Rain Rain Go Away....

Oh you know....just sitting in our room watching the rain pour down outside. Of course. Of course!!!! This ALWAYS happens to Scott and I when we go on vacation. I should almost find it humerous by now but it's totally not. Maybe the next couple of rainy trips it will get funny. This girl who's been here since last Monday said the weather has been amazing the whole time they've been here. I told her it's because we're here. We bring the rain. Bitter Betty? Yes.

I actually prepared for the rain for this trip and bought Uno and a deck of cards to play in the room. They have a casino but Scott put down $50 the other night and it was gone in about 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Again, it's because I was there. I bring bad luck to the blackjack table. My brother won't let me near him when he plays and my mom usually tells me to go away too. Swear.

I tried to give myself a pep talk about how I knew it would rain on me because it always does and I would have a good attitude about it. Easier said than done I guess. It's been raining for about 30 minutes now and Scott said he can see sun coming in the distance. We shall see. It's not coming down as hard as it was when I started writing this so maybe it'll be okay. Urg. I surly hope so!!! Here's some pics from yesterday. We got one of the little tiki huts on the beach and played Uno. Don't make fun. I love that game.

Okay the rain has stopped. No sun but it's better than a downpour! Wish me luck. Seriously say a prayer.

Dominican Republic Part 2

Scott and I are still having an amazing time here! We are total lazy beach bums all day long. We stayed in the pool talking to people yesterday until 7:00! The food here is so delicious. Way better than the resort in Mexico. I got a smidge bit burned yesterday which blows my mind as I lather up with sunscreen a zillion times a day and the number on the bottle says 60!!! I always miss spots somehow and Scott always makes fun of my random red marks on my body. I'm worried the 60 won't protect it so I may have to go search for some 100 today. Crazieness.

Yesterday Scott and I competed in beach volleyball which was super fun then we did a ping pong turnament. Scott's really good at ping pong as he had a table in his house growing up. We definitely pulled a Razorback move. We were both way ahead in our divisions then lost it in the very end. Oh well!

Okay time to grab some breakfast, spf 1 million, then get our seats by the pool. Happy Tuesday!

My husband is a really good beach volleyball player! He gets a little too intense for me though.

This is my new all time favorite photo. Dont' you love how I'm scared of the ball? It really cracks me up.

Dominican Republic Part 1

We've made it to the Dominican Republic and it's breathtaking!!!! The grounds at our resort are so beautiful. We are super happy that we got to come! This is the sister resort to the place we went to in April and Scott and I agree this place wins big time. It's amazing. We like! It's smaller and more intimate and much less commercial. It's also not at maximum capacity and everyone here is loving that.

We arrived around 3. After we put on our swimsuits and went to the beach we came back into the room to get ready for dinner and just happened to get to watch the last of the Razorback game! We couldn't believe it was on TV. Tough loss. Boo!

We ate at the Italian restaurant last night and it was delish!! I was so exhausted from the lack of sleep/traveling so we came to the room early and I was definitely conked out before 10. Unfortunately I woke up at 5 this morning rearing to go...Scott made me go back to sleep until 7:30.

We ate breakfast and were out by the pool very early. This is most definitely the hottest sun I've ever experienced in my life. Scott and I actually pulled out the spf 60 we keep in our beach bag for just in case reasons. Most people are putting on spf 100!!! Kinda crazy. We hung by the pool all day today. The weather was amazing. We're soaking it in because it always rains when we go on vacation so we treasured the good sun we got today. Maybe we'll get lucky this time.

We're getting ready to head to dinner now. Scott's craving the steakhouse so looks like we'll be going there. Hope you guys have a great week! I'll keep updating because I've got great internet access in my room. Ahhh! Heaven. (I cannot live without a computer)

Dominican Republic Here We Come

This day definitely gets ranked as one of the most stressful days ever!!! I am in desperate need of a vacation for sure. Scott and I are heading to the Dominican Republic! I'm so very excited. Super sad I'm missing the game tomorrow but I'll be sure to get updates on the game. I've gotta go pack now. It's 5:30 and I have to be at the airport in 12 hours.
This is where we're staying!

http://www.secretsresorts.com/sanctuary/index.asp

What Are The Johnsons To Do?

So I believe Riveria Maya is officially a no-go. I've defriended Secrets Capri on Facebook which really made it official. What are we gonna do? Who knows!!! Yesterday I was like 'oh who cares if we don't go.' I'm still a little bit like that but then the reality of not going anywhere setting in really bums me out. So now we're looking into different options. Scott called our travel agent and asked her to look for something for us super fast. She sent us some stuff tonight that we like in the Caribbean. We absolutely have to get this figured out by noon tomorrow because if we are going then we have to leave on Saturday because that's the only flight options for the Caribbean. HUGE and I mean HUGE bummer because of the Alabama game. I mean, we scheduled this trip around the Bama game. But what do you do? Not go lay on the beach because of a Razorback game? Maybe! Is that stupid? Yes.
What's a married couple to do? You tell me! We're both totally lost. You know you're Razorback fans when you can't decide to go to the Caribbean because of them. You know you're Scott and Kara Johnson when it rains on your vacation....
I'll let you know tomorrow sometime in the afternoon what we choose to do. I have got to go to bed. This has made me stress too much. Combine that with the 2nd busiest work day in my history ever and I'm officially zonked!

Whatcha gonna do Lisa & Matthew?

Scott and I have become quite the meteorologists lately. There's a potential tropical storm heading towards Riveria Maya so needless to say we check the weather a few times a day. We knew when we booked the trip that a storm could be possible given the season in which we're traveling so we purchased travel insurance. So no big deal if we can't go but it would totally be a bummer. We won't really know much until Friday. Fingers crossed!!!
I think if we don't go we'll just forgo the vaca and put this money towards our anniversary trip in January. We talked about going to Vegas but that's kinda a 'nah' because I'm going in January to watch my MTA sister, Alyse, compete in Miss America! We could go to Cali or NYC but the flights could be redic since it would be so last minute. We'll see. We'll see. I'm not overly concerned about it. I have a feeling we'll be alright. (Maybe I shouldn't say that out loud.)
I'm SOOOOO excited about the Bama game. This will my first Razorback game of the season. I know right? What's that about. The first game I was in KC for Anna's bachelorette and the 2nd I was judging DL. My bones are aching for tailgating, hog calling, and exciting touchdowns!!!
Alrighty, time for Modern Family!!! I'm ALL THE WAY excited about it.

Project Unvealing

Okay folks. I'm ready to unveal my new project! Drum roll in your head....
I'm starting a new blog! This blog isn't really a personal blog though. It's about Northwest Arkansas. I'll be blogging about where to eat, where to shop, what to do, etc. Check me out and tell all of your friends about it too! Hope you enjoy it!!!!!

www.lifeinnwa.com

Anna's Wedding

Anna had a beautiful wedding and she was a gorgeous bride!!! I had a fantastic time and I know everyone else did too. Congrats to Anna and Austin!!

Arkansas vs Georgia

Woo Pig! Who's watching the game on TV? According to my facebook mini feed--everybody! My brother and Landon are in Athens watching the game. I love that we're forcing Landon into being Hog Wild. My brother is going to be co-hosting the Razorback postgame radio show with Grant Merrill so you guys will have to listen to him! 105.9 in LR and 92.1 in NWA. Don't ask me how he managed to do that as I have no idea. All I know is that my brother is the biggest Razorback fan in the whole entire wide world and the radio show better say a prayer that the Hogs win otherwise Kyle will be a miserable person to listen to!
Scott and I had a garage sale this morning. We didn't have a ton of stuff to get rid of but we decided to try to sale it anyways. We did better than I thought we would so that's great. We're taking the leftovers to Goodwill. I hate clutter.
My friend Anna is getting married tonight!!
I'm going to save the revealing of my project for next week. It's just not quite ready.
Have a great weekend! Go Hogs!

Soreness

My legs are SO SORE!! I went for a run yesterday for the first time in probably a month. Just for 35 minutes but man it did a number to the soreness in my thighs. I've been doing the elliptical at my gym for about a month and a half now. I really don't like to run on the treadmill and it's been too hot to even think about running outside. But yesterday's weather was so pleasant so I very excitedly put on my shoes and went for a run. I've always thought the elliptical was WAY easier than running.....why yes, yes it is. Owie. It's also time for new running shoes because it hurt my knees and ankles while I was running. I've worn my shoes out!
Umm.....I think that's all I've got.
Oh Scott wasn't mad at me for my dress purchase! When I said 'I have something to tell you that I hope you'll be okay with' he said 'You bought a dress at Masons?' Such a smartie. He knows his wife so well. Good husband! Love him.

Monday Fun Day

--I enjoyed my Monday off. It was lovely. I went to Fayetteville to hang. Love it there.
--I'm so so tired and it's only 9. I think I'm going to go take my nightly shower and get in bed.
--I've also been working on my project a lot today. Still not going to tell you guys about it yet...maybe by the end of the week...maybe next week. We'll just have to see how my project is coming along. Nobody knows about it except Scott, Mom, Dad & Kyle and they're sworn to secrecy.
--Juno is on TV right now. Such a great movie.
--I bought a dress at Masons today. I'm worried to tell Scott as I promised I would be el-cheap-o for the rest of the month since we're randomly taking off to Mexico and the cheapness will help budget out the bank account. Whoops! It's kinda low cut so maybe he won't care when he see's it on? Let's hope!
--Speaking of trips I don't think Scott and I are going to go to Colorado anymore for our anniversary trip in January. Our travel agent is working on something else for us. I'll let you know eventually whenever we get it all booked up. Yay for traveling!
--Scott just got the mail and my Glamour and Marie Claire were in the box! I'm officially looking forward to tomorrow now.
That's all.

Still Fits!

I had a fantastic weekend. Judging teen Diamond Lakes was great! It was just so wonderful to be surrounded by my pageant family members for a whole day! It brought me back to MTA days.

Mom came with me to Diamond Lakes and she was definitely put to work for the day. She loved it! It brought her back to the MTA days too I'm sure!

Speaking of MTA I decided to try on my dress to see if it still fit. I know, I know....Scott made so much fun of me. I was curious though! It's been 8 years. And guess what....

...It does! You can't imagine my thrill when Mom was able to hook and zip it all the way up. She told me whenever I call her complaining that I feel fat she's going to bring this up from now on. And I don't care what anyone thinks....I think this dress is so so so pretty! I still remember when I tried it on for the first time. I knew it was a winner! Yay for my dress zipping up 8 1/2 years later. I'm not even on my pageant diet right now either. Score!

Scott and I just hung on Friday in LR. It was so nice to spend the day together doing nothing. Can't remember the last time we did that. Being with my family was wonderful. We went to church today at Fellowship LR. You all know how much I love that church! I love going to church with my family....it just feels right. Wish we lived closer so we could do that every Sunday.

Two weeks until we leave for Mexico!!!

My friend Anna is getting married on Saturday! It's bound to be a fun week.

I'm working on a fun project. I'll inform you about it when the time is right. :)

Sticks and Stones....

If you read my blog yesterday you saw that I made mention of the fact that I'm going to be judging Miss Teen Diamond Lakes on Saturday. For those of you who aren't into the whole pageant world and don't know, there is this thing called the Miss Arkansas message board. I never read it because I honestly forget it exists, but I thought about it tonight and decided to check it out to see who may be competing this weekend. To my surprise I came across this on the Diamond Lakes link.

--One of the judges is Kara Luttrell.....hmm. I've read some really racist things on her blog so I hope she is a fair judge! www.karaluttrell.blogspot.com

And also....

--I am really disappointed to see that Kara is a judge. One of the four points of the Miss America crown is Scholarship, but Kara was unable to graduate from college after her GPA fell too low. I know she is only judging the teen pageant, and I know lots of people are successful without going to college, but I think someone who failed out of college is not a good example for our contestants.

Neat! First of all: wrong and wrong. Not to be all Denise Richards and try and 'set the record straight' but I have never written a single racist thing on this blog and I could totally prove it. Secondly, I didn't fail out of college because my GPA was too low. My GPA in college was just fine (more than fine) not that it's anybody's business. My decision to leave the UofA to attend Beauty School was a very, very hard decision for me. I thought and prayed about it for months and months. I have never, ever regretted my decision. I love my job and what I do. It makes me happy and that is all that matters.

Nearly 700 people have read that about me today and over 70 people have clicked on that link to take them to this blog.

I'm about 99.9% sure the same person wrote both of those posts and I'm about 100% sure I know who wrote them. I don't know anyone who would read this blog and also that message board but her who would write such a thing.

I really wish they would do away with this message board. It is full of nasty comments like these all the time. The contestants and their mothers that post these clearly have never been successful in the pageant system and this negative, rude attitude is most definitely the reason why the judges never picked you to win the big ones!

This girl today tried to cut me down and make me look bad. I honestly can't help but laugh. Anyone who knows me knows those things aren't true. As my best friend Jaclyn said 'far from it!'

So that was my day! Fun huh!

BB & DL

I'm really sad because Britney just got kicked off Big Brother. Final 4 though! She made it to the final 4. She did so good and I'm so happy for her.
So I'm going to be very busy this weekend. Scott and I are driving down to LR tomorrow night. We'll just hang on Friday. Possibly go to the lake, lay by the pool or maybe make a quick drive to Memphis (Scott doesn't want to do that but I do). Then Saturday I'm judging a pageant in Hot Springs--Diamond Lakes. It's a big pageant, an 'open' one which means anyone in Arkansas can compete in it. I'm going to judge the teens. I'm excited about it. It should be fun.
Alright I think that's all I've got for ya.

Tuesdays Ten

*Has anyone seen the trailer for the facebook movie The Social Network? Looks good.
*I'm STILL trying to recover from my sickness. I've never spent this many days blowing my nose.
*I took Holly for a walk today and when I told her it was time to come in she sat on the concrete and did 'the scooter' down the sidewalk. It made Scott and I laugh super hard. You know what the scooter is right? When they scoot on their bottom? I call it the scooter.
*I'm addicted to sandwiches right now for lunch. I usually eat a lean cuisine but sandwiches are my lunch of choice right now.
*Regis and Kelly is no longer reruns and it makes me very happy. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't watch that show every morning.
*The guy at the gas station where I get my cappuccino gave me a free cappuccino again today! I told him he made my day.
*This weather is a-may-zing
*Rachel Zoe tonight!!
*I'm looking for a great book to read while in Mexico.
*Speaking of, I'm leaving in less than 3 weeks. Totally excited.

Anna's Bachelorette Weekend

We had a great weekend in Kansas City for Anna's Bachelorette Party! We drove up on Friday and were surprised by her sister & her Mom's best friend with TONS of champagne bottles and cupcakes! We stayed in our hotel the whole afternoon and splurged on the goodies! We got ready for dinner and headed to Hamburger Mary's. Then went to a cool bar in the Plaza Area.

We woke up Saturday and had a lingerie brunch! Anna got lots of fun stuff for her honeymoon.

We got dressed and headed to the plaza area to shop & eat. We had to be crazy and all bachelorettey and take pole dancing classes which hello was super hard. It was really more like a dance/workout class than anything. It was all in good taste. Definitely an interesting experience!

After that we got ready for a fun night out at the Power and Light District. We ate a delicious dinner at Bristol then did what you always have to do when you're celebrating your bachelorette weekend--Piano Bar!!!

I had a great time. Everyone did! I hope Anna did as well. She had a smile on her face all weekend. It was definitely a fun trip!

Congratulations to Anna!!! I can't believe you're getting married in less than two weeks!!!

Romance War

Scott and I have a bet for the month of September--who can be the most romantic?! We decided to place this bet last month. As you can see from my twitter, Scott surprised me with a romantic candlelight meal tonight...with champagne! I surprised him with a new Peter Millar swimsuit (on sale holla!) plus yesterday I bought him some sour gummy worms. That boy loves himself some sour gummy worms. He'll eat a whole thing in one sitting.
It doesn't have to be about gifts although that tends to be what I think of when it comes to romance as that's my love language....you tend to speak your own even if it's not your partners. Of course a good vacuum or a lovely dusting or toilet bowl cleaning would nearly bring me to tears. Acts of service runs high on my list of lovingness. So a good cleaning product and rag in my husbands hand is super sexy/very romantic.
I feel as if I'm winning because Scott didn't do anything romantic for me yesterday because he forgot about the bet. So Kara-2 Scott-1. As Landon would say 'I'm winning.'

September Already!?

Ahh! I'm feeling much better today. I made it to work which is good. Still don't feel like I could go for a run or anything but that's okay. Sometimes a break from working out is nice (shhh!).
So I've got a very busy September. I have something consuming my weekends every weekend. All fun things so I don't mind. This weekend I'm headed to Kansas City with my girls to celebrate Anna's bachelorette party!!!! I love Kansas City and I haven't been since Sigma Chi formal in 2006 so I'm in need of a return visit! Plus going with your girls just makes it that much better. We've got a very fun weekend planned. I'm pumped.
It's my turn for visitation of Holly so my brother is bringing her up this weekend. He's coming for the game of course. I won't be here to watch Holly until Sunday but I'm not worried. Holly is obsessed with Scott and he's obsessed with her too so I know she's in good hands. He'll totally invite her on a trip to the bank or the cleaners and I just love that about him. He treats Holly exactly the same way I do and that just makes me love him more. I know that sounds stupid but it does. On one of our first dates, he picked me up at my place then we went to his apartment to eat and watch a movie. I was saying bye to Holly and he was like 'why don't you just bring her?' Imagine angels singing in the background while Gabriel places a sash around him labeled husband. Bam. That did it for me. I love my husband for loving my dog.