surprises for my hubby

One day I was struck with the inspiration to do a Google search. And, 5 days later, that landed John and I in Southern California.

We are going with his family to Nauvoo this coming week, and John had mentioned wanting to try and catch his favorite Jazz singer, Kurt Elling, at a club in Chicago where he usually sings. But he found out that Kurt was out on tour.

Then, last week, it popped in my head to search and see where Kurt was performing. And I found out that he would be in Hollywood the following week, then off to Europe. This could be John's last chance to see Kurt live for who knows how long. And I wanted to see him, too. John introduced me to Kurt Elling when we first started dating, and I've been addicted ever since. I hadn't been a jazz fan before, but I love it. Besides, John sang one of Kurt's songs, "The Beauty of All Things," to me at our wedding.

On another note, John has been wanting to go to Disneyland for a long time. His family went while he was on his mission, and he was sad that he missed the vacation.

What is right next to Hollywood? Anaheim...

After a few hours Googling hotels, ticket prices, (airline flights... I can dream, right?), I found a wonderful steal at a hotel right next to Disneyland, $25 tickets for Kurt's show, and discovered it was only 9 hours south of Provo.

Wanting to surprise John when he got home, I said, "I need you to pack a bag for three days! We're leaving on Tuesday," right when he got home. Then I remembered that John doesn't like surprises, and I can hardly keep secrets when they're this fun. So I spilled. And John liked. And we decided to make a car trip to California.
John standing by Frank Sinatra's handprints.

We got there a little early. I had predicted bad traffic, and gave us an extra two or three hours to travel to Hollywood. But we didn't hit any, so we were early. But we walked around some shops, saw the Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Kodak Theatre, and Hollywood bums. It was fun.

Kurt's show was AMAZING! He sounds even better in person than on his CDs. And he was hilarious, and such a nice, chill guy. There were two shows, and we went to the earlier one, because we had to drive about 30 minutes to Anaheim to get to our hotel that night. He played with his pianist, Laurence Hobgood, and a bassist, drummer, and Ernie Watts, who plays sax. Ernie played for Jay Leno on the Tonight Show for years before Jay left. Then Ernie joined Kurt Elling and his band to tour around.

Ernie Watts playing a solo

Kurt singing "You Are Too Beautiful"

They played a bunch of songs from their new CD, and just "jammed." A few times I didn't know if they had practiced everything, or was just making it up as they were going along. But it was all amazing. After the show, John and I went over and talked to Kurt for a while. He was such a great guy, and we got a picture with him. Then he invited us to stay for the next show! We talked to the restraunt host, and he said we could just stay and not have to pay for the show if we order a few drinks. So we got some orange juices, and stayed to watch the next show. It was amazing, as well! It was totally different, with new jokes and songs.

Me, Kurt, and John at Catalina Bar and Grill on Sunset Blvd.

The next day we were off to Disneyland! The hotel we stayed at was just a few miles down Harbor Blvd. from the park, and they had a free shuttle right to the front gate. It was wonderful, because we didn't have to drive. The shuttle started an hour after the park opened, but it gave John and I a chance to catch some more sleep and it was worth it to not have to pay for parking.

Amazingly, the park wasn't crowded at all when we got there. We stopped in to Town Hall first and picked up some buttons that we wore all day that said, "Just Married." It was so fun! All of the workers and some guests of the park congratulated us all day. We went on all the best rides (Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Mr. Toad) all within the first two hours. It started to get crowded around lunch time, but with tricky fast pass skills we managed to not wait more than 10 or 15 minutes for a ride all day. We had a wonderful time!

John in front of the ticket booth before we bought our tickets

Entry tickets!

In front of Indiana Jones.

John screaming for joy, and me screaming from terror on Splash Mountain. "Laughing Place," my butt.

Thunder Mountain Railroad

Me and my favorite goats. I think they remembered me.

This is me with a goat last time I went to Disneyland.

There is a new ride, Nemo's Adventure, where the old submarine ride used to be. For that reason, we both wanted to go on it. We got there, and saw that the line had a 45 minute wait, and we stood there debating about if we wanted to ride it. As we were staring at the line, one of the Nemo workers came up to us and said, "I see you just got married! Congratulations. That's sweet. As part of the Disneyland experience, we want to make your stay magical! So why don't I get you to the front of this line?" We were so shocked and surprised! We went right up to the front of the line and boarded the very next submarine! It really made my day.

The bride and groom

IT'S A TRAP! (Click here, here and here)

He couldn't do it...


The whole trip was SO much fun! We had a fabulous time, stayed in a giant, warm, cushy, king sized bed (We had a hard time leaving it), and enjoyed seeing California. Now we're off to Nauvoo! Ciao!

~Allie J.

Quotes of the trip:

Kurt: " Hey, do me a solid, take a picture."

and

Kurt: "You gotta be awake for that whole, living thing, to happen."

and

Me: "I wanna ride the Matterhorn."
John: "That's what she said."

perfect men

There is a long list of men in literature that are essentially "perfect" men. Most are classics and have been around for years. Enter most of Austen's lead male characters, like Colonel Brandon, but the number one being ever-popular Mr. Darcy. And we'll throw in Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables, and Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre for good measure. Oh, and we can't forget Heathcliff or Rhett Butler.

But there are some newbies that fought their way onto the list. It's hard for the modern men to reach the standard of the classics. The first that pops into my head is Edward. Perhaps that's because the Twilight series is still so recent, or because he sparkles. I don't know if many people would count in Harry Potter, but he makes it onto my list. While a little angsty, that's understandable as he is a puberty-going adolescent boy. But he has guts, courage, and a caring heart. Many times he makes sacrifices to save his friends. As does Cedric Diggory. Any more modern examples would be appreciated.

I am now ready to induct a new man to the top of the list. (Besides my husband, who is indeed perfect in my eyes).

Peeta Mellark from Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games. He's better than Edward, in my opinion. He's selfless, respectful, kind, loving, and repeatedly risked his life to save the girl he loves.

I fear about saying too much because I don't want to spoil anything about this book, because it is a fantastic book. It's the first in a series of three books, with the second to come out this coming September. It has a very original plot, very clear and concise detail, and wonderful characters that are easy to love.


The only thing I dislike is the writing style. Of course, it's not a negative because it's the author's personal choice, but it wasn't to my taste. It followed the thought process of the main character, so it was very appropriate. I just didn't like how choppy it was, and didn't appreciate the run-on sentences or the sentence fragments. They are hard for my English-trained brain to ignore, so I get caught up on them. Like I said, just a personal opinion, not a criticism.

But, really. You HAVE to read this book. It's one of my new favorites. Please, do it. And when you do, let me know how you liked it! It's a book for all audiences and hard for someone to dislike.

dreamstate

I had a weird dream last night. I guess it shows off my moral character...

I was in college, and in a math class. It was during spring or summer semester, so the class was really short. For some reason, we only had a few homework assignments. Class was only once a week or so, and I kept forgetting to do the assignments. My teacher was Ms. Tyndall from Douglas High, my sophomore year math teacher.

It was the last day of class, and I had once again forgotten to do my homework. I was all worried because I didn't want to fail the class, and I didn't want another zero. I had a friend in the class who had done it, and five minutes before class she offered to let me copy it. It was only 3 questions long, so I did it. The teacher walked by as I was writing my answers, and I kind of hid it from her.

Then, I remembered that she had said something about being honest or not cheating. I don't remember. So right before she went in I stopped her, showed her my copied homework, and admitted that I couldn't turn it in. She thanked me for being honest and let me go to class.

It was weird. First of all that I would forget a homework assignment. Second of all that I would forget every homework assignment all semester. And third of all that it was Ms. Tyndall...

I woke up panicking.

But at least I'm honest in my dreams.

tour guide

Here is the promised tour of mine and John's apartment! Our first home together!






It's ghetto, it's old, it smells like basement, we can't turn all the lights on at the same time, but we love it!

report card...

I find the trend of report cards through the grade years interesting. As importance goes up, reports go down (At least in Douglas County schools). Think about it.

Elementary school- N/A because grades usually revolve around the letters E,A,P and junk like that, and they don't mean anything. Level of importance: Absolutely nonexistent.

Middle school- Weekly report of grades go home to the students parents every Friday, and all six of them must be signed and turned in. Then there is the mid-semester report card that is mailed home, and the final semester report card. Level of importance: At least the letters represent the traditional scale. But, after the student leaves 7th grade, for example, no one is ever going to see those grades again.

High school- Quite a bit different. There's an end of semester report card mailed home with the final grades. But these are much more important. They combine to form a GPA, which is important for college acceptance. But my question is, why don't the schools get the parents more involved in high school, like they were in middle school? Grades are much more important during high school than middle school. It just seems opposite to me.

College- Here is where it depends. I will use John and I as examples. John must get really good grades to keep his scholarship, and he must get a fantastic GPA to get accepted into medical school. The same goes for any student wishing to earn anything higher than a bachelor's degree. And as for me, I have to pass my GEs with a D-, and get at least a C or higher in my major classes to graduate. But regardless, one could ignore their grades completely, as he or she must go searching to find the grades. Nothing mailed home. Which is fantastic.

However, BYU could have mailed home a report card to my parents for this last semester because I was quite proud of my grades. But seeing as they won't, I'll just tell them myself.

I got an A- in my Literary Interpretation class (.5 points away from an A! Drat), and an A in choir

I was pretty proud of myself because I was planning a wedding and battling mono at the same time. And that was a very involved English major class.

I was a happy girl.


Quote of the Day:

John: "Have fun stuck behind the boats and the trash truck, sucka!"

married

I'm Mrs. Allison Jeppson.

It's been a while, I know. But in my defense, I've been super busy. I only went through the temple, got married, went on a honeymoon, had a reception, and moved into a new apartment!

The wedding was amazing. It really was the best day of my life. I am now the wife of the most amazing man in the world, and I get to be with him forever. I got to wear a beautiful dress, John looked stunning and incredibly handsome, and I was surrounded by family and friends. Then, we ate yummy food, cake, and I got to dance! It was a perfect day.

















Then for the honeymoon, John and I went to his cabin up by a lake in Idaho. Then, near the end of the week, we went to a friend's cabin in McCall. We ice skated, had a wonderful dinner, and soaked in the hot tub a few times a day. It was a blast.

After the honeymoon, my newest Mom and Dad threw John and I a beautiful reception. It was better than anything I had ever imagined or expected I would have. It was in their backyard, and the decorations were amazing. There were a few arches, a table with a slide show and sign in book, tables with flowers, and twinkle lights and vines on the gazebo. I was amazed and so happy to be there! And the food was great. Lots of cheese, roast beef, cheesecake, brownies, fruit, and my favorite, Jordan almonds! It was a really fun night!

Now we're in our apartment! It's super ghetto, but pretty big. We love it. We mostly love it because we get to call it "our place." And it is our home. My first home with my hubby. My favorite part is the kitchen. There is a table in a little nook, and it's like a booth. There are benches wrapping around it on three sides, and a lantern hanging over it. John and I covered the table with a red table cloth, and our new red and black dishes. Then, we hung The Beatles right over the table. It makes me really happy. Anyway, I'll record a little mini tour of it after we get everything finally cleaned up. So I'll post it up soon!

Happy Independence Day!

~Allie J.