Johnsons' Journey

Can I whine for a minute???? … Cause I don’t feel very good… Oh, it’s nothing serious. Just monthly female problems, which is bad enough, believe me! … I tend to get hit pretty bad for the first 3-4 days, with terrible cramps, fatigue, and dizziness. The kids are being great though… While Jared is the only one who knows what “female problems” are, they all still know I’m not feeling well, and are always ready and willing to help me out. I have such wonderful kids!

Isn’t it funny how I can blog about female issues, but you couldn’t pay me enough to mention them on facebook?! *lol* … Too many men in my contact list, including the pastor of the church we went to in Portland. When I am hit by AF, I just facebook that I am not feeling well. *lol* … It always feels a little deceitful, because people think I am sick, when I’m not… But I just CAN’T mention AF. *lol* (Yes, I have issues )

Not much going on this week. Just a bunch of homeschool lessons, as we’re getting ready for our 2 week spring break. It’s going to be so nice to have some time off school. Our weekends are getting so busy, that it feels like we never get R&R anymore. I need a day where I can just sit and not think about anything. *lol*

My laptop ... In pieces!

When we got my new computer, we asked our computer guy, Thomas, to look at the laptop… This is the laptop that has been repaired TWICE by HP, and 2 or 3 times by Thomas himself… I was so sick of the eternal problems, which is why we got my new computer (we just want Alicia to get the laptop for watching iTunes, which is why we’re having Thomas look at it again)… Anyway, since last summer the fan has been making this loud, annoying noise. Turns out that the fan is fried (for the 2nd time)… Turns out that a bunch of my hair (which is constantly falling out), had gotten sucked in and wrapped around the fan. *sigh* What a nightmare!

I’m sure Thomas just wants to throw that computer over the fence! *lol*

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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My friend, Jana’s daughter is doing a Flat Stanley project in her 3rd grade class at school. They are learning about the states and their capitals, and Jana asked her friends if they would “sponser” Stanley. I thought it would be a fun homeschool project for the kids, so I told her that we would do it.

We got a blank Stanley in the mail a couple weeks ago, and we got to “dress” him up. Naturally, our Stanley is into bowling, so he had to dress in his bowling shirt. *lol*

The kids are having fun with it… We still need to get a few more pictures of Stanley around the town, and then we’ll send him back to Pittsburg.

Before I go, I just wanted to give a quick shout out for jumbo envelopes… By the time we are done with Stanley, he’ll probably have to be shipped in a jumbo envelope! *lol*

The kids and I have been bad the last week or so… I guess we got spoiled by getting to sleep in those 3 weeks while we were on Christmas Vacation, and now we can’t seem to get ourselves up out of bed at a decent time. *lol* … So we’ve been getting a late start on our lessons all week long…

Part of me says, who cares? We’re getting school done, and the chores done, and that’s what matters, right? … Another part of me doesn’t like getting done with school later in the day… I feel like we’re behind or something. Maybe it’s the OCD in me that feels like we should be on a schedule, and if we’re not, we’re “bad” … But the lazy part of me wants to stay in bed an extra hour (OK, sometimes even 2 hours *lol*) … Gah! What to do!

Not much else going on… The girls had their ballet/art classes last night… I had a killer headache (like usual), so Joe said he would take them… This is big, because he HATES sitting in there with the other moms, waiting for class to be done. *lol* Poor Joe! … I am thankful he did it, though now he says I owe him big. *lol*

Yesterday was the cat’s birthday too… Our little Buddy is a year old now. The kids gave him (and Cuddles, to be fair) some soft cat food as a birthday treat (they usually only eat hard cat food), and sang him Happy Birthday. While the kids were singing, he looked at them like they were all off their rockers, and tried to squirm out of Josh’s arms… But then he happily accepted the treat (once Jared blew out the birthday candle and removed it from the food… He was a bit scared of that candle *rofl*).

Before I go, I just wanted to give a quick shout out for weight loss supplements… Something I really need to look into!

The boys got their first bowling award patches today… I was a little surprised, because they are having some awards/party thing on the last day of the bowling league on March 27th, so I figured that all the awards would come then… Guess not. *lol*

When Coach Mick was handing them out today, he gave Josh three patches, but he never did call Jared. We didn’t know what to think about that, since Jared has always been a better bowler than Josh. I was half wondering if maybe Jared’s had gotten misplaced or something…

Anyway, they had put these stickers on the back of the patches that had Josh’s name on them, and the score made for the patch, and the date of the game… One of the patches Josh was given was for a 300 series. It said that Josh got a 308 on November 7th… I got to looking at these stickers, and I realized that Josh didn’t get his first 300 series until last Saturday. So I looked in the score notebook that I keep, and sure enough, Jared bowled a 308 on 11/7/09, not Josh.

Two of the 3 patches that Josh got were actually Jared’s patches.

Talk about unorganized! … At least now we know why Jared didn’t get any patches!

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Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope that 2009 has treated everyone well?! We’re all doing fine and dandy over here in our neck of the woods… We’re still enjoying our country living out here in Molalla… Though I have to admit that I did question it a bit when there was a cougar sighting in one of our neighbor’s yards in September. It took me a while, but I finally was able to start breathing again, though I am still nervous about letting the kids play outside. *lol*

We’ve been keeping pretty busy lately… Joe’s still driving truck for OBRC (they renamed Crinc this last January), and he’s also working for a Safeway gas station on the weekends. Sometimes working 7 days a week can take a toll on him, so he requests a weekend off every now and then, so he can get some sleep. Poor guy!

The kids and I are still home schooling. Things have been going really well. We had the older three tested in May, and they are all testing 3-4 years above their grade level. We are so proud of them for working so hard! … Last year they talked about maybe wanting to try public school, but one by one they all changed their minds. They just don’t like the idea of being in school all day. *lol*

Jared and Josh have joined a junior bowling league… Who knew that they would love bowling so much?! *lol* … They are really, really enjoying it, and want to go bowling All. The. Time. They have league games on Saturday, and we take them to Cosmic Bowl at least every other Friday evening. Jared has become obsessed, and talks about bowling practically non-stop. They even go onto YouTube and look at videos with bowling tips and things. So funny! (and so cute!) … Jared will be 12 next month, and Josh just turned 10.

As for Alicia, she has always loved drawing, coloring, and anything crafty, and she seems to have a talent for it. So we were able to find her an drawing class in town, which meets every Tuesday. Her teacher, Jay, it great, and a very good artist himself. Alicia is learning a lot, and is loving it! (Alicia is now 8 years old)

Last year Amanda was taking ballet classes through the Molalla Community Schools, but they stopped doing those kind of programs. Luckily for us, a new dance studio opened up last March, called Dolce Dance (that’s actually where Alicia’s drawing class is too). So this fall we signed Amanda up for ballet there, and she loves it. Her new teacher, Claudine, is really wonderful with the girls and seems to have a soft spot for our little Pixie-girl. :) She has a recital coming up on the 18th, and we can’t wait to see it.:) (Amanda is 6 years old now… My baby is growing up! *sob*)

Joe gets 3 vacations a year now, so we spent a lot of time in our trailer this summer. :) … In August we spent a week camping at Detroit Lake, which is our favorite campsite… In June we took the kids on a road trip/camping trip through Oregon, and we visited a bunch of animal parks. We visited the Wildlife Safari, Wildlife Images, the Sea Lion Caves, the West Coast Game Park, and the Oregon Coast Aquarium… As well as a few other non-animal stops. It was an exhausting week, but it was also quite fun! We even stopped off in Roseburg so I could show the kids my old stomping grounds, as well as my favorite park, and while we were at the beach, we spent an afternoon at Sunset Bay state park, where we would go when I was a girl. It was so nice to see it again!

Well, I suppose I’ve jabbered on long enough… Here’s wishing you all a very Merry CHRISTmas! Hope 2010 brings you nothing but happiness!

Love to you all!

Joe, Julie, Jared, Josh, Alicia, and Amanda
(and the cats, Cuddles and Buddy, too!)

… Mainly because I have no idea why I am even bothering posting. … Other than lots of homeschool lessons, there is nothing of interest going on in the Johnson household. Very boring stuff.

The kids have, once again, asked for an extra week of vacation (for Christmas break), so they are busy doing extra work so that they can earn it… But instead of taking the extra week before the scheduled week, they want to take it after Christmas… That’s because they want more time to enjoy their Christmas presents before going back to school. *lol* So we will be doing extra work through next Friday, and then taking 3 weeks off. We won’t be back to school until January 11th… Jared’s excited that his birthday will be the last day of vacation.

Joe may be taking the girls on a “date” on Friday… Depending on the weather. (There is a possibility of freezing rain, and if that happens, they won’t go… So the girls don’t know yet, just in case.)… Since Joe took the boys camping in September, he’s been promising the girls that he will take them to the movies. Well the new Disney Princess movie (Princess and the Frog, or something like that) comes out tomorrow, and the girls would LOVE to see that… He would take them while the boys and I were at the bowling alley for cosmic bowl… I hope it works out, for the girls’ sake.

Well, I guess I better get back to the kids… They are working on their Bible lessons right now.

If you’re looking to further your education, but want to do it at home, then Western Governors Online University may be the place to go for your online degree. It’s a fully accredited online education institution, and it’s non-profit. It’s also affordable, compared to other online universities. They have some healthcare courses, courses for Information Technology, business courses, and they offer an online teaching degree.

As a homeschool mom, I think taking online courses after highschool would be the way to go. The kids could get a college diploma and have a good career, instead of just a “job”, like Joe and I… It’s something to look in to!

Auntie Julie proudly holding sweet little Melody!

 Today is my niece’s birthday! Our sweet Melody is now 12 years old… My Oh my, where does time go? Happy Birthday sweetie! We love you!

As of last night, the kids and I are officially on Thanksgiving Vacation. The kids really worked hard to earn this extra week off of school, and are SO EXCITED. Most of them are mainly excited about getting to sleep in in the mornings. *lol*

We’ve been so busy with doing the extra school work, we haven’t really been doing anything else… There hasn’t been time for anything else. *lol*

I have gotten some more of my old blog posts moved over here… I just finished up through the end of January of 2003 … It’ll be easy until I get to 2005, which is when I was finally able to use a comment box instead of a tag board, so I will have comments to move over as well as posts. That takes longer (but it’s worth it).

Alicia’s drawing class was canceled this week. I guess Jay (her teacher) was sick. She came with Amanda and I to her ballet class anyway, but I think she was bored. *lol* She is too old to take interest in all the baby/preschool toys they have there. I thought maybe she would want to watch Amanda’s ballet class as they practiced for their recital, but she never did.

While we girls were at the ballet class, Joe took the boys out to dinner at McDonald’s. It was Josh’s birthday, and he *really* wanted a hamburger for dinner. So they did that and got some ice cream (since it was Josh’s birthday), then Joe picked up a Papa Murphy’s pizza for the girls and I when we got home.

The boys and I got all the fall decorations down on Wednesday, and Joe put them under the house. He then pulled out the Christmas decorations… The boys don’t have a league bowling game on Saturday (the bowling alley is hosting some special all ladies bowling tournament thing this entire weekend), so we are going to decorate for Christmas early! The kids and I are so excited! … We just need to buy some hot chocolate. The kids insist that we have hot chocolate while we decorate. *lol*

We don’t have too much else going on… We are taking the kids bowling tonight, for Cosmic Bowl, but that’s about all… Just looking forward to a LAZY next two weeks. Yay!