Silence is Golden

Did you notice how quiet it was when you viewed my blog today? Some have expressed displeasure with my eclectic musical taste. I chose to delete it because I forgot my password to add new songs and the darn folks at Project Playlist would not, could not respond to my request. After some of the songs had been there, they would get an error message and not play so I decided to do away with the whole mess.

I'm trying to use some new tools to make my blog more interesting, but apparently I don't know how to do it right or I'm just dense at following step by step instructions. I wanted to have some cute "Shabby Chic" paper and embellishments. My techno savvy has been exposed. "Don't pay attention to the woman behind the curtain, the Great and Powerful Oz has spoken!"

Does anyone have any hope of help for me?

I don't think I'm ever going to live through this

Well, today we were supposed to have sold our former home. The deal fell through because our buyer couldn't get the funds. I've stepped in gum, Melissa! It's Monday and I had such high hopes for today, but it was all for not. Would anyone like to kick me in the teeth while I am down here? I am at a complete loss as to what to do, in more ways than one.

Do you hear that sucking sound? It's not the vacuum. Yeah, it's my day and my year.

Easter

The Reester bunny made a mad hop to our house last night. "The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of chocolate eggs danced in their heads." I say Reester bunny because my kids love "Reester eggs." You know, those Reese's creations that are just melt in your mouth yummy.

We did manage to color some Easter eggs, so this Spring Break was not a complete bust:

Some delicious egg salad will be had this week. I love Easter. I love the reminder of our Savior's life and why we are here. I am grateful to Him for the hope of returning to Him through His atoning sacrifice. I am so far from perfect, and it is a blessing to me to know that I can overcome my imperfections and always strive to be a better daughter of our Heavenly Father.

Happy Easter

Oh What A Night, Er Morning?

Great fun was had last night at Michele's home. We had an encore of last Friday's jewelry class because so many had missed it and really wanted to come. The rules of jewelry night are this: Bring food, and serve yourself. The time? 7:00pm to whenever. Literally, whenever.

I got home at about 1:00am this morning! It's so much fun to sit and gab with your friends. It is productive though, enter this:

We collectively thought that it would be funny to announce jewelry class in Relief Society by wearing all of our creations! I was also wearing two pair of earrings and:

All of the bracelets that I have made. I'm sorry about the blurry, I think I NEED a new camera. Probably not the same caliber as Heidi's but something with a few more pixels, yeah? I am a novice, let's remember.

Now, what to wear?

Spring Break 08

Brittany will probably kill me for this, but, I'm the kind of Mom that likes to let her kids enjoy their time off from school. In our home, that usually means catching up on some much needed sleep. Even Berkeley likes to join in. He is a true Johnson through and through! He'll "borrow" Brit's bed when she's not using it. Berkeley is a real man, he has no pride whatsoever about being engulfed in pink.
We didn't really do much of anything fun this week. Of course, I was not on Spring Break, much to Mark's dismay. (You're not doing anything fun, MOM!) Poor mom has to work to bring in a paycheck. On Wednesday, Brittany took Mark to the movies to see "Horton Hears a Who". They reported that it was a really cute movie. Mark must have liked it so much that he saw it again yesterday afternoon with Lee, who was playing hookie for Good Friday.

I'm hoping I can convince Mark to color eggs with me today, so that we can say that we did "something"!

My little hangout buddy.

What an excellent morning! I got to hang out for a little bit with this guy!

It's Tim Lunt. He was a little dream. I miss having little ones around. Mine have grown up way too fast. Advice to young mothers everywhere: Stop feeding your kids or they will grow up too! Of course, now that I am a little older, I have a lot more patience for the stuff I had no patience for when mine were little. To my children, I am sorry that I was so impatient with you at times.

Anyway, Tim came over for a little visit so that his mom could go help with his big sister's class at school. Berkeley, being the current baby of our family, didn't quite know what to make of Tim. He has never been around babies, and he was enamored of the smells of a new person and was somewhat flabbergasted that something so little moved on it's own.

Tim seemed to like Berkeley too. He jolted when Berkeley barked at him the first time, but Berkeley continued to bark at him for about 10 minutes! "The nerve of you mom! Replacing me with that baby!" Tim just stared at him. Berkeley desperately wanted to lick him up, which I would not allow him to do.

This is Berkeley getting in the way of me taking a picture of Tim.

Tim doing a little exploring. Notice how intently that Berkeley is watching.

Berkeley still watching. Tim likes the pictures.

Anyway, besides a little urp on my pants, (which by the way Julie, doesn't bother me like it used to) Tim and I had a great time. He even laughed while pulling my hair, (it's okay I was laughing too) and growled back at Berkeley. One thing I noticed after Tim left. I have leverage for Julie to bring him over again:

Julie, if you ever want to see this teething ring ever again, you'll have to bring Tim over to claim it!:)

Where in the World is CJ?

It's been a busy one hasn't it? March is off to a flying start and I am trying to play catch up. March 1st my Lee had Stake day camp, so, in anticipation of fasting for yet another month for the sale of our former home, I went to the temple. It was so peaceful and as I sat in the celestial room, I thought, "I wonder if anyone would notice if I just stayed here all day?"

Well, duty calls, and I had to go home. I had so much work to do and my rationalization was that if I did what Heavenly Father wanted me to do, then He would help me with what I needed to do. Of course, in my mind, I thought that I needed to get my house all cleaned up and that is definitely not what happened.

Work has been stressful, only because of the tasks I need to accomplish by month end, which did not happen. I pulled an all nighter last night, and today I asked my boss if she noticed what time it was when I e-mailed her my final report. It was 3:00am and she was up! Anyway, she wants to talk to me Monday morning. I'm thinking, "Maybe a raise?"

Weed patrol, dishes, laundry, picking up children, grocery shopping, and I sit here and my house is still not cleaned up sufficiently to my standards. It's tough to be a working mom, and although I work primarily from home, it's still difficult to work when I would rather play with my family.

Well, even with all of the stressors that bombard us each day, I'm grateful for my husband, my children, my extended family, and the knowledge that this life is short and the blessings will come.