The Rest of the Story

Awhile back I wrote about Owen trying to earn money for his school's read-a-thon. He wrote a letter to a prominent member of our community asking if he wanted to sponsor him, does this sound familiar? Anyway, I thought that I better record how all of that turned out....This man, Mr. Adams, called Owen and told him that he would love to sponsor him in the read-a-thon, that he loved to see a kid with initiative and that he hadn't seen such cute spelling in a letter in a really long time. He also got his bank (he works at a bank--I think he now mostly does community relations type stuff because he seems to be behind all of the amazing things that happen in this "little" town) to match his personal donation. Wow. We were so surprised by his phone call and his generosity. I immediately made an appointment with his assistant for Owen to go down and thank him in person. A few days later I took him (and the rest of our crew) to Mr. Adams' office. He then spend an HOUR with my kids. He showed them around the Bear Hotel and let them get a sneak peak at all of the fun things that they would be doing in the community this Summer. This year there is a Big Foot theme to the artwork in the down town area. Many of the business store fronts will have clues that will lead to finding this Big Foot...

(This may be a little known fact, but apparently Big Foot LOVES Twinkies! Who knew?!??!)
Here we are with my hero (seriously, I want to be the female version of this man when I grow up)! So to top off all of our fun around the Bear Hotel Mr. Adams sent the kids home with a huge bag full of treasures. When Jed got home that night the kids told him that they had had Christmas that day...seriously, these kids are so spoiled. I felt good about our interactions that day and felt like Owen had learned some kind of lesson about thinking outside of the box and showing gratitude toward people who extend generosity toward him.

To top it all of Owen earned a t-shirt for reading the most minutes in the first grade, a hot air balloon ride for bringing in a certain amount of money and a $50 bill for bringing in the second highest amount of donations....Now we had reached the point of just being ridiculous...seriously....so spoiled.

Owen took the camera up in the hot air balloon and loved showing off the pictures to his buddies...what a blessed little boy!

Wicked

Earlier this month Jed and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary. We were commenting on how our perspective has changed with each year of marriage. For example when we first got married several of our friends in dental school had been married like 3 years...we thought they were old pros. Life is funny. I know that someday we will look back on ourselves at the stage we are at now and laugh at something that we are thinking or doing. Anyway....

For Christmas Jed gave me tickets to see the Broadway musical, "Wicked"! I was SO excited as I had heard all good things about this production. Since the show was coming to a "near by" city in April we decided to stay overnight near the venue and call it our early anniversary celebration as well. Needless to say....I LOVED IT!!!! I found the dialog clever and humorous and the music completely engaging. I would definitely recommend it. Our special thanks to Beth and Shae for taking care of our kids for the majority of the weekend...they had a great time and I really don't think they missed us for a second. I like to think that this is not a reflection of their love for us, but rather that they are well adjusted kids who also love the Johnsons!

(Of course we took the above picture ourselves, so I look a little distorted and my hair looks strange...we really gotta work on getting someone else to take our pictures...Jed on the other hand looks as handsome as ever!)

Look who's not a baby anymore....

Gracie has really grown by leaps and bounds the last few weeks....She is now talking up a storm, changing her shoes 20 times a day, playing with her baby dolls, asking to have more and more books read to her and "riding" bikes with the big kids. No more babies in this house....she is now one of the "big kids".

Easter Eggs

First we Dye them....Then a week or so later...we shoot them...the redneck tradition lives on!

Grandparents

We love it when grandparents come to town! Thanks for having dinner with us Grandpa and Dorothy!

Good Friends

Our kids have been blessed with many good friends. We have more than a few friends that we really count as family. The Richards are one of these families. Last month we were honored to be at Brendan's baptism. Our kids and their kids often ask, "When are we going to see our cousins that aren't cousins?" I love this. Can't you just see these handsome boys having all sorts of fun together in college? Like fathers, like sons!

Around the House this week...

Imagine opening up your freezer and finding this..."What is that?" you may ask. Well, this little craw fish was given to the boys by Jed's assistant, Dawn. We all went out to eat at a craw fish restaurant while at our state dental convention last month. Dawn thought that the boys would be interested in seeing what a craw fish looks like, so she got this one from the kitchen. Of course she was right...they loved it! The boys brought Sammy (yes, they named him Sammy) home with them in a small cooler. When Jed told them that it was time for Sammy to have a proper burial before he began to stink, they decided to solve this problem by freezing him in a block of ice. Very inventive if you ask me. Now how long do I let Sammy remain in my freezer?
How many times have I read this book? "Mr Brown Can Moo Can You?" is Gracie's favorite book. It was Owen's favorite too. In fact, this is our second copy of this now family classic.
After being in Owen's classroom one day I volunteered to take a bag of pencils home that needed to be sharpened. His teacher, Mrs. Smith, explained to me that keeping sharp pencils in the classroom is a constant battle for her. Frankly, I don't think any educator should have to waste a lot of time worrying about something like keeping pencils sharpened. When the kids told me that I should tell Mrs. Smith that they would sharpen the class' pencils on a regular basis, I jumped on it. Now Owen brings home a bag of pencils at least once a week and in no time flat we have them sharpened and ready to go back to the classroom. I figure this is an age-appropriate way that our kids can do service for someone else. Really they (especially the girls) like doing it. They practice their counting and sing songs while they sharpen and just for the sake of "keeping it real" on this blog, they also spend plenty of time yelling at the other when they butt in on their turn. I guess we are also learning about taking turns...yep, it's a win-win situation!