Definitely one of my tops!

year round, i don’t care if it’s a christmas movie, it’s also one of my favorite to quote:)

i just love katherine heigl even if she plays the same kinda character in every movie!

cartoon movies- it might be a tie between these two. a new one and a semi-older one

Classic

sing-a-long-songs

i mean come on… what girl doesn’t enjoy this?

There are so many more i could list, but i’ll stop here!

So the deal is, i’m bad with decisions, so i couldn’t decide on one picture… here’s a collection.

If you aren’t in these pics it doesn’t NOT mean you don’t make me happy!! probably would have been more pics, but i don’t have very many on my computer:)

Katrice Kayleigh Johnson

David and Patti Johnson, my dearest parents.

I am ever so appreciative of them. They raised me in a Church-going, manner-minding, people-serving, sports-playing, music-singing, hard-working, slave-driving kinda way. (just kidding on that last one:) I think I turned out pretty good so they must have done a good job!

My dad is one of the most servant hearted, hard working people I’ve ever known. He will go out of his way to do anything for anyone, even if he doesn’t know them. I am proud to call him dad.

My mom is a giver and a volunteer. She gives even when she has nothing to give. She volunteers to help out even when it’s completely out of her comfort zone.

One of my favorite things about them, and this may shock them, is to see them working together. The things they create together are always so good. My dad being a construction major in college, can build almost anything. My mom, being the daughter of an artist, is quite artsy/craftsy herself. Be it a 2D polar bear or statue of liberty for Vacation Bible School at church, a poster for my sports teams, or shelves for my room, all have been great. My mom designs, my dad creates, my mom paints/decorates/etc. They truly do make a great team, I wish the rest of the world could enjoy more of what they can do. Here’s a couple pictures of things they’ve done:

Statue of Liberty for Vacation Bible School this week.

Shelves they made for me in college. I recently painted the black, it was originally pink, not sure what I was thinking when I requested that! Dont’ they look great! Mom designed, dad built, mom painted, they are like a well oiled machine:)

I am blessed by how they love and support me in every way. Thanks mom and dad! Love you!

If I’m honest, my first love, as well as your first love, is self. From the moment we’re born, we know how to scream= “I WANT____” Whether it’s food, sleep or to be held, all we gotta do is cry and someone will come running.  It’s all about self-preservation, the world revolves around me.

Only, that’s not true. That’s a lie. The world does not revolve around me. I may act like it does. It may even seem like it some times, but it doesn’t.

Physically, the world revolves around the sun. Really, the world revolves around the Son. This should be our first love.

Jesus Christ. He came to earth, God in the flesh. Fully God. Fully Man. He did not sin. He came as a sacrifice, a ransom, the payment for my sins, your sins, and the sins of the entire world. Why did He need to come? Because as Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” and then a few chapters later, in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” You see, God gave us a gift of eternal life by sending His son Jesus to the earth. Jesus came knowing He would die, but did so willingly. A painful death, crucified on a cross at the hands of men. Scripture written hundreds of years before this, prophesied this would happen and it did. He died. But, He did not stay dead! This is what makes Him different. Had he simply died, He would have been no different than any other martyr for any kind of faith. Yet He rose again to life 3 days later, claiming victory over death. Death had no hold on Him. Having conquered death, He has offered life to anyone who will accept, believe, confess that they are a sinner in need of a Savior, not only asking for forgiveness for their sins, but repenting of them, turning from them for good. Now I, having received His forgiveness, His gift of life, just like Him, am free from the power of sin and death. Do I still sin? Yes, because I live in a fallen world, I often forget the grace God has shown me in forgiving me of my sins, I forget that He has given me life.

So by His grace, I will cling to the Cross which once was a sign of death, but for me is a sign of life because of the life given for me. For that reason, Jesus must be my first love. In comparison with Him, all other love should look like a mere shadow.

Jesus, help me to love you more.

i am terrible at naming things. not necessarily because i can’t come up with creative things, but mostly the fact that after thinking of lots of ideas i actually have to decide on something and if you know me at all, you know this is something i struggle with-making decisions. i’ve gotten better, but still feel literally paralyzed sometimes by meaningless decisions. (that was a little freebie about me, has nothing to do with the title)

anyway, i was trying to come up with something that said that this blog was about my life, the story of me, the things i think about, and the things i care about. but if you know all of that about me, you know that at the heart of all that about me is Jesus Christ. my life with Him is a daily journey towards the finish line. i’d love it to be a run a lot of days. other days i feel like it’s going too fast, but everyday it continues at the same pace. i wish that the day i became a believer i would have immediately reached perfection, but that’s not reality. we live in a fallen sinful world with fallen sinful people, we daily go through a process of being made more like Christ, this is my walk. the walk. it’s short, it’s simple. like me.

someday it’ll probably change, but for now that’s it.

if you’re reading this you probably know me, but did you know all of this?!?

Sume Denae-no.

15 interesting facts

1.I floss on a daily basis.

2.I have never been a girly girl, but over the past couple of years I’ve begun to embrace some of the girly-er nature in me. Recently I’ve come to term with the fact that I love flowers.

3.I use organic milk. It’s shocking since I always go the cheapest route for everything else, but I don’t use it very fast and organic stays good longer so none gets wasted.

4.My sister’s hips are 2-3 inches higher than mine, but I am still taller:) love you katrice!

5.The hardest year of my life was spent working at camp, yet I would go back and work there again in a heart beat. why? it allows the crazy/fun side of me to come out and it’s not weird because everyone else is crazy/fun too!

6.I’ve always wanted to stay in a hole in the wall motel, not the ones that look like you’re gonna get a disease while there, but the semi-cute little small town, $39 a night places (ok i may have made up that price), i’d still classify them as a no-tell motel, and will not be attempting that unless married, it’s not a girls weekend kinda thing.

7.The phrase above my pic says “My name is Denae” in Amharic, I want to learn it fluently.

8.I LOVE color.

9.I’m kinda high maintenance when it comes to chapstick, it takes a lot to really impress me. and no i’m not a Burt’s Bees lover, they’re ok.

10.I drive a standard.

11.If I had to choose a flavor of Gatorade, i’d go for orange everyday.

12.I LOVE NCIS, I’ve always wanted to be Abby Sciuto for halloween, some year…

13.In college, one of my stress relievers was sight-reading hymns on the piano, I’m a nerd, what can I say.

14.I knocked my two front teeth out when I was in first grade (i think) by attempting a jump rope trick.

15.I’ve gone to church all my life, but Jesus is transforming me more now than ever before.

Here’s the details… (note- i did not choose these topics, they are straight from her blog, check it out here)

Day 1 – Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts.
Day 2 – Meaning behind your blog name.
Day 3 – Your first love.
Day 4 – Your parents.
Day 5 – Your siblings.
Day 6 – A picture of something that makes you happy.
Day 7 – Favorite movies.
Day 8 – A place you’ve traveled to.
Day 9 – A picture of your friends.
Day 10 – Something you’re afraid of.
Day 11 – Favorite TV shows.
Day 12 - What you believe.
Day 13 – Goals
Day 14 – A picture you love.
Day 15 – Bible Verse.
Day 16 – Dream House.
Day 17 – Something you’re looking forward to.
Day 18 – Something you regret.
Day 19 – Something you miss.
Day 20 – Nicknames.
Day 21 – A picture of yourself.
Day 22 – Favorite city.
Day 23 – Favorite vacation.
Day 24 – Something you’ve learned.
Day 25 – Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs.
Day 26 – Picture of your family.
Day 27 – Pets.
Day 28 – Something that stresses you out.
Day 29 – Three wishes.
Day 30 – A picture.

ENJOY!!

my boss has decided he does not like the word CLEANSE so I’ve been attempting to come up with another name. He threw out DE-TOX as well saying it sounded like drug rehab, I threw out DIET because people freak out if I say I’m on a diet. He also suggested NUTRITION PLAN that’s a mouth full. NUTRI-PLAN/ NUTRI-FAST any OTHER suggestions?! I need your help!

so the first week, i knew about all the catering, but the second week too! and it was some of my favorite food! La Hacienda fajitas…hmmmm. i could handle that, until i saw the tray that has their brownies. let’s just say I’m not even a major brownie fan, but if i had to choose, these would be my absolute favorite. they decided to test me that week, check these pics out…

But the awesome thing that happened last week, on Friday, day 11 of 21, CHICKEN and FISH were added to my diet:) I enjoyed chicken from the leftover La Hacienda and guacamole, which i was told looked really gross. regardless, it tasted SO good!

The next day I was grocery shopping at Market Street, my first adventure into the store. Starving, I got stopped by the fresh cafe area, it was difficult to decide what to get because there were actually quite a few options that I could have.  I landed on the salmon, grilled veggies, and grilled sweet potato! It was divine:) and it was $6.99 and lasted 2.5 meals! great deal if I do say so myself.

I had so many negative thoughts on my first smoothie attempt, I thought it was time for a new pic, the coloring is a little weird, but I’m branching out. Went from plain mixed fruit to different arrangements of that mixed with strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. I’m excited to try these out when I do not have to include the protein and fiber. I mean it’s probably better for me that way, but…

so all weekend, my dear friend Josiah was taking tests to her hearts content. actually, she had 6 major board exams that have required major amounts of studying for the past months. thus when she finished, we celebrated. i could NOT make the celebratory dinner be stunted by me, so I decided for the first time, to break diet:) it was wonderful. cheese, chips, and beef…

I went back to a salad for dinner, so I didn’t absolutely kill myself.

but I did decide to go big and eat that very yummy honey butter croisant that’s on the side of the plate as well as desert which I did not get a picture of. I only took 3 bites, but they were delicious and worth every calorie! we were at cheddars so there’s only really one option, the cookie monster. go big or go home.

tonight, back on track, i began prepping for something I am anxious to try tomorrow. it may sound gross, but I cooked down squash, sweet potato, and carrots to try something different in my smoothies. I’ve heard from several people and seen it in many recipes so it’s bound to be good, right?!? I saw one site where the lady said mix any kind of fruit or veggie combo and it’s good. I’m not sure i’m willing to take it that far just yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

step 1. boil

step 2. blend

step 3. freeze

I should have put the squash in the middle so you could see the diff between the sweet potato cubes and the carrot cubes, but I’ll know. I’ve also got some banana’s freezing and several recipes suggested spinach. I’ll take it one day at a time, but might as well make the last few days fun! Tomorrow I’m going to be cooking up the fish and chicken I bought this weekend. Haven’t decided exactly how, but it’ll be good I’m sure!

Thanks for continuing to read. There are good days and hard days. Today was a medium, but i can hold on knowing that Monday is my last day!

so today marks day 7 of the cleanse, at midnight tonight I will be 1/3 of the way through this bad boy! woohoo! i diligently ate bell pepper, carrots, and an orange through a pizza party last night:) I’m excited about dinner tonight, I’m going to make lettuce wrap-veggie fajitas!! bell peppers and onions cooked in fajita seasoning in large leaf of lettuce. may not sound good to you, but to me it sounds delicious! today, I am REALLY REALLY REALLY wanting coffee, i have a tired headache that i want to kick and i just really enjoy it! and I love meeting up with people or reading by myself at a coffee shop, the atmosphere, the smells, the taste= divine. I would go anyway, but I can’t buy anything bc all I can drink is water and I definitely can’t have any of their food so I would feel guilty not getting something…2 more weeks, 2. more. weeks. another reason I really want coffee——

time change

I’m not sure whether it’s the cleanse, the time change, or lack of sleep (which I’m blaming on the time change because I haven’t slept well the past 2 nights) but I am completely wiped out today. I thought I would be yesterday, but I made it through it. Today was just a brutal Monday. I also don’t like the time change because it is now dark when i wake up. I wake up much easier and much cheerier when i wake up with the sun, not before. boo. now i’m going to humble myself and put a foot in the mouth of all my complaining and talk about———

JAPAN

If I’m honest the whole thing just does not even seem real to me. I mean listening to the news about entire buildings being bull-dosed by 27 foot waves, hundreds of thousands of people dying- whether you are japanese, american, russian, cambodian, it makes no difference to nature- these things don’t even seem possible in my mind. Yet today a friend of mine tweeted a video she saw of a first hand account from japan. Within 2 minutes, the streets went from dry to water being 1 story high. Within 4-5 minutes, houses are floating briskly down the street being torn to pieces. Luckily in this video you do not see any people in the water, but the ones you do see are watching from several floors above as everything they knew was destroyed. It’s breath taking and heart breaking.

watch this

look at these

allow it to become a reality and it’ll drive you to your knees. makes me feel bad for complaining about my long day when in a matter of moments my life could be upended, the world could end, what then? for me- HEAVEN, eternity with Jesus! for you- ?