Lifting the Jeep

So Shannon finally gave in and allowed me to lift my jeep. I've always wanted to do this ever since I bought the jeep almost 2 years ago. So when I graduated from USU this past December Shannon gave me a card that said she would allow me to lift my jeep. I know I probably could have done it before, but knowing that I have to live with her, I really didn't want to live with the consequences of having a mad wife. I think most men would agree with me on that point. I put a 2inch spacer lift, which increases my suspension. I also installed new shocks as the shocks that were on the jeep were the original shocks. It's a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited and when I purchased ths jeep it only had 42k miles on it. It now has 77k. Not bad for a 10 year old jeep. The original shocks were rusted out and made for a very stiff ride. Now after driving the jeep for the past 4 days with the new shocks, it rides so much smoother. It runs great and we love it. Were glad that there is plenty of room for a carseat and all of shannon and the baby's stuff. I've done my fair share of offroading and now with my 2 extra inches I will be able to do more. I've only ever been stuck twice but now I'm looking forward to trying those two spots again.

I have a few pics of the process. When I finished it was dark and I didn't have a good pic. So when I take a pic with good light we will update the pictures.

Update and the Surprise

Apparently people do read this blog and are getting upset that I never write anything. So here is what we are up to. Jon still works at Auto Zone and also works part-time for Glacier Foods driving the delivery truck twice a week. He stays busy working on little projects and is mostly enjoying NOT SHAVING. I am taking 17 credits at USU. Im planning on graduating in December. I am still working very part-time at the Budge Clinic. And lets face it, Im pretty lazy these days.
And if you haven't heard, We're having a BABY. Surprise!!
The little munchkin is due 9-13-09. Ya thats right. MY BIRTHDAY. Me, the girl who hypes up her birthday for months in advance, reminding everyone that "Its almost my Birthday", is now going to have to share it. Sheesh. Oh well. The doc told me I had better go buy some lottery tickets because that doesn't happen very often.
I am 10 weeks along. I probably wouldn't have told this soon but word is leaking out and those who do know are dieing to tell people.
We've had an ultrasound but it was still so small and the way my uterus sits (not that you really wanted to know that) it was really hard to see anything, so posting a picture would be pointless. But it had a good little heartbeat.
Now your all thinking. Aren't you supposed to be moving all over the place this year. Yes we are. My doc told me I could go anywhere I wanted as long as I come back every 4 weeks for my appointments. So the end of May were headed off to Alabama for 6 weeks. I am probably going with Jon and stay for about 3 weeks, come back to Logan to see the Doc and then Im going to Oregon to the Johnson Reunion. By then Jon should be just finishing up in Alabama then headed to Texas for a month. Ill most likely just stay in Utah from here on out until the babe arrives. Jon goes to Pueblo, Colorodo the middle of August for a month, so he is still scheduled to be there when I'm due. But he should hopefully be able to come home for a few days at least. Then we'll venture off to Texas for good sometime in October and start flight school in November.
So that pretty much sums out life up for the next year.
Were pretty excited for our little surprise.

Christmas and other happenings.

We left Logan Saturday morning around 4:30 am and made it to Spokane 9 hours later. The drive was good and there wasn't much snow, but from Idaho Falls to Missoula we never hit above 0 degree. The lowest it got was -32. Jared drove up with us. We had no idea that we were bringing so much stuff and defianetly underestimated our amount of space available. Poor Jared was smashed in the backseat with all our stuff.

Then Sunday, Jon's niece got baptized here at Jon's parents house in the hot tub. Yep thats right the hot tub. Jon's family doesn't like to do baptism's in the fonts at the church so almost everyone has been baptized in some other 'body of water'. Jon was baptized in a frozen lake back in Virginia. Jon's brother Mike was home on leave from the Army so they did the baptism while he was here. It was done Sunday afternoon after church with the family and a few friends from church. It was freezing outside but the hot tub was nice and warm. It was kinda great to watch, defianetly not you regular old baptism.

The rest of the week we have just been relaxing and hanging out. We have done ALOT of shopping. I don't think we have even bought anything but the Tolman's ( especially Christi) sure do know how to shop. It has snowed the entire time we have been here and they don't really plow the residential streets, or the main roads very well either, so it has been crazy to watch all the drivers trying to navigate the streets. Spokane has gotten almost 4 feet of snow.

Christmas morning we got up about 7 and started with the presents. They open presents one at a time so everyone can watch. The only little kids here were Kailey and Sydnie (who had no idea what was going on) so we went kinda slow and took our time. I think it was driving Kailey nuts how slow we were going. We go some great loot and had a great day.

Graduation and Commissioning

Saturday the 13th was a big day for us. Jon graduated from USU in the morning and had his commissioning into the Air Force later in the day. These pictures aren't fantastic but I'm going to keep posting them as I compile them from everyone else.
-GRADUATION-
Jon on the Jumbotron, in the sea of people, and with his friend Yomi.

-COMMISSIONING-

After 5 looong years, it finally happened. At the commissioning Jon took his oath and became a 2nd Lieutentant.Then his mom and I pinned on his "butter bars" which is his new rank and then he gave parent pins to his parents and a spouse pin to me. Then he signs on the dotted line and signed our lives away until at least 2020.

There was only 1 other Cadet that Commissioned this semester.

(The new 2nd Lt. Jensen)

Jon taking the Oath from his Dad

Look at those SMILES. I think he was a little excited.

After we pinned on the "Butter Bars" and pinning on my Spouse Pin.

Jon with Maj. Martin and Janice

Three of the Tolman men.

After Commissioning we had a dinner at my Cousin Konie's house. (Thanks) It was packed. Thanks everyone who came to support Jon.

All in all it was a great day. Now we have to wait 5 long month until were off to Alabama in May, Colorodo in August, and finally Texas in October.

No Longer Newlyweds

So today Jon and I celebrated our 1st Anniversary. Were officially not newlyweds anymore. We had a pretty relaxed day. We went to Salt Lake and wandered around the Gateway. While we were there Jon decided that I should get a Build-A-Bear, but I of course had to get an elephant. We put it in a silly little circus conductor outfit. ( I don't have the pictures loaded yet but will put them up when I do.) Then I finally got to go the Cheesecake Factory, it was great.

All in all, we have had a great year. We've had our ups and downs, but we've survived them all together. I can't wait to see what this next year brings us. There will be lots of moving and traveling, including 2 new states for Shannon and 3 for Jon. Plus both of us will Graduate from USU, YAHOO, and hopefully many new adventures and surprises.

I LOVE YOU JON!

Dear Tech Support,

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications,

which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as

Romance 9.5 and

Personal Attention 6.5,

and then installed undesirable programs such as

NASCAR 6.0,

NFL 5.1 and

Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed, Desperate.

DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind,

Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while

Husband 1.0 is an Operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources..)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0-program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0. In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance.

We recommend,

Cooking 3.0 and

Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck Babe!

Tech Support

I've been pretty happy with my Husband 1.0!!

Happy Birthdays To Us

Sept 13th was my birthday. We went to Jackson Hole with my parents and saw the Bar J Wranglers. We stayed over night and walked around the shops. I didn't take any pictures but we took an old time photo. It was fun and relaxing. I got some CD's, an emergency blanket for my car, shoes, a purse :), Wii Fit (so fun), and Jon and I both got a memory foam pad for our bed. That thing is heavenly. I had a great birthday that was nice and relaxing. Turning 22 has been weird for me. There is nothing exciting about 22 and now I feel like I should just be grown up and doing something with my life. I still feel about 16. Hmm.



Friday Oct 3rd was Jons birthday. He turned a Quarter of a Century! Old Fart!! We started out Thursday night and went to Ogden to Texas Roadhouse (our new favorite). We were mentioning how next year on his birthday we'll be enjoying some REAL Texas BBQ. I told the waitress it was his birthday and they made him sit on this saddle and had the whole restaraunt give him a big YEE-HAW!! He got a dutch oven, an ORANGE tie, an Air Force frame that were going to put his ROTC pictures in for his commissioning, and a wireless adaptor for his XBOX.





On friday Jon got up and went to school and I made him his Funfetti cake. When he got home, we ate our leftovers for lunch and headed off to go shooting with Jared, Landon, and Dayna. As always we had a great time shooting. The boys shot at the clay pigeons and I just shot the junk on the ground. I just cant do moving targets. The guns kicks back to much. That night my mom made Jon a Steak and Potato dinner. The rest of the day we just relaxed and enjoyed our time together.

Here are a few pictures from shooting.

Every time I would go to take Jon's picture he would put the gun down, so all the pictures I have of him are with Dayna.