This month felt like our lives have finally returned. May was full of all kinds of GREAT things: anniversaries, traveling, Mother's Day, sports, and socializing! It's been absolutely fantastic! It is finally starting to feel like the end of COVID may be in sight. HALLELUJAH! The weather this month has either been very cold or very hot. Not much in between. We even had another wind storm. That's four so far this year if you're counting. Not much damage but some people lost power in various parts of town.
The most exciting news is...WE ALL HAVE SOCIAL LIVES AGAIN! The social invitations have been rolling in and we are literally overjoyed to hang out with other people! LOL. I've hung out with my friends, Tyler's hung out with his guys, Ailey jumps in her car and drives off to hang out with her friends (ahh...the joys of her driving), Bryn hangs out with her friends (even meeting at the park after dark to play night games), and we've had fun quadruple dinner dates with some of our favorite couples. It has been absolutely WONDERFUL!!
In home repair news... the most exciting thing is that we finally re-did our kitchen floors and WOW what a huge difference. Tyler and Ailey worked hard leading up to Memorial Day and the floors look spectacular! They are quite the dynamic home repair duo!
Let's look at that again.
I have hated these floors since we moved in. Good riddance!
Before:
After:
Check out this little historical tidbit that we found when we pulled off the molding:
Our cheery white kitchen used to have walls covered in this hideous orange and gold mushroom monstrosity! We found several patches of this wall paper here and there. Our poor house! We loved finding all of these crazy pieces of our house's history.
We also had our sprinkler system repaired and our lawn is looking quite lush! We repainted our deck and I planted my flowers and flower pots and spread bark. Things are looking quite beautiful around here.
Health-wise... this month was weird for me. I had a cluster migraine that lasted a good 3 days which was awful. I got food poisoning from Jimmy John's which absolutely SUCKED! It took a good 4 days to recover from that. The irony is that as I was eating that sandwich I literally remember thinking...this is the best Jimmy John's sandwich that I have ever had! I guess bacteria is delicious. The other irony is that I have avoided eating deli meat for about 18 years ever since I got horrible food poisoning from eating a Subway sandwich. I only, in the last year or so, have allowed deli meats back into my life. Well...that's over. So long deli meats! We are OFFICIALLY done! Then to close out the month... I got the worst sunburn of my life on Memorial Day. The extra sad part is that I wear sunscreen religiously. I even WORE sunscreen that day, reapplied it multiple times, stayed part of the day under a large umbrella, and still burned like no other. The explanation is that the sunscreen had expired and therefore no longer worked effectively (or at all). Huh?! Did you know that sunscreen expires? Yeah... neither did I! Apparently they have expiration dates. Who knew?! Reilly later told me that she did. Swell.
In other health news... Ailey got both doses of the COVID vaccine and did just great! She had the pleasure of being vaccinated in a Target dressing room. Ha ha!
The only side effect that Ailey had from the first dose was a sore arm and then a slight headache with the second dose. She was laying flooring like a champ the day of and the day after her second vaccination!!
Kameron also got his first dose of the vaccine. He felt kind of crappy later that day. He was tired and had a bad headache. His companion felt similarly. But they plowed on through their day teaching people and doing their missionary duties and then went to bed early. Kam said that he was feeling better by the next morning. He is scheduled to get his second dose on Thursday. Now onto scheduling Brynnie to get the vaccine. Reilly and Hunter have decided not to get vaccinated. Insert my VERY LARGE sigh and eyeroll here. 25 is precious.
On the sports front... Bryn had multiple track meets, including the all-city finals where she got 1st place in the 4x400 relay. This was such a great way to finish out her track season STRONG! Her relay team was behind and she was the 3rd runner. She closed the gap, passed people, and moved up into first position and then put such a large gap between herself and the next runner that the kid running the last leg of the relay only had to keep it up and they took 1st! It was so exciting!!
Bryn was so happy! This is also the end of an era for Bryn and for our family. It is the end of SYSA or city sports teams. They end after 6th grade. Now any sports that she will do going forward will be for her school teams. Brynnie absolutely loved her track season. She is a kid who needs to stay active. It was fun to see her loving her sport! (Also while we were celebrating Bryn at Chik-Fil-A we saw one of my good friends, Jennifer W., who lives in Bonners Ferry! It was so good to see her!! The last time that I saw her was literally the night before the world shut down for COVID.)
Ailey has been extremely busy with dance team. Basketball season started and she has been dancing in two half-time shows per week! Plus they had dance team tryouts this month so she was busy helping with tryout routines and then had to tryout herself. (Everyone has to tryout each year.) She will be a four year member of the dance team. That's awesome! Ailey has had so much fun dancing this year once it all got going again. They've had some fun pom and hip hop routines. Watching Ailey dance hip hop is truly the best!
Reilly and Hunter moved into their new apartment. The housing market is insane here as it seems to be everywhere. The owner of their previous apartment sold it and so they had to relocate. It was literally the worst possible time to be apartment hunting. Even really crappy apartments were hard to find and super expensive. Thankfully they found one that they *sort-of* like although not as much as they liked their previous apartment. It's about the same distance from us but in a different direction. It has been wonderful to be able to SEE Reilly and to have her stop by and hang out again!
It was Hunter's birthday this month and he turned 26. He was also in a car accident on his birthday. Scary! He and his boss were in their work truck and were t-boned by a carload of teenagers who ran a stop sign. Hunter had to be extricated from the vehicle by firefighters. He and his boss were miraculously okay and the carload of kids were too. The extra scary part was that he seemed to be doing fine until about 3 days later when he started exhibiting some weird symptoms. Reilly brought him into to the ER and they found out that he had an undiagnosed concussion. He is doing much better now.
In some sad news... our little sweet buddy, Emmy, who Reilly and Hunter take care of a lot lost his mom to cancer. This little guy has had the roughest little life. He is the grandson of Reilly's bosses...the husband and wife who own the company that she works for. When Emerson was born his mom was diagnosed with stage four cancer and was so sick that she has been hospitalized for most of his life and unable to take care of him. Emerson's dad has been serving time in jail on drug charges. So Emmy has been shuttled back and forth between his grandparents house and his aunt and uncle's house. Most weekends Reilly and Hunter have him. He is the most adorable little guy. We are in love with him. He makes me think that the grandparent gig might not be too bad. LOL. He had his 2nd birthday a few days before his mom died. Reilly and Hunter have giant hearts and love him dearly and he loves them. I love that Reilly and Hunter saw a need and just jumped in to help with this little guy. Emmy has definitely been a bright light in all of our lives!
Kameron has had a month of ups and downs. He's had some highs...his first baptism being one and some lows...struggling with feeling like he is a slump at the end of the month. Things still aren't opening up much in Minnesota. The missionaries are cooped up and going crazy. They haven't even starting going back to church for 2nd hour yet. They still can't meet with many people. Kam is sick of being in a little small town and being isolated from other missionaries. Even on P-days it is just Kam and his companion. While this companion isn't hard like his last one... this guy and Kam don't have a lot in common. Kameron is ready for a change of scene. Unfortunately transfers came and went this month and he stayed in the same place and with the same companion. The next transfers are at the end of June. Kam isn't a homebody and being stuck at home, in little tiny town, in a little depressing *shack* with a companion that he doesn't have much in common with is getting rough. He is also getting close to his year mark and may be feeling the mid-mission slump that happens. When we talked to him on Memorial Day he was pretty low and missing everyone. That was hard. :(
Ailey has had a busy month and she (and we) have been enjoying her driving herself to all of her various activities, events, and hang outs. She is still in the honeymoon phase of driving and is happy to pick up Bryn and drive her everywhere that she needs to go too! Double score! And... she is more than willing to run errands for us! Triple score! If only it lasted. LOL. But it is really nice having a third driver in the house again.
Besides dance team and hanging out with friends; Ailey had AP testing which had her pretty stressed out. It was all done at home and on her school lap top. It was quite the process. Thankfully it is done and now we wait for her results to roll in.
She has also been on the job hunt. Our older kids all had part-time jobs by the time they were 16 but COVID put a wrench in that for Ailey. Now that she is fully vaccinated she is looking for work. Luckily a lot of places near us are hiring. She has her heart set on one particular place which would be such a fantastic opportunity for her. She has an interview coming up. It's a panel interview with three people. Just a little intimidating for your first job interview!
We had the sister missionaries over one night and after they left Ailey told us that she thinks she would like to serve a mission too. I guess she has been contemplating this for awhile and got some clarity while they were here. It's too bad that girls can't leave for missions right after graduation like the boys can. That in between year of waiting to go... either at home or at college... can be rough. It was fun to have the missionaries IN our house after over a year! It was a lot of fun! I heart the missionaries! These kids are sacrificing and serving the Lord under some very difficult circumstances.
Brynnie is back! The smile is back on her face and the sparkle is back in her eyes. She has also morphed into a teenager so there is a bit of that too but the sad tortoise is gone for the most part. She has thrived being back in school full-time. She has thrived running track and being busy and involved. She has thrived being the president of her group of girls in Young Women's and planning activities and staying busy. She is signed up for Girls Camp this summer and is super excited. Bryn has thrived being with friends again. It has taken a load of worry off of Tyler and I to see her acting more like her old self.
Bryn has been working hard on her piano piece for her recital which will be held IN PERSON in June! Yay! She is still working hard on the cello and attending her online Strings Club. She graduates from elementary school next month too. That is so hard to believe! I've been busy sending in all kinds of pictures and group shots of the kids in her class over the years. I am so glad that I've gotten to volunteer in all of our kids classes and to be a part of their elementary school lives. It's another end of an era... elementary school. It's been 20 years straight that we have had a Johnson kid in elementary school. Craziness.
This was the highlight of Bryn's month. We were on a family walk at the park with Beverly when we saw this giant pile of Basset Hound puppies that were up for adoption. OMG! It was heaven for this girl who wants to be a vet.
They were SO CUTE.
Did these two girls beg and plead for us to adopt a Basset Hound puppy? They sure did! We held firm. it was hard. The puppies were so darn cute! But Beverly is plenty right now.
And... one of my favorite rites of passage with all of my children is currently happening with Bryn. She is reading The Outsiders. I am giddy with excitement about this and bug her nonstop with, "What's happening?!" This book has been a hit with all of the other Johnson kids so I think it will be a hit for her too. She is even reading my tattered copy from 4th grade. I love sharing my favorite books with my kids!
Tyler is one busy man! I have gotten very spoiled having him all to myself. Now he is in such high demand and I am being forced to share him. Not easy. It's been nice to see him socializing. He was even further out of the social loop than we were. He is definitely enjoying it. He stays very busy with his calling. He is super busy planning a three day youth conference for the end of June. No easy task for a man who hasn't even planned a birthday party. But he has a great co-planner in my amazing friend Cheryl and they have put together a good committee and things are coming together. He has gotten to do all kinds of new things this month like setting people apart for callings, temple recommend interviews, and speaking at BYD (Bishop Youth Discussions). Ailey and Bryn are tough critics and they said that he did a great job! :) He's done multiple service projects and gone on a camp out with the young men. LOL! At least he is getting his camping in! Ailey and I are not campers! (Bryn probably would be into it though.) Tyler has been pestering me for years to go on a family camping trip. He's also had a lot of meetings that go late. I've had to learn to be FLEXIBLE... not my strong suit. We've had to squeeze in dates and family time where/when we can. Tyler and I have had some fun morning dates, lunch dates, and late night starry sky park walks this month.
He is also still working from home. It's been talked about that those who have been vaccinated could potentially go back to work on a hybrid schedule in July. But the logistics of having all of the technological equipment needed and trying to have it both at home and at the office or trying to bring it all in every other day just isn't feasible. It is still looking like he won't go back to his office until September.
Tyler has also been a projects champ around here and he is still going strong! He got the sprinkler system repaired and the yard looking good. He repainted the deck. He replaced the kitchen flooring and trim. He has plenty more that he is planning to work on too. Isn't a man who does home repair projects sexy?
As far as me this month...like I said above... I have enjoyed my social life! Girls nights, in person book club, dinners out with friends... it's been wonderful. I also attended a Stake RS activity about self-care and the two speakers were friends of mine... Annie and Andrea. They both did such a great job! I've also been able to regularly attend my Institute class on Monday mornings. I love it so much! I've continued moderating my youth resiliency group for the Youth Emotional Resiliency Program. (Ailey and Bryn have continued going as well.)
I've had a lot going on with my calling. Presidency meetings, planning meetings, and speaking opportunities. I was asked by the 1st counselor in the stake presidency to speak with him in another ward this month. My talk was on Building Faith. It went well I guess. It was a fun ward to speak in because I have a lot of friends in it and they were so enthusiastic and supportive! I got the nicest surprise in the mail a week later. It was a card from a member of that ward telling me how much she appreciated my talk and the ways that it had impacted her. I was in tears. People who take the time to do things like that are very special people. It meant so much to me. The same counselor in the stake presidency asked me to be his speaking companion in all of the wards for the rest of the year. Yikes. At least I can just keep giving the same talk. LOL.
I have been busy doing a ton of yard work, cleaning out and weeding flower beds, spreading bark, planting flowers, tomatoes, and planting all of my pots and containers, filling hummingbird feeders, pulling out all of the deck furniture, and getting everything ready for summer. I absolutely love it! Bryn came with me on one of my big visits to the nursery down the street. I bought a TON of flowers and she helped me pick out plants and devise color schemes. There was classical music playing and it was so peaceful and lovely.
Going to the nursery to pick out flowers and plants reminds me of my mom. I had tears brimming the entire time. I can't even begin to tell you how many times she dragged me to the nursery to help lug flowers and plants for her. I am so glad that I did that with her year after year and on into adulthood. We went plant shopping together every year including the year that she passed away. She had such a terrific eye for flowers and color and an amazing green thumb. She taught me how to fill containers and what varieties were good "spillers" (the ones that would trail out of the pot). I am so glad that I absorbed much of what she had to teach and had the opportunity to share some of that same information with Bryn. (She is the only one of my children who is into flowers, gardening, and plants...thus far.) We were laughing about my mom and I racing around trying to snag the last flower pot or hanging basket before the other one got it or grabbing several flowers for each other because we knew that we would both want them. I remember a few years ago planting flowers in her flowerbeds with her at night with our head lamps on because we wanted to get everything planted THAT day and laughing that we looked like two witches working at night in a magical garden. Ailey and Bryn were out with us on that starry night too. I am truly grateful for my mom and her ability to make life and her surroundings beautiful. She had a gift.
In other news...Tyler, the girls, and the youth at our church participated in a free car wash service project.
Ailey and Bryn and their Young Women's group did a Saturday hike to the temple. They went from our side of town up over the mountain by us and down into the valley on the other side where the Spokane Temple is located. They had a lot of fun!
My flowers are blooming and looking spectacular! It is so weird how much joy they bring me.
The lilacs have been fabulous this year! I love them so much. The early ones are over but some are still blooming. When we were out at the lake for Memorial Day the white lilacs were in full bloom.
Tyler and I took a little midday jaunt to the Lilac Garden at Manito Park one day this month.
Lilacs are the smell of HEAVEN!
My snowballs were beautiful this year too:
I love these but cannot remember what they are called! They are so cool!
My first rose bloomed just before Memorial Day!
My spring flowers that did not have a good show this year were my rhododendrons. They were fabulous last year and pathetic this year. I am still waiting for my peonies to bloom. My irises just started blooming right before Memorial Day. My tulips were great but my daffodils didn't do so hot this year. I need to keep a little gardening journal and try to figure things out.
Beverly had her yearly visit to the vet where we discovered that she is a chub. She is overweight by a pound. It was a little surprising since she is the smallest pug we ever see around town. But... apparently we need to cut back a bit on her food. We also found out that her knees are weak and kind of slide around. How weird is it that both Kameron and Ailey also suffer from this malady. LOL. Does Beverly still consider herself a human? Yes... yes...she does. She enjoys sitting like this on the couch!
She also likes to make a beeline into Ailey's room, scramble up on her desk, and gaze at herself in Ailey's make-up mirror. Ha ha!
In lake/sibling news... it has been another month of the usual nonsense. At least there has been some longer spaces of quiet. That has been nice. Kirk and I had to send an ultimatum to my sisters through our attorney. We need this trust/estate closed and completed. My sisters came back saying that they would finally attend mediation. This is the last step before Kirk and I take them to court. I wish I was hopeful about mediation but I am not. We are scheduled for June 16th.
In COVID news... our state still has a mask mandate despite the CDC saying that people who are vaccinated can STOP WEARING MASKS. It irritates me to no end watching varsity basketball players play basketball in masks. Watching kids run track in masks. Watching dancers dance in masks. And...this is from a COVID conservative. Enough. We still have to wear masks at church and the kids wear them all day at school. Ailey is still only going to school every other day. Some stores have recently put up signs saying that if you have been vaccinated they aren't requiring you to wear masks in their stores. The first day that we walked mask-less into a grocery store was a weird feeling. It felt so rebellious. I look forward to tossing the masks for good!
My business did well this month. I had quite the giant furniture haul this month. My friend Arianna even gave me a large hutch for free. So sweet! I found some really great pieces and quite a lot of them so I have a nice little stockpile. I will need them since I will be doing this show in August.
I debated doing any vintage shows this year...should they happen. I am so busy just keeping my booth stocked in CDA. But I had already pre-paid for two booth spaces at Farm Chicks in 2019 for the 2020 show which didn't happen and I don't want to lose out on the money that I already paid but I am stressed about having enough merchandise. Another downside is that my sister is also doing this show and will be right next to me. Fingers crossed for a positive mediation or it could be unpleasant.
In random news...We slowed our roll with CRUMBL cookies. My clothes say THANK YOU. We have to be really tempted to go now. It was fun and fattening while it lasted.
I got to touch rocks from outer space. These are pieces from a shooting star. Very cool! Who's excited for the alleged UFO information that is supposed to be released in June? LOL. Good grief.
My father gave his first little 5 minute talk in church since coming back. He was very nervous and ended doing a great job. Why do we have to speak so much in church? I don't enjoy it. It makes me want to pay a pastor sometimes. Ha ha!
Our Yum Box this month was from Turkey. Not our favorite. It didn't even include a piece of Turkish Delight!! A travesty.
This month we tried:
Salted Roasted Chick Peas: Not good.
Mastic Toffees: Terrible. They are made from a piney sap. Enough said.
Melon and Lime Chews: Gross.
Toasted Paprika Corn Nuts: These were really good!
Coconut Coffee Snowball Cake: Good. Tasted like a mocha flavored Hostess Snoball.
Turkish Sour Water Melon Gummies: Not sour. Just okay.
Date Ma'amoul Cookies: Not good. Tasted like very stale Fig Newtons.
Ice Cream Gummies: Blah.
Honey Mustard and Onion Rice Cakes: Bland.
Orange and Cocoa Cookies: They were absolutely FABULOUS! Best thing in the box!
Vanilla Tahini Halva: Super gross.
Baharat Spice Crackers: Absolutely delicious!!
Cocoa Cream Mosaic Cookies: These were delicious! Tahini, chocolate, and hazelnut cookies. So good!
Tyler and I watched this show and absolutely LOVED it! So fun! So nostalgic.
I saw this awesome graphic online and shared it with my family. I thought it was so interesting and wanted to have a family discussion about it. I think it is interesting how during COVID quarantine we kind of innately knew that we had to do things in each of these areas to stay sane. Now it is a great reminder that when starting to feel blah to try to do something out of each category.
We ended the month with a fun Memorial Day! It was technically Kirk's holiday but he wasn't able to come up so he gave it to me. The weather was utter perfection. Hot and sunny. The water was a little chilly but still swimmable.
We had finished our kitchen floors and trim and were ready for some relaxation! I cut some snowballs that I grew to float for my mom and my Uncle Mike. My mom would 100 % prefer flowers from my yard to store bought. We packed a picnic and headed to the lake.
Bryn has had such a giant growth spurt that none of her swimsuits fit anymore and had to borrow one of Ailey's. She is getting so tall!
Bev was in her pink life jacket and in on all of the fun. Does that look like a fat pug to you? Bev was HIGHLY offended to be put on a doggie diet. :)
Ailey was the first one in this year!
Bryn was the first one underwater. Yes, these distinctions do matter. LOL.
It was so nice to relax and decompress. We broke up the day with some yard work and then it was back down to the water. Our boat needs a minor repair done and is still waiting in the shop. The boat mechanic is super backed up so it wasn't done in time for the weekend. We are hoping to get that baby on the water soon!
We left at about 8pm and headed to CDA to put some little flowers out for my grandparents and great-grandparents.
Then it was a stop at Dairy Queen for ice cream. We got home late and when we pulled into our drive way we could hear an owl hooting somewhere in our neighborhood. That's a first. Kirk had one in his neighborhood in SLC two years ago and it stuck around for months annoying everyone. I heard it when I stayed there and I thought it was Kirk outside the bedroom door trying to be funny! Ha ha!
That's about it for May. This was a LONG post. Maybe I will break it up into two parts next month. Onto June...
