Johnson Family Dish

TEARS…. of Joy?

Well no, not exactially. Today was the first day of school and as much as I really want to be settling a dispute with my dear children at this very moment, I have to enjoy some less rowdy time typing this post while Charis watches Maisy, because the other children are all at school. Its hard but…

Okay to be a bit more serious, it was hard to leave them. I kept watching Addi for any sign of tears or hesitation, there was neither. She caught me snapping one of many pictures of her today and just smiled at me. It was almost like she was telling me “as much as I want to stay home and argue the finer points of barbie with my sisters, this is going to be great!” I had to kinda tell myself that it was time to leave now. Their teachers kept saying goodbye for them and telling us all that they would be fine and that they would take good care of them, which almost made me cry.

Kelcie was sad, I could tell, because her best friend is not going to her new school. I did feel badly for Kelcie, but I know that she will make new friends. Change is hard. Morgan and Scott just went to thier classes happily and that was that.

The children did not seem very upset about thier uniforms and all of the Johnson children dressed alike today. They did look adorable. One thing that I have to say for uniforms is that the children have a much more polished appearance as a group, and individually. I think I like uniforms. There was absolutely no dispute about what to wear, but there never is on the first day so we will reserve judgement for a few weeks on this point.

Charis does not seem to mind being alone, so far. She is happy to choose her favorite shows that no one is here to refer to as ‘baby shows’. We will reseve judgement here too as it is too early to tell if she will like being alone with Mom.

I actually thought this day could not come soon enough and here it is and I am hoping that I did not seem too eager to send my little ones to school, I do miss them.

July 2005

What a month!! I think whirlwind might be a good description of July. Not to be negative but to be real, it was a tough challenging month for me and the kids. First of all it was one of those months that was hot enough to make the devil cry! And that is not exageration, “it was the 3rd hottest July on record in Az.” (12 news weather man). And it wasn’t just hot, we had some serriously humid days. I don’t do well with the humidity. It is one of the only things that will cause me to have athsma symptoms. So it has inspired this question of mine “if it is 107F outside with 50% humidity, what does that technically feel like” -HELL?!

Enough about the weather. The kids and I saw lots of movies this month. We went to see Madagasgar which the Johnsons give two thumbs up! We went to the AMC free movie deal on Wed.’s (the ones we could) and saw Peter Pan, which we liked, you can read about that in my last post. And we saw Sponge Bob Square pants which I have to say here and now I HATE! But I had promised the kids that we would go to see the free movie that Wed. and they tried really hard to do all of the things they have to do to go see a movie. So, I sat through all of the toilet bowl humor with them. This is not a show that I let them watch at home and so they were feeling quite happy about getting to watch this movie.

The fourth was really fun. We had our traditional ward bike parade in the morning. We went to a BBQ and fireworks with Grandpa and Grandma Gatti. The kids look forward to this day each year.

We went boating at Canyon Lake one Saturday. What a beautiful lake. We had tons of fun, we found that boating is a hobby that our whole family really enjoys. I learned to drive a boat, which is not 1/2 as daunting a task as I thought. Randon lost his glasses in the lake and some of you are not getting the whole story on why or how. I am here to set the story straight, for the record you know. Brother Fish (who’s boat we were ‘checking out’ so that Randon could fix a problem that it was having) is a smaller man than Randon. We were using his tube-like raft to pull behind the boat with a couple of us in it, it was fun. Randon had pulled all of us in it and wanted a turn so he gives me a crash course in boat driving (but I didn’t crash). So I gave him the only adult life jacket on the boat, brother Fishes, which I was wearing (and it was snug on me). Randon procedes to try and put it on. It fell about 4 inches short of being able to close, even when he was pulling both sides adound him. He keep tugging and streching until he got the bottom of the zipper to hook together and was encouraged. So he keeps going, as I am urging him to just forget the life jacket, and not to rip it. He actually manages to get the zipper completely shut. It made him incredibly stiff because the jacket was so tight. He tried to get into the tube and fell into the lake. My theory is that it was too tight for him to move and correct his balance when he lost it for a second and in he went. Now of course all of us safely in the boat were laughing very heartily. That is until he came up out of the water and said that his glasses were gone–OOOHHHH!!!! That stopped our laughter, almost. Some of you have been told that they just fell off of him while at the lake, well now you know the whole story. This left me to drive the boat home which would not be so bad if it were any lake but Canyon lake that we went to. The road is narrow and windy, with other large boat towing vehicles all over the road. The boat trailer took up all but one inch of space next to the white line and one inch next to the yellow lane. I drove really slow, driving the people behind me madd I am sure but, I pulled over for them when I could and we made it home in one peice and no damage to the
boat.

I donated blood this month which is only note worthy because this was my 3rd attempt to do so and I have never been able to complete donating a whole bag of blood (1 pint, or 2 cups). I always get very sick feeling and then I black out and I feel sick all the next day or so. This time I prepared myself by downing TONS of gatorade (which I absolutley HATE!) and drinking as much water as I could manage. This seems to have done the trick because I made it through a whole bag. I was not able to get up and walk away afterwards and I can’t say that it didn’t take some internal motivational speaches to keep going until the beep that meant the bag was full went off. I sat in thier chair for hours trying to recover, each time I was set up to the sitting position, I had to lay back down because I felt that blackout feeling. But I got up after some time and went home and had a nap and I am fine and so THRILLED! They actually sent me a donor card this time, so that I can donate in the future (that never happened before either). I feel quite accomplished:).

We had our scrapbooking retreat on the 15th and 16th at Grandpa’s cabin. That was fun and sooo theraputic! We left the valley in the morning and got to Showlow in the afternoon and Amy joined us and we scrapbooked into the evening, woke up the next day and scrapbooked some more. We took a quick break to replenish supplies and check out the Showlow scrapbooking store. I think that Sandi gets the award for the most pages done (and she had a baby to take care of) she managed to complete 26 pages! We had so much fun that we are going to make this an anual event. So, all of you who couldn’t come this time, there’s always next year.

I am happy to announce a new addition to our home. We got a digital camera! I LOVE it! It is changing the way that I take pictures, I can take tons now and not feel like I wasting film and money to develope them. I did my homework on this purchase and read consumer reports and various feedback on many cameras and we decided on the Casio Exilim p-700. We did not pay retail for it either, I did my homework here too. We got a fabulous deal on a really good camera. I highly recomend B&H photo, you can find them on line, they are helpful and you can actually talk to a real person to answer all of your questions and place your order.

The last day of July I was sustained as the new Relief Society President for the Ocotillo ward. It is hard to describe the feelings one experiences when you hear these words come out of your Bp.’s mouth! Out of body, surreal, are you serious… those and many more would describe my feelings. I am humbled and I will do the best job that I can. I have to say that I find it a little funny that I was first councelor for about 1 month. I have learned a lot working with my friend Christine in the R.S. presidency (I was her 2nd councelor for 17 months, and her 1st for 1 month). She is moving to Alabama and I will miss her so much! Some people walk into your life and leave thier imprint all over your heart, she is one of those kind of people.

The children start school in 8 days and to say that I was sad would just be a lie. I never thought that I was the sort of mother who would be happy to see them return to school after having a wonderful summer with them, I am. I miss the structure that school provides for the whole family. It really creates a routine. It is not just the routine I miss either. It is a bit of quiet, time to get the house cleaned (without it being undone while I work), it is running errands without all of them, it is a bit of freedom, and respite while they attend school. We have bought all of the uniforms and school supplies that they needed, and the backpacks are stuffed and waiting. Addi starts school this year, all day K. Charis and I will not know what to do with ourselves, although if you read the above paragraph, you can bet that we will be busy. It will be strange to only have one child at home, I’ll adjust .