Guilty As Charged

I am in the process of loading all of my digital pictures from my old computer onto my new one. I am NOT loving the process. I do think that if I had more computer knowledge, that maybe I would love it. But alas, I don't quite know what I am doing and as soon as I think that I have things all figured out. There is a major break down and I am not sure what to do, so it is back to the beginning of the figuring out stuff. Somehow the computer eats up major parts of my day. I get up early and sneak in here before the kids get up and before I know it they want lunch! Of course my kids are big so I say go make something, that works until dinner time and then they want..... you guessed it dinner. Then I am scrambling to do dinner, laundry, dishes and whatever else I can think of so that it doesn't look like I sat in front of the computer all day. WHICH I DID. oh, the guilt!!!!

She's Home!

We're back and she's home! We met some wonderful people, ate fabulous food, and brought Brittani home. Life is good. The East is beautiful. We flew into New Hampshire, rented a car, and drove through Maine and up (is it up?) to Canada. We saw all of Britta's areas; Amherst and Miramichi, (in New Brunswick) Wolfville, Halifax, and Windsor. (All in Nova Scotia). We also went to Dartmouth (that's where the Mission Office is located in NS) and over to Prince Edward Island (just so we could say we did.) It was all so green and the weather was cool (about 68 - 71 most days) it was also raining most days, just a sprinkling though, it was sooo nice. I defiantely could live in weather like that forever. Then we come back to 90 degrees. Uggg!! The people were so nice. We got feed everywhere we went. We stayed with some wonderful families. Everyone told us that Britta was the BEST missionary out there. Of course we new that already! JK, sort of.

James and Sam just left for a hiking trip with the scouts. I don't know how James does it. We just got in yesterday afternoon, exhausted from a week of travel, and he got almost a full nights sleep (he was up at 4 to pack) and he's off again. That's a good Dad for you. How blessed I am. With that note, I am going back to bed!

Five Days from Today!

I started to write the last post when it was 10 days until "P" Day (pick up). Then I got interrupted and didn't get back to my post until today. So I changed the count down. Turns out the original date of the post does not get edited. So that is why it doesn't make sense. Oh well, I think that I will never truly get the hang of this. But I have given myself permission not to care. So I don't care! Just like the "Monster in the Closet" was that the name of the book I am thinking of? Well it doesn't matter cuz I still don't care.

Five Days Left!!!!

We fly out of SLC in just 5 days to pick up Britta! YAHOOOO! Why is it, however, that when some one is coming home or something big is about to happen, we choose to rip our entire house apart to "Clean" and then throw a couple of major Home improvements on top of it all. Just to create more pressure and over tax ourselves? Oh wait, lets redo the garden and plant flowers too! What were we thinking? Will I even be able to stay awake on this trip? Will my aching body recover in time for site seeing? All of this is a mystery waiting to be solved.

The Son will come up Tomorrow

It was one hard week, last week. We got through it though. Although somedays don't feel like we did it very well, but we'll keep on keepin on. I will miss Bryan, but I got to see how amazing his wife and children are. I already thought that they were pretty great but man are they strong. I know that they are hurting and will continue to have hard days, but the support that they give each other is awesome and that is what will see them through this. I am so happy that Chris was here for them. I know that it helped them. I hope that it helped him too. So, Teena, Chris, Anthony, Brandon, Devin, and Eric I love you with all my heart and my prayers are with you every minute of every day. Remember where he is and why, it will help.

Are we retards? (No offense to anyone)

O.K. so we are driving to mutual last night. Me, Hannah, and Sam. I am an advisor for the Beehives and of course the kids are in mutual. So anyway, we are driving through the neighborhood to the church and it is 7:00 straight up. (We are supposed to be there at 5 to, dang it) I see Mary Ellen and her daughter pulling out of their drive way headed the wrong direction. Mary Ellen is a Laural advisor. So I stick my hand out the window and wave at them and then I point towards the church and yell "It's that way." Now I am sure they didn't hear me, but they did see me pointing. Sam from the back seat says. Ohhh mom, that's how we get known as the Johnson retards!

Just a note of clarification; My best friend once told me that when she was taking her kids to a nice place or someplace she expected perfect behavior she would say "We are not the ********* Retards, so behave accordingly. (The **** are to protect the innocent) I repeated once to my kids at a restaurant and just as I did James came down the isle doing something totally goofy (retarded) and the kids laughed and laughed. So now when ever James is goofy they feel free to call us the Johnson Retards. Something that I have come to regret saying because I really don't like to use that word anyway.

O.k. back to last night. After we got to the Church and into opening exercises I see Mary Ellen come in and I say. "I see that my directions helped you get here" She laughed and said yes they were just picking up one of the girls. Then I told her how Sam was so embarrassed and what he said. Well she couldn't stop laughing, she laughed right through the prayer and the YW theme.

Later I got to thinking about it. (Over thinking it, rather, it's what I do) I felt totally stupid. I should not have shared that tidbit from Sam, I should not have pointed and yelled. I AM A JOHNSON RETARD! No wonder I embarrass my children. uuuggghhh.

This blogging thing can be a little intimidating, especially when some of you out there are so creative and/or entertaining with your blogs. Needless to say everytime I set down to blog, I draw a blank. I have nothing creative or witty to say. No earth shaking news to share. Nothing! Not that my life is boring, it's not. It's just, well, ordinary. Just car pool in the morning. Chores, errands and ect. all day. Car pool in the afternoon. Dinner and homework helps in the evening. A T.V. show before bed and then start all over in the morning. See what I mean. I need to spice things up a bit. I love my stay at home life, I just need a little twist in the day every once in a while. Any ideas? You creative sisters out there, give me something to work with? "I'm leaving it all up to you" to borrow words from the Osmonds. Man am I old!!

It's been awhile!!!

I was watching GTU Thursday and they did a segment with Deals to Meals. A fairly new service that tracks the best deals on groceries and then gives you meal ideas to use with those deals. Also they tell you deals to add to your food storage as well. It intrigued me, but I got busy and forgot about it. Then this morning, I was taking a break from cleaning my kitchen and picked up the Ensign. I flipped through and read an article on "Family Home Storage A New Message" I read it and then remembered the segment on GTU. So I went and checked out their site. It didn't let you see too much without signing up (4.95 a month) but her blog, she had two one on meals and one on food storage were cool. Here are the links if you are interested: http://www.dealstomeals.blogspot.com/ and http://www.myfoodstoragedeals.blogspot.com/
Anywho, it got me all excited about paying more attention to our food storage and planning better meals and saving money. I didn't sign up for her service, I might in the future, I will have to see how James hours hold up and I think we probably need to get a freezer before I do. Ours has been broken for awhile. So if you are easily drawn into the latest TV segments (or should I say Prophetic Counsel, at least that doesn't make me look like such a groupie) you should check it out.

I was on Facebook trying to figure it out. I don't know why it is so hard, but I just don't get it. I need a tutorial.

Too many late nights

It's been a while, Hannah went to the sweetheart ball at Riverton. I spent all weekend trying to make her dress appropriate for the public. That is not my strong suit. I can follow a simple pattern step by step and maybe come out o.k. I can not recreate a gown from almost nothing. I keep telling people this and they don't seem to get it. Then we moved on to a reading university report for Sam. I am not young enough anymore to stay up cramming or sewing or whatever until 3 or 4 in the morning. Any who I missed you all and can't wait to see how you spent your weekend. I can't figure out how to get spell check to move on to the next word when I don't want to change the one they want me to. So excuse my spelling.

A Scrappin' Day is a Happy Day

I go to my friends house on Fridays and scrapbook. I look forward to these days. Every once in a while something gets in the way and we have to cancel but not too often. Today when I went Melanie had a quilt all set up. She makes one for each of her son's when they get their Eagle in Scouts. She also makes a quilt for them when they leave for there Missions. As well as when they get married. Well Son #2 is leaving on his mission and Son #3 is getting his eagle. They are having a Farewell and an Eagle Court of Honor all in one on Sunday. So, to get to the point, she was madly tying quilts today. So I set aside the scrap stuff and tied the quilts with her. IT WAS SO FUN! I haven't tied a quilt in forever. Now I want to make some. Maybe for Christmas. Binding them sounds scary, but I guess that's part of it. Anywho, I had fun and we can scrap next week. I should say that Son #1 got married in December, she still needs to bind that quilt it's already tied. I might have to go over and take a binding lesson from her. She like can do everything. I might want to be her when I grow up. She's pretty awesome. A little busy, but awesome. She is also the Stake YW Pres. Boy. I'm tired just talking about her life. I think I need a nap!

I don't want to be in Jr. High!

I graduated from elementary, Jr. high and high school. I just want to let that be known. Because right now I am fighting to keep a passing grade in 8th grade all over again and I feel like it is a constant uphill battle. I mean like MT. Everest type of up hill. I really don't think that I was that good at it the first time around. Now it just frustrates me. SERIOUSLY. Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!

OK I think my tantrum is over. Good night.

It's Sunday morning and the fun begins. Sam does not want to go do fast offerings, he is begging for just a few more minutes of sleep (IT'S 11:00!!!!) Andrew is getting ready for his church at the Young Adult ward and adding his energy to morning (oh, so much energy). Anywho, I am thinking "Can we get through one Sunday smoothly? Also, what did I do in the rearing of my children to have them either completely bouncing off the walls or completely dragging. It is exhausting for me really. Then that makes me feel old and I don't like to feel old. I need someone to be on calm mode. It's not a huge request I wouldn't think. I just have to remind myself that "It's just another day in paradise" and really there's no place that I'd rather be.

Ok, here we go! I have been told that I am "out" of it, because I don't have a blog. So I am going to give it a whirl. Mostly in an effort to stay in touch with my family better. If you know of any cool things that I can do with my blog, let me know.