400 pounds of sand!!!

400 lbs. Of sand was just added to the Johnson Family sandbox!! It's really messy and no matter how we try to wash off on the backporch before they come in, the sand still seems to get all on the floors!!! But it's worth it....it will provide hours if entertainment for the kids this summer!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Happy Easter!

Someone said this pic perfectly depicts the kids personalities: J-always smiling, Micah-funny, Lily-rotten!!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My favorite bday present...

From my PA sister, Jenna who really knows the "true me"


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Welcome to Miami!

When I get home tomorrow night, I will have travelled about 5,000 miles in the last two weeks! Whew! No wonder I'm worn out. If you follow this blog, you've undoubtedly seen the well-documented coverage of Renee's and my trip to NYC. This week I'm making a whirlwind trip to Miami. It's not as glamorous as it sounds. I just got here this afternoon, will spend all day tomorrow in a meeting, and fly back tomorrow night. However, I am going to go sit outside by the pool and palm trees and pretend that I'm really in Florida for a little while.

For those who don't know, Amanda and family moved from Fort Myers to Pensacola recently. (And why would you know? She didn't tell anyone!!) I sent her a text after I landed that said, "How is it possible that I'm in the same state as you and further from you than when I was in LR?". Crazy! Well, so long from Cuba...er, Miami!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone! Ashley asked me yesterday which is the most special day: Christmas or Easter? Tough question from a 5 year old! I told her that while Christmas is a wonderful day, that it wouldn't mean anything to us unless Christ rose again on Easter. I don't know if she understood the answer, but I'm glad she is thinking about it.

Easter egg hunt

So we just had our annual Life Point Easter Egg hunt with around 800 people in attendance. The rain even held off, thank you God!!! Ralph and Saundra were in town this week so they got to see the kids hunt eggs and they are even staying for church in the morning before heading back to Oklahoma!












- Posted using BlogPress from
my iPhone

The Hidey Hole

Shouldn't it be a building code violation to construct a house in Arkansas with no interior rooms? Every room in our house has an exterior wall! We have decided that the safest places in the house during bad weather are either our closet (as long as you remember to take the sewing machine off the top shelf!) or the laundry room. We usually opt for laundry room because we can stick the kids in the storage space below the stairs that we have dubbed "The Hidey Hole". As you can tell, it's a very small, unfinished space, but they love it! In fact, they are usually not ready to come out after the storms pass.

NYC Renee style

Ok sooooooo you've heard our NY experience according to Racheal now here's my side of the story....

All weekend long I kept track of
The funny things that were said.This is how I will remember NY. I may not remember restaurant names and movie titles (what was the name of that movie we saw? "set point"? IDK?)but we shared some laughs that we will never forget!!

If I had to describe NY in one word it would be "dirty"

"Ain't no paint on the streets in Harlem"

"Highlights for Jesus"

"If you see Queen Latifah you'd better take her picture."

"Ummmmm I love the smell of cigars.....
Me too!!!!"

"It looked like she had a coyote on her back."

"Chewing on my drink over here"

"Thanks for carrying around my medical device"

"Crotch bunnies"

"I will not talk to you, but I'll talk to your friend." (doorman)

Thanks for the memories!!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

NYC - Day 3

6:00am - Renee tried to "fix" the stupid room clock yesterday, but somehow she must have set the alarm instead! And the clock is still an hour ahead!

6:09am - Dang clock! I guess I hit snooze trying to turn it off before. I tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use. Renee's still snoring, so I'm going to try to quietly finish up blogging from yesterday and plot our course for today...

9:50am - I woke up craving a big breakfast today, so I searched for a good diner close to our hotel. We walked a few blocks to West Way Diner - a local joint that the diner in Seinfeld was based on. We got seated right away and beat the Sunday morning rush. The food was so good and so cheap! Seriously, our bill for 2 breakfast plates, juice, and coffee was under $15. That's a good deal - especially in Manhattan!

10:30am - We didn't quite finish our shopping yesterday, and Renee was all done with sight-seeing. So after a pleasant walk up 9th Ave., we made our way over to some more stores. The weather was nearly perfect today - cool and sunny with some strong wind gusts.

3:36pm - We went back to hotel, grabbed our bags, and headed to the airport. Our flights were leaving from the same concourse just a few gates apart. Renee's flight was originally scheduled to leave at 5:30. We made it to the airport on time only to learn that her flight to PIT was delayed until 9:00!

5:10pm - We decided to check on my flight, and unbelievably, it was also delayed until 9:00! Apparently, the storms on Friday and Saturday caused a lot of delays, and it still effecting the airlines. (Huh? They were just thunderstorms this far east!). Renee and I decided that God must have thought that we needed a little more time together. Since we couldn't find a place to get pedicures in the airport, we had dinner and then went our separate ways.

7:15pm - Good news for Renee: her take-off time got moved to 8:00pm! Good news for Racheal: I found a little airport salon and got a quickie pedicure!

8:48pm - More bad news: my flight further delayed to at least 9:30. Um, make that 10:00. I guess I'll get home sometime...

10:28pm - Finally on the plane! Goodbye, New York! It was fun, but I'm ready to be home.

NYC - Day 2

6:17 - Woke up, looked at alarm clock (which actually said 7:17am) and decided that either way it was too early to get up!

8:15ish - Woke up for real. After a couple of cups of nasty coffee brewed in the room by Renee, we headed out for breakfast (and better coffee) and to see downtown Manhattan. It is supposed to rain later today, so were going to cram in as much as we can this morning.

11:19am - Renee's cold and has had enough site-seeing; she's ready to get her shop on! We're on the subway headed for Macy's. We might be here for a while...

3:48pm - Macy's was insane! My first trip to NYC was a few years ago at Christmastime. I would say that the "One Day Sale" on the Saturday before Easter was almost just as busy at the world's largest department store! I really wanted to get some new shoes, but the shoe department was sheer madness. Thankfully, there was a Ben & Jerry's on the 4th floor, too. A scoop of the New York Super Fudge Chunk is just what I needed to restore my sanity! One of Renee's favorite things in New York was the wooden escalator at Macy's.

10:48pm - What a nasty afternoon in NYC! It was cold and rainy, so we decided to escape from the wet, huddled masses and watch a movie. There wasn't anything playing that we really wanted to see, so we opted for Source Code. The review I read about this movie called it a cross between Inception and Groundhog Day, but we actually both enjoyed it. We were out of the rain and off of our feet for a couple of hours, so I think we would have enjoyed just about anything!

NYC - Day 1

4:40am - Time to wake up! I'm meeting Renee in "The Big Apple" today for our birthday, get-away weekend! Waking up before the crack of dawn would not have been so bad, except that we were awakened at 2:00am by tornado sirens. The storm has passed, and soon I will be boarding the 6:25am flight to Newark.

6:50am - Watching the sun rise from 20,000 feet. My flight is 2 hrs and 45 mins. Just before take-off, I got a text from Renee saying that she was stuck in traffic. I hope she makes it to the airport on time! I think her flight from PIT was supposed to take-off at 8:30am. She's supposed to be there when I land, so we'll see...

10:00am - Arrived a few minutes early! I turned my phone back on and got the bad news from Renee - she missed her flight! She got stuck behind a wreck, so she didn't make it on time. Thankfully, she caught another flight out and should be here at 12:30pm. Really not much to do here in the NJ airport, so I'll be hanging out and watching people navigate around the pigeons in the baggage claim area if you need me!

12:30pm - Met Renee in the airport and started navigating to and through the big city. We found our hotel (Hilton Garden Inn Times Square) and were able to check-in right away. After dropping off our bags, we hit the streets for some serious sight-seeing. It might not be the coolest way to travel, but I love double-decker bus tours! I think it's good way to see the highlights of a city when you're on a short trip. We went uptown all the way to Harlem then hopped off when got back to Central Park South. We made our way down 5th Avenue and then cut across at Rockefeller Center. By then, it was nearing suppertime, but it was hard to lure Renee out of the three-story Gap even with the promise of a good meal!

6:48pm (or is it 7:48pm?) - Renee got us tickets for "Wicked" tonight at 8:00. After feasting on some great Italian, we made it back to our hotel room in what we thought was plenty of time to get ready, but the clock in our room said 7:48! Oh, crap! After verifying the correct time with 2 iPhones, we concluded the room clock was wrong and stopped panicking. We got ready and headed to the theater which was just 2 blocks from our hotel.

11:15pm - WICKED WAS AMAZING!!! I had heard how good it was from lots of people, so I was afraid it was one of those things that was really overhyped. Definitely not! The writing and songs were great, and the actors were fantastic! We even saw the understudy for Glinda, and she totally stole the show!

Soccer and Shakes with the Stacys

We spent Saturday with the Stacys before they headed south to visit with Josh's family. We started the day watching the Cowboys get their second soccer victory. (6-2 with Nathan scoring twice!) After watching part of the game, Brandon, Mikayla, and Ashley made a trip to the "confession stand" (as B called it). After the game, we had lunch at Purple Cow before they headed out. For those who don't know, Amanda and Josh moved (again!) from Ft. Myers to Pensacola - still in Florida, but 10 hours closer!

No Kids Allowed

Waiting with Amanda & Jeff for dinner at Bonefish. No kids menus needed!
Our dinner was wonderful, and then we ordered more dessert than any self-respecting person would ever admit - chocolate creme brûlée AND a chocolate/macadamia nut/raspberry brownie! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My new "swimming poot"

This weekend we are at the Mid Atlantic Association Meeting in Grove City/Mercer, PA. The kids are so excited because our hotel has a pool! Lily was really excited to get a new swimming "poot"




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Happy Birthday to Me!

Tuesday was my 35th birthday! I'm trying to embrace it, but it is the first number that has ever bothered me. When I turned 30, I was 3 weeks post-partum and still in survival mode. My age was the least of my concerns!

After a glamorous day of dropping kids off, working, picking kids up, and transporting them to various activities, we had a little celebration at home. Jeff got me a cake and even put up a few decorations.

My favorite things were the candles that spelled "RACHEAL". Of course, he had to buy the pack that was spelled "RACHEL" plus an extra "A". That's one of the many reasons I love my husband; he knows to get the extra "A"! Growing up with the "EA", I never got anything personalized, so it is nice that he makes the effort to make things just for me.

(Of note "RACHEAL" was flagged by the spellcheck and "RACHEL" was not. Just thought it was funny that the computer proved my point.)

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

What beautiful weather we had this weekend! Sunny skies and temps in the upper 70s. We even made the best of the gusting wind yesterday and flew kites. I've never had much luck with kites, but we got them really high a few times. Nathan figured out how to fly his on his own, but Ashley spent most of her time chasing the dog and dragging her kite behind her.

Upward Soccer - Take 2

Last year's soccer season got off to a very bad start. In the one soccer related post that I made last year, I mentioned that we had "some teachable moments about good sportsmanship", but that was putting in mildly. What we really ended up having was a come-to-Jesus meeting around the dining room table about how Nathan had better not embarrass us again. The main problem was his mouth. After the first game, he went through the line saying, "Bad game...bad game..." Oh, boy!

I'm pleased to report that the first game of this year turned out much better! Nathan - for the most part - followed the rules that I came up with last year: (1) Head in the game, (2) eyes on the ball, and (3) mouth shut! We rehearse these rules before he participates in any organized sporting event. They seem to help, and Ashley can recite them as well. He also played better this time and even scored a goal and assisted on another. They do keep score in our league, and his team won 8-4. Go, Cowboys! They get different colored stars after the game for "Offensive Star", "Defensive Star", etc. When Nathan got a star for being "Christ-like", he said, "My first one in 2 years!"