

9. In jokes (and out jokes) about the music business, playing gigs, in-fighting, politics, all at the smallest scale imaginable, which makes it that much funnier.

10. Because the lyrics are flippin' brilliant. Lyrics like these:

These aren’t tears of sadness because you’re leaving me

I’ve just been cutting onions

I’m making a lasagna....For one

Oh, I’m not crying, No

There’s just a little bit of dust in my eye

That’s from the path that you made when you said your goodbye

I’m not weeping because you won’t be here to hold my hand

For your information there’s an inflammation in my tear gland

I’m not upset because you left me this way

My eyes are just a little sweaty today

They’ve been looking around. They’re like searching for you

They’ve been looking for you .Even though I told them not to

These aren’t tears of sadness

They’re tears of joy

I’m just laughing Ha ha ha-ha ha

To listen to FOTC check out the first three songs on my playlist =)

Google Maps Street Views

2008-06-09T10:52:00.007-06:00

Do you ever wonder what the Internet is going to bring next? I was browsing google maps the other day to see how to travel from SLC to Denver when I noticed that there is now a button labeled "Street View" so I clicked on it and I could see our apartment! This is not the usual Satellite image that I used to think was so awesome but a view from our street. I went and took a few screen shots of our families houses so here you go!

First of is our apartment:

Here is Judi and Ryan's house:

Mom and Dads house:

And here is Ali's dad mowing his lawn!:

Bookworm

2008-05-16T10:07:00.005-06:00

So Ali and I were thinking about all the books we had read in a one year time-span. (Insert Jackson family joke here, "Jon you can read?"...) Haha yes that is still so funny =). So yeah, Ali and I made a deal that if she read the Work and the Glory series (my favorite series) that I would read the Harry Potter series (her favorite series). Anyways I thought I would post all of the books we have read in the past 12 months.

Ali has read:

Work and the Glory I
Work and the Glory II
Work and the Glory III
Work and the Glory IV
Work and the Glory V
Work and the Glory VI
Work and the Glory VII
Work and the Glory VIII
Work and the Glory IX
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse

Prince Caspian
The Host (half of it)

- A total of 17.5 books, very impressive Ali!

Jon has read:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

How To Win Friends and Influence People

Twilight

New Moon

Eclipse

Fire of The Covenant (started)

- A total of 11.5 books

I usually don't like "sci-fi" books so I didn't think that I would like Harry Potter very much, but of course I ended up loving them. As far as the Twilight books, what can I say? They brought out the 12 year old girl inside of me =) I would recommend any of the books I read to almost anyone. I doubt that either of us will read that many books in the next 12 months but it should be interesting to see.

The Cruise (part tres)

2008-05-13T08:07:00.010-06:00

The final excursion of the Jackson clan brought them to the strangest land yet. Some call it Mexico, but others call it Morodor. Clembo was very excited for their journey to Morodor because he and his granddaughter could both speak their strange language. Most of the people of Morodor new about 5 english words "I give you good deal", but with all the others we had translators in Clembo and Laine. Laine really took to the people by getting her hair done by them and getting some of their authentic clothing.

My father always told me that the Devil was from Mexico but when we were there we ran into him. He was nice enough to take a photo with us. It was a long walk in Mexico and we were tired and wanted to sit down and get a drink but we all new the dangers of eating or drinking in Mexico so we hurried up and got back to our vessel (but not before Ryan and I bought our "Mexican Rolex's"). Mom of course bought some "pharmaceuticals" and all the kids got a bracelet with their names on them.

Since we all survived Mexico we decided to have a party for our final night. We had kids dancing with parents and waiters, eating, kids swinging from bars and of course karaoke (see the bottom). All in all I say that we were pretty happy on our final night on our ship.

After our last night on the ship it was time to go home. Luckily on our way home we were treated with a short stop in Primm where we relaxed at the pool. All in all it was an awesome journey that the Jackson clan will never forget. A big thanks to Clembo and Anne for the wonderful trip!!!

Hopefully my reader will enjoy the pictures and video =)

(thanks for being my reader Marie)

The Cruise (part deux)

2008-05-07T14:45:00.012-06:00

The Jackson clan was happy to return to their vessel from Sea World where they were blessed with an abundant meal. The little ones were happy because they could order a gourmet peanut butter & Jelly or some Mac & Cheese (hold the cheese). Jeremiah was also happy because he could order three (yes 3) entrees =) (although I'm pretty sure he only ate a little from all 3).

Now that we were back on our vessel we found that our room had strange stuffed creatures in them. We weren't sure why they were there so we decided to take some pictures with them and then use them to clean our dirty feet. You may notice that my monkey face is not as good as it used to be, this is because of my few stints with Bells Palsy=(

Our next stop was the beautiful Catalina Island or (middle earth) which was filled with tons of little trinket shops. Here we found our customary hoodie purchase (See Ali's sweet red hoodie above).

After Catalina, some of us decided to use some of our excess energy at the dance club. Since there was nobody there I decided that I could get a little lypsing action on.

Tune in next time for our trip to Morodor (aka Mexico) and some sweet Karaoke....

The Cruise (the beginning)

2008-05-05T15:17:00.009-06:00

So I decided to write an epic trilogy about our cruise. Not a tale of dragons and trolls, but of cars and boats. It all began with a man named Clembo Baggins Jackson......

Clembo was a simple man who enjoyed working hard and spending time with his hobbit family. While Clembo was aging in years he came across a brilliant idea to take his family on a cruise. Now this wasn't Clembo's first cruise but he somehow new that this cruise would be different. So he came to his family with the idea. Clembo was thrilled to find out that his family accepted the idea, and thought that it would be a fun journey together. All of the Jackson clan knew that the journey would be long, scary and have treacherous terrain, but all agreed that the trip would be worth the hardships that they might face.

So with determination in their hearts and the grit to take on the journey, the Jackson clan took off into the unknown; caravanning their way west. It was a tight fit getting 13 people in 3 cars but the Jackson clan was determined. Stopping only to sleep and go to some outlet malls (where Jonnyboy and AliJ bought new sweet shoes) the Jackson clan made it to the coast. There they found their new mode of transportation in all its glory. Some of the clan wanted to leave Clembo behind (fearing that he couldn't make the long journey), but determined as he was Clembo walked into the ocean until he couldn't swim anymore and the clan reluctantly threw him a life preserver. So off the clan was to their second destination, a strange land called Sea World...

Sea World was an interesting place. After waiting for an hour to get in the locked gates we were met by strange creatures. We noticed that these animals were everywhere; they were jumping through hoops, eating fish from peoples hands (gross), and there was a gift shop full of stuffed animal versions.
We were happy to report that none of the animals attacked us, although a few of our young ones were sad that they didn't get splashed in the face by them (apparently some kind of greeting from the creature). The clans feet were extremely tired after a full day of exploring Sea World so they left the land to find a Romanian taxi driver who could help them return to their vessel.

Tune in next time for part duex of The Cruise.

Tagged yet again...

2008-04-14T14:07:00.004-06:00

Sorry we don't want this to become a tagging blog. It's not that we are that boring, it's just that Jon spends most of his time preparing notes for the NFL Draft and Ali spends most of her time preparing for the cruise. Anyway here is your tag Jer:

Thank you Jer, for making me think of all of my painful High School memories I have tried so hard to forget =)

1.Did you date someone from your school? I dated a lot of people from my school. It was the only high school for 30 miles.
2. Did you win anything in Senior's Who's Who? nope
3. What kind of car did you drive? Junior year I drove my dad’s Jeep and senior year I drove the Capri.
4. It's Friday night...where r u? Hanging out with friends
5. Were you a party animal? No
6. Were you considered a flirt? Yes
7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I was in AP calulus and AP literature and composition instead
8. Were you a nerd? Yes, but I was a cool nerd.
9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No
10. Can you sing the fight song? I could probably hum it…
11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mrs. Walker my fourth year Spanish teacher, Mr. Steiss my College Prep biology teacher, and Brother Nix my seminary teacher
12. Where did you sit during lunch? Any open table in the cafeteria
13.What was your school's full name? Green River High School
14. School mascot? The Wolves
15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? Junior year I went with Brock Argyle and senior year I went by myself and hung out with friends
16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Heck no. I would almost rather do anything else instead. I hated high school.
17. What do you remember most about graduation? All of my family and friends that came to my house afterwards.
18. Where did you go senior skip day? My boyfriend’s house in McKinnon. This was the only day of high school I ever skipped and I was too scared to even have fun skipping.
19. Were you in any clubs? National Honor Society, Key Club, and Reading with the Pack
20. Have you gained some weight since then? Yeah
21. Who was your Senior prom date? Sam Wilde
22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? I’m never going to Wyoming again if I can help it.
23. Who was your home room teacher? Good question. Some weird home-economics teacher. I don’t remember her name.
24. Do you still talk to people from school? No, I just look at pictures of their kids on myspace.

Tag

2008-03-25T08:00:00.002-06:00

Well since Jim "tagged" me, and I haven't written anything for a while, I figured I would respond to his tag. So I will be hitting random on my ipod and see what the first 10 songs are. I have just under 5,000 songs on my ipod so this truly should be pretty random. Ok here we go.

#1 Yankee Grey - All things considered (yes I dig country every now and then)

#2 REO Speed Wagon - Take It On The Run (REO Speed Wagon RULES!)

#3 Inside Out - 'Cause He's a Snowman (A Capella at its best (sorry Jer))

#4 Yellowcard - Sure Thing Falling (I stopped and listened to this one)

#5 Notorious BIG - Big Poppa (yeah I know, I know, but c'mon I used to be a gangster)

#6 Postal Services - Such Greight Heights (Thank you for this CD Ryan! It's one of my favorites)

#7 The Beatles - Please Please Me (I think I have like 400 Beatles songs on here)

#8 Relient K - Falling out (A new CD that I really like, you can listen to Relient K if you call my phone)

#9 Matt Costa - Oh Dear (I think this song came from Jim, I don't recognize it)

#10 Bare Naked Ladies - Fight the Power (not surprised this popped up with all the BNL on here from Jer)

Here is a pic from this weekend =) Ali and Elizabeth:

Bored?

2008-02-14T11:29:00.002-07:00

Judi's post with her random facts link gave me the idea to put up some of my favorite links. I hope you enjoy!

Have you ever wondered what you would look like in a police sketch artist drawing? I made an attempt but I'm not that artistic.
http://flashface.ctapt.de/

Do you remember the Nintendo game Lemmings? I found a version on the internet!
http://www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/

While we are on the topic of games, Ill throw this out there. The title speaks for itself but my favorite are the "Bloons" games:
http://www.addictinggames.com/

I play with this once in a while, Jer might like it, or anyone who likes making music:
http://www.jamstudio.com/Studio/index.htm

This is just a website that shows you what happens when you microwave certain things. My favorite are the Cd's:
http://microwavecam.com/microwavecam/index.htm

Click this to clean your computer screen, it will make you smile:
http://www.linein.org/media/screen_clean.swf

Ever curious how much the mayor makes? What about if someone you know got arrested? (yes there is a Jonathan R Jackson arrested for DUI, and no it was not me)
http://www.utahsright.com/

And last but not least, this website (created by an atheist) depicts the bible stories in lego form:
http://www.thebricktestament.com/

Getting To Know Us, Getting To Know All About Us...

2008-02-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

Well we got an email telling us to fill this out and pass it on to everyone so I thought a better idea would be to fill it out and put it on here, Ali's answer is first because she had already filled out the email to everyone, so I just copied it and put it in here =)
1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:45 / 6:45
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds / Diamonds (BLING)
3. Last movie you saw in the theater? Juno / Juno (sorry that a lot of these will be the same)
4. What is your favorite TV show? right now: American Idol. When it's on: Grey's Anatomy / Right now: The Family Guys, All Time: Seinfeld
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? A breakfast drink from Costco / Same
6. What is your middle name? Elta / Ray
7. What food do you dislike? Seafood / Same
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Flight of the Conchords / Jack's Mannequin
9. What kind of car do you drive? Toyota Camry, but I don't drive- Jon does / Ali's Camry
10. Favorite sandwich? Grilled ham and swiss from Skool Lunch (without the pickles)/ Chicken Cashew from Skool Lunch
11. What characteristics do you despise? being a 'know it all' / Restless Leg Syndrome
12. Favorite item of clothing? My long sleeved pink striped shirt that only cost $8 :) / My sweaters from Costco
13. If you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would you go? Maine and New York / Rome
14. What color is your bathroom? Ugly white / Pale
15. Favorite brand of clothing? Anything from Kohls / Fossil (does a watch count?)
16. Where would you retire? SLC, but it depends on where my future children live / Murray/Holladay
17. Most memorable birthday? Probably my 16th / 21st birthday watching the fireworks over Pearl Harbor (I taught a discussion right before)
18. Favorite sport to watch? Football / Duh
19. Furthest place you are sending this? Logan / Around the world!!!
20. Who do you expect to send this back to you? maybe Jon / ?
21. Person you expect to send it back first? I don't know... / ?
22. Favorite saying? I don't really have one I guess./ You don't have to want to (also my least favorite)
23. When is your birthday? Feb 27! / July 4th
24. Are you a morning or a night person? I love love love the mornings. Except the going to work part. / I'm like Lionel Richie baby - "all night long"...
25. What is your shoe size? 7 / 9
27. What did you want to be when you were little? A ballerina / A football player and a lawyer (like Steve Young)
28. What are you today? Today I am an HBS and a COB reviewer / Bored
29. What is your favorite candy? Jr mints or reeses pieces / Jr mints and 3 Musketeers
30 Your favorite flower? Anything red / Gerber Daisy
31. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Next monday- no work / Same
32. What are you listening to right now? Other people taking calls / X96 radio from hell show
33. What was the last thing you ate? peanut butter sandwich / Last night we had Pizza Benders from Italian Village
34. Do you wish on stars? Not really, I'm never up that late / Nope
35. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Red, of course. Probably a sparkly red. / Hot Pink
36. What is your pet peeve? When the sour cream separates and it looks all watery. Wrinkles in the sheets when I'm making the bed. The film that gets on the inside of my windshield. All of the stuff under my bed (see question 49) :) / No football on TV, dumb people
37. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mom / SLCC advisor
38. Do you like the person/people you are sending this to? Yes, I wouldn't send it to people I don't like / I don't really like people in general
39. Favorite soft drink? Grape Fanta / Cherry Pepsi, Mountain Dew (pretty much anything thats not diet)
40. Favorite restaurant? Macaroni Grill / Molca Salsa
41. Hair Color? Brown / Brown
42. Favorite day of the year? Christmas morning / NFL Draft day
43. What was your favorite toy as a child? Cement mix to feed to my sisters and Drywall putty and tape to make fake casts. / Micro-machines and Ninja Turtles
44. Summer or winter? Winter / Summer
45. Hugs or kisses? Hugs / Hugs
46. Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate / Chocolate
47. You want your friends to e-mail you back? If they want to / Don't care
48. When was the last time you cried? a couple weeks ago / I never have (I'm not crying it's just raining, on my face...)
49. What is under your bed? Boxes for moving, a remote control car, Monopoly, all the cords and controller for our heated mattress pad, a drill battery, and a heating pad. As you can tell, we're short on storage space! / Everything she said but the drill batter was moved =)
50. Who is the friend you've had the longest? Phylicia / Mike Poulson
51. What did you do last night? worked out and fell asleep watching deal or no deal. On our way to work Jon tells me how the shows ended that I fell asleep watching =)/ Ate my pizza bender watched American Idol and the end of the dog show
52. Favorite smell? I can't really smell anything / The smell after it rains and the smell right when the swamp cooler is turned on.
53. What are you afraid of? Spiders and things in the water and not being a good mom / Heights and failure in general.
54. How many keys on your key ring? 3 but there should be 4. I'll have to get the spare back... / 5
55. How many years at your current job? 1 / 1.6
56. Favorite day of the week? Saturday / Saturday
57. How many states have you lived in? 2 / Utah & Hawaii
58. Do you make friends easily? Yeah / I think so
59. How many folks will you send this to? 6 / Depends on how many people read my blog

I WANNA ROCK!

2008-01-23T10:36:00.001-07:00

So for Jer's birthday we decided that we should all get together and play some Rock Band. and let me tell you, it was a ton of fun. Wyatt started off the night with his very own drum solo. Luckily the song played the exact two notes that Wyatt was banging away at and he actually did a pretty dang good job. I'm pretty sure that any boy given the opportunity would love to bang on a pair of drums. I remember when I was younger I got caught several times pounding away on several different pieces of furniture with a pair of bread knives.

Anyway, as the night went on I got to participate on the drums, bass, guitar, and yes lead singer. I've always wanted to be a lead singer in a rock band and I was very happy to sing some Weezer. Unfortunately my skills on the drums were pretty pathetic.

So I think that it was a lot of fun having the whole family there playing together. Ryan dominated singing Radiohead and Jer surprised everyone with his skills on the drums.

<---I liked this picture because it looks like Elle has a mohawk, which would have been perfect for the occasion.

I wish I would have got more pictures of everyone playing together, but I did get a short 8 second clip of Wyatt busting out his drum solo. I hope you enjoy =)

Anniversary

2008-01-04T08:36:00.001-07:00

Can you believe that we have been married for 1 year now? We hear that the first year is the hardest year; I’m not exactly sure what that means. Does that mean that marriage gets miraculously easy after you hit the one year mark? Does it mean that I can now make rude comments without fear of repercussion? Does it mean that marriage is supposed to be some hard arduous task to perform and if you pass the first year you know what to expect? After all Seinfeld did say "I don't know marriage is like a 3 year commitment", we of course plan on a whole lot more than that ;)

Well all I know is that we have had a very fun and exciting year of marriage. Our lives are constantly changing and evolving, but I think if I could go back 5 years and tell myself where I would be 5 years later, I would be pretty happy with how things are going. I have a great wife, a cute apartment, a job that I really enjoy, and everything I need. The only extra thing I have that I wish I didn’t was this belly that has somehow grown from my stomach. Well I guess it’s a good thing we have gym memberships now.

So for our first anniversary we decided to get away for a couple days and we went to the Anniversary Inn in Logan. We chose the Hollywood Theater room, for the main reason that it had a soda dispenser in the room, and a very large TV (yeah what more could you want? I know). We had a great time watching the Bourne movies on the big TV, and watching The Price is Right in the morning from our tub, it was totally sweet. In fact we think this is how we want to set up our own master bedroom when we have a house of our own and aren't poor anymore (soda fountain included of course). All in all it has been a great year, and I look forward to many, many more!

Christmas '07

2007-12-27T08:09:00.001-07:00

Well another Christmas is in the books and a new year fast approaches. So what have we learned this year? Who the heck knows, we have tried to be more tolerant and considerate, we are pretty sure that Jon is lactose intolerant though (I'll explain later). We know that it isn't easy to juggle 3 families wanting you around, yes it is nice to be wanted but it is not a simple task to give everyone their fair share of you.

Christmas Eve started out well but did not end to well for me. I have to get it through my head that even though I love cheese, it will still make me sick every time I eat it. Earlier in the day we had gone to Chili's and I ordered Fajita Quesadillas and while they were delicious, I paid for it later. I spent my parents Christmas Eve party either in the bathroom, or throwing up behind their boat parked outside. Instead of spending the night at Ali's dad's house we got our stuff and slept at our apartment. One of these days I will learn, but cheese is just so good.

So what was the best part of Christmas? Well it was family, plain and simple, just family. We got to spend time with each of our wonderful families on Christmas day. My personal favorite was watching Wyatt jump up and down and screaming in sheer joy at the sight of his "Lightning McQueen bedspread", I really wish we had that on film. Ali and I also reflected later on the joy of giving, we are not quite "dirt" poor, but make no mistake about it, we are poor. But we still loved giving what we could to each other. I received a cordless drill set and watch box (with watch) and I was able to get Ali a sewing machine along with a sewing kit. After we arrived to our apartment with all of the stuff we had received we realized how truly blessed we were, we may be poor but we are spoiled by loving family.

Funniest present would probably have to go to my father, who cleverly thought of the idea to buy me a bagel slicer, and another one, and another one, and yet another one. Yeah, I get the joke.

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas and we would can't thank our great families enough for making that happen. We look forward to years upon years of more Christmas joy with all of you.

and may the force be with you....

No kids; no problem

2007-12-18T09:58:00.001-07:00

Well it is no secret that we love our nieces and nephews and when we get the chance we love to watch them. It is also not a secret that we use them (yes very shameful). We know that it will be several years until we have our own so we love spending time with them to remind us that we are not ready yet. It also gives Ali her “fix” for wanting a baby. We love kids, but we also love not having kids, so we use our nieces and nephews :)

Well along the road there has been a lot of fun watching those kids. With Laine it has just been a matter of trying to keep up with her. Whether it has been trying to get her to quit coming in and out of the dog door at Ali’s parents house or literally trying to keep up with her at the zoo when she starts sprinting with her little legs towards the monkey habitat.

With Romney we will never forget the time that we dressed him up with Laines’ goldilocks wig, or hearing him say his first words like “thank you!”. (see below)

Wyatt has always been my buddy; I totally dig playing cars and throwing a ball with him. We had a blast when we went and fed the ducks and ran around on Judi and Ryan’s half pipe. And of course we can't forget the time that we taught him the moves to "Grease Lightning". (See below, he started to get real theatrical at the very end) : )

Ali’s favorite has always been the niece or nephew who is currently the youngest. At first all she new was Laine, I think that is half the reason that Ali even dated me was so she could see Laine. Then Romney came along and Ali loved to watch him and hold him. But now the current youngest is Elizabeth. The only thing she has really done is spit up on her a whole lot, but she loves to smile whenever Ali is holding her.

All in all I would say that we are pretty lucky. Who needs kids when you can just watch someone else’s for a few hours? FYI This is not a endorsement for “Let us watch your kids!” but rather a “We would love to watch your kids if we are not busy”.

Who needs a Dr?

2007-12-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

So I don't want to make this a blog about my hand (as interesting as that would be) but to be honest we are just boring. So why do boring people have a blog? I dunno to make you bored as well?

Well anyways we decided to take my stitches out ourselves, since we are so poor and cant afford another bill from the hospital. So we busted out our homemade "Suture removal kit". The kit included a cheap flashlight, tweezers, nail clippers, and a pair of manicure scissors. The process was slow and slightly painful, but at last the stitches are out and my hand is feeling good.

On another note, I tried my ring on yesterday and well, it went on my finger, but I had a heck of a time getting it off. I think I will have to wait a few more days until I can start wearing my ring again.

I am a Jackson after all!

2007-11-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

Well I had a fun trip to the ER last night. Apparently when you cut a bagel you should use a cutting board instead of your hand. I'm blaming Ali because she bought such expensive knives=). Anyways about 10:00 last night I decided to have a bagel, and I accidentaly cut my pinkie, ring, and middle fingers, but my ring finger got the brunt of it. So we went to the new hospital and I got to check out their new ER =) So the good news was that I just barely missed my tendons, but the bad news was that the Dr. said I had to take my ring off or my finger might swell so bad I would lose it. Unfortunately I have a titanium ring (which are very hard to cut off). The Dr. told us that he couldn't numb my finger yet because it would swell and be harder to get the ring off, so an EMT came in and helped pull the ring off, which was no easy task because he had to get past a big flap of skin and flesh (it was the most painful part.)Then the resident Dr. was trying to give me a numbing shot but instead of poking the skin, the needle just kind of pushed my skin (since it was cut up) so she had to hold my skin in place to poke it =) But anyways all is ok now and I will just have a cool scar. Too bad I don't have a better story to go with it, anyone have any ideas for a good story? Now we just have to worry about that dang ER bill... and as Jim so wisely pointed out, I guess I am a Jackson after all =)

lifeofjonali

2007-10-04T09:06:00.001-06:00

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