Johnsons' Journey

I thought I’d better write a post before ya’ll think I’ve decided to give up on blogging all-together. *lol*

There isn’t too much going on around here. We’ve just been doing the homschool thing. The kids only have a couple weeks until spring vacation, and are getting excited about it. (As is Mommy *lol*)

We got some scary news yesterday … Remember last September-ish when there was a cougar sighting in the woods, right behind the house? … Well, turns out that the cougar is here to stay, because it’s been sighted again… While I like the quiet of this area, I wish we had found a house we could afford in town instead. I think I would feel a bit safer about letting the kids play outside.

I guess now we know why the stray cat population has gone WAY down… Poor kitties.

We’re not letting Buddy go outside right now, because I don’t want him to become Cougar-chow… Since we still don’t really trust him, we’ve set him up an area in the pantry, for when we can’t keep an eye on him… But while he seems to like his “room”, he wants to go outside, and is starting to get whiney about it. *lol*

On Tuesday, Alicia and Amanda had their last class at Dolce Dance… In some ways I think they are regretting their decision… But in the summer months, it will probably be for the best anyway, as we would have had a hard time getting there on time, because of Joe’s schedule… Thier bowling league starts in April… If they end up not liking it, then we’ll take them back to Dolce Dance in September. (The summer bowling league ends at the end of August)

Since the kids were done with school early yesterday, we took them bowling again. This time Joe wouldn’t challenge them… Which is a good thing, because he would have lost again. … Those boys are getting to be such good bowlers!

Joe will be late coming home today… He’s going to get new tires on the Durango. We’ve been needing them for a while now, and it’s going to be nice to have them done! … Then on Thursday a friend of Joe’s (John) will be doing some other work on the Durango… Something with the brakes, I think. Joe wants to get the Durango working well before all our summer camping plans, so he doesn’t have to worry about pulling the trailer. If he pulls the trailer as the Durango is now, we’d end up with a travel emergency! … Of course, the trailer needs some work too. One of the tanks has a leak, and needs to be replaced… Wish we “had a guy” who knew how to do that too, so we could get it done cheaper. *lol*

I couldn’t think of an interesting title… So there you go! *lol*

I hope everyone is having a decent sort of week. Ours is going well.

Jared and Josh playing basketball

The boys have been enjoying the fact that it’s starting to stay light out a little longer during the day. For the last week or so it’s been staying light until 5:30-ish, so they’ve been able to stay outside a little longer… Jared and Josh have been playing basketball at the little court we have here in the subdivision (that everyone can use). They’ve been meeting up with some other boys their age (from around the neighborhood), and have been having lots of fun…

I am glad because they are getting some exercise in… Now that they have outgrown toys (Jared never plays with toys anymore, and while Josh does sometimes, it’s getting less and less), I am glad that they’ve found something that they can do that doesn’t involve a computer or video game. *lol* … They even go out after it’s rained, even though the ground is still wet… Then they get all dirty from the wet, dirty basketball. … Oh well, as long as they are having fun and making friends.

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We’re getting a late start at homeschooling today, so I thought I would try to squeeze in a post while the kids got ready for the day.

Remember how Amanda used to say that everything is FANTASTIC! … Well, she seesms to have gone past that stage. She now has a new “word of the day”… And that is “cha-ching!” *lol* … Whenever anything goes her way, you can hear her all through the house, “CHA-CHING, CHA-CHING, CHA-CHING!” … When we were bowling on Sunday, she bowled one game too (with bumpers). Everytime she would get even 1 or 2 pins down, she would call that out. It was sooo funny!

She is now playing with imaginary friends now too… I remember when the other kids went through this phaze, but Amanda was just a wee one then, and not old enough to play along. *lol* Anyway, on Sunday she was playing Battleship by herself when she put the game away in disgust and said, “My imaginary friend cheats! It was the boy one. My girl imaginary friend NEVER cheats! I’m going to play with her instead!” … So cute!

Jared had a nice birthday. He said it was really fun. … We didn’t get to surprise them with going to the bowling alley though… A friend of the family (Joe’s Mom’s best friend), Sheila, called Jared to wish him a happy birthday. While she was talking to him she said, “I heard you were going to the bowling alley for your birthday. Are you there yet?” … Oops! *lol* … That sort of let the cat out of the bag. *lol*

After they bowled 3 games (the Mewings were there too), we all went to the newly opened Molalla Mainstreet Pizzaria for dinner… The building used to be Ricky D’s, which was also a pizza place. Ricky D’s had TERRIBLE pizza. We were hoping that MMP would be better… It wasn’t. … And now they don’t even have spaghetti or lasagna anymore, so I can have something better to eat… I doubt we’ll be eating there again.

Alicia’s art class was a no-go yesterday… We went to Dolce Dance, as usual, and Amanda had her ballet class, but Jay (Alicia’s teacher) didn’t show up. We found out that Jay and Lindsay’s son was sick, so Jay was home with him. Lindsay said that she meant to call us, but never got to it… It’s a good thing that Amanda had her ballet class anyway, so it wasn’t a wasted trip (but Alicia could have stayed with the boys, instead of being bored there…)

Well, I have to eat breakfast and then start school, so I guess I’ll catch ya on the flip side! … But before I go, I just wanted to give a quick shout out for accutane. Check it out!

Man, this week is just flying by… Actually, our entire Christmas vacation has flown by at lightning speed. We’ve been so busy doing and cleaning, that it feels like we haven’t even had a vacation. Going back to school will be a break! *rofl* (We start our lessons back up on Monday.)

I didn’t do much of anything on Monday… Oh, I had big plans for cleaning, but those never happened. I had a visit from mean ole AF, and let’s just say it wasn’t a good day. Much pain was had, so it was a good day to wrap oneself in a quilt and watch TV. *lol* … Which is exactly what I did.

As for yesterday, I caught up on the laundry and since Joe FINALLY took the ornaments (that I couldn’t reach) off the top of the tree, I was able to finish getting the Christmas stuff packed into the totes… Now I have to wait for Joe to get into the mood to put the totes under the house (because there is NO WAY I am going into that crawl space filled with bugs to do so)… You know that song, “Waiting on a Woman“? … My version would be called, “Waiting on a JoeBob”.

The girls started their new session at Dolce Dance last night… I wrote Lindsay an Email and told her that Joe had trouble getting home from work in time to make it to Alicia’s class at 4:45, and asked if Jay would mind having it at 5:45, which is when Amanda’s class is… Since Alicia is the only one in this class, they were OK with it… That’s a relief! We have an extra hour before we have to be there, and we only have to wait for one hour, instead of two. Very nice!

Yesterday there were 3 other girls in Amanda’s ballet class, but they were all new. None of the other girls who had been in her class were there anymore… Weird! … Maybe some of them will be back next Tuesday… I was hoping that Kyla would be in class, because her mom, Lisa, is really nice. *lol* It was fun chatting with her while the girls danced… I also wouldn’t mind seeing Lisa’s new baby. At the ballet recital Lisa was 3 days over-due on her pregnancy, and I’m sure that baby Ava came before Christmas.

Jared recieved his first non-mom and dad phone call yesterday… The other day Jared created a quiz on facebook called “How well do you know animals” (which I only got a 60% on *lol*). Well, I guess his cousin, Jamie, wanted to make a quiz too, and was having troubles making one. So she called up Jared and he spent 15+ minutes trying to explain something to her. He told me that he would have to show it to her when he saw her next…

That kid sure LOVES that phone! *lol* He’s learning things on it quickly… A lot quicker than Joe learned his phone, when he first got it. *lol* Jared is even putting things into the event calendar, and has learned how to add contacts… It’s cute to see him with it, but it’s hard for me to see him growing up so quickly… He’s been very responsible with the phone, and isn’t abusing the priviledge.

Well, not much else going on around here… Plan on doing the bathrooms and floors (as in mopping) today… No fun, but it has to be done. I usually like to do that on the weekends, but Jared and Josh’s friend, Marshall, is coming over for the afternoon, after bowling on Saturday. (Marshall is their bowling league teammate… He’s a great kid. Always smiling, cheerful, and sweet. ) … Jared and Josh are looking forward to his visit.

Catch ya on the flipside!

This will be just a quickie… We haven’t been doing anything exciting, but I did want to drop in and say hello!

Before my story, a few details… Jared’s room is right next to ours, and then the living room is on the other side of his room… Also, the Christmas tree is right next to Jared’s door, with only the wall between his dresser and the tree…

So anyway, for the last two mornings, at around 7 o’clock I’ll be lying in bed, half awake, when I hear this beeping sound coming from the general direction of Jared’s room… First it goes, “beep-beep-beep-beep” for a while, then it goes, “beepbeep-beepbeep-beepbeep-”, and then after a minute or so it does it really fast, “beepbeepbeepbeep”, and then it stops…

Yesterday it did it and Jared came to me and said that something under the tree was beeping. I told him that it wasn’t any of the presents and that it must be his stop watch…. Last night the kids slept in the living room (lots of wind last night), and Jared heard it again. He INSISTS that it couldn’t possibly be his stop watch (it IS his stop watch *lol*). He says that his stop watch is in his dresser, all tucked in with his clothes and that you can’t hear it if it goes off… I again told him that it couldn’t possibly be any of the presents, as none of them would beep like that. So you know what he says, “I think someone hid a bomb inside one of the things that you THINK you got us, and when we open the present the bomb will go off.”

I think he’s been watching too many episodes of Chuck…

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