Oh, the weather outside is frightful

The best part of being self-employed is taking a snow day with your kids!



We really need to figure out how to attach a snow shovel to the front.

Because we are going to learn to like fish

Joe, growing up in Washington, actually already likes fish. My early experiences included ... trout, so I'm not as big a fan. But I'm going to learn or die trying because we recently inherited one big fish. Apparantly, a tanker filled with fresh salmon rolled over on I-90 near Spokane, and a few people from our ward were lucky enough to happen upon the spill. So we got a share of the spoils. That fish is huge!



As a side note, we put the fish's head in the fridge right next to the milk. I can't wait to see what our kids say in the morning. We're going to tell them that it's for dinner. If all goes well, I might even go so far as to put it in a pot of boiling water in the evening to see what they do.

Harvesting

These last few weeks have flown by. I had multiple training meetings to take up my spare (not!) time. I recertified for ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support), which is like CPR on steroids. So drop dead in front of me...I dare you!! Okay, please don't. Survival rates suck no matter where you are or how good a nurse I am.

Joe is doing well at work. He keeps saying that he should have done this years ago, and I agree! Being self-employed is so different, and in a good way. (Except for health insurance). He's also enjoying being a part of the classic car club with all the old fogies in Moses Lake and his friend, Aaron.

Our ward's annual Harvest dinner was last week. I volunteered to make two pies. One of which was my famous lemon meringue, which went over quite fabulously. It was the first to be gone, and everyone raved (yeah me!!). I also made a cream cheese pumpkin that was pretty darn good. I put the whipped cream on too soon, though, and it melted all over, but still tasted good.

I took Natalie in for a check-up this week. She is 35 pounds, and 43 inches tall. Which is 10% for height, and below the 3rd% for weight. But she keeps growing, so we don't care that she's small. Interestingly enough, Brooklin is now 28#. She's catching up fast. All 3 kids got flu shots. Brooklin got hers first. She cried for a minute and got over it. I had to hold AJ down to get his, and he complained the rest of the day about how badly it hurt. ("Oh, I can't shut the door; my arm hurts so bad!" "Oh, I can't clean up my toys because my arm still hurts bad!" "Oh, I punched my sister because my arm hurts so bad!") Right after AJ's tantrum, it was Natalie's turn. She responded with, "I don't need your help, Mom. I'm a big girl. I know it will hurt a minute, but then, I'll be okay."

Joe and I are part of a babysitting co-op, so we actually got a date on Friday! We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant, so the whole date only cost us for the meal and gas. Babysitting is so expensive; it's no wonder we haven't been getting out regularly before this.


Joe's mentor/manager owns the movie theater in Ephrata. He invited us to a private showing of Megamind yesterday, and we obliged happily. It was pretty enjoyable, for a cartoon.

I went to the worldwide leadership training meeting yesterday. There were some very intesting changes made, including getting rid of all the committees and a huge push to get people at home more often, especially the bishop.

Joe is watching "Supersize Me", reaffirming how badly I hate fast food. Gross!

When things go bump and BOO

These last few weeks have been pretty hectic. Holiday season is upon us folks.

Natalie's birthday was the 19th. I can't believe my baby girl is already 6!! (I know, that last comment was unbelievably trite. Get over it.) Natalie is Miss Popularity in her kindergarten class. Every time I drop her off, there's huge grins on the faces of the kids waiting for her to get out of the car. She runs towards them with arms outstretched as they all shout her name and join in a big group hug. No joke. Kindergarten is awesome. So she insisted that she needed to invite a lot of girls to her party. And I, for some inexplicable reason, agreed that she could invite who she wanted. I think we had 13 girls at her party that afternoon (if you include Brooklin...and I do because she's a force to be reckoned with). We made cute pictures of fairies, decorated a poster of Natalie as a fairy, decorated and ate cupcakes, played on Natalie's new bed, and opened a whole bunch of presents. Natalie is loved; that is for sure.


AJ had a recital on the 22nd. It was a costume recital, so he dressed as a clone trooper from Star Wars and played the Star Wars theme. The first song is "Pumpkin Party". So cute.



The next day we attended the Gimmeson's annual power-tools-only pumpkin carving contest. Joe and my pumpkins turned out great, but the contest was rigged. They ended up giving the trophy to a kid (who did not use power tools, by the way). We got ripped off.

Luckily, we didn't have to boycott Halloween this year just because it landed on a Sunday. The town opted to move its celebrations to Saturday, so we were able to fully participate. Every fall, I forget that I'm busy and decide that I want to make my kids' costumes. So they finalize their orders by the first part of September, and we start planning.


AJ decided to be a knight this year, which included a sword that is the best thing/toy he's ever seen and/or played with. He loves nothing more than using it to torture innocent victims (mostly, his sisters when his parents aren't looking.) We very smartly didn't give it to him until Saturday, and I think it's been in time out as often as it's been in his hands since then.

Natalie wanted to be Queen Clarion from Tinker Bell. Before you get all "Uh, Queen Clarion has a gold dress..." on me, let me explain that she wears a pink dress in one of Natalie's books. And since the pink fabric at Joann's was way cuter than the gold fabric, Natalie decided she'd better go with pink.


Here's where I admit that I'm a horrible mother. I didn't finish Brooklin's costume, so Brooklin wearing a hand-me-down from Natalie (that she wore when she was 3). She was terribly adorable as Dorothy, and it was incredibly fitting that the one word that Brooklin says consistently is "doggy", and she got to drag Toto around. But I still feel bad.

It's a good thing she won't remember how her mother slighted her in favor of her siblings. And none of you better point her in the direction of this post. I'll deny everything. I fully intend to finish her costume in time for Christmas. Joe insisted that we dress up as well, so I wore an 1800s style dress and crown. Joe pulled out the mullet for an 80s flashback. Oddly enough, we didn't manage pictures of either of us. I wish I'd brought my camera to the Bruneel's costume party that night though. There were some really great costumes. The First Councilor in our Bishopric was the Hulk. One teen totally committed to Superman, spandex and all. Our former stake Young Women's President was Wonderwoman. Joe had a lot of fun scaring teenagers in their haunted house.

Here's some fun Johnson Halloween traditions. First, one of us takes the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. We stop and dump out the kids' bags every so often and sort the good candy from the bad candy. The good candy (Snickers, Milky Way, Reese's, etc.) gets put up and away, and the crappy candy (anything generic, Smarties, and the like) goes into our own basket to regift. Second, we insist the kids pay "Mom and Dad taxes" on their goods. Actually, what we usually do is put all the goods into one basket and everyone gets to eat out of it. Although, the full-size candy bars generally end up stashed elsewhere... Third, when we're tired of giving out candy, we pawn off the last of the basket to whoever comes next. Sometimes, this means multiple handfulls of our cast-offs, which unsuspecting children are thrilled by, even though it's mostly Tootsie Rolls. This year, we had another party to go to, so Joe traded the rest of the basket for a full-size Snickers. It was great! We love Halloween!!