Johnsons' Journey

Well… I guess that since we’ve been home for 3 days now, it’s time to update the old blog. I’ve finally got all the posts I wrote while we were camping, up. I was waiting on Flickr, as I wanted to add pictures to the posts. All day yesterday I was trying to get the pictures uploaded, but Flickr was being a pain in the other side of my lap. Finally, this morning I skipped one picture, and the rest went and uploaded… Wish I would have tried that yesterday! … I have no idea why the one picture wouldn’t upload to Flickr, but I am glad that the rest are finally being posted.

Anyway, back to Prineville, as I never wrote about the last day.

I got up at around 7:00 and went and took a shower in the camp showers… Turns out that 7:00 is a bad time, as everyone and their mother is taking a shower. *lol* … But I managed to get a mostly hot shower, which is better than no shower at all.

When I got back to the campsite, Joe and the kids were all up. So we had a simple breakfast of toast and/or cereal, and then I sent Joe and the kids to take a shower while I did the dishes. Once they were back, I did the girls’ hair and off we went. I wanted to do our “homeschool portraits”, so they had all dressed in nicer clothes… We went to 3 different areas and I snapped a bunch of photos of them. When we got home, the hard part came when I had to choose the pictures to be the “official” school pictures. *lol*

After I was done taking pictures, we headed back to the trailer and got ready to go. I think it was around 12:30 when we were pulling out of the campsite.

Joe had called 511 again, and it sounded like parts of hwy 126 (the Santiam Pass) was possibly closed due to the forest fire, so we decided not to chance trying to go home that way… Wouldn’t want to try to make a u-turn while pulling a 26 foot trailer with our little Durango. So instead we drove north west and went on the pass by Mt. Hood… I have no idea what that pass is called. *lol*

The kids were quite impressed by how close to Mt. Hood we got, but I didn’t bother to take any pictures. The top half of the mountain was hidden in clouds.

There were some delays on hwy 26 though, as they were doing the “Hood to Coast Relay” … While Joe drove, the kids and I watched all the runners… I would have watched more closely, had I known our friend, Erika, was running in it! … Joe and I used to work with Erika at PayLess, and I found out today, on facebook, that she ran in it for the first time… Pretty cool!

We made it into Sandy, Oregon by 3:30, by which time we were all pretty hungry. So we stopped at McDonald’s for a late lunch, and then headed home… I think we were home sometime between 5:00 and 5:30… We spent the next hour and a half, to two hours, unloading the trailer, unpacking, cleaning up after the cats (you WOULD NOT believe the mess two little kittens can make in the bathroom!!!), etc.

The first thing the boys did when they got home was to run into their rooms, grab out their bowling balls, and kiss them. *lol* … Going 7 days without bowling about killed them.

The boys wanted to go bowling as soon as everything was put away, and Joe thought it would be easier to just take all the laundry to one of the laundry mats in town and get it washed all at once, instead of having me spend all weekend doing it.

Joe thought we should go to the newer laundry mat, as it was nicer, but I am now wondering if it would have been better going to the old one… The washing machines cost $2.00 a piece to run them! The ones in Redmond were $1.50 to use… When you have 11 loads of laundry, that can really add up! … Plus, while the dryers cost the same as in Redmond, they didn’t dry as well so you had to run them longer, which meant that they really didn’t cost the same. … So 2 hours and $29 later, all the laundry was washed and folded.

While I was at the laundry mat with Amanda, Joe and the other kids went to the bowling alley and bowled 3 games… The boys were sure happy about that!

On Saturday, Josh and the girls had a Bible Day Camp to go to, with their Sunday School class. Like they did in June, we dropped them off at the church at 11:00 and they were bussed to Feyrer Park. Then we had to meet them back at the church at 3:00… They had a lot of fun, got to have a BBQ, play games, and came home with lots of little goodies.

While they were doing that, Joe, Jared, and I went to the bowling alley again, as a treat for Jared, now that he is in the youth group and didn’t go to the Bible camp… Jared talked me into bowling too, and he was thrilled to have us both to himself. We had lunch there too, since the others were having the BBQ.

As for the rest of the evening, we didn’t do much of ANYTHING. Just sat around on our rears, watching movies and bumming… And I’m sure that Joe got some naps in.

Oh wait! … I forgot… Joe, Alicia, and I did go to Walmart on Saturday, to get some groceries for the week. We left the other kids at home, but Alicia needed new shoes, so she came with us… We had to buy her size FIVE! She can fit perfectly into size 4s, but we wanted to give her some growing room.

She sure is growing up in a hurry! *sigh*

Since Sunday was the last day of his vacation, Joe wanted to be bad and skip church. He wanted to sleep in and get a lazy day in, since he won’t get another vacation until March… So that’s what we did… We did do a little bit of housework, but mainly we just bummed.

As for today, Joe is back to work, and the kids and I got some housework done… I’m also doing some laundry, as Mondays are my usual laundry days (along with Thursdays)… Well, the dryer just stopped, so I better run! … Catch ya on the flip side!

Man, was Saturday ever a busy day!

We left the house at around 10 o’clock to head to Clark Park in town… Molalla Communications, where we get our internet service, was having their annual customer appreciation picnic… Though we’ve been a customer of MC since 2007, this is the first time we’ve ever made it to one of these picnics. It seems like usually they fall on the same day as a reunion, or some other plans we have going on.

So anyway, we got there by 10:30-ish, and went and registered. We were given a ticket for the door prizes, and a list of activities, etc. Then we went to the tent for the meeting, which ran from 11:00 to 12:00… That was the boring part. *lol* … But if you want to do the fun stuff, and have a chance at the door prizes (which were really nice), then you have to deal with the boring meeting.

Sadly, we didn’t win a door prize… I would have been happy with any of them. There was so many cool things. A Nintendo Wii, a large digital frame, a digital camera with memory card and case, a 1 TB external hard-drive… Stuff like that… But what I REALLY wanted was the iPod touch, and we came SO CLOSE! Our last two digits were 82, and it was 76 that got it. Boooooo! We came close to a couple of the other items too, as 86 and 87 were called.

At noon we went out to enjoy the activities… There were a few of those huge blow-up things for the kids, face painting, a DJ, stuff like that. They were also feeding us for free too! We got hotdogs, chips, cookies, soda, and water. As much as we wanted. It’s was a pretty good deal, and the kids enjoyed themselves.

We had one scary moment though… Alicia stuck her finger inside her pop-can, for some unknown reason, and ended up cutting her finger. The cut itself wasn’t bad, but it was bleeding pretty good. So we went and found a napkin and got to bleeding stopped. Then we went to stand in the Molalla Communications booth, so that we could spin the wheel and try to win a MC shirt… Anyway, we were standing in line when Alicia told me that she felt like she was going to be sick. So I put my arm around her shoulder… The next thing I knew, she was falling to the ground. I called her name, and tried to catch her, but no luck (she’s getting heavy). She fell against Amanda, and on top of the feet of the guy behind us… Her eyes were open and staring into space. I kept calling her name, but she wouldn’t respond. She had passed out!!!!! … I was about into panic mode, but Joe kept his head on. He had a little water left in his bottle, so he poured it over the top of her face, and that woke her up. She looked at Joe funny and said, “What did you do that for, Daddy?” … Which made us laugh a little, though we were still worried… Anyway, I sent Jared for a bottle of water for her, and Joe carried her to the shade (the temps were in the low 90s). She ended up drinking a bottle and a half of water, and after resting for a bit, she seemed fine.

I never want to do that again!!!

While Alicia rested (Amanda and I stayed with her), Joe and Josh went to go spin the wheel, and Jared went to get Alicia an animal balloon, since she didn’t get one when Amanda did, and wanted a horse one. (Isn’t Jared the sweetest! He was worried for his sister, and was doing all sorts of things for her. So sweet!) … Then, since her face painting got messed up when Joe poured the water on her, we took the girls back to the face painting booth for another painting. When that was done, we headed out.

After leaving Clark Park, we headed to Feyrer Park, so that the kids could go swimming in the Molalla River… Josh has been DESPERATE to go, and I don’t think we really had an option! *lol*

At that point in the river, the water only comes up to the boys’ shoulders, and the current isn’t very fast, so it’s a good place to play. The only downfall is that the bank is covered in rocks, which makes it hard to walk around… One nice thing about the rocks though, is that someone made a couple circles of rocks along the edge of the river, which made a perfect place for Amanda to play. We just told her that she had to play in the circle. She was content to do so, and we didn’t have to worry about her going out too far. Win-win!

The three older kids had fun swimming, while Amanda amused herself with catching tiny polywogs along the edge…  We stayed there for about an hour, and then headed home.

And we stayed home just long enough for the kids to change into dry clothes and grab their bowling balls.

When we got back to town we hit McDonald’s for dinner and an ice cream cone, and then went to bowl their two free games at Molalla Bowl… By that point we were all so tired, that when we got home, we VEGGED for the rest of the night.

Jared had a good time at the Youth Movie Night at church on Friday. I guess they watched a movie called, “Glory Road”, which is a basketball movie… Basketball is one of Jared’s passions, so he was quite impressed.

This coming Friday the youth group is having a bonfire/bbq, which I think he wants to go to as well.

Tonight was the kids bowling league night… We went in an hour early, so that the kids could bowl their two free games, and then they bowled their three league games… Anyway, Jared did very well tonight. His scores were; Free games = 146 & 141 (Josh’s were 166 and 120, and Alicia’s were 102 and 88), and Jared’s league games were = 129, 199, and 164 (Josh’s were 127, 157, and 114 and Alicia’s were 93, 86, and 106). On the 199 game, he bowled 5 strikes in a row!!! How awesome is that?!

All the kids have really improved their bowling skills this summer. The kidsbowlfree.com was the perfect program for them, for being able to practice all summer long. They are going to have a marked improvement when they get to the official league this fall.

I can’t believe how fast summer seems to be zooming by! … Those long, lazy days of summer have come to an end. We’re always so busy now… Mainly with the bowling alley, that it makes the days seem to go by faster. *sigh* … The next thing we know, it will be time for school to start up again.

Speaking of school, UPS brought the rest of Jared’s homeschool books yesterday. It looks like math, literature, and life science are going to be his tough classes this year. The other subjects seem like there are less lessons, which isn’t hurting Jared’s feelings… And the fact that there is one less subject isn’t bothering him either. *lol* … This year his subjects will be; Bible, Math, Literature, Writing and Grammar, Vocabulary, World Studies, and Life Science… Jared’s looking forward to the chapters on wildlife in his science book. Those are always his favorite.

Now that the rest of the books are here, I need to finish up the lesson plans for the year. I also need to write the letter to the school board, telling them of our intent to homeschool. You have to do that every year.

Last Sunday we had our picture taken at church… They have this board in the church, with pictures of everyone who attends. It’s like a church directory, only without addresses and phone numbers. *lol* … Anyway, one of the deacons, Lee Christopherson, took us back into one of the Sunday School rooms (which doesn’t seemed to be used… The congregation is much smaller than the church building *lol*) that has this background set up, for taking these pictures… Well anyway, when he was done I gave him my Email address and asked if he would Email me copies of the pictures he took. I wasn’t expecting too much, as his camera looked kind of sad… But I was hoping for better than we got… I don’t know if he resized the photos, or if his camera just doesn’t take them in larger resolution, but these are so small you wouldn’t even get a decent printing in a 4X6. *sigh* … Oh well… I looked so round anyway, that it pretty much ruined the picture anyway.

Did I mention that our dishwasher is on the fritz? It’s been broken for a little over a week now… It’s amazing how dependent you become on an appliance. *lol* … I’ve so not been enjoying having to wash the dishes by hand all the time. … We’re hoping to get Joe’s BIL, Gene, over sometime soon to look at it… Gene is the family handyman.

The kittens are still doing well… And are as cute as ever! … But CeeCee is still being whiney. … Even though she was almost 8 weeks old when we got her, I think she wasn’t ready to leave mama kitty yet. She still wants to nurse a lot… She’s learning that she isn’t going to get what she wants from us but, unfortunately, Tootsie is a very mellow kitty. When he’s laying down to get a snooze, CeeCee will go try to nurse on him… And he just lays there and lets her. We’ve tried pulling CeeCee away from Tootsie, but she cries so pitifully that we give in… I told the kids that it was like when they were toddlers and sucked their thumbs for comfort.

We, of course, did a lot of bowling this week … Well, they did. Amanda and I didn’t bowl. … Joe got off work early enough on Tuesday to go, which made the boys very happy. That morning Jared had come to me and told me that his hand was starting to act up, as he was going through bowling withdrawals. *lol* … Then Wednesday they bowled their two free games, and the Have-A-Ball league. Thursday was the kids free league, and today we went just to bowl their free games.

Jared’s been really doing well this week, most of his games being 150 to 194! … He was really going wild on Thursday, and ended up bowling EIGHT games! In a row! … And he probably would have kept on bowling, had Joe let him.

Joe and Alicia both have new high games this week… On Wednesday (during practice, not during the league) Joe bowled a 194 and Alicia bowled a 103… Alicia was flying HIGH with happiness, and Joe was pretty much in shock.

Lately, when we go to the bowling alley, the owners, Shawn and Teri, are both there and they bring their kids, Blake and Shelby… Amanda and Shelby just LOVE to play together, and call each other their best friend. It’s so cute, and they are adorable together. … Anyway, when we go there, we don’t see much of Amanda. As soon as we get there, those two are off and running (all the workers there know us well, and help watch over both the girls). Their favorite place to play is by the lockers, for some reason… Shelby was sure disappointed when we had to leave today. Poor sweetie!

I do know one thing… We’ve GOT to stop eating dinner at the bowling alley! We ate there on both Wednesday and today. *sigh* … If we keep eating there, and I keep getting hamburgers and jojos, then I won’t be losing weight very quickly. *sigh* I’m going to need a weight loss dietary supplement if we keep it up. … I’m down 53 lbs now, but I seem to be stuck here… I hope I lose another pound soon, so I don’t get discouraged!

We had to make sure to leave the bowling alley by 6:50-ish, because tonight Jared had his very first youth group outing at church… Well, it wasn’t really an outing, but you know what I mean. *lol* … Anyway, they had a Youth Group Movie Night. I don’t know what they are watching, but I do know that they will be having pizza and other snack items to munch on during the movie… They were allowed to bring a friend, so we invited Jamie and Jacob to go with him. They seemed pretty excited about it. … Since we live 7 miles out of town, Debbie offered to pick the kids up when it was over, and just take Jared home with them to spend the night. Jared LOVED that idea, because for the first time since he was a toddler, he will have both Jamie and Jacob all to himself.

Both Joe and Debbie were worried about Josh’s reaction to everything… Joe thought Josh would be upset about missing movie night, and even wanted to ask Boone (the youth pastor) if Josh could stay anyway. As for Debbie, she was worried that Josh would cry if Jared got to spend the night there, and he didn’t… But I held firm. I told them that Josh needed to learn that Jared, as the oldest, sometimes would get to do things he wasn’t old enough for yet (like getting his own cell phone)… I didn’t think it would be fair to Jared, if Josh got to do a youth group thing, when he wasn’t in the youth group… But there was no need to worry… Josh wasn’t upset at all. He did say it was weird to have Jared gone for the night, when he was home, but other than that, nothing… I knew that Josh would take it like a man. He’s a good kid!

One of our neighbors had told Joe that there was another park in Molalla, called Wilhoit Springs. So, after dropping Jared and the twins off at the church, we decided to drive out there really quick, to see what it was like… We had found it odd that no one seemed to know about this park… Well, now we know… It isn’t much of a park. … It was more like a semi-big field with a few trees and picnic tables. There was a path to the “springs”, but the springs weren’t much to speak off. Pretty small, actually. There wasn’t a playground, and the parking lot held a grand total of 3 cars.

It was pretty though, and would be a nice place to go take pictures of the kids. I got this really cute one of the girls that I just love.

Oh.. One more thing before I sign off for the night…

Alicia lost another tooth today! This is tooth #8… She has now officially lost more teeth than Josh, and the same amount as Jared. … Yes, Jared, who is 12 1/2 years old, has only lost his 8 front teeth. Josh has lost 7, though #8 is loose. (Amanda has lost 6.)

Alicia’s top teeth are coming in pretty crooked. I have a bad feeling that she will be ending up with braces, as they don’t look like they are going to straighten out on their own, like Jared’s did… I’m NOT looking forward to paying for those, especially since Josh may end up with them too. *sigh*

Well… I think I may go grab one of my 100 calorie bags of popcorn and watch an episode of Smallville… Catch ya’ll on the flip side!

I’m sorry I haven’t checked in sooner… I’ve been working on my heritage blog, and couldn’t pull myself away from that to post here on my real blog. … You know me… When I get lost in a project, I tend to lose sight of everything else. … But I told myself that I wasn’t allowed back there until I had posted here and caught up on my blog hopping.

The new kitten is doing great. … CeeCee has stolen my heart. She is just so cute and sweet, and she always comes and wants to snuggle with me. … Of course, she isn’t a lap cat. She’s a shoulder cat. *lol* Every time I pick her up, straight to my shoulder she goes. She either perches up there and looks around, or she snuggles in and takes a nap.

She is also the whiniest cat EVER. She meows over EVERY THING. You so much as shift her a centimeter, when you’re holding her, and she meows. She meows when she eats, plays, and even when she’s using the litter box. *lol* … There is a gospel singer called “CeCe Winans” … Well, we’ve taken to calling CeeCee, “CeeCee Whiners”.

She is also NOT the brightest color in the box… When you’re holding her and she decides that she is hungry, she will start rooting around your neck, like she is wanting to nurse. So I put her on the floor, so she can go eat… Only she just keeps crying and wanting up. I actually have to pick her up and take her to the food bowl, so she can eat. *lol* … I am beginning to think that CeeCee should stand for “Clueless Cassie”, instead of “Cotton Candy”.

It’s a good thing she’s sweet and adorable!

Last Sunday we spent the day cleaning and organizing our two sheds. It took us something like 5 hours, but they look great now! … We still have a big pile of things to go to the GoodWill, and a big pile of things to go to the dump, but other than that, that’s two more things checked off my summer worklist.

We’re still going to the bowling alley all the time. … The kids are going to go into bowling withdrawals when summer ends and they no longer get all the free bowling coupons from kidsbowlfree.com. *lol* … But all this practice is really helping their bowling skills! … This last week, Joe and both the boys have bowled new high games! … Last Wednesday, during their free games, Joe bowled a 177. Funny thing is, the game started out just awful, for the first  6 frames, and then on the last 4 frames he got SIX STRIKES IN A ROW!!! (He got 3 strikes in the last frame.) … If he had bowled better in the first 6 frames, his score would have been much better… I think he was in shock for the rest of the evening. It took a while for it to sink in.

Then, that same night, during the Have-A-Ball league, Josh bowled a 182! … Guess he didn’t like that Joe had beat his top score during practice, so he had to make sure to beat Daddy’s game.

The next day, while playing the free games (after the free summer kids’ league), Jared bowled a 203!!!!!!! … And it was almost a clean game too! … A clean game is where you don’t leave any pins standing (no open frames). If you get all strikes and spares, then they consider it a clean game… Well, he got strikes and spared on all 10 frames (more spares than strikes), but when he bowled his last ball, after the spare on the 10th frame, he only got 8 pins down. Scott says that it doesn’t count, and that it’s still considered a clean game… But there was 2 pins left standing… So I don’t know… *lol* … But a 203! How awesome is that?!

Oh… And last Sunday (the 11th), Josh and Alicia got their trophies for the Pro-Am game they bowled in June… Josh had bowled AWESOME that night, and got 2nd place for the kids 10 and under… As for Alicia, we’re a little confused… She actually didn’t bowl well at all. Her average (on the bumper league) was in the upper 70s, but she didn’t get to use bumpers during the tournament. So she was only bowling in the 40s, which was UNDER her average… I know she has a really high handicap, but that usually only helps if you bowl over your average (which Josh did… He bowled WELL over his average!)… Anyway, Alicia won 1st place for the 10 and under kids, and bumped Josh to 2nd place… It makes no sense. *lol* … I am happy for Alicia, but I think that Josh deserved the 1st place trophy… And Alicia thinks so too!

On Monday the boys got to go to the farm again… Their cousin, Leann, was going for the day and she came and picked them up and took them with her… Leann’s mom, Dorothy (Joe’s sister), is staying there for the summer, helping out with things around the farm… Dorothy is a teacher, and has summer vacation off work… Anyway, she is doing things like painting their house, and helping with the garden, etc… Jared and Josh helped in the garden some too, and that evening they all took a walk to the top of Black Tail (a big hill on the property). They also played some board games… They seemed to have a good time.

I am annoyed by one thing this week… Our dishwasher is acting up! … It only runs for a couple minutes, and then it stops. It stays on, and the heating element stays hot, but there is no water running… Josh had loaded it on Tuesday night, and when we opened it on Wednesday, we thought that Josh had forgotten to run it. So we turned it on again, and dirtied up more dishes when we ate breakfast… By Wednesday afternoon we had figured out that it was broken, and that I would have to wash everything by hand… By then there was 2 loads of dirty dishes! *sigh* … So after spending FOREVER washing all the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, I couldn’t convince myself to make dinner and mess the kitchen up again… So we ended up eating dinner at the bowling alley, before they bowed the Have-A-Ball league.

So… Until Gene (Joe’s BIL) has a chance to come out and look at the dishwasher, we’re having to do all the dishes by hand… And trust me, these kids go through a LOT of dishes!

We found out on Saturday that there was another cougar sighting in the neighborhood!!! That makes 3 in 10 months. *sigh* … I am beginning to wish we had a place in town, instead of out here in the boonies… No matter how much I like the quiet! … Anyway, this one was seen running along the tree line, out past the houses. Not too close, but close enough!

Now I have to keep Alicia and Amanda closer to home… They like to run around the neighborhood with their little friends, but now they have to stay in the yard. They are not liking that too much. But it’s better to be safe, than sorry… Especially since the kids love to play in the field… The tree line is just a few hundred feet from the field, with just a small fence between them.

Since I finally got a few assignments from PayU2Blog, I actually got $50 from them on Friday… So I transferred it to our checking account, and on Saturday Joe and I went to Walmart to buy some school supplies for this year… So, I now almost have everything we need for the school year… I need four 3-inch binders (to put the kids worksheets, lesson plans, tests, grades, etc in for the year), and they only had 1 in stock. So I still need 3 more of those. But we have everything else we need. … Now that I got the banker boxes, I can pack up last year’s workbooks, etc and get this year’s set up… I also need to finish up this year’s lesson plans… I have Josh’s done, and Jared’s 1/2 done.

When we went shopping, we left the kids at home with Jared. Joe and I went to the GoodWill first, and then stopped by Taco Bell for a late lunch/early dinner. It was nice having some time for just the two of us… … It sure is a lot cheaper to eat out with just the two of us, instead of paying for all 6 of us!

We found the coolest “art cart” at the GoodWill (a local thrift store) …. It was $20, which seemed like a good deal to me! …  We picked it up for Alicia, and now I have all her craft things all organized in the cart… She loves it! It’s perfect for her things.

On Sunday, Jared made another step in his journey to adult hood… He is now an official member of the youth group… Our church doesn’t have a separate junior high group and high school group, as there aren’t enough teens. So the youth group is 7th to 12th grade… Anyway, Jared has been telling me that Sunday School is getting boring, because he keeps hearing the same stories over and over, and since he will be in 7th grade in a couple months, I decided it was time he moved up… He wasn’t too impressed at first, but I think he was just scared about trying something new. Once class was over, he told me that it was fun and that he was sorry for being a baby about it.

The only thing Jared doesn’t like, is the fact that he’s the youngest and smallest one there… He’s the only 7th grader, and he is VERY small for his age… But Jared is mature for his age, so I think he’s going to fit right in. He just needs to do some growing, physically.

Anyway, the youth pastor, Boone Noble, gave Jared a binder. They are working on something called “Setting You Free to Make RIGHT CHOICES”. It’s a 7 week course, with daily lessons/devotionals. I guess they started in 2 weeks ago, so Jared has to catch up on the last couple weeks. Last night, without anyone even having to say anything, Jared brought his binder to the table and started working on it… He’s going to do 3 days every day this week, so he will be caught up by next Sunday.

I’m glad he’s enjoying the class already. … And Boone is a great youth leader… He’s going to be going to the seminary this fall, as he wants to be a Pastor someday.

This Friday he has his first official youth outing. … They are having a “Youth Movie Night” on Friday, at 7 pm… They can bring friends, so Jared is going to take Jacob and Jamie… I think that Jared likes that Josh and the girls are too young to go, especially now that he will miss out on the children’s day camps. (Of course, even Josh and the girls will miss the next one of those, since we will be camping that weekend.)

Well, I need to eat breakfast, do my workout, shower, and start laundry… So I will get to the blog hopping some time this afternoon.

Another week has gone by in between posts… I really need to stop that! I tell myself that I should post at least 2-3 times a week, but then I get wrapped up in some project or another, and well… There goes that!

Now that the wedding album is finished, I am taking a bit of a digi-scrapping break. That album was 138 layouts big, and that’s a lot of scrapping. … So the project I am currently focused on is getting old photos posted to Flickr and moving old blog posts over here… I will add a month’s worth of photos to Flickr, and then all that same month’s worth of posts to this blog. Then I can use the Flickr photos in the blog post… So now, all my old posts that didn’t have pictures on them, have photos now. (Well, if I took any photos that day ) … I just finished up June of 2005 yesterday. I still have July ’05 to April ’09 to go, then my entire 18 years of journaling will be in one place.

Tootsie is doing so well! … He’s turning out to be the best little kitty ever! He is really super sweet. He purrs all the time, even when he’s playing… And you should see him play! When he’s in a hyper mood, he bounces around the house, pouncing on anything that moves, and a lot of things that don’t. *lol* … And he LOVES to play with one of us. The more attention he gets, the happier he is. … And when he’s tired, he loves to be snuggled with and sleep in someones lap. … He was also the easiest cat to litter-box train… I thought it would be harder, since he had been outside (or under a house) since he was born, and never used a litter box before. But, we only had to show him the litter box one time, and he’s NEVER had a single accident. When he has to go, he just bounces off to the laundry room and hops into the box. (He bounces everywhere he goes… He’s a lot like Tigger and Roo from Pooh Bear. *lol* … In fact, I call him Tootsie-Roo all the time, because of the bouncing he does. *lol*)

The girls have been having lots of fun playing outside with their little friends, now that summer seems to have FINALLY arrived. Alicia hurries through her morning routine (shower, chores, breakfast), because the sooner she is done, the sooner she can go outside. Half the time the girls put their swim suits on under their clothes, and when it gets warm enough, they fill up their pool, or play with the hose… Alicia also spends half her time on her bike.

Amanda doesn’t spend quite as much time outside as Alicia does. A lot of the time, Amanda will come inside and play on Josh’s computer, while the rest of them are off doing other things. (Josh installed Alicia’s “Pony Love” game on his computer for Amanda, so Amanda likes to play that.   )

As for the boys, they like to go play basket ball, but not when the sun is the highest, because Josh gets hot and doesn’t want to play outside. So they will play in the mornings for a while, and then in the evenings for quite a long time… Jared would spend more time outside, if only Josh would come out with him more. (Unlike the girls, who have lots of friends, the boys haven’t made any close friends. There are a few boys they play basketball with, but then it ends there. … All the kids, that the boys enjoyed playing with, moved away.    )

We’ve been doing a LOT of bowling this week… For the first time ever, we were there 5 days in a row! … I am glad we have no plans to be there today or tomorrow. … Joe and the kids are really enjoying the free passes from kidsbowlfree.com. … … We originally weren’t planning on going on Friday, but (while I was giving Joe and the kids haircuts) Joe’s dad called and said that he had something for us. He and Elvina wanted to come watch the kids bowl and give us the thing… Joe and I really didn’t want to go anywhere, but the kids did… So, we went ahead and ate dinner there and the kids bowled… They even talked Grandma into bowling a game! She had only bowled once before in her entire life. She said that she bowled a 53 the first time, and on Friday she bowled a 70! I was impressed! … After they were done bowling, we all went to McDonald’s for some ice cream… Well, I didn’t have any, I had already been bad by eating a hamburger at the bowling alley, so I thought that I better not have ice cream too! (My weight loss journey is going well. I am down 46 pounds now. )

Jared, Josh, and Alicia all have new high bowling scores from this week!!! … On Thursday (the 24th), Jared bowled a 183!!! … On Saturday (the 26th), Alicia bowled a 87 with no bumpers, and even got 2 strikes in a row!!! … And yesterday, Josh bowled a 171! He was on fire! … Too bad none of those scores are league scores. *lol*

On Saturday the kids went to their first ever “Bible Camp” with the kids from church (Lifegate never did any Bible Camps)… This was actually a first for me, and kind of hard… For the first time EVER, we dropped the kids off at church, and they were bussed to Feyrer Park… Without us or a relative… We dropped them off at 11 o’clock, and then picked them back up at the church at 3 o’clock.

The kids had a BLAST. This was the first time that any of them have been on a bus, so that was a big highlight for them. … They got to have a scavenger hunt, they made buttons, played games, and had hamburger and hotdogs for lunch. There was also a Bible story… Oh, and they were all given yellow shorts that said “Grace Church Bible Camp” on them, but Josh’s really didn’t fit well. I wanted to get a picture of them all wearing them, but Amanda and the boys took them off as soon as we came with the Durango. *sigh* … I gave Josh a disposable camera (I didn’t want the kids to lose their digital cameras, and asked them not to take them), so he took a bunch of pictures for me… I just need to get them developed. *lol*

While they were doing the Bible Camp thing, Joe and I went out for lunch (Arctic Circle) and went to Walmart for groceries (and we stopped by the Goodwill too)… We thought 4 hours would be plenty of time, but it wasn’t! We were 5 minutes late getting back to the church to pick the kids up! So embarrassing! … If we had skipped the Goodwill we wouldn’t have run out of time, so if we do this again, we won’t do anything but lunch and Walmart. *lol*

We ended up missing church yesterday. … Joe is scheduled off at 8:30 on Sundays, so that we can go to church… But yesterday a couple guys switched shifts, and there was no one else who was trained on the register. So Joe was stuck at the gas station until 11 o’clock. *sigh* … Joe was NOT impressed! … The manager assured Joe that this wouldn’t happen again, so we won’t have to miss church again.

Well… I need to eat breakfast, do my morning chores, workout, shower, and get laundry going… So I best go for now! … See ya on the flip side!

A good Wednesday morning to all my blogging buddies out there! Hope you’re all having a great week! … There’s not too much going on in Johnsonland,  but I thought I would check in anyway.

Tootsie is doing well. He’s adapting to his new living arrangements with flying colors. By Sunday you wouldn’t even have thought he was a stray that had never been handled by people before. He’s loving all the attention, and is purring all the time… And he’s beyond sweet and adorable. … So far Cuddles and Buddy aren’t too happy that he’s around, but I am hoping/praying that Buddy will come around in a week or so… Cuddles has never accepted Buddy as a friend (though Buddy has no issues with Cuddles, and would be friends if she let him). Cuddles tolerates Buddy, as long as he doesn’t get too close. She seems to be doing the same with Tootsie. She watches him, but only gets upset if he gets too close.

Last night Josh actually got all three of them together on his bed… But he had to “trick” them… Cuddles didn’t seem to know that Buddy was there (though she was keeping an eye on Tootsie, to make sure he didn’t get too close), and Buddy had no idea that Tootsie was on the other side of Josh… Tootsie, on the other hand, didn’t care who else was on the bed. *lol* … I sure hope that they can all be friends someday…

Anyway, on Sunday afternoon I gave Tootsie a bath, and he was so good! You take your life into your own hands when you try to bathe Buddy (Cuddles has always been easy, as long as Jared is the one bathing her). Tootsie, on the other hand, didn’t even meow. He just stood there while I washed him. I also sprayed him with some flea spray (that is OK for kittens), and he didn’t freak over that either… I just wanted to make sure to kill the fleas before they got to Cuddles and Buddy. It seems to have worked too, as I haven’t seen any more on Tootsie. I got this stuff from bugspray.com, and it works better than anything you can buy in the stores. It even works better than Advantage.

Hmmm… What else has been going on?

This last weekend, Joe’s Grandma Johnson (his step-grandma) was in town with her daughter, Linda, and Linda’s husband, Russ. They live in Eureka, South Dakota. They moved there in 2006 and we hadn’t seen them since then… Anyway, we tried to set up a thing with Joe’s family to go see Grandma, but nothing seemed to work out.

Anyway, Grandma, Linda, and Russ were staying with Jerie Gracie, who is the church secretary of Lifegate Baptist Church, where we went when we lived in Portland. That’s where Luellen (Joe’s Grandma), Linda, and Russ went too. We knew that they would be going to church at Lifegate, so we decided to go there for church on Sunday too, to surprise Grandma.

It was good to see them… It was also good to see some of our old friends from Lifegate… Though MAN, there isn’t many people who still go there… There was a lot of issues that went down after we left the church (when we moved to Molalla), and a lot of people left the church. Pastor Clark retired too… Anyway, during services there were only around 30 people (including the 6 of us) in the congregation… It was really sad… The only reason the church is staying afloat is that two other churches used the building. A Mexican church uses the old sanctuary, and I guess there is an Asian church that hold services there too.

Anyway, we did get to see the Gainers and the Wilsons, and Leonard Janes still goes there. Oh, and the Peytons were still there. It was really nice to see them all… We didn’t get to see Jerie Gracie though, as she was sick and didn’t come to church.

Sunday evening took us back to Molalla Bowl for the kids’ junior league… We went early so they could bowl their two free games, and this time Craig didn’t mess anything up. *lol* … Also, he didn’t even charge Joe and Alicia for their shoe rentals.

While they were bowling, Jacob got it in his head that the boys needed to spend the night, so they made all these plans with Scott and Debbie, and forgot to ask us. *lol* … Later, Josh comes over and says something about sleeping over, and Joe and I are like, what? … So I go over to Debbie and said, “The boys seem to think they are spending the night, do you know anything about this?” *lol* … So the boys ended up going home with them… I hope this doesn’t go on all summer long!

I didn’t do much on Monday… Just some laundry and housework… Oh, and I am still working my rear off on that wedding album. (I have over 100 layouts done so far. When I am finished I am going to need a scrapping break. *lol*) … As for the boys, Joe picked them up on his way home from work. I was glad they were home.

Last night Alicia had her first (non related) friend over for a sleepover. Darian, who is the same age as Alicia, spent the night. The girls (including Amanda) had a lot of fun, and were well behaved… Just giggly. *lol* … There was one mishap though… They wanted some popcorn, which Alicia has made a LOT. But this time, for some unknown reason, Alicia thought Josh told her to nuke the popcorn for FOUR minutes, instead of just hitting the button that says “Popcorn”. She SCORCHED the popcorn… OMWord, but did the house ever smell! I had Jared take the garbage out right away, and we opened some windows, but even this morning it still stinks in here. *sigh*

Oh! I almost forgot! … Amanda lost another tooth yesterday! It’s been quite loose for a while now, and yesterday it just sort of popped out. She wasn’t even trying at the time. *lol* She was just walking down the hallway when it came out. I guesss it just fell out of her mouth and landed on her shirt.   She stopped in surprise and then ran back to me with it, all excited. … The other top tooth is loose too, but it’s not quite as wiggly, so it will probably be a week or so before it comes out.

Well, I suppose I should eat some breakfast and get my morning chores done… See ya on the flip side!

It was sure quiet around the house, without the boys here… I guess the main reason would be because Josh takes the whole “big brother” thing to a whole new level… He is a Johnson, after all… He likes to tease the girls (mainly Alicia) until she is literally screaming in frustration. (It’s actually quite annoying! *sigh*) Then, when I get after him about it, he always just says, “But I was only teasing!” … Just like his Dad and Grandpa, he doesn’t know when enough is enough. (Joe REALLY doesn’t know when to stop either. *sigh*) … Anyway, without the teasing, the girls didn’t do any screaming… So that was nice!

Now, don’t get me wrong… Josh doesn’t ALWAYS tease Alicia… Sometimes they are the best of friends, and sometimes they are the worst of enemies. And they have been like that since Alicia was tiny… They do play together a lot… They’re relationship is very strange. *lol*

I sure missed the boys when they were gone though. It just didn’t feel right, only having 2 kids at home. I kept telling the girls that I missed them, and Amanda would say, “I miss them more than you do!” … So it looks like I am not the only one who was glad to see them.

On Thursday we took the girls to the family swim at the pool. The girls had fun, even though the boys weren’t there to play with (Debbie and the twins didn’t come either). We only ended up staying about an hour though, instead of the entire 2 hours… The girls would have liked to stay longer, but Joe started not feeling very well… Plus, a group of 3 Mexican guys and a white guy came in. They had to have been in their mid-30′s, but they acted like a bunch of immature 12 year olds. They were loud and roudy, and with the way they were throwing the balls, I was sure that one of the kids would get hit with a ball… So I was glad to leave… And the girls didn’t complain either, especially since it meant that Mommy would be making dinner all that sooner. *rofl*

On Friday we took the girls to Molalla Bowl, so that we could use up the free passes from kidsbowlfree.com. We told the girls that we would bowl just the two free games, and then we would eat dinner there at the bowling alley, after we bowled. I even told them that IF it was quiet enough there, I would bowl too… So, since it seemed slow, all four of us got shoes and we got 2 lanes. Bumpers for Amanda and me, and a regular lane for Joe and Alicia… Alicia has been wanting to practice without the bumpers up, and she’s getting better! She even got a 59!!! … And yes, I need bumpers. *rofl* … I am THAT BAD!

Unfortunatly, during the first game, the bowling alley started to fill up. So Amanda and I decided to only bowl one game… Meanwhile, Joe and Alicia bowled their two and then moved over to our lane. They put the bumpers down and finished up mine and Amanda’s 2nd game. Joe bowled under my name, and Alicia bowled under Amanda’s.

Then we got dinner… We should have just gone somewhere else… Thankfully, we were first in line… They only had one poor girl back there, working all alone, and she got bombarded! Seems like she spent over 30 minutes (after we sat down), just taking orders, before she got to even start making ours. We had to wait forever for our food, and then when we finally got it, the fries had been overcooked and were a bit more crunchy than I like them… But I did feel sorry for her. She really needed some help back there! (I don’t think they expected it to be that busy, as it’s normally not at that time of day.)

When we got home from the bowling alley, I wanted to make some cookies. We had some birthdays to cover. (We give cookies to family on their birthday) I had Joe stop at Thriftway on the way home, because I knew I needed some baking butter and more chocolate chips. So we got that and headed home. Then Joe went outside to work in the hard, and I went to work on the cookies… Only to discover that I was almost out of brown sugar! Rats! I only had enough for one single, solitary batch of cookies… I have never made just ONE batch of cookies at a time before. It almost didn’t seem worth the effort. *lol* Before I even started I had switched the laundry… I had the cookies made, the dishes washed, and the kitchen clean, all before the dryer stopped. *lol*

Anyway, I was only able to make enough cookies for Jamie Q. Michael’s birthday is this coming Saturday, so I will make his on Thursday… After getting some more brown sugar.

On Saturday we had a family reunion at the farm… I really WAS NOT looking forward to going, mainly because of the dogs. Everyone brings their dogs and lets them run free… And they all seem to want to run STRAIGHT to me. *sigh*… And this time there were 6 of them! … One of them was an extremely hyper 2 year old golden lab. OMWord, was that dog HYPER. Poor Amanda was scared out of her mind, and spent a good portion of her time flying to either mine or Joe’s lap. Finally Jamie Q and her boyfriend put the dog in the back of their pickup, and Amanda was able to get down. She isn’t afraid of the other dogs, because they aren’t as wild.

It was AWESOME to see the boys again. It was sooo nice to give them nice, long hugs. … Even Amanda threw herself at her brothers for some hugs too, which seemed to amuse both of the boys.

Sounds like they had a really nice time at the farm (they had been there since Wednesday). They got to help out with little chores around the farm, and had a lot of fun with Great-Grandma Toepfer and Uncles Larry and Ronnie… In fact, I think the Toepfers would adopt them, if they could. *lol* Larry, Ronnie, and Grandma Toepfer couldn’t say enough wonderful things about Jared and Josh. Marie (Joe’s Grandma) went on and on about how well we are raising the boys, and how sweet and smart they are. Larry seemed impressed with how much they like to help with the chores, and Ronnie (who loves to tease) got a kick with the teasing back and forth between him and the boys… And, of course, Jared can give as good as he gets, and that tickled Ronnie… I guess one time Jared was looking into Ronnie’s ear, and pretending it could see clear through out the other ear. *lol* … And I guess they were telling the boys that they were going to send them down the outhouse, head first, to take inventory.

Anyway, we are going to make some plans to have the boys spend some more time down there this summer. The Toepfers enjoy it, and the boys enjoy it… And I think it’s good for all of them… Just maybe not for me, since I miss them so much.

There is one depressing thing though… I guess on Thursday Ronnie let the boys ride on one (or two) of the horses, and NO ONE took a picture! *pout*… This is the first time the boys were on a horse, and I MISSED IT, and I don’t have any photos to show for it… I am going to go pout now! *lol*

Other than the dogs, the day was mostly nice… Joe’s Dad was mad at us though, and was grumping at us all day. … He was mad because we only came for the day, and we didn’t camp… Debbie told us that he told them that it was *insert bad word here* that we had a nice trailer, but didn’t bring it to camp… But you can’t have hookups, and I can’t shower in it there… And I can’t go without a shower. My skin and hair is too oily, and I NEED my morning shower! … So, it was no fun dealing with Jim all day… Because when he gets mad, he can REALLY hold a grudge! (Which is where Joe gets it from *sigh*) … I guess when we got there, Joe went over to say hello, and Jim said something about us being a day late and a dollar short, and he didn’t say it in a nice way either.

We also had one other issue, with Joe and Jim… Joe’s family always does this Bingo thing at all the get-togethers like this. You’re supposed to buy cheap prizes from the dollar store and wrap them up in newspaper. Then the winners of the game get to pick a prize from the pile… I never play, but Joe and the kids enjoy it… Anyway, when it was time, Joe grabbed his chair and went into the shop to play. As he was pulling out some Bingo boards, Jim and Joe have this conversation:

Jim: “Did you bring any prizes?” (in a grumpy tone)
Joe: “Yes, why?”
Jim: “Because you can’t play if you didn’t bring any.”
Joe: “Yes I can, who says?”
Jim: “I did.”
Joe: “Well, then I won’t play.”
Jim: “Fine, be an *insert bad word here* then!”

Then Joe left and refused to play… He was mad, and he’s still mad… And Joe can hold a grudge just as long as Jim can. (Like father, like son. *sigh*) … What is insane is that we DID bring some things, and even if we didn’t, the table was PILED with gifts. Plus, some of the older relatives didn’t bring anything, and Jim didn’t have any trouble with them playing.

I just can’t believe Joe’s dad called his own son such a name!

The weather was really nice (at first), which was quite a shock to the system, after all the rain! (and it was back to raining by the time night fell)… Since it wasn’t raining, and the boys and Alicia were off playing games with their cousins, we took Amanda on a little walk to see the waterfalls that are on the Toepfers’ property (they have something like 380-ish acres). I’ve never been to see the falls before… I have no idea why… Though we only went to the top of the falls. We were told that the trail down was really muddy and slick (because of all the rain), so we didn’t want to chance it… It was a nice walk anyway, and Amanda seemed to enjoy herself. She even picked some flowers for Great Grandma Toepfer.

Luckily, the kids were oblivious to the issues between their Dad and their Grandpa. They all played, and came home with lots of cheap prizes… They got glow sticks, poptarts, a bike lock, some containers, etc. Josh even got a pair of fake glasses with a nose, which is SO FUNNY!. *lol* … He’s all about those, since he is such a goofball! … And you should have seen the grin on Alicia’s face when she won those poptarts. She does love her food!

Josh sure gave cousin LeRoy (who’s around 24-25 years old) a laugh though. He saw Josh’s shirt (which used to belong to Jacob) that said “Parents for Sale”, but didn’t notice that the dad is free. Anyway, he asked Josh how much he would take for his parents, and Josh says, “Two thousand for my Mom, but my Dad is free.” … After LeRoy told me, I said to Josh, “So… I’m only worth two grand, huh?” … And then Josh upped it to a couple billion. *rofl*

Our BIL, Bob, brought a pellet gun and some targets with him. He and Kyle were off shooting at the target, and they called Joe over… After a while I got bored sitting there by myself, so I went over to watch them shoot the gun… Bob (our resident drunk) asked me if I wanted to try. I told him that I wouldn’t even know how, and he said that he would show me… So I agreed, which SHOCKED everyone there, including Joe! *rofl* … That had to be the funnest part about trying it out. … and it sure was harder than it looks! The gun is a bit heavy, and hard to keep steady. I did manage to hit the target (though not on the bullseye), which impressed the guys very much. *lol* … Joe was going on all day about how wonderful his wife was… She cooks, cleans, teaches the kids, and can shoot!

When I was trying out the pellet gun, the boys were in playing Bingo. I guess Ronnie had seen me doing it, and went to tell Jared that I was holding a gun… Jared wouldn’t believe him! *lol* He had to come over and see for himself… While he was there, I told him that he could try too, if he wanted… He LEPT at the chance!… So Joe showed him how to do it, and was giving him some gun safety rules… Anyway, Jared was able to hit the target too, and he even did better than Joe, Kyle, and Bob! *lol* I told Bob that it was probably the hunting game they have on the computer, and Bob agreed. *lol*

Then Jared ran off to get Josh, so he could try too… Bob gave Josh some tips, and then Josh shot it. He hit the target too… Though they did tell the boys that the scope was off, and where to aim at. No one told me, so I was aiming at the middle! I wonder how I would have done, had I known that the scope was off!

Ronnie came over after a while (The Toepfer Boys go hunting all the time, and know there way around guns), and when he heard that the scope was off, he fixed it for Bob. After the scope was fixed, Josh almost hit the target dead center! I asked Bob if I could keep the target (he was going to thrown them all in the fire), so he gave it to me. Later that night (when we were home), Josh kept picking it up and looking at it. After a while I told him that when we got him a cork board for his wall, I would have to put it up for him. He asked me why I wanted to keep it, so I asked him, “Why do you keep looking at it?” … He just grinned at me, and hasn’t asked me again.

Alicia surprised me while we were there… She must be getting over her fear of heights! … When we were watching the target practice, I looked over to see her sitting on the top rail of the fence, which is probably 4 1/2 feet high! There was a time when she wouldn’t even walk down stairs, because she was so afraid, and now she’s climbing on fences! (and I noticed while we were camping that she is going down the high slides now too, which she never used to do)… But MAN, was she jealous that the boys got to ride those horses! She LOVES horses, and she wants to ride one so bad… But Larry and Ronnie never brought them out during the reunion, so Alicia was out of luck. I think she is more than a little bummed about it too. Poor Princess!

And OH MY WORD, is she ever loving the fact that she can now ride her bike! If it weren’t for all the rain, she would probably be on it ALL THE TIME! *lol* She’s been so mad at the rain the last few days.

The assistant manager at the gas station where Joe works part-time got transfered, and now there is someone else doing the scheduling… And when Joe went to work yesterday morning, he realized that he was scheduled longer than he usually is… He’s usually off in time for us to go to church, but not this time. … So now Joe needs to talk to them about his schedule, so that we won’t miss church next week! … The kids were sure bummed, since we had missed church during Joe’s vacation.

Last night was the kids Some “R” Kids summer bowling league night… We decided to go in an hour early, so they Joe, Alicia, and the boys could bowl their two free games before the league started at 6:00 … OMWord, what a headache… There was a new kid working, and MAN did things get screwed up!

First … We asked for two lanes. We were going to put Alicia on one (with the bumpers) and Joe and the boys on the other… Only for some reason Craig put the two lanes on “league play” and didn’t tell us. That means that you have to switch back and forth between the two lanes. If we had known that, we would have put Joe on the same lane as Alicia… But as it was, half the time Alicia had to wait for all three of them to bowl, and then the lanes would switch and then she could bowl again… But this was after we figured out that they had done it… The lanes had switched and we didn’t know, so Alicia and Joe bowled under wrong names… so we had to delete out those scores and try to remember that they were swtching… THEN, the left lane got “stuck” and it took them forever to get it back on again, while we sat waiting. Once they got the lane back on, it stoppped counting pins, so we would have to manually punch in all the scores on the board… It was a nightmare! … They only ended up being able to play one game before the league started.

I think someone needs to give Craig some more training!!!!!!

We are going to be seeing a lot of the bowling alley… We’ve signed up for 2 other leagues! … Joe is even on his first league now… They are having a 10 week Wednesday night league for $5.00 a week. It’s called the “We need bowlers, and you need a ball” league. *lol* … You bowl all 10 weeks, and at the end of the 10 weeks you get a free bowling ball! Joe wants his own ball, and the boys want a “spare” ball… Spare balls are for when you try to pick up a spare… While their main balls (or “strike balls”) are heavy and are built to “hook” (curve), “spare balls” are meant to be lighter and go straight, to pick up the harder spares.

Then, Molalla Bowl is having the free summer kids’ league again. It’s on Thursdays… So the boys will spend Wednesday night with the twins, and Debbie will take them (and Jacob and Jamie, of course) to the league on Thursdays, as Joe probably won’t be off work in time… This is why the girls aren’t joining. I don’t want them spending the day at the Mewings on Thursday, while Scott and Debbie work. They are too young. It’s best to have them home with me…

Well, I guess I’ve rambled on long enough. (This post is now over 3000 words!) … I need to get some breakfast, do my workout, shower, and start laundry, so I better run!

Catch ya’ll on the flip side!

I’m sure I won’t have time to post tomorrow, before we leave, so I thought I would post this morning, just in case…

On Wednesday the kids had their last Kids Club at church for the school year. Sounds like they had a lot for them to do, and they all had a really good time… I was able to sweet talk Joe into taking the camera, and he actually took over 30 pictures… Which is AMAZING for him! *rofl* … Anyway, they got to make hand puppets, and for one of the games someone brought a huge parachute thing that they had balls on and they got to fling the balls around. Sounds like a blast to me.

Alicia has made a new little friend at the club, and her name is Olivia. They adore each other, and the girls want to get together sometime this summer to play… We’ll have to make sure that they get to.

Not only was this the last Kids Club for the school year, but it was Jared’s last one period… He’ll be in 7th grade this fall, which means he leaves these kid things behind… … He will be in F.I.R.E.D. U.P. youth this fall… Youth Group… I can’t believe that I have a child who will be old enough for youth group… *sigh*

On Thursday we took the kids to the recreational swim at the Molalla Aquatic Center… After we get back from vacation there will only be 2 more that we can go to, before they change to the summer schedule… Last year the summer schedule clashed with Joe’s extended work hours, and we were never able to go. … Oh, we could go on the weekends, but it’s crazy busy then and we don’t like it when it’s that insane. So they are going to have to enjoy the swimming while it lasts…

Though, they didn’t enjoy this last Thursday swim as much as normal… Debbie and the twins didn’t come this time, and Josh and Alicia were bored without Jamie and Jacob to play with. We ended up leaving 30 minutes early… But they still swam for 1 1/2 hours, so they got some time in.

Last night we took the kids to the bowling alley… We won’t be there for their Sunday night laegue, so they had to pre-bowl for that… Scott, Debbie, and the twins met us there, but they had ot be on serarate lanes, since they were just bowling for fun.

The games went fast… Shawn (the owner) put Alicia and Amanda on one lane, with the bumpers. And they only bowl 2 games with the bumper league. Then he put Jared and Josh on two lanes, and he had it on the “league setting” so that they would switch back and forth between the two lanes. Since there was only 1 person for each lane, the 3 games went really fast and they were done with all three games before the girls were done with 2 games.

Amanda was EXCITED because she managed to get 3 spares on one of her games, which thrilled her to no end. *lol* … Man, that girl can get HYPER!

As soon as the kids were finished bowling, we ran out to Oregon City to see Joe’s parents, Jim and Elvina. We had ordered Elvina something for Mother’s Day, and it had been late getting here… We just got it on Wednesday, and we wanted to give it to them before we went camping.

Elvina had a good laugh over the one little gag gift we gave her (we got her something nice too) … I found a little “Porn for Women” book (don’t worry, it’s clean)… It’s actually pictures of men doing housework with funny sayings. Like one had a picture of a man cleaning a toilet, and the caption said, “I would never dream of letting you do something like this!”. … It’s TOTALLY funny! My favorite is one where this guy is folding laundry and it says, “This is the way that YOU like the shirts folded, right?”

Funny, funny book!

Anyway, we ended up staying there until around 10:30-ish, visiting with them, before we came home.

Today we have to get the trailer ready to go for our camping trip. I have already washed all the sleeping bags and other bedding, and I ran all the camping dishes (and cookware) through the dishwasher. Today we are going to clean the trailer and then put everything back… As well as getting packed, etc… Tonight Joe and I will make a Walmart run to get the groceries for the week, and we will just unload them straight into the trailer. We’ve had it plugged in since Thursday, so the fridge/freezer will be cold enough.

Then we head out in the morning! Yay!

It’s a good thing that we’ve been there before, so we know where we are going… Joe and I are really good at taking wrong turns and getting lost. *rofl* … Thank heavens we now have a GPS system. Before that, we would always have to look for exit signs, when we got onto the wrong highways. *rofl* … In fact, even with the GPS, we STILL screw up sometimes! (We did on the way to the Wedding a couple weeks ago, and YES, we were using the GPS. *rofl*)

Time for my weekly “catch-up” on our lives. *lol*

First thing I want to do is wish my newphew, Ryan, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I can’t believe you’re 11 years old. Amazing! We love you, and we miss you! Hope you have a wonderful day.

So… What have we been up to for the last week?

On Thursday the 13th we took the kids to the pool to swim. There isn’t many more of these Thursday swims left before they change to the summer schedule, and we won’t be able to go anymore, so they need to enjoy it while they can! … And trust me, they are enjoying it. I wish we could go more often, as it’s such good exercise for them… While we were waiting for them to open the doors at 3:00, I was snapping pictures of the kids. I got a couple good ones. I didn’t get as many good ones as I would like though, because the sun was bright and there was a lot of squinting going on. *lol*

On Friday we met the Mewings at the bowling alley at 6 pm so that the kids could get some practice time in. They hadn’t been able to bowl in almost 2 weeks because the junior league had been canceled on the 9th. We ended up having dinner there, and the kids all had a good time bowling with their cousins.

When we left, the boys went home with the Mewings and spent both Saturday and Sunday night there… Debbie and Scott went to Ron’s funeral (which was in either Prineville or Madras, I can’t remember). Debbie thought the twins (14) would be bored on the long car ride, and didn’t want them to be lonely at home alone on Saturday. So our boys were recruited to keep them entertained… I missed them, but it sounds like they had a good time. Josh even helped do some of the cooking. (He sure loves to cook!) … Joe picked them up on Saturday morning, on his way home from work, so that they could come to church with us.

On Saturday Joe worked until 1 pm, and then when he got home he went out to do some yard work… I have no idea where he got the energy, since he worked well over 50 hours at OBRC and then worked an 8 hour shift at Safeway on Saturday… He was TIRED… But he wanted to at least get the lawn mowed. Then he and Alicia did a little weeding, but they didn’t get too far before Joe was finished and just wanted some dinner and his bed. *lol* … As for me, I spent the day doing some housework and then I worked on scanning and editing some of Joe’s Grandma Johnson’s old slides.

Church was nice on Sunday… The new youth pastor, Boone Noble, preached… I think it was his first ever sermon. He’s pretty young and is going through the seminar to become a regular pastor (I think). Anyway, he did really well. He didn’t look as nervous as I thought he would be… He just needs to use a few less “Umms”. But he was easy to listen to, and you can tell he has a passion for the Lord. He has the calling.

During his sermon he showed us this video clip from YouTube:

OMWord, this video really moved me! I ended up in tears (which made Joe give me some odd looks, as he couldn’t figure out why…) … It really puts things into perspective, how the things of this world will pull you away from Christ, and that you have to focus on Him… It’s an amazing video!

The kids had their junior league on Sunday… Josh wasn’t completely up to par on his first two games, but did really well on his last game (his scores were 84, 86, and 131). Jared bowled really well on all three games, getting a 136, 146, and a 113. Alicia seems to be improving some, and her ball isn’t hitting the bumper as much. In fact, she even got a strike that didn’t hit the bumper and got a free game card from Coach Mick for it, which thrilled her. She bowled an 83 and a 101, and Amanda bowled a 74 and a 79. (The bumper league only bowls 2 games… Alicia would love to do more, but Amanda is done after two.)

After two full months, Joe was able to bring the trailer home last night! … He took it to the repair shop on March 18th and brought it home on May 18th… Who knew it would take so long! *lol* … But anyway, it looks as good as new! In fact, you can’t even tell anything was ever wrong with it. Amazing! … It does need a good cleaning though, as it smells musty in there. I would like to open up the windows and air it out, but right now it’s raining to hard for that. *lol* … Anyway, the kids brought in all the towels, blankets, sleeping bags, etc in for me and I am currently running them all through the washing machine. Then tomorrow we will haul in all the dishes and cookware and run them through the dishwasher. The kids will help me clean the rest of the trailer on Friday… Because….

We leaving for vacation on Sunday! We’re going to Bevely Beach for 5 nights. We CAN NOT wait! It’s one of our favorite beach campgrounds (Detroit Lake is our all time favorite campground), and we love to go to the beach. Joe, especially, is needing this vacation. He’s been putting in a lot of extra hours and is very tired. A week of lounging around the campfire and on the beach is just what he needs. (Camping is one of his favorite things to do.)

I know what some people are probably thinking… If money is tight enough that you can’t afford school books, then why are you going camping? … Well, we paid for this trip with tax returns in February, when we made the reservations. The only things we’ll have to pay for is groceries (which we would have to buy anyway) and gas… And while it will take a lot of gas to pull the trailer to the beach, it will still be less gas than we usually have to buy, what with Joe’s commute into work every day (45 miles, one way).

The only reason money is a little extra tight right now is because we had to pay the deductible on getting the trailer repaired, as well as the repairs for a couple other things that the insurance didn’t cover. (While they did pay out almost $5000 on the repairs, we still had to come up with over $500 ourselves.) … Plus there was a couple other unexpected expenses (like new tires and brakes on the Durango). Once we’re caught up from that, we’ll be good to go.

And I feel weird that I have to explain this, but someone gave me a hard time on wanting to buy a new camera with our next tax returns, when we need a new mattress… So I feel like I have to explain that too… A good pillow top mattress will cost at least $2000… Which is more than twice as much as a new camera… Now the camera I have now is on it’s last leg, and it’s getting harder and harder to get decent indoor pictures (it doesn’t like indoor lighting, and doesn’t like to focus. It takes good outdoor pictures though)… I know that years from now, I will be more glad that I got good pictures of my kids, than I will be about whether or not our mattress made my back ache in the mornings.

Plus, if I can get my (multiple) pillows set up just right, my back doesn’t hurt that much… But it’s never a guarantee. Some days my pillows will be perfect, and other days I don’t get them just right and I will still wake up with an aching back (which for some odd reason, the workouts help! *lol*). On the days I wake up without a back ache, I have a hard time making the bed, as I don’t want to mess the pillows up! *rofl*

Jared is still reading like crazy! He is on the 7th book in his series now, and only has one left (which he wants to save for our camping trip, to read before bed in the trailer)… I’m not going to be able to afford to buy him some new books until the first paycheck in June, so he’s going to be stuck! *lol* … He has picked out the next series he wants to read though… We got a lot of suggestions from family and friends, so we went through those and Jared wants to read “The Red Rock Mysteries” next… There are something like 16 books in the series, so we won’t be able to get them all at once, but I will order 2 or 3 of them next month.

Anyway, I got away from my point… When Jared started reading book 6 of the Eric Sterling books (which we bought used, because they are out of print), he noticed what looked like the author’s autograph on the title page, written in ball point pen (The author is Ernest Herndon). So I googled his autograph and actually found a copy of it, and it does look close!

So Jared has an autographed copy of the book! How cool is that?! … He was thrilled, let me tell you!

Well, I guess I’ve rambled on long enough… I’ll try to post again on Saturday, before we head to the beach on Sunday… Catch ya’ll on the flip side!

Guess it’s time to play catch-up again… The last few weeks have been pretty crazy (school-wise), so I’ve had to let some things slide… Like this blog… And I haven’t even been able to scrap! … But I will catch up… Some day. *lol*

The male cousins, ready for some b-ball!

We had a decent time at Joe’s parents’ house last Saturday, for the Easter potluck thing. I did what I usually do… Sit in a corner somewhere and watch everyone else. *lol* The boys had fun playing basketball with their cousins, Joe, and Uncle Scott… in the rain. … Jamie and Jacob also brought their Wii, and Jared and Josh brought their Wii NBA basketball game, which kept them all occupied.

@ church on Easter Sunday

As for Easter Day, we went to church, of course… I never heard of any sunrise services, so this church must not do an Easter Sunrise service, but they did have an Easter Breakfast… But they should have set up more tables. I don’t think they were expecting quite as good of a turn out. *lol* … It was supposed to start at 9:30, but when we got there at 9:20, the tables were almost full. We couldn’t all sit together. Jared and Amanda were at the end of one table, Josh and Alicia were at the same table, but on the other side and in the middle… We seated them first, and made sure they got some breakfast… Then Joe and I found ourselves at a completely different table… It’s a good thing the kids are older. They did well, though Amanda WAS NOT impressed with the biscuits and gravy, and barely touched her food. *lol*

The service as nice. We sang a lot of songs about the Resurrection, Pastor Clark gave a sermon on how to accept Christ, and we had communion.

Which brings me to a question…

How old should the boys be when they start having communion? I think that they, or at least Jared, is ready. He could tell me what everything represented, and he’s been a believer since he was 5… I have no memory of how old I was when I started having communion… Do you think it would be OK if I let the boys partake in the next communion?

Anyway… On to other things…

Bowling in her Easter dress. *lol*

Since we had our family Easter thing on Saturday (and my family all live far away), we didn’t have any special plans for Easter Sunday, after church. So we met Scott, Debbie, and the twins at the bowling alley… We ate some lunch there, and then we all bowled…

Yes, you heard that right… We ALL bowled, even Debbie and I stepped up to the plate… Or the lane, I guess I should say. *lol*

Neither Debbie or I are very good bowlers, so normally we don’t bowl. But since we had the place pretty much to ourselves (one other could did come in while we were there, but that’s it), we decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it… Since I have now bowled a total of 5 times (two of them when I was a kid, and once in 1992), I decided to go on the bumper lane with the girls. *lol* … But Debbie bowled on the lane with Scott and Joe, while the boys shared a lane with Jamie and Jacob.

It was fun, though my wrist was pretty sore when I was done… And I even used a wimpy 7 lb ball! … Last time I used a 10 lb one, and my wrist hurt for the rest of the day. No more 10 lb balls for me! (Which is the weight of Josh’s ball. *lol* … Jared uses a 12 pounder!!!)

Waiting for class to start...

One thing we’ve been wanting to do for years now, is get the kids into swimming lessons… But every time we’ve tried, the classes have been filled up… Well, we got a call on Monday, and they were able to fit the boys into this session! … There are only 8 (half hour) classes. They are on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30-7:00 for the next four weeks.

This last Tuesday was the boys first class… Jared did pretty well, but you could tell that Josh was a little more scared of it… But they both loved it, and I’m hoping that it won’t be too hard for them to learn to swim… Oh, and she even had them jump into the pool, which is something neither of them have done before. I could tell from their faces that they weren’t too keen on the idea, but they did it. I noticed that both of them kept their legs straight though, and Josh hurt his foot on the bottom of the pool when they did it… So they need to learn to bend their knees when they jump… I’ll have to remember to remind them of that before class tonight.

The lessons are going to make Thursdays a little interesting… Since the family swim only works for us in April, May, and half of June, we don’t want to miss any of those… Especially since the girls didn’t get into the lessons this time, and we want them to be able to swim too. So on Thursdays we will go to the family swim from 3-5. Then we will go get some dinner, and then be back for the lessons at 6:30… It’s going to be a LONG day for Joe!

Speaking of Joe, he’s going to be exhausted for the next few weeks… What with swimming on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then Kids’ Club at church on Wednesdays… At least on Wednesdays he can take a nap in the afternoon before going to church, but he can’t do that on Tuesdays and Thursdays… He’s going to be glad when the classes are over. *lol* … So, to help with that (and with the money thing, since we’re paying for the lessons), we’re not going to do Cosmic Bowling until May. The boys were a little disappointed about that, but they understand why it’s necessary.

We don’t have the best news about the travel trailer. … Joe called Andy (the guy who works on the trailers), and he said that since it was taking so long for the insurance company, he was thinking that they would consider it totalled, and not fix it… So Andy called the insurance company, and they told him that while they haven’t made their decision yet, they are leaning in that direction. They think it would cost more to fix it than what it’s worth (via Kelly blue book). I’m assuming that if they do total it, they will cut us a check on how much they think the trailer is worth… If that happens, we may be able to get a new trailer, but it won’t be half as nice as the one we have now.

Edited to add: …Andy called Joe … I guess the claim adjuster came, and Andy says that it doesn’t look good… Also, the insurance company probably won’t even give us the blue book value of the trailer. We’ll be lucky if we only get $1000 for it. … Looks like we’ll be tenting it again. *sigh*

Anyway, they said they are sending someone out to look at it, sometime in the next 4 business days. We should know for sure sometime next week… I am still praying that they will just decide to repair it, as it’s the perfect trailer for us… Not many (that are short enough for us to be able to pull it with the Durango) will sleep 6 people so easily.

My worst fear is that we’ll have to start tenting it again… I so don’t want to go there!

We are getting near the end of our 2009/2010 school year. The kids are working extra hard, and workbooks are getting finished up… All 5 of us are ready for a nice, long vacation…

Well, speaking of homeschool… I best go eat some breakfast so we can start!