Johnsons' Journey

Thought I’d better come by and check in again. I’ve been doing some digi-scrapping and working on my blog book. That always makes me neglect other things, like this blog. *lol*

The kids and I have another full week of homeschool lessons, and then we’re on a 2 week spring vacation! We can’t wait! It seems like we’ve been so busy lately, it’s going to be nice to have some down time… Then, after spring break is over, there is only something like 3-4 weeks of lessons left, and then their workbooks will be done for the year. It seems hard to believe it’s so close to being that time of year already! … I’ve even already put an order in for the state tests that Alicia and the boys will be doing. (This will be Amanda’s last year of not having to do the CATs. We always start doing them after 1st grade.)

We didn’t do too much over the weekend… We did go to the bowling alley both Friday and Saturday…

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I can’t believe I haven’t posted on here since Monday… Shame on me! I am getting to be a lazy blogger… Which is something I don’t want to happen! *sigh* … Must get better… I must!

My main problem is that Blurb book I am making, from old blog posts. I would really like to get it done by the end of the month, so that I can buy it with tax returns. Yesterday I got up to page 240, and am up to mid May 1999 … It was then that I noticed a problem…

You see, I started the book a few months ago and got up to page 107, and then stopped working on it until a couple 2-3 weeks ago. Well… I accidently changed the font size, and didn’t notice until last night. *sigh* … I am using Tahoma, and I was using size 10 for the journaling, with size 12 for the titles. I am now making the titles size 10 and making the journaling a size 9… Gah! … I am SO MAD at myself!… I am OCD enough that the change in font size would drive me batty… But do you know how much work it would be to change all the font sizes, and have to reline up pictures to match the journaling. *sigh* … Not to mention that on this old laptop, the Blurb program takes up too much memory and is really sluggish.

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If you happen to find January, can you let me know… Because I don’t know where the heck it went! *lol*

Anyhoo…

I know a lot of you are on facebook, so I am sorry for repeat information. I just need to record things here too, for posterity. *lol* … This journal of our lives together, and family updates, are a gift for my children. No matter how into facebook I get, I don’t want to skip things here. You know?

Sooo… Here’s what’s been going on since I last wrote.

Jim and the Kids

First off, about Joe’s dad, Jim… Last Thursday he went into Kaiser hospital to have some routine blood tests taken (he has diabetes and high blood pressure). After having the blood tests taken, he decied to go get his blood pressure taken (completely his own idea). When the nurse took it, she discovered that his heart rate was at 130… According to Jim, I guess they want your blood pressure to be between 60 and 100, but they prefer it to be closer to 60. So they had him go to the emergency room… They wouldn’t even let him walk there; he had to take some kind of shuttle or something between the buildings.

Once they were in the ER, they did some tests… I think they did an ultrasound (and maybe an x-ray), and some other test (possibly an EKG???), and then they addmitted him so they could moniter his heart while they tried to bring his heart rate back down… I guess the lower chambers of his heart were fine, but the upper ones were working overtime. They were going to do a stress test on Friday morning, but then they canceled it because they decided that his heart had had enough stress, and should take anymore.

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Not much going on around here… There never is mid-week. Joe does his work thing, and we do the homeschool/housework thing… It may be very boring to blog about, but it makes us happy, and that’s what’s important, right? … So here we are, just another day in our paradise.

Joe and I are thinking of switching churches… We’ve been going to this big church in town off and on since summer (when Joe’s work schedule allows us to), but Joe is not happy there… The services are great. The pastor does excellent sermons, and I love the music… But so far NO ONE has introdused themselves to us. (We’ve never even met the pastor.) … The kids like it there, but we need to ALL feel comfortable there.

There used to be a Baptist church in town, but we noticed that the sign in front has changed. It now says “Grace Church”… I tried looking up their website, to see if the doctrine is sound, but their website is pretty… Ummm… Uncomplete. *lol* … Has anyone heard of a Grace Church before? Do you know about the doctrine…

… You know… I think my parents were married in a Grace Church in San Luis Obispo, and that our family was going there when I was born… I wonder if it’s the same type of church???

Before I go, I just wanted to give a quick shoutout for cigars online … Got a new baby in the future, and need to pass some out? Check them out…

I hope everyone had a decent sort of weekend… It was gloriously sunny here, and I enjoyed that! Gotta love sunshine!

Joe’s parents have been gone since the 8th (or around there), and they won’t be home until the 25th, so they asked Joe to mow their lawn for them. So on Saturday we went into Oregon City to do that… They have a huge lawn, so I took the push mower and did the front lawn, while Joe took their riding mower into the back… When I was done, I took the little mower into the back, to cut around the trees (because you can’t get close enough with the riding mower), and when I got back there I saw that Josh was the one mowing the lawn. *lol* … I admit to being nervous to have him on the riding mower, but after I watched for a bit, I was impressed by how well he did. (I still have my inner turmoil over how fast they are growing up, and not wanting to accept it. *lol*)

Jared wanted to help too, so he took over the mower from me, but in his opinion, that wasn’t as cool as the riding one. He went to Joe and asked for a turn, and so the boys traded for a while… But Jared got a little nervous (which I can understand, after watching the way that Joe was “teaching” him…) and soon gave it back to Josh and took the small mower back.

When the lawn was done, we took the kids to the splash park there in Oregon City… Man, was that place crowded! … But that didn’t stop the kids from having fun… Even Joe went through it a couple times and got soaked. *lol*

We were there for around an hour or so, and then we went to Taco Bell for dinner… We stopped by Scott and Debbie’s place on the way home. They are camping with Joe’s parents, and need us to keep an eye on their cat, get their mail, and water the new lawn they are growing… So while the kids ran around playing, Joe got the mail (you have to walk down the street to the locked mail boxes) and got the sprinkler going in their back yard, while I watered the flowers in their pots and the side yard.

By the time we got home, it was getting near bedtime.

On Sunday the kids and I got up early to get ready for church… Joe wanted to hit Scott and Debbie’s before church, so he wouldn’t have to drive back into town three times… As soon as he came home from work (he got off at 8:30), we went to water at Scott and Debbie’s, and then drove to church… Only no one was there… We had forgotten about the all church picnic/potluck and outdoor service at the Buckeroo grounds/park (we forgot since we weren’t there last week, since we were camping)… We didn’t have any food, nor did we bring any chairs or blankets to sit on, so we went home instead.

So… That’s pretty much our weekend… After mowing our lawn (well, he supervised Josh mowing it), Joe spent the rest of the day in bed, sleeping with the TV on. *lol* … As for me, I did some laundry and some digital scrapbooking.

You know what’s scary??? I’ve been working on the layouts for our vacation album, and I’ve scrapped 50 layouts so far… And I’m not even done with day two of our 8 day vacation! … That can’t be good!

The kids and I seem to be playing “catch” with this darn cold… First they got it, but when they started feeling better, I got it… Then when I started feeling better, they got it again. Now they are feeling better, and I have it again… Let’s hope it ends here, and they don’t get it again!

I’m not feeling too awful, but for some reason I am really dizzy. I’m not on any meds at the time, so it can’t be that. It’s not painful, but it sure is annoying! *lol*

On Saturday we went out to see Joe’s parents, so we could give Jim a Father’s Day gift… Joe went to the elk farm and bought Jim a summer sausage made from elk meat (ick). Jim has been wanting to get one, and we never usually know what to get him… But MAN, it was expensive! It was only 6-7 inches long, and it cost $20!!!! That’s just INSANE. We won’t be buying Jim anymore elk summer sausage!

After spending 2-3 hours at Jim and Elvina’s, just chatting and showing them our vacation pictures, we went to the church on 10 o’clock hill… Joe’s sister, DeeDee, had shown up at Jim and Elvina’s too, so all 9 of us went… The church was having a fund-raising dinner and silent auction to raise money for the church, and Jim wanted to treat us all to dinner… It was a ham dinner with scallopped potatoes, with strawberry shortcake for dessert. (Not that I ate the strawberry shortcake… I’m not a strawberry fan… But Jared sure loved it. )

We were going to try a different church on Sunday, but we ended up going back to Foothills Community… Joe didn’t get off work until almost 9 am, so there was no way we would be able to make it to a 9:30 Sunday School at a smaller church. Foothills has a Sunday School during the 10:30 service, which is very nice… So we made the kids happy by going there.

We still didn’t see the regular pastor, as he is still on vacation. We heard the same man who preached last Sunday, and he delivered an excellent sermon again. It was on David, Jonathon, and Jonathon’s son, whose name I can neither pronounce or spell. *lol*

I did notice something odd… Hardly anyone brought a Bible to church with them. When the man wanted to show a verse, he would put the verse up on the screen… At Lifegate we always followed along with Pastor Jerry in our own Bibles…

They don’t use hymnals either… Not that that’s a big deal or anything… They put the songs up on the screen, and they have a full band up there. The songs are awesome, but I haven’t recognised a single one of them. *lol*

I made Joe a roast for his Father’s Day dinner, and he happily ate three plate fulls. *lol* That man does love a good roast… After we got home from church he spent the entire rest of the day in bed, snoozing and watching TV… Include that with a big dinner, and I would guess we had a very happy, content Daddy on Father’s Day. *lol*

I still can’t get my laptop to sign into Flickr, not even on foxfire… So right now I have Jared’s laptop set up next to mine, and I’m posting his pictures to Flickr as I write… Since I can easily get his computer signed on to Flickr, the problem is obviously my computer, and not Flickr… So annoying!

BUT… There is hope… Joe has promised me a new desktop computer with our next tax returns. (I will never buy a laptop again! Too many headaches with the two we have.) … Then I’ll just use this laptop when we go on vacation or something.

I don’t know how Jared can stand his laptop… MAN, is that thing sluggish! … I don’t know why. It has the same processor as this one, and not half as many things installed on it… It may be able to get onto Flickr, but it’s taking AGES to get things posted onto Flickr… I asked him how he could handle it, and he said, “Very patiently.”

I’m not sure what I think about the church…

The sermon was really good, though it wasn’t the real pastor who was speaking. Turns out the regular pastor was on vacation, so we didn’t even see him, much less hear him speak.

It seems to have a large congregation. The church was started (by the same pastor) 11 years ago with 30 people, and now it has to have multi services to house the over 800 people who attend the church.

For which reason I am thinking that it is just too big for us… You know, not ONE person came over to Joe and I and introduced themselves to us. Not one person.

You see, Joe and I used to go to a similar church, when Jared was tiny… I actually went longer than Joe, because when Joe was still working Sundays with PayLess, my brother and his wife would pick me up for church (when I was pregnant with Jared)… Anyway, Joe and I went to Good Shepherd Community Church (in Boring, Oregon) from.. Oh, I guess around March of ‘98 until January of 2001, so almost 3 years. In that time we never even met the pastor, much less made any friends. The church is just too big. They had smaller home-based “growth groups”, but with Joe’s schedule, things like that aren’t really an option…

So, in January ‘01, Joe and I tried the church where his grandma went (Lifegate Baptist in Portland), and we were making friends the first Sunday we went.

That’s what we’re looking for I guess.

BUT… One thing about Lifegate, is that not many people want to help out, and soon they were taking advantage of people like us. By the time we moved to Molalla (and had to leave Lifegate), we were doing the following:

• Joe was a deacon (which still shocks the heck out of me. Joe is NOT deacon material)
• Joe was an Awana leader
• We both taught Sunday School
• I helped in the nursery every Sunday
• I had done a year of being church treasurer
• I had been on the budget committee
• Joe spent every Saturday for 6 months of the year (for a couple years) mowing the HUGE church lawn

All this on top of Joe working 2 jobs, and me raising (and homeschooling) 4 small kids.

It was overwhelming, and when we moved to Molalla, I have to be honest here… We really didn’t want to look for a church right away. *sigh*

So… While I want a church that is smaller, and has a family feeling, I don’t want to “serve” THAT much… Which makes me feel guilty, of course.

Anyway, Joe and I want to try 2 or 3 more churches in Molalla, and then we’ll just pick the one we like the best.

As for the kids, they would be happy to stay at Foothills… I guess Foothills doesn’t really do Sunday School over the summer (Don’t think I like that). The kids were all together, and it sounds like all they did was silly stuff… They had some kind of marshmallow eating contest, and watched some kind of movie, and learned what Jared called a list of “useless information”… They had a blast, but you go to Sunday School to learn about Jesus, not to see who can eat the most marshmallows…

We also have one other thing to consider…

Joe’s sister, Debbie (and her husband Scott), want us to find the right church, and then they want to come to church with us… This is HUGE (and thrills me to no end… PLEASE, help me in praying for Scott, Debbie, and the twins’ salvation!). So we want to find a church that would be good for THEM.

Debbie told us last night that she wants a church that she doesn’t have to dress up for. She wants to be able to wear jeans… And I can understand that. I haven’t worn a dress in more years than I can remember. *lol* … Well, Foothills is very casual. They have a “wear what makes you comfortable” policy. We saw some people in dresses and suits, and other people in shorts and tank tops…. And, like I said, you DID get “fed” during the service, which is very important…

But one needs the fellowship as well…

Oh, what to do, what to do.

Hmmm… What else is going on? …

The boys are gone right now… Debbie called last night and asked if the boys could come spend the night. I guess Jacob and Jamie (who’s last day of school was last Thursday) are already bored, complaining that they have nothing to do, so Debbie thought that the boys would keep them occupied. *lol* (I think she didn’t invite the girls, because having all 6 of the kids at one time… her two and my four… gets a little too much for her).

As for the girls, they didn’t mind at all. I told them they could have a movie/popcorn night and sleep in the living room, and they were beyond thrilled with that, so everyone was happy. (Except for Cuddles, who HATES it when Jared is gone. She’s been following me around, crying for him.)

I can tell the girls stayed up too late last night, during their little slumber party… It’s 10:16 and they are STILL sleeping. *lol*

It’s been a nice, quiet week… Quite the change from the hustle and bustle of last week. *lol* … Really hasn’t been anything worth blogging about going on, which explains the quiet.

We were a bit busy yesterday…

We rented a carpet cleaner, and yesterday I cleaned the carpet and Joe’s recliner. It’s not a hard job, just tedious. You have to run the machine very s.l.o.w.l.y. so that it has time to pick up the dirt, so it tends to get boring after a while. *lol*

After I was done with the house, Joe and I took it up to the trailer (leaving the kids in Jared’s care for the first time), and we cleaned the little bit of carpet in there, as well as the upholstry on the couch and the seats by the table… MAN, you should have seen how dirty THAT water was! *lol* (ick!)

After Joe hosed out the cleaner, we loaded the kids into the Durango and went to return the carpet cleaner to the rental place. Then we went into Milwaukie to go to the homeschool store. We wanted to buy one subject for Jared’s schooling this fall… Anyway, we got there at around 4 o’clock, and it was already closed! Turns out they close at 3 pm on Saturdays (and they are closed on Sundays, since they are a Christian establishment).

*sigh* We are having the hardest time getting him books for this fall. So far we only have the Science teacher book for 6th grade (which I bought used a year or two ago, since it was a really good price)… His are going to be expensive too, since we have to buy all the teacher books, etc.

He sure is funny though. Last fall he was SURE he wanted to go to public school (remember all the trauma I went through?) … Now, when I joked that he would have to go to public school since we haven’t been able to buy school books yet, he started begging me to buy them so he wouldn’t have to. *lol* … I don’t know what changed his mind, but I sure am glad it did!!!!!!

After doing dinner at Shari’s (kids eat free from 4-9 on Saturday and Sundays ), we went to Kmart because Amanda needed a new booster seat for the car. (Her’s was really old, as it started out as Josh’s, and Alicia used it too.) … I went to look at the small digital photo frames, but the one I liked and wanted cost $40, so I had to pass. *pout* …. I wanted something that I could put our vacation pictures on to show people our pictures, since it’s going to be a while before I can print my 12 X 12 photo book I am working on.

Maybe Walmart will have something cheaper.

Joe is going to start working less hours on Sunday… I actually asked him to start taking Sundays off (he’s been working 7 days a week for a couple years now), so that we could go to church… But instead of taking the day off completely, he asked that he be off by 8:30 at the latest.

Anyway, that is starting today, and we’re going to start looking for a church. Yay! … We tried doing the Saturday evening thing at the one church that started it, but we never seemed to be home on Saturday night to go. … Sunday feels more right anyway.

Anyway, today we’re going to try the Foothills Community Churchthat is in town (since there is no longer a Baptist church in Molalla)… We’ve asked around, and people have raved about this church and the pastor… I’ll let you know what we think about it.

The kids are pretty excited about going. The girls even picked out what they were going to wear last night, before going to bed. *lol* … But they are both going to need some sandals. They are going to have to wear their sneakers with their dresses, as the only other shoes they have are swim shoes and generic crocs. *yikes*

Well, it’s 8 o’clock… Time to get the kids up and going!

Today I feel Got a bit of a headache…
Reading: “With Wings as Eagles” by Elaine Schulte
It is Currently Partly Cloudy, and 81º

I finished Jared’s quilt today. He was so very excited, and said that he couldn’t believe that I got it done so quickly. I haven’t taken a picture of the finished product yet, but here are a couple of it, when it was half done:

This is the face if it, completely done. This is right before I started tying it to the back panel:

And this is the fabric that went on the back of the quilt:

I have started cutting out the fabric for Josh’s quilt, but I need to buy some black thread before I can start it. I could have sworn I had a partial spool of black, but it’s no where to be found… Anyway, Josh’s quilt is going to be a jungle animal theme. For the face we got a Tiger print, that is similar to the Orca print. It has tigers in the big squares. And the fabric for the strips is tiger stripes. As for the back they had another tiger print that would have worked perfectly, but Josh wanted the fabric that had all the jungle animals on it. It has elephants, giraffes, leopards, etc. I would have picked the tiger print, but seeing as it’s Josh’s quilt, makes since to let him pick it out, wouldn’t you say? Anyway, he was so excited when he saw me start to cut the fabric out today.

We want to buy some Disney Princess fabric (that I’ve seen at Wal*Mart) for Alicia’s quilt, and I am hoping to find some Tinkerbell fabric for one for Amanda. Since we call Alicia, “Princess” and Amanda, “Pixie”, I thought that would be fitting.

Today Jared once again, started begging to get back to school. I am determined that I am getting a summer vacation, so I kept telling him no. I think it’s funny that he wants to start second grade so badly… He was the one who couldn’t wait for summer vacation. When I was his age I lived for summer vacation… But then I went to public school, and I hated it from 1st grade through my senior year (I didn’t go to kindergarten)…. I just wonder if I would have liked school better, if I had been home schooled as well.

Today at church, Mrs. Minich (who had nursery duty today) was trying to get me to leave Amanda in the nursery. Though Amanda is now letting grandma and grandpa hold her, I know she is still not completely over her stranger anxiety issues. Plus it was after her nap time, which would make her extra cranky. (Her naps always get messed up on Sundays) So I just told Mrs. Minich no, and took her into the cry room, where I rocked her to sleep while I listened to the visiting missionary over the speaker. The funny thing is, after services Joe had Amanda, while I went to get the other three from junior church. Mrs. Minich asked Joe if she could hold Amanda, and as soon as Joe handed her over, Amanda burst into tears… We just can’t seem to get people to believe us that Amanda has stranger issues. I think that they think that I am the one who can’t cut the cord, and put Amanda in the nursery. But I just can’t put her in there, knowing she would cry for the whole time. And Mrs. Minich is the type who wouldn’t come and get me. She’s sort of dominant, bossy, and over-bearing, who thinks she knows the best way to raise everyone’s kids…. Oh well, maybe now she believes me that Amanda is just not ready…

When we first got to church, and were leaving Alicia in her class, we got to talking to Joe’s grandma Johnson, and her daughter Linda (Who is about the same age as Joe’s parents). We were surprised to learn that Russ and Linda have just purchased a home in Eureka, South Dakota. Linda said that in two years, after she retires, they are going to move there, and that Grandma would probably be moving there in one year. They are going to eventually sell both Grandma’s and their houses, and retire there in Eureka. (I was shocked to think of them being gone!!!!) Well, they were showing us the picture of the house they bought…. A four bedroom, with a finished basement and a 2 car garage, on a corner lot for $23 thousand…. Yes, you heard me right, $23 thousand! (Property taxes for one year is only $400!!!) A new SUV would cost more than that here!!! Here in Portland that house would be AT LEAST $130 thousand, and probably even more. Joe and I were shocked! Sounds like there are fixer-uppers there for as low as $10 to $15 thousand, and a friend of theirs bought one there for $1,200…. For a house! You can’t even buy land that cheap here. Heck, the computer I would like to buy costs that much. (Makes my head spin to think about it)… Well, they got to talking about what the town was like, and about how pretty it was, told us there was a Baptist church, a school, a hospital and a lake, and now they’ve lit a fire under Joe’s backside….

…. He’s actually going to look into the job situation in some of the nearby, bigger towns, to see if maybe in a year or two, we could move there. Can you believe that? I can’t…. Actually, I’ll believe it IF and when I see it! I admit, that both Joe and I have always wanted to get out of Portland, but I never thought about leaving the state before. I have lived in Oregon since I was 5 years old, and I do love it. But Joe says after church, “I just can’t afford to live in Portland anymore.”…. Funny thing is, he never said that before he heard how cheap the houses are in Eureka.

I can’t even imagine what the response would be from Joe’s family if we did move… They would probably think I forced the idea on Joe…. If anything bad happens to us as a couple or family, it’s always my fault (according to Joe’s family). I know that Joe’s dad would go completely BALLISTIC! He likes having his kids and grandkids near by. (who cares about the kid’s spouses! )…

…. I just don’t even know what I think about it…. I know if we did move I would miss seeing my brother and his family. But I don’t know how much longer they are going to be in the area anyway. Rudy is looking for a church to be a Children’s pastor in, and would even take one in Canada (My SIL is Canadian)… Just depends on where the Lord sends them. It would be easier to leave if they were gone anyway, as they are my only family still living in the area. The rest of my family live on the other side of Oregon, about 4 hours from here… And I don’t see them much.

Anyway, I doubt it will happen anyway. I don’t know what the job market is like over there, plus we would have to sell this house, and oh, all sorts of things….

If you’re interested, here’s a link to the town’s website…. Click here…. The population of Eureka is 1101… Pretty small, which would be nice. I admit I’ve always wanted to live is a small town. It doesn’t get too hot there in the summer, and they get a lot more snow than we do here… But without the freezing rain that makes things nasty here.

So much to think about…

Today I feel Dandy
Reading: “Seven From Heaven” by Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey
Today it was fair, and 77º

Today, right after services got out at church, I was waiting outside the cry-room door for Joe when one of the deacons came up to me. It was Jim Gainer… Jim and his wife are probably the same ages as Joe’s parents. They have 2 grown children, and three grandchildren… Anyway, Jim invited us over for lunch at their house…. Joe and I were dumbfounded… Why on earth would they want to have US over for lunch????….. I admit, we kinda have similar tastes. But to them, we must be just kids!

It was a pleasant afternoon… Well, except for the dog… I just can’t stand dogs, and this one was always putting it’s gross old nose on me. Just gagged me something awful. As soon as we got home I changed my clothes, as I just couldn’t stand it….. Still can’t figure out why they would want to have us over for lunch???? And they said that maybe sometime we should go camping together…. And said that now that we know where they live (in Corbett) that we should stop by more often…. Amazing…

Another interesting day in Sunday school. I am having more fun than I should be having (in Sunday school) in this new ladies Sunday school class. These ladies can sure talk. It’s very educational…. Today, for the second time, we never did get to the lesson again. It was like this big chat group. One of the ladies is having troubles with her son and the youth group, and I think she needed to talk. I’m glad if she got the advice she needed, but I do think we should have the lesson done before they go into chat mode! …. But, like I said, it’s very educational…

Amanda and Cuddles

The kitty seems to be settling in nicely. I have a bad feeling that it’s getting more and more attached to me, and I hope that Jared doesn’t notice, as technically it’s his cat. But it’s also starting to want to play with them more and more too. I am still keeping it in the bathroom at nights and when we leave the house. When in there, she uses the litter box every time. But she still gets lost out in the rest of the house. If you hear her meowing, and looking in corners, you have to grab her fast and run her to the litter box…. One of these days she’s going to remember where it is, and she won’t have to be locked in the bathroom anymore. (Which makes Jared upset, as he thinks it’s a mean thing to do to his kitty).

New Patio

We got the concrete poured into the new patio area yesterday. It looks wonderful! We were able to walk on it today. By next Saturday he said we could take the boards off the sides of it, and then as soon as we can after that, we’re going to build the cover. I can’t wait until it’s done!!!!

Well, I can barely keep my eyes open. I stayed up too late last night, watching a movie. So I think I’m going to get Cuddles set up in the bathroom, and get my fanny off to bed. Have a great day!