springdellgirl: June 2022

June 2022

June has always been my favorite month. My birthday month. It is also one of the busiest months and it started fast and furious. On June 1st BYU-Idaho's college registration started at 5am our time. Tyler helped Ailey register. Kameron had to wait until later in the day when he had access to a computer at the church. It was stressful especially with a missionary in another state with very limited computer access. But it got done and all four of us breathed a giant sigh of relief.

My birthday arrived early in the month. Gulp. 50. I woke up to the house beautifully decorated by the girls. It was stake conference so we were up and out of the house. Elder Slaughter from the Seventy was our speaker for all sessions. Tyler and I had a leadership training the night before which was incredible. We skipped the Saturday night session because it was my birthday weekend and Tyler and I went to see the new Downton Abbey movie instead. So fun!

Elder Slaughter was fantastic and I don't throw out that term loosely. In the leadership session that both Tyler and I attended...he made me (and the entire congregation) think about God, His Grace, and Salvation in a way that made me feel like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. A weight of trying but mostly failing of ever being good enough or of ever being righteous enough. He asked the congregation who thought they were going to make it to the celestial kingdom and receive all that God has promised. No one raised their hands. He immediately changed the whole topic of his talk. He shut everything down. He grabbed a mic and came out into the congregation. He said that if not one of us feels like we will ever be righteous enough to inherit all that our Heavenly Father has promised us that something is terribly wrong and needed an immediate course correction. So much of the goodness and grace of God and Jesus Christ is lost in translation and in church culture (not just LDS) which can be so toxic. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is not toxic! It is liberating! It is good news!! It should make you feel terrific! It should bring joy! It should make you feel like a million bucks and that joy should radiate out to all of those around you and sharing that joy is something that you just can't help doing.

Elder Slaughter said why would anyone want to stay in or join a church that makes you feel like garbage, miserable, guilty, shameful, inadequate, and like you will never measure up to God's standard of righteousness. He said, "Can you imagine the missionaries going out and saying, 'Come join our church so that you can feel as crappy as we do!'" "Come join us...I'm probably not going to be saved and but *maybe* someone will!" That is not the message of Jesus Christ. That is not His gospel. If that is what we believe then we don't understand His message, His grace, and His atonement. This was so powerful!!!

I also loved that he said it's okay be angry in our prayers. That is good news because I am often angry and ranting in my prayers. I've often rage-prayed in the last few years. Elder Slaughter said that God wants our authentic selves. He wants real conversations. He wants honesty. He wants a REAL relationship with us. He doesn't want an Instagram relationship with only the good stuff and the churchy highlights. Real relationships are messy and unflattering and that is what God wants from us. He wants us to turn to Him with our true selves with all our mess and chaos. He is our Father and the Savior is our older brother. They are there to love and support us. The Savior knows the darkest, angriest, guiltiest, parts of us. He's experienced them with us and He's not disappointed or disgusted by them. He loves us and He meets us where we are. In the dark. In the midst of our shame and guilt. In our sadness and defeat. He comes to us where we are. We don't have to be "good enough" to come to Him. It was so incredibly refreshing to hear this from the pulpit. Tyler and I have talked about this over and over again. It was life changing for both of us.

But back to my birthday...LOL

After stake conference we headed to 1898 Public House for brunch. This is a fun restaurant that is located on a beautiful golf course. I talked about it in one of my previous posts. It is so pretty there and brunch was so good!

Then it was back to the house to hang out and have cake and open presents. Tyler ordered me a Tuxedo birthday cake, which I love, from one of our favorite bakeries! Amazing!

I was spoiled and treated so well by my family. I am a lucky lady! I was even treated to a pink sky which has come to be the way I feel like my mom shows up in my life. It's pretty crazy how at just the right times in my life the sky will turn pink. Pink skies are a special memory for my mom and I and one showed up while I was blowing out my candles. A pink sky and a rainbow! That has to be extra good luck, right?!

We were able to video chat with Kameron for a little bit too. He called to wish me a Happy Birthday before we had to head to the stake center for Ailey's seminary graduation. We were a bit stressed hoping that Ailey had met all of the requirements for seminary graduation. She was down to the wire. Even SHE didn't know if she had done it and it was incredibly stressful because she needs that certificate for college. As we walked in and were handed the program she let out a huge sigh of relief when she saw her name as a graduate. That was cutting it too darn close! Early morning dance team practices wreaked havoc on her attendance.

It was a fun but busy birthday! I had phone calls, gifts, texts, and time with sweet friends. It was just perfect. Last month Tyler asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate the big 5-0. Instead of a party I wanted a trip. Tyler came through with plane tickets and travel accommodations. He arranged for a trip to South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia at the end of the month! These are places that I have really wanted to travel to! Woohoo! He also called two of my good friends who had just gone on a trip there to get all the details of things to do, places to go, eat, see, and shop at! I can't wait!!

On a *interesting* note...both Kelley and Jordin sent me a Happy Birthday text. I also heard from my cute niece Elle who I miss dearly!

In other Ailey news... she had her last music department concert for choir, band, and orchestra. It was their awards concert. This concert has done me in with with each of our older kids. Especially when the seniors in choir step forward and sing by themselves and are honored. So many tears. This year was especially poignant because our beloved choir teacher who has been teaching at our high school for decades is retiring. She was honored too and it truly felt like the end of an era. They had a reception for her after the concert. We were able to thank her for being such an incredible teacher and mentor in both Reilly and Ailey's lives. It was a special night!

Even though this month was very Ailey-centered, Bryn had a lot going on too. Piano lessons ended for the summer. There was no recital. It is kind of weird not having one. Is this a new post-COVID trend? Brynnie also had her end of the year orchestra concert. She was really excited about it too because they were playing a Cold Play song as their final number and the middle school choir was going to sing while they played. She was also excited that they got to wear t-shirts and jeans for this end-of-the-year concert rather than their formal orchestra attire. Bryn has an amazing orchestra teacher who keeps things fun and the middle schoolers engaged.

It's so fun to hear the cello in our home and to see how much Bryn has improved!

Bryn also participated in multiple service projects and hung out with her friends a lot.

Next up was Ailey's graduation party. I already wrote a little bit about that! Ailey and Maren had ideas of exactly how they wanted it and Alice (Maren's mom) and I let them do it. They did the majority of the shopping and decorating. They wanted a *fancy* party with a navy and white color scheme. They wanted fresh flowers and good food. They wanted a photo booth backdrop and a balloon arch. They wanted polaroid cameras and old-school disposable cameras set out for everyone to use. They had cute tables set up and darling pictures of them all over. They dressed up in little black sundresses and looked grown up. They wanted yard games in the backyard...can jam, corn hole...things like that. The party was located both inside the house and spilled outside. It was full of people and friends who are dear to us. It was a beautiful special night!

Menu:

fresh fruit platters/fruit salad

veggie platters with dip

fresh shrimp platters

breads and spreads

meat and cheese platters

various salads

all kinds of dips...cold and hot

chips

Pop, water, and assorted Izzes to drink.

Krispy Kreme Donuts

Assorted cake pops (Reilly ordered these for us with her discount. We had tons cake pops from one of her vendors...a local baker...in four different flavors. They were a huge hit!) We had platters and platters of them. So fun! Every last one was eaten. I didn't even get one. LOL.

One of Maren's brothers, Noah, has been dating at girl at Gonzaga. It turns out that she is the daughter of one of my besties from elementary school in Springville... Lori. How crazy is that?! It's a small world! I love Noah and Lori and I were so excited about this connection. Noah and I chatted about my elementary school days and funny stories that Lori had told him about me and our elementary school escapades.

I literally took three pictures the entire night. I was so busy visiting with everyone. Here are some of Ailey's pictures from the party. You have no idea how excited she and Maren were to get their disposable camera film developed. They loved the *old-fashioned* look of the pictures. Too funny! But this is apparently a trend with the kids!

Here are a couple of Ailey's pictures:

They love these gritty pictures!

We did have one giant pre-party snafu. Maren's uncle was supposed to blow up several pictures of each of the girls to display at the party. He has a photo business. He got confused and only blew up pictures of Maren so 24 hours before the party Ailey had no pictures to display and called me in hysterics from the JoAnn's parking lot where she was buying things for the party. I was scrambling to find a place that would print large pictures and do it quickly.

A few minutes after I got off the phone with her someone walked in the front door crying. I thought it was Ailey...nope...it was Reilly! She was upset and crying and needing to talk. Then Ailey walked in the door crying. It was hysteria central. Reilly found a place to get Ailey's pictures blown up and that could get them to us in time for the party but both girls were still crying and ranting and needing my attention. Unfortunately I was also 20 minutes late to pick Bryn up from school so I told them to all get in the suburban with me and they could talk to me while I drove to the middle school! Reilly had cramps so she had the front seat fully reclined and Ailey was in the back seat...both still crying and upset. Well...a neighbor had parked in the spot where Ailey parks, Reilly had parked in Tyler's spot, and so Ailey had parked across the street. As I backed out of the driveway while listening to two very upset daughters and had another daughter madly texting me wondering where the heck I was... I backed directly into Ailey's car! There is now a giant dent in the front passenger door! Good hell! The real crappy part is that we can't even get it into the body shop until August 22nd! They are so backed up. That pushes it really close to when the kids leave for college and they are taking the Camry with them! Thank goodness the car that I hit was one of ours and that no one was in it but it was sheer BEDLAM!!

The next day was one of my favorite senior traditions. It was when the graduating seniors return to their elementary schools. They walk the halls in their caps and gowns and high five all the elementary school kids and hug their old teachers. This never fails to get my tears flowing. I miss our elementary school. It is so weird not to be there all the time! Tyler took a half day off of work so that he could be there too.

We have the world's best elementary school! All four of our kids have had a wonderful experience going there and it kind of breaks my heart a bit that no one goes there anymore.

They sang their school song and all of the Kelso Strategies that helped them follow the rules at school and problem solve. They still remembered them!! LOL.

They recreated their 6th grade promotion photo from the year book.

After they talked to students and staff and took all kinds of pictures they loaded back up on the bus and headed back to the high school for their senior picnic and slide show. Later that night Ailey also had the senior sunset and bonfire. Ailey got her yearbook and is featured prominently on about 20 pages. I literally cannot relate to this. At. All. I attended four different high schools and to my mother's great disappointment didn't "get involved" as much as I could have. Ailey is definitely related to her Grandma Vic!

Bryn was on a field trip with the music department to Silverwood, our local amusement park, that day. She had a blast!

After we saw Ailey off, Tyler and I headed to brunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Yards Bruncheon.

This is my favorite thing to order there. AM Fried Rice. I need to recreate this at home. Fried rice with corned beef, ham, egg, and kimchi. It is fantastic! Tyler loves it too and scarfed down half of it.

That night when we went to the middle school to pick up Bryn from her field trip we saw several kids get off the busses with these crazy hats on that looked like toilet plungers. Tyler and I were like, "Look at those nerdy 7th graders." Then we saw this:

We have one too! A squid hat!
LOL!

The next day Ailey had her very very very last dance team performance. The end of the year Move Up Con. This is a school assembly in the gym where the freshmen move up to the bleachers were the sophomores sit, the sophomores move up to where the juniors sit, the juniors move up to the senior area, and the seniors are honored on the floor and given a traditional send off. After this Ailey turned in all of her dance team uniforms. Good-bye dance team. You've been grand!

I've lost track of how many graduation parties we went to this month. So many! But it has been really fun to celebrate so many great kids and to be able to visit with so many of our friends! Here most people have a combo grad party with at least one other person. Some of these parties have even more kids...one party that we went to was for 6 boys! But it was nice though because there was no other way we could've made it to as many parties as we actually did without these combo parties! I've so appreciated the graciousness of all of these kids and it's been fun to be swallowed up in party season.

One night we went to a graduation party for my cousin's daughter. My Aunt Bonnie was in town and so were several of my cousins and their families. Rarely are we ever gathered with a big group of family anymore these days so it felt a little weird but in a good way...LOL...and it was fun to catch up with all of them and have some good laughs. It's been awhile.

Then graduation day finally rolled around. It was on a Sunday. It was scheduled for 7pm which was super late. Reilly and Kameron's graduations were both on Sundays but earlier in the afternoon. This particular Sunday was also Ailey's last official day in our ward. Next week she will be a member of the YSA ward.

It was Ailey and Cami's last day in Young Womens and they were celebrated.

Ailey wanted to go out to dinner at Twigs downtown so we met Reilly and Hunter and had dinner downtown before graduation. Then it was time to head across the park to the Podium, the new venue for graduation.

It felt so crazy to be sitting there getting ready for AILEY to graduate! High school graduation comes so fast!

So many of our good friends had kids graduating this year! It was fun to see and cheer for everyone!

It was pouring rain before graduation (and after) and we all had to wait outside until 6:45pm to be let in the venue so everyone was a bit of a drowned rat! Then it was time for the festivities to begin. Graduation is always such a special and exciting time!

Ailey got to sing with the symphonic choir one more time and then the big moment was upon us. Ailey's graduation was definitely memorable as her name was announced as "Ally Ava Johnson" rather than Ailey Eva Johnson. Ailey corrected the guy that was reading the names that her name was pronounced "A-lee E-va" and he repeated it but not into the microphone...annoying...especially since he was the same guy reading the names at the practice and got her name right then. Oh well. Ally/Ailey got her diploma with the right name on it and had a good sense of humor about it and that is all that matters!

After graduation we bid her a quick goodbye and she was off to the Senior All-Nighter. I just don't know how we went so quickly from...

This:

Ailey's first day of Kindergarten

To this:

Congratulations Ailey!

We love you and are proud of your accomplishments!

Bryn still had another week and a half left of school before she got out for summer break. It was kind of crazy to have Ailey home during the day. She started doing a deep clean and organization of her room. It needed it. She's begun the great sifting of items as she prepares to go to college in the fall and took a big load of stuff to Goodwill and to Teen Closet which is a place here that allows foster kids to *shop* for free for cute in style clothing. I love Teen Closet and have had the joy of volunteering there. Ailey also quit working at her previous job and got a new job at a local drug store that pays more and definitely gives her more hours.

On Bryn's last day of school she and her friends dressed up as VISCO girls. When I dropped her off on the last day it was pretty funny seeing all of them in their *outfits*. LOL. They looked pretty darn cute!

We did a last day of school ice cream run (Bryn wanted to try the new strawberry frosty...delish!) and she did her jumps for joy!

Now there is one where there used to be four.

Then Bryn was off with friends for end-of-the-year celebrations.

Next up was Father's Day...

Tyler woke up to decorations, donuts, and chocolate milk before he headed out the door super early for bishopric meeting at the church. Bryn and I went to church and sat all by ourselves on our bench. So weird. Ailey went to the YSA ward for the first time. She was underwhelmed. LOL. At least she has a large group of friends that all graduated this year and they all go together. Poor Kam had hardly anyone. Reilly too. They've all hated it.

Reilly and Hunter were at the house when Tyler got home at around 1pm. They had a special lunch and treats from our favorite French bakery waiting for him. So sweet!

Then we all went to see the new Top Gun movie. WE LOVED IT! Tyler required that everyone watch the original movie prior to going to the new movie. It was definitely worth it and made it even more enjoyable. Everything about the movie was fantastic! The nostalgia, the music, clearly everyone wants a return of 1986 and I agree. 1986 was a superior year!! The entire audience was cheering and clapping when the movie ended. I haven't seen that happen in a movie theater in about 30 years! It was so fun!!

After the movie we decided on a whim to eat at Shari's. LOL. Not great food but we wanted a big circular booth to hang out in, talk, and eat junk food and fries. Delightful! On our way home Kameron called and we all got to talk to him as we drove home. It turned out to be a really fun day for Tyler!

What did the men of our ward get for Father's Day you might be asking? Giant homemade cookies. No garbage Lindt truffle BALL (singular). Yes...a complaint was registered with the 1st counselor in the bishopric who sheepishly tried not to meet my glare (aka Tyler) as I watched him wolf down a giant delicious cookie. On behalf of all the women of our ward, I request the SAME THING next year. Ugh.

Tyler had a great day and felt celebrated. He is a fantastic dad and there is no doubt about that!

Tyler also got to celebrate the month by not only being a great dad but also getting his first ever colonoscopy! Oh the joys of being in the 50 club. He has been waiting patiently to get it over and done with but with COVID restrictions cancer screenings like this were pushed way back...like almost 18 months back. His doctor's office finally called to tell him that he was able to come in and get it done this month. Oh joy! (I am sadly waiting for the call for my own turn. Ugh.) Tyler wasn't having any particular issues it was just the recommended screening for the over 50 crowd. WHAT A PROCESS!! I guess the worse part was the prep. He said the actual colonoscopy and recovery were no big deal. So there's that.

We had to check in at the surgical center at 6am. I was told that the wait would be about an hour to an hour and a half tops. As nothing is ever easy, normal, or routine with this man I started to get panicky around the 2 hour mark and then he still wasn't done until 2 1/2 hours later. I already cannot stand the hospital thanks to our many traumatic visits and procedures so the wait was terrible.

Was his colonoscopy normal? Of course not. Apparently he has a very long and S curved colon which takes a lot longer to scope. They found a polyp which had to be removed so that added to the time. Tyler was tired for most of the day but said that he didn't feel any discomfort. Then we had to wait a week while they biopsied it. That was hell. Thankfully and gratefully his results were normal but if you have polyps, they like you to have another colonoscopy in 5 years, rather than in 10 years. He was also given multiple colored pictures of his colon which he presented to us at the dinner table. Revolting. He proudly stated to our kids that he has a VERY LONG and LARGE colon to which Ailey replied, "That is NOT a flex Dad!" Ha ha.

Tyler also had his endocrinology appointment this month. His A1C was up slightly but not by much and it is still in a lower range than it has ever been. The looping continues to be a miraculous thing.

Next up was Ailey's birthday! I kept telling everyone that it was her 17th birthday and even wrote that on the calendar! Good grief! It was her 18th birthday!!!

Ailey is our child who has definite ideas and opinions about her birthday (and everything). If we follow her instructions to a tee we are good to go. If we do not...well...let's just say that we happily follow her instructions to a tee! Her birthday was on a Saturday and she requested that she wanted to celebrate her actual birthday with friends and then celebrate the next day (Sunday) with us. Okay. She wanted mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches and donuts as her birthday breakfast. M-kay. Then she went to work that morning and was gone with her friends until curfew. It sounded like she had a great day! She also is dating someone (the boy who looks like her) and she does NOT like to discuss her love life with us. Also...okayyyy. (Reilly and Kameron were both fairly chatty about their love lives so this is new territory for me.)

For Ailey's family birthday celebration, she wanted a table set up in the living room in front of the TV. She requested for her birthday dinner: Costco frozen cheese pizza, three kinds of chips, pink lemonade, and a Costco chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (a BIG one!) Yes, ma'am. Then she wanted to watch 80s movies while eating her birthday dinner. We watched Poltergeist and Stand By Me.

Poltergeist was not a hit. The kids all thought it was super cheesy and not scary at all which is true although I remember it being TERRIFYING when I was a kid. Kids are so desensitized these days and all four Johnson kids and their father LOVE scary movies. I hate them and never watch with them.

They did love Stand By Me. I cried my eyes out for the ending of the movie and about the sad and tragic end of cute River Phoenix.

Ailey opened her presents. She had picked out all of them and didn't want any surprises. Although Reilly and Hunter actually did surprise her with a snow cone maker that she was pretty excited about.

This might be my favorite picture of the day! Ha ha! The thing I love the most about Hunter is that he is funny, silly, and doesn't take himself too seriously! That makes him a good fit in this family!

Happy 18th Birthday Ailey! We sure love you!!

The day after Ailey's family birthday celebration, Tyler and I flew to South Carolina for a week long vacation (more on that in a separate post), and Bryn headed off to Girls Camp. She was so excited to go this year. Last year COVID and fire season shortened Girls Camp to 24 hours which was a huge bummer for a little 1st year. This year she was able to stay all week and had a fantastic time!

Ailey helped get Bryn all ready to go, dropped her off, and even took pictures for me! Thanks to good friends who were up at Girls Camp I also got pictures texted to me throughout the week while I was in South Carolina. Here are a few:

Bryn had a fabulous time! She got the full Girls Camp experience and loved every minute of it.

Meanwhile back in Minnesota, Kam's last few weeks were flying by. On one very exciting day in the first week of June, I got Kam's flight information emailed to me. Woohoo!!! He also got his Facebook account temporarily suspended by FB because he was "friending" too many people. FB has been quite an incredible missionary tool (hard to believe) but I guess Kam had a few too many friends. His account was suspended for a week...he got it back...and then it was suspended again. That was frustrating because that is how missionaries communicate with their families and video chat with them. We had a couple of Zoom meetings with him and then his account was returned to him and things were back to normal.

This month Tyler and Bryn took on our last huge flooring project. The downstairs. The family room/Kam's room. They worked so hard ripping up some nasty carpeting and laying down the new flooring. The downstairs looks so nice!

Here are some early pictures of the family room. Nothing is put back or decorated yet but I love it! Changing out all of our flooring throughout the house has been such a huge improvement!

Other things that happened this month were:

Our niece Kaiya also graduated from high school.

She now goes on to her career as a professional ballerina! We are so proud of her!!

I finally planted a few flowers, not many this year, it's been too crazy, and the flowers in our yard finally started blooming. I planted some tomatoes too.

We've seen a lot of wildlife on our street on our nightly walks with Beverly and we don't exactly live in the country! We've seen a lot of deer and the tiniest baby fawn. We've seen frogs and salamanders. Bryn and I had a giant raccoon run right by us and scare the crap out of us!

Beverly enjoys wearing this mini frisbee on her head like a hat for some reason. She will keep it on for a very long time! She also gave us a scare and required a visit to the vet. We found some weird lumps on her that needed to get checked out. It turned out to be nothing serious. Allergies. Thank goodness!!

Tyler and I attended a vintage market in Coeur d' Alene to support some of our vendor friends.

The summer solstice came and went and the world once again blew up in all kinds of ways. Yellowstone actually had to close due to historic flooding. Then I woke up one morning to the surprising news that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. Wow! I never thought I would see this. States have the power to allow, limit, or ban abortion. People are losing their minds. My mother would be one of them! She would be protesting and marching and railing against the government!! I miss her. The Senate passed a bipartisan gun safety bill. It now moves to the House. If approved it will be the first major federal gun safety reform in 25 years. I fully support this and pray that it passes.