Johnson Family Dish

January’s Dish

Dear Friends and Family,

This, the first month of the year, has brought ups and downs for the Johnsons. We have managed to maintain our very busy, and sometimes down right hectic, schedules. Sometimes this takes its toll on some of us and we have to deal with a few emotional break downs, but we pull each other through and happily life goes on.

Our BIG news is rather personal but we are so excited about it and feel that we should document this. We got a raise! This is news worthy to us because it has been a long 5 years since we have had an increase in pay. HOORAY!! Our family recieved a bonus also this year, also a milestone for us. We feel very blessed! Randon is driving a company truck home now too and so that is also a nice perk. Randon’s current job requires a lot more time than his former job so we are farming all of the extra automotive work out that he used to do out to some young men that are back yard mechanics, as he was. This is good. So, if you call for help with your car you just might get a referal from us.

I had two Scrapbooking nights with the girls this month, much needed too I might add. I also had the opportunity to visit the family history center with our ward and find some information on my Great Grandfather Gatti who came to this country from a very small community in Italy. I have been digging for this information for quite some time but due to the 1920 census records in Erie PA being destroyed by a fire, I was not able to find the information that I needed until the 1930 census was released. My Aunt Janet had been in touch with me before she passed away suddenly in June of 2002 and provided me with some wonderful and very helpful information, she was very much into geneology, and was encouraging me to use my “Mormon Resources” and find more information and let her know. Turns out that I did use the computers at the Family History Center in Mesa to find this information but it was at Familyhistory.com, not a “Mormon” web site where I found the information I needed. And I found further clues at the Ellis Island web site. It is infinitley fascinating, and causes you to feel a real and very valid connection to your progenetors. I am thankful for all who have inspired me to do this research, it feels really good to find out about the people who you have come from. I have lots more to find but, we have to celebrate the small victories in life, and this was a victory for me.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph this was a hectic month, it began with a bang and went out with a bang. I will not bore you with the details except for our day that turned out to be a roller coaster ride, on many levels! It started out at 5am, as our days usually do, but on this day we were taking Randon to work so that he could catch a flight out of town for a Fancy Food show in San Francisco with one of his co-workers. The children happened to be out of school this particular week because they have a new school facility and they were making the big move this particular week. Well having kissed him goodbye the children and I went home to have breakfast and proceed with the day. We decided that we wanted to pull all of the weeds on the side of our yard and suprise Daddy when he came home. It was a good idea but if you are ever thinking that you are in really great shape, that is the litmus test! Just go out and simply bend over for hours to pull weeds. I hurt my back so badly doing this, I must be getting old. But when we were done we got a call from my Grandma that she was not feeling any better, as she had been sick for a few days, and she wanted us to take her to the ER. We did and Grandma was admitted to the hospital, she stayed there for 6 days because they found that her heart is not beating properly. Her atrium is not doing its job well and this could be causing the blood clots that were happening in her leg. We went to Grandma’s house to get her dog and take care of her while Grandma was in the hospital. The gate was locked and so I used my superpowers (ha, ha, ha) to jump the gate (can you just picture me trying to hurdle my pleasantly plump frame over a 5ft. gate, with a hurt back? not pretty) and get the dog, the children were very impressed. Can you say stress? We got dinner and went home and went to bed waiting for Randon, he got home after midnight. Wouldn’t you know that this was a Monday.

Grandma is doing well. She has lots of Dr.’s to see, more medications to take and has given us quite a lot of worry. She was given a blessing from Randon and Kevin Fletcher. (Thanks Fletchers!) The dog is back with Grandma, the kids are sad about this one. You won’t see me shedding any tears about this. The children are back in school, at a new facility and they like that. My back is on its way to recovery, and I like that. I like all of the nice massages that my family have given me to help my back feel better. I have some great kids!

I have to close with a funny conversation that we had with our children last night on our way home from Grandmas house. The children were really dragging thier tails to get themselves buckled into thier seats so that we could leave. I decided to share with them a bit of information that I learned while watching the news last week that children should be in car seats until they weigh 80 lbs. or so say the firefighters, not clear if that is actually a law in AZ. We could not have imagined the firery protest that we got! We did not realize that there were such strong feelings on this issue. I really think that in our culture of automobiles, growing out of “the baby seat” has become a very serious right of passage for our children. I knew that it was a big deal to them but now I KNOW what a big deal it is! One of Kelcie’s arguments that “she has friends now and was maturing” (at age 10), it would be embarassing to drive up to school at 10 years old and be seen in a car seat. Or what if her friends went to the movies with us and SAW that she was still in a car seat, can we immagine her embarassment. Randon trying to be funny said that we would call it a “baja seat” and provide her friends with one too. That did not go over well quite as funny to her as it was to us. I have a question for you; how is it possible for us to embarrass her so very much when it is only us around? I sort of thought that there had to be some outside party around to be so embarrassed as our child gets at some of the “funny” things we say. Which do not seem to be remotely funny in any way to her. I have heard of the phenonmina of children being embarrassed by thier parents by I was always rather proud of mine. But, we won’t get into all of that. This really caused me to remember being her age and struggling for independence too. Although I don’t remember the struggle reaching its climax until I was much older than her, its going to be a bumpy ride to the top, hang on.

So, there you have a tiny glimpse into the goings on here. We hope that you are all doing well. We wish you a happy Valentines Day!