Quick trip to Jackson

As long as I'm doing a quick posting, thought I'd share some pictures of our trip to Jackson. We love that place - it is soo beautiful!

Oh yeah - did I mention I was INSANE to take a two-year old, one-year old, and a three-month puppy to a national park? It went surprisingly well. The only disappointment for Greg was that Meagan was overlooked by fellow campers because we had such a cute puppy with us. :)

This week brought to you by the letter "P"

Ah, the joys of motherhood. Cody has been a bit sick this week. On Monday night I saw a rash on his torso and thought I'd give it a day or two to see if it improved. It would come and go, sometimes in small patches, other times it looked like it was taking most of his body over. So on Wednesday, I scheduled a doctor's appointment to have it checked out. I was assured that it was just a case of hives and sent home with a "good luck."

Wouldn't you know it, but the next day Cody had flu-like symptoms, from both ends. In hindsight, Thursday night was pretty funny. I had both kids in the tub, didn't want Cody in too long in case he got sick. So, after he was washed and dried, he ended up on the kitchen island getting a drink of water. That's when I heard Meagan crying in the tub. Poor thing was traumatized but the #2 she had just done in the tub. Agh! Fished that out, got some clean bath water, washed and dried Meagan, got her dressed, then remembered Cody still wasn't dressed (but I was hoping Greg had put a diaper on him). No such luck! A case of diarrhea on the kitchen island! Oh well, at least it was contained - and easier to clean on the counter than on the carpet. I'm sure that island hasn't been scrubbed and sanitized in it's life as much as it was that night.

Cody, being the trooper that he is, still maintained every appearance that he was feeling great. So, we ventured to the swimming pool on Saturday afternoon. All went well during the swimming session, but on our way to the car it was like that scene from Stand By Me. Wow - I didn't know a two-year old could have such force in his little body. After he finished, he looked up at me with a big smile and announced, "Done puking."

I thought we were done with the letter P until this afternoon when Josh went to get Meagan up from her nap. Evidently she didn't want her dirty diaper on any longer because she took it off in her crib. Again, at least it was somewhat contained and I've learned a valuable lesson - no more putting her to bed in just her dress - panties/bloomers must be on. That being said she has the cutest nightgown on right now. So cute in fact, I'll go grab the camera.

On a lighter note, I played a piano solo today in Sacrament, "America, The Beautiful." It's rare that I come away feeling I played the piece the best I can but I felt that way today. It's nice to help set the tone for a meeting, especially on such an important holiday.

Here's wishing you all a happy Fourth of July!

Where are Grandma and Grandpa?

How many times do you think mom will watch this?

Russia from Deonne Johnson on Vimeo.

Best April Fool's Day Joke

In a small town in rural Utah the following ad someone placed the following ad.

HOME FOR SALE--ONLY $10,000

Beautiful home for sale with exquisite canyon traffic.  Boasts 5 bedrooms - 3 of which suffered absolutely no meth contamination.  Sits on 2 acres of fenced in heaven, complete with magical fruit tree and Olympic class kick ball field.  Large shed for wife's junk and husband's treasure's.  Must sell owners relocating to Iquana farm in Belize.  Will throw in trampoline of death for free.  Call now!! ... and then ... MY BROTHER'S PHONE NUMBER.

Wow ... this has to go up there on the list of practical jokes. Imagine the phone calls they have received - and the trouble that their friend is in. I think we all need to be thinking of a way to get him back. :) And it's obviously someone who went on the cruise with us, the reference is the Iguana farm in Belize is hilarious. My sister-in-law wondered if they served Iguana soup. The look on the ticket agent's face was PRICELESS.

April Fool's Day

About a week ago AJ texted me during rehearsal to let me know he had two black eyes and a bloody nose. YIKES! What could I do? I had carpooled to rehearsal and had no way to get home and really, what could I do if I was home? I told the babysitter to make sure he iced it and I would be home as soon as I could. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was an April Fool's Day joke - one week early. My dad has a saying, "If you mess with the bull, you're gonna get the horns." Well, the horns came out yesterday, especially when I saw AJ had colored the left side of Jericho's face with permanent marker sometime in the middle of the night!

April Fool's Day Joke #1
This was planned before Jericho's face, so perhaps it was a bit too nice. Don't worry, the horns are coming. I thought it would be cute and cleaver to decorate AJ's locker at school - pretending as if he had a secret admirer.

I stuffed the inside of his locker with balloons (most of which I had filled with confetti), dumped confetti throughout his locker with an emphasis on the inside of his shoes, and left a king size Twix - his favorite candy bar. Cute, huh? But remember, this was all planned BEFORE the permanent marker.

April Fool's Day Joke #2
Big Daddy emailed his boss and worked and asked if he would participate in a joke by sending an official sounding email that we had to move. Here's the email....

I just got out of a meeting with Sonya and Jim.  As you are aware, the Sea Based JPALS program has undergone changes at the Program Office.  The new leadership has issued a mandate for improved efficiency and reduced costs. They are passing the mandate down to all contractors who directly work on the Sea Based JPALS program.  Therefore, we fall under this mandate. 

To that end, all ARINC personnel who charge the Sea Based JPALS program are now required to work ON-SITE at PAX NAS to support the program.  A one month transition period has been approved.  After that time you must be on-site to work this program.

If you wish to continue with ARINC and work this program, please make arrangements to relocate to the PAX area within the month.  I will find out about relocation assistance provided by ARINC.

How priceless is that? I couldn't have created a more perfect email on my own!  Big Daddy even pulled up the organizational chart to back up the position of the email sender.

Of course, if we're moving, we need to sell the house, so....

a good friend let us borrow a FOR SALE sign. (And yes, that is snow! We've had snow for the past few days. I'm ready for SPRING!) Unfortunately, AJ didn't fall for the joke as much as the other boys did. Darn! Well, the best joke was yet to come.

April Fool's Day Joke #3
I had called the soccer coordinator and asked her to call the boys during dinner time and let Jericho know his coach's info and act surprised that AJ didn't sign up. Well, she came up with something even better! Right on cue at 6:00 pm, the phone rang. I asked AJ to get it and he looked at the caller ID and said who is this? Well, his friend that was having dinner with us piped up, "She's in charge of the soccer teams." After talking to Jericho, she told AJ that his team had been canceled because she couldn't find anyone to coach. He fell for it HOOK, LINE, & SINKER! Love it!

Well, I finally confessed to the jokes right before bedtime. Looks like I have more work cut out for me for next year to beat this year's jokes. Any suggestions?

AFC sings Hayden's Creation

What an amazing opportunity to sing with the American Festival Chorus directed by Dr. Craig Jessop. We sang Hayden's Creation on Saturday night and I was overwhelmed by the thought that this music was created by one man. He was certainly inspired, as am I each time I sing with this group.

If you give a house a leak in the bathroom...

If you're familiar Laura Numeroff's book, "IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE,"

you'll appreciate this post even more. :)

If you give a house a leak in the bathroom, the wife is going to ask for it to be fixed.

If your wife asks the leak to be fixed, what she really means is to fix the leak AND the cupboard that was ruined, replace the bathroom tile and wood laminate in the hall, repair sheet rock, retexture the walls, paint the wall, as well as caulk and paint the floor moldings.

When you find out the wood laminate in the hallway is not longer available, then she'll want to put new wood in the rest of the house so it all matches.

When you rip out the existing floor in the kitchen area, you'll pull out the stove, fridge and cover of the dishwasher and of course, finding a secure location for all of the screws (which happened to be on top of the washer in the laundry room).

When you go to find the cup of screws on washer, you realize that doing wash over the weekend rattled the cup off the washer and now all the parts are underneath.

When you pull the washer and dryer out to find the missing screws, you realize you haven't cleaned under there for quite some time, so now the simple task of fixing a leak has resulted in a clean floor under the washer, dryer, new floor in the kitchen, hall, and bathroom and the paint guys are coming tomorrow to paint the walls as well as a "few" touch-ups around the house.

Did I mention that we had a leak in the roof in the garage ten days after the bathroom incident? Wonder what upgrades I can swing out of that home repair. :)

Rather than posting photos of the home repair, I invite everyone to come see my new, beautiful kitchen floor in person.