Johnsons' Journey

Doesn’t Ecclesastes 3 say that we get a time to rest? … I know, I know… It doesn’t say anything about resting … But it should! *lol* … Of course, the Lord rested on the 7th day, which means we should too, right?

‘Cause I’m ready for my rest.

But I guess that won’t happen until summer vacation. *lol*

It’s been a long week at school… The kids want an early summer vacation, so they’ve been doing some extra work… Which makes my days longer too. *lol* But we are ALL looking forward to vacation, so I am not about to argue.

The kids are excited … The Molalla high school swim team is finally done for the year, so the Molalla Aquatic Center has finally re-worked it’s schedule… For most of the year the family swim times are scheduled too late at night (from 7-9), so that it’s too late for us to go, because Joe has to be in bed by 7 at the latest. But during April, May, and half of June, they have a 3-5 slot on Thursdays that works for us. It’s the only time we can go swim… Well, I take that back. It has open swims on the weekends too, but we NEVER go to those, because they are too busy…ANYWAY, starting this coming week we can go swimming on Thursdays again (well, Joe and the kids swim. I sit and watch, and take pictures *lol*). The kids are beyond excited about it!

Alicia and Amanda

We did a lot of bowling this week… The boys had their playoff games for their junior bowling league, which ended on Saturday. We wanted them to get some practice in, so we took them bowling on both Wednesday and Friday.

The girls decided to bowl on Wednesday too (they didn’t on Friday though)… It’s a good thing that Alicia (and Amanda) are going on the bumper league… Alicia sure is having trouble throwing a straight ball. Though she doesn’t try to do it, she always puts a hook on the ball. It will look like it’s going great, and then when it gets almost to the end of the lane, the ball will always turn to the left and either go into the gutter or hit the few pins on the left. Then the ball on the second throw goes into the same “hole” that the first ball made. It tends to frustrate her after a while… Poor Princess! She does seem to have better luck with a slightly heavier ball though.

Alicia is getting pretty excited about starting the summer league… Especially after seeing the boys win trophies on Saturday. *lol* … The summer league starts on April 26th, so they have a bit of a wait (and it’s driving the boys NUTS *lol*)

"The Cougars" ... Jared, Marshall. and Josh

The playoff games went pretty well… There were three games, which they played against a different team in each game. Their team won the first two games, but pretty much got slaughted in the last one. *lol* They bowled against the “Lightings”, which consists of Blake Copeland, who is the owner’s son (and Shawn Copeland used to be a pro bowler). Blake was on fire, and bowled well over his average, and they won the game. Since they had won their first two games too, they ended up being the league champions for the Molalla Nuggets (the grade school kids… The older kids are called the Team Olympians).

So… Even though the kids didn’t win the championships, they came in second! I think they did awesome!!! I am so proud of them! Especially considering that they just started bowling last July, and they were only bowling 30s or less back then. It’s amazing to see how far they’ve come in such a short period of time.

As for the trophies… Jared won a trophy for having the highest game above his average. He bowled a 180, when his average was 99, so he was 81 above his average. He also won 6 patches over the year… Josh won a trophy for most improved bowler. He brought his average up by 21 points this year. He also won a special patch for that, for a total of 4 patches for the year. They ended the year with Jared having an average of 105 and Josh having an average of 91.

After the bowling playoffs, awards and party (there was lots of food, but I remembered my diet and didn’t eat much *lol*), we drove into Portland. We had a family thing to be to at 4 pm, but I needed something to wear on Easter and for our niece’s wedding in May. My original idea was to get a dress… I haven’t worn a dress since Easter of 2002, but since we are going to a new church, and had Leann’s wedding in May, I thought a dress would be nice. Now I knew I wouldn’t be able to find a decent dress at Walmart or Kmart (which is where I normally shop for clothes), so my plan was to try Ross, since they boast the whole “dress for less” thing.

That was mission impossible.

For one… Their idea of “dress for less” is much different than my idea of it. *lol* Also, while they have TONS of clothes, they don’t have hardly anything in plus sizes. *sigh* … I ended up at the clearance rack, because the regular prices were more than I could take, and I did find one dress in my size that was cute… That is, it was cute until I tried it on. It was MOST DEFINATLY NOT CUTE on me!!! *YIKES* … I took one look at me in the full sized mirror and wanted to cry… That dress WAS NOT coming home with me. *lol*

So anyway, we noticed a store called “Catherine’s Plus Sizes” a couple shops down, so we went in to see what they had… And then walked right back out again!… Maybe you CAN dress for less at Ross! *double yikes* That store is WAY out of our league.

So then we went to Kohl’s… Lather, rince, repeat.

I then gave up on the idea of a dress, and we ended up back at Kmart. *rofl* … I ended up with some white capris and a nice, navy blue top that looks really cute together (though they would look cuter on someone else )… While we were at Kmart, we like to look at the displays, to see what they have on sale. They sure had a lot of pop displays!

Joe's Dad, Jim, and Jim's sisters, Dorean and Donna

When that was finally done, we went to Pizza Baron for the thing with Joe’s extended family (the Johnson side). Pizza Baron is really close to our old house in Portland, so we drove by there first… You know, that old house still feels a little like home. … But we DO NOT miss Portland! The traffic was horrific, and the sirens! Don’t get me started on all the sirens we heard ALL. DAY. LONG. It was insane! … Oh how we love Molalla!

Anyway, the time with family was nice… Mainly Joe and I talked with Scott and Debbie, which is kinda sad, since we see them the most. *lol* We should have talked with some of the other family we don’t see as often… But we do enjoy spending time with Scott, Debbie, and the kids.

As for today, we did the church thing and now I’m trying to get caught up on things that got put off during the week.

I think I need a vacation! *lol*

If it doesn’t rain, it poors…

So… The last time I used the bathroom in our travel trailer, I noticed that the floor near the wall was “soft”. So last Thursday Joe took the trailer in to get it looked at, and for them to fix a leak in the holding tank.

Well, the trailer guy called Joe this morning and said that there is MAJOR dry-rot in the walls in the entire back of the trailer, due to a leak in a pipe (that we didn’t know about, because it was behind the wall). He said it would cost around $5000 to repair (which we DO NOT have)… We are submitting it to our insurance company, and I was wondering if you would’t mind praying that they will accept it, and pay for it… We would still have to pay the dedudtible, but that’s better than $5000…

*sigh*

ETA @ 4:10 pm

So, Joe called the insurance company (All State), and they said it just might be covered. We won’t know for sure if it’s 4 or 5 days, but here’s praying! … And I *think* Joe said that our deductable is $250, which we can afford… So please pray that it will be covered. Joe doesn’t have many things he really likes to do, to get away from the stress of working so many hours. Camping is his outlet, and he loves that trailer. I really don’t want to have to get rid of it.

So, let’s play catch-up, shall we?

It’s been so insanely busy around here, that I haven’t had time to get online much during the day…  By the time evening comes, all I want to do is kick back with a blanket and a movie. *lol* I’m just so tired! It’s always exhausting when Joe is on vacation. (When does he go back to work?!?!?! *lol*)

So, let’s see… What have we been up to? … Last Friday was our cosmic bowling night. We meet up with Joe’s sister and her family every other Friday for Cosmic Bowl, so that’s what we did. We always eat dinner there, and then bowl from 4 to 6. It’s fun … This week just Joe and the boys bowled. Some times the girls decide to bowl, but I guess they weren’t in the mood. So instead they just sat at one of the tables and drew pictures and colored. That always keeps them happy.

On Saturday, the boys had their bowling league. (They only have 2 more league days left before the end of the fall/winter league.) The boys bowled pretty well. Nothing spectacular, but they held their own. Their team won all 3 games though… So far the boys team, “The Cougars” have won the most games. They are leading by 3 games. They’ve won 43 games so far, while the team in 2nd place has won 40 so far.

After bowling was over we headed to Oregon City, where we went to KFC/A&W for lunch. Then we went to Exodus Books, where we got some school books for next year… We bought everything we need for Alicia and Amanda, and almost everything for Josh… I totally forgot about Josh’s science workbook, so we still need to get that, and then we’ll be done with his stuff.

Now will come the expensive stuff… Getting Jared’s school books, since we will need to buy all the teacher books too… I am still waiting for the new catalog from BJU Press though, so I know what to look for on eBay. *lol*

We spend the rest of Saturday at Joe’s niece’s house… Her Dad, Gene, turned 50 yesterday, and they had a birthday party for him at their house. They also included Jamie and Jacob, who turn 14 tomorrow.

Dorothy (Joe’s sister, and Gene’s wife) had one of Leann’s friends dress up like a bum and she came to the house to do one of those singing telegram things. She did the bum thing because she was pretending to pick up pop cans… Since Gene works with Joe at OBRC, and they do that. *lol* (Joe’s even had a bum steal a bag of cans off his truck before. *lol*)

On Sunday we wanted to get up extra early, to get an early start on our beach trip… The time change screwed that up! *lol* … We ended up not leaving the house until around 10-ish… Oops! *lol*

The first thing we did was to drive into Woodburn, where we had breakfast at McDonald’s. The girls were thrilled because that McDonald’s has a playground (the one in Molalla doesn’t), so we let them play for a little while, and then we headed to Salem.

Since we are doing the Flat Stanley thing, I thought it would be cool to take some pictures of the capital building in Salem… Funny thing is, we’ve never been there before, and it takes a Flat Stanley project to get us there! … Though I have seen the building from the highway before…

Anyway, I was surprised and how great the place was. Turns out that there is a state park right across the street (State Capital State Park), and it’s really pretty. It has all these trees that were in full bloom, and tons of daffodils, and an interesting (yet cool) fountain. It was really pretty. We got there at around noon and we ended up staying for around a hald an hour… I had planned on quickly taking a couple pictures and leaving. *lol*

After leaving the capital, we were off to Lincoln City… We left Salem at around 12:30, and made it to the motel at around 2:45-ish (after stopping by a couple stores, looking for floaties for the pool)… We did have one minor mishap though, when Amanda got carsick… Thankfully, it was just the one time and she was fine after that.

The motel is great! Joe and I have stayed there a few times before, when we were first married, but it’s been years. The kids, on the other hand, have never stayed the night at a motel at the beach before, and they were over the moon happy. We stayed at the D Sands in a “family suite”. It has a small kitchen with a double “wall bed” in the living room (that Joe and I used), and a second bedroom with 2 full sized beds in it, that the kids slept in.

There was also a balcony off the room, with an ocean view. Oh, and an indoor heated pool and hot-tub, which was the icing on the cake!

As soon as we were settled into the motel room (room 209), we grabbed our chairs (for Joe and me) and the beach toys (for the kids *lol*) and walked down to the beach to let the kids play… The kids spent most of the time burying Josh in the sand. *lol* They all, including Josh, thought that was lots of fun. … They played by the water some, and Jared and Joe ran a race down the beach and back… I mainly sat there taking pictures, and trying not to freeze. *lol* I had on 2 jackets, but I was still pretty cold!

The kids played for a little over an hour, and then they started getting hungry. We had wanted to get Pizza Hut, but it turned out that the closest one was 35 miles away… So we went with Papa Murphy’s instead, since we had a stove in the motel to cook the pizza. … So we ate that while the kids watched a movie and Joe and I played on facebook.

After we ate, it was time to go to the pool (since it would be our only chance)… The pool itself was a bit small (we’re used to the big public pool here in Molalla), but the room was warm and they said the water was nice. Joe and the kids had SUCH a good time, playing in the pool… At least for the first half hour, when they had the pool to themselves… At around 7-ish another family of 6 came in, and the kids were REALLY rowdy. I wasn’t even in the pool, and I was getting splashed. *sigh* … After a while they gave up on the pool and hung out in the hot tub for a while, before we headed back to our room.

We spent the rest of the evening, relaxing in the motel room. Josh, Alicia, and Joe took turns taking showers and the kids watched a movie, while Joe snoozed in front of the TV and I played on facebook. *lol* (LOVED the free wi-fi in the room! )

We weren’t in a rush to get going on Monday morning, as we didn’t have to check out of the room until 11 o’clock… So we slept in and then leisurely got ready for the day. For breakfast we lad leftover pizza from the day before, and Jared, Amanda, and myself took turns taking showers…

We checked out of the motel at around 10:30 and then headed down to the beach to let the kids play some more… Jared and Joe started making a sand castle, but they didn’t get very far. Mostly they spent time time playing by the water, trying to outrun the waves. *lol* … Though I must admit that it made me nervous, even though Joe was down there with them. (I stayed up by the chairs with Alicia, who was digging in the sand.) … At one point the wave came in faster than they thought, and Joe had to scoop Amanda up, as she wasn’t running fast enough. About gave me a heart attack! (the joys of being an over-protective mom. *lol*)

The weather was really nice! It was still cloudy some, but not too bad, and the wind wasn’t as bad as it usually is there (especially for March).

After letting the kids play for around an hour, we got into the Durango and headed to the Tillamook Cheese Factory… Joe and the kids were wanting to sample some more cheese, and more importantly, they wanted some Tillamook ice-cream. *lol* … I, on the other hand, thought it would be another great place for Flat Stanley to visit. *lol*

After watching them work on the cheese for a while, we headed down to get some ice cream… Joe got peppermint, the boys got Tillamook mudslide (chocolate with chocolate chips in it), Amanda got orange sherbert, while Alicia and I had caramel butter pecan. Yum! … Oh, and let me tell you… Their waffle cones are to die for! That was the BEST ICE-CREAM CONE EVER!!! (diet be darned *lol*)

Joe and I both wanted to try and see the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, and I wanted to show the kids Haystack Rock, so we took off for Cannon Beach. When we got there we parked at Tolovana Beach (near Mo’s) and walked about a mile down the beach, trying to get close to Haystack Rock… Seems like no matter how much we walked, it never seemed to get much closer. *rofl* I did get some nice shots though (but if it hadn’t been a bit foggy, they would have turned out better. *lol*)… We did get to (sort of) sea the lighthouse… It’s on a big rock, about a mile off the beach, so you can’t get close. In the fog, it was hard to make out… Also, I found out later that it’s easier to see it from Ecola State Park… I want to try to get there next summer, to see if we can see it better.

After we walked back to the car, the girls wanted to play on the playground for a while, so we let them… Josh played too, but Jared doesn’t really do playgrounds anymore. (He’s getting all grown up )

By this time it was 4:30 and (other than the ice cream) we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so we drove into Seaside to see about getting some dinner… While on the way I happened to see an elk on the side of the road. Since we haven’t seen an elk “in the wild” since 1994, Joe pulled over and let us get some pictures… There was also 2 more elk back behind some bushes, but you couldn’t see them well and I couldn’t get any pictures of them.

We ate dinner at a KFC/Taco Bell and then we headed home… We had worn the kids out, and they slept most of the way home. Poor sleepy kids! *lol*

It was an awesome time, and we’re hoping to be able to go back every spring break from now on. … Or we could go another route, and go see the Atlantic ocean. We could look into Outer Banks vacation home rentals, and see what fun place we could visit there!!! I’ve always wanted to see what the Atlantic looks like. It would be strange to watch the sun rise over the ocean, instead of watching it set at night.

On Tuesday Joe and I got to work in Amanda’s room. We wanted to strip off the Tinkerbell wallpaper trim, so we could hang the new Hannah Montana border. I also wanted to rearrange the furniture and to go through all her toys ( to pull out the stuff she’s outgrown)… I ended up clearing so much out of her room, that I was able to get the play kitchen out of Alicia’s room and put it in Amanda’s room. It looks pretty cute in there! I put her Barbie house in her closet (she has a good sized walk-in closet), and all the baby doll stuff around the kitchen. Amanda is thrilled with how it turned out… Now we just need to get her some more posters for the wall… I want to take down the Disney ones, and get her more posters from Disney Channel shows… Something that will last her until she’s Jared’s age. *lol*

Now that Amanda’s is done, Alicia is getting anxious for us to do her room… But since we have to re-paint her room, it’s going to have to wait until we’re on summer vacation… Though I do want to go in there in the next couple days to go through the toys and see what we should send to the GoodWill.

The three younger kids came down with a cold or something on Tuesday morning. They’ve all (except Jared) had a fever both Tuesday and Wednesday, though Alicia is the one who’s been feeling the worst. … She says she’s feeling better now, but her eyes are really red and bloodshot, and she still looks sick. Poor princess! She even ahd to miss Kids Club last night at church, since she was still feverish then.

Today we did some housework and I worked on the laundry (still trying to play catch up on that), and then we took the kids bowling. The boys had collected a TON of free game cards, so we used some of them up today. *lol* … Since the next two league days are pretty important, we’ll probably take them back tomorrow, so that they can get some more practice.

When we got home we had planned on organizing the shed, since it’s so nice out… but… Here I sit, catching up on my blog while Joe sleeps in front of Home Improvement. *lol*

As you can see, we’re having a very busy, and very fun spring vacation!

First thing I want to say is that I am not giving up! … On my weight loss that is. *lol*

When we were at the beach, I decided that I didn’t want to have to worry about watching everything I ate. I wanted to be able to enjoy eating out with the rest of the family, and not stress about finding items on the menu with the least amount of calories. So I just ate normal.

To be honest, I was half expecting to have a gain on the scales when we came home… But I was happily surprised to see that there was actually a small loss. Yay! … Must have been thanks to the long walk on the beach, and all the steps up and down from the motel room. *lol*

What I should do is look into weight loss products for when we are away on vacations, to help things along when I am too busy for working out and eating as good as I do at home.

As some of you may remember, a couple years ago we were given a used big 50-some inch TV… Now I’ve never liked that TV. Joe does, because it’s big… And I guess in his opinion, bigger is better. *lol* … But I have to be honest and admit that I would rather watch a movie on our 7 inch portable DVD player, than I would on that big thing… The picture is just TERRIBLE on it! It’s dark and grainy. I want bright and clear. *lol*

So, we’ve been dreaming of getting one of those flat TVs that you can hang on the wall… But we probably wouldn’t hang it. We’ve also been looking at those special tv stands that they make for those kinds of TVs, and we think that we would probably end up going that route instead.

That is… If we can ever afford one of those TVs. *rofl*

I know that I owe you a blog post… trying to play catch up from our vacation, and doing some extra housework. Will catch up the blog tomorrow!

Another way that Alicia is like me, is that she likes to collect things… Oh, we don’t have any “official” collections, but we do like to collect. *lol* … Some people collect things like stamps, spoons, or even custom shot glasses, but not us.

I collect things like books, shells, lighthouse figureine things, etc. Alicia is more basic. She collects pretty rocks, cool looking sticks, sea shells (like her Mama ), stickers, and stuff like that… It’s fun to see her become interested in things that I liked doing when I was a kid.

When you’re trying to lose weight, and you’re trying to fight a weight loss product that works for you, it’s hard to know where to even start looking. There are so many products out there, and they all claim to be the best, and they spout out about how quickly you can lose the weight, etc… But you don’t just want to jump on any supplement bandwagon, without doing some research… If you’re going to go with a weight loss product, make sure you do your research on things like phosphacore before you make your purchase!

Well, it’s been over a month now, and I’m STILL not happy about turning 39. *lol* … Come to think about it, seeing as it’s been a month since my birthday, that means it’s only 11 months until I’m 40 … FORTY… ACK!

No wrinkles yet

(Ignore the ice cream cone… I know I am on a diet! … I don’t normally eat them, but we were on vacation and visiting the Tillamook Cheese Factory. One must have an ice cream cone when one is there *rofl8)

One thing that comes with age, and that I’m not having to deal with yet, is wrinkles… When you have a chubby face like mine, you don’t have wrinkles… BUT… I am losing weight, and I worry that as the fat goes away, the wrinkles will come. I guess I need to start looking into it, and see what’s the best wrinkle cream out there, before they start appearing!

One thing I’ve never had is dry skin… In fact, mine is quite the opposite. I have really oily hair and skin… That’s not always the best thing, but it does help keep my skin from becoming dry and looking like it’s going to peel or something… But I know that’s not the case for everyone. Some people have to worry about things like the wind and sunshine, and having to use creams and stuff to keep their face from drying out. If you do, I think the best route would be to get a natural face cream. Your skin doesn’t need all the extra ingredients that go into some!