My First 5k

I Did it!! I ran a real race!! I'm not sure this was the right FIRST race, but I made it and in the same timeframe I had been training in, so I was completely thrilled.

I knew this was going to be a hilly trail run, but what I didn't know is that the first 1.25 miles was completely and unwaveringly uphill!! The difficult part was that I didn't know when it would let up - you saw the top of the first hill, so I thought, "Ok, just make it up to there, and then you can really get going." Then at the top of that hill, you just turned a corner and started going up some more. After that hill, there was a less severe, though longer hill and you could see everyone in front of you for quite a bit. I turned to the lady next to me and said, "Is this run up hill both ways?" She was not as amused as I was, though in fact I was not at all amused either - just trying to make light of the situation. I was really discouraged and thought this all was going to take me an hour at the rate I was going! On the last incline, I was run/walking by this man who pointed out that there was a single runner already looped around and on his way down to the finish line. I mentioned to him that this was my first race and it was most obviously the WRONG one! He was really great, saying, "oh no, you'll do fine!"

At the top of all the hills, the landscape was flat and you could see this trail of runners all along the bluff. It was really beautiful. Then I saw the water station. HA! I knew that the water station was halfway through the run. I could realy start running, now that the hills were over so I pushed hard. I grabbed my water and made sure I was going the right way (I DID NOT want to get on the 20k trail!!) and then I was able to run the whole rest of the way.

Shortly after the water, the trail took a u-turn and it went down hill pretty steeply. Me and the 2 ladies I followed were then led into this narrow creek-bed area, so thin you couldn't pass anyone. You had no choice but to run, and fast. I watched the gal in front of me for good footing, as the creek bed wound right and then shot left and you constantly had to jump from one side of the divide to the other. It felt like we were on wheels and it was actually really fun - a nice reward for crawling up that steep hillside in the beginning!

Close to the end there was a small family cheering people on. I took out my ear bud and asked, "How much further?!" They assured me we were almost there and cheered us to keep going. Then I saw it. I was so excited - there was the finished line. And I wasn't last!! hahaha. As I drew near, I saw Andy and Tyler waiting there for me. Then i glanced over at the clock. It said 37:something! I was overjoyed! Thankfully the downhill part had helped me make up for the uphill part and I came in right where I wanted!!

This past week I was regretting I had signed up, but it was really great. Hopefully I can do it again sometime. Thank you for all your encouragement and prayers!!

Halloween & Thanksgiving

Ahhh...November - a good time to (finally!) post about Halloween and, most currently, Thanksgiving.

I made Tyler's costume this year - a monkey, of course I took great care to make shoe covers adn a detached "hood" with monkey ears and everything, but he would not wear the hood. We carved pumpkins at mom's house like always and someone even gave us a HUGE pumpkin to carve. We went to the Trunk 'n Treat at Olive Knolls Church, where I work, and Tyler was one of the first to play some of the trunk games (before it got too busy). As soon as it got dark and everyone was there, he was done. He was entralled with the train they had there for the kids to ride, but only rode for about 30 seconds before signing "all done". :) But he wanted to follow it around - cool enough to follow but too scary to ride, I guess. All the pictures are on facebook, so please click here to see them.

We did Thanksgiving on Andy's side on Thursday and then did it all again yesterday at mom's. One of the traditions is to race the cars. Here's Tyler "racing his car" (though his remote didn't work).

Then this year, mom made cookies for us to decorate. Here's Andy's...

And here's mine...

Tyler was more about eating his cookies, than decorating them. In fact he got really upset at me for putting a dollop of frosting on his cookie. Guess he's like me in that regard - more cookie/cake, less frosting, I always say. :)

We are thankful for all our family and this great country. We have many blessings.

Next weekend I am running my first ever 5k! I've been training for a while, but I'm a little nervous because it's a hilly trail run and all my running's been on the treadmill or outside on flat pavement. But I figure, since it's my first race, the goal is just to finish - I'll work on a better time the next go-round. :)

Hope you all are well and are having blessed holidays!
Love,

The Johnsons

Just an Update

Hi friends and family,
Things have been crazy as usual around here. I've been sewing a dress that I am no longer sewing, more explanation to be made on my sewing blog after this post...but needless to say, that's been an exhausing endeavor! We've joined a new small group at church and at work Andy's in a class this week and I've set out to completely re-do the websites. Here's one I've mostly finished...just waiting on some information to bulk up the content.

Tyler-man has been talking A LOT - last night I got out his baby book to record some of what he's been saying. He says "ka-ker" for craker, very enthusiastically and repeatedly says "hi" and "Bye" with a cute little wave, says "mon-ghee" for monkey, "shoe", calls coffee "pak-ee", asks for "help", says "uh huh" for yes, "oh no!", "blah" for block, "sha" for sword, and more! Here's a fun pic of him trying to wear my shoes. :)
Pastor Terry found him this cute CARS toddler bedspread and here is Tyler appreciating it.

Somebody's been eating mommy's home made cookies...

Oh - and for those of you not on facebook, here's my new haircut and color. :) Time for something different... hahaha

Love y'all!
The Johnsons

Tyler's Art Explosion

Since Tyler's started daycare at the school where I work, we have had an abundance of almost daily art. It's so fun and since there's so much of it, we are sharing with whoever will post it proudly on their fridge! :) Right now he is learning about circles. We have, what I like to refer to as an "impressionist piece" on the fridge where a small, medium and large circle on a page are colored in with dots and dashes. There is another one from church with animal stickers on it saying, "God made everything"...However, so far this one is my favorite.

HAPPY

SAD

I really feel the sadness - like he is beside himself. Hahahaha. Is that not the greatest or what! :)

:)

So last night, Tyler was responding to us by placing his first finger near his mouth and looking very serious, sometimes accompanying it with a stern "no". Of course, our initial reaction was, "This boy is CRUISIN'!", but then I got to thinking about it and mentioned to Andy that we might not react too strongly until I talk to his preschool teachers. I thought perhaps they were playing a game with him or something that and he was doing it innocently. Boy, am I thankful I had that thought because when I asked this morning, one of the teachers thought about it and said, "OH! 'No more monkey's jumping on the bed'". HAHAHAHAHA. They had been teaching the kids that song all last week and this week, so that explains it!

Just thought you might enjoy that story. :)
Love, The Johnsons

Vacation Pictures and my sorry excuse for not blogging...

Hi friends and family! I have so many things to show you, but our computer told me it has no more room for pictures, so I thought I had to take some time off until we saved up enough to get another one. HOWEVER, a friend of mine in passing conversation mentioned that she posted pictures straight from her camera - DUH! So here goes.


In mid July we went to Santa Cruz. Here are some of the pics we caught...

Here we are at the pier with a pelican:Here are some of the sea lions basking in the sun:Tyler eating an ice cream cone (haha...looks like he has a beak)

Here's Tyler on the Helicopters (he didn't like them so much)This was his favorite ride - the CARS...The first time he went on it, he didn't look real happy, but not sad either. Then when I went to get it when the ride was over, he signed "more" to me! hahaha. So we went on this one about 4 times each on two different days. He also liked to drive the Pepsi TrucksAnd the boatsAnd this was after our beach day...i really hope the sand around his mouth doesn't mean he was eating it, but you never can tell with this kid. :)
For some reason, Tyler's been all about his swing. We've found him a few times after he's crawled up in it and have tried to explain that he's a "big boy" now. Now we store his diaper bags there so it seems to deter him so far. :)

Tyler is 18 months now and able to come to the preschool where I work. I think he really loves it! I asked him the other day as we pulled up if he was ready to go to school and he smiled, nodded his head and said, "Uh huh!". Then he toddled right up to the door and ran in the room to play. This was his first week and my co-worker Cindy was nice enough to snap some photos., Since they're not mine, I only have a link for you, but it should work - if not, let me know and I'll figure something else out, but you won't want to miss them - they're so cute. CLICK HERE.

Anyway, now that I know how to get pictures on here without putting them first on my computer, hopefully I'll do this a bit more. I hope you all are well!

The Johnsons

Promised Video and Pics

Hi family and friends,

Well, as I looked through our videos, there wasn't anything entirely exciting. But for your amusement, here's Tyler getting his grove on - guess he's a real Bakersfield boy, bustin' a move to some twangy tunes...

And as mentioned in the previous post, here's a picture of "Lounging Tyler" showing us how it's done:

And since Andy is SO OLD now, we had a few people over for a semi-last-minute fiesta! Here's the buffet line...

Some of the guests...

And the birthday boy with his birthday pie...

Happy 30th Andy!

May Update

Hi friends and family! We are cruising right through May and FAST! Tyler is so much fun and growing smarter day by day! He LOVES to help daddy water the garden - look how the corn is taller than he is now! :)

A few weekends ago, Grandpa Greg came to visit on his motorcycle. Tyler wasn't too thrilled about it, we were surprised to find out. He looked very concerned when we put him on it and even whined a little until Andy got on with him. This is the best picture we got - he just wouldn't quite smile, but that's okay - it's a fun photo anyway! :)

Last week, Mr. Independent decided he wanted to go somewhere - he was just tired of being home, I guess. So he grabbed his diaper bag and dragged it into the kitchen...

...and to the back door. We said, "Oh! I guess we'll see you later! Bye!" and he said "Bu-bye" and waved. He then proceeded to the door and knocked. I guess we're too boring for him!
So to mix it up a bit, we thought we'd go to the beach! Tyler liked having a big sandbox to dig in without any "no-no's" (most of the time he wants to dig in the garden and that's not cool). We tried to go in the water, but he had this love-hate relationship with it. When I first took him down, it was a little too scary, so I took him back to where we had "parked" our towels. Then, a few minutes later he pointed at the water so I took him down again. I held both hands, standing behind him and he just kept walking out into the water. If I hadn't held him back, he would have surely walked straight into the deep part and gotten whisked away! So we stood like that for a bit and let the waves come up and hit his legs and he seemed to like it, but then got cold and wanted "up". The next day we went it was the same thing - not liking it, then liking it, then being done and wanting to go up and dig some more. It was a lot of fun to watch him experience it all.

I think I have some videos we've taken lately that are still on the camera. I'll try to get those up soon. Other than that, Tyler's been doing all sorts of other fun and entertaining things. He's very close to crawling up on the couch. Andy had him up there the other day and he found the remote control, leaned back on the pillow and pointed the remote at the t.v.! LOL. Unfortunately, there's no photo for that one! :( Hope you all are well and we love you!

The Johnsons

To all our mommies and grandmommies...

Tyler Update and Weekend Warriors, Part 2

Hi everyone and thank you for all your prayers for Tyler. After a week and a half of throwing up every other night, we are finally over whatever it was and he is back to his little ol' self. Lately, he's really started to grasp the whole bedtime routine and enjoys using his brushes (hair and tooth!). Sometimes he tries to use his toothbrush for a hairbrush and vice versa, but it's fun to see him catch on!

This weekend, since we were all feeling much better, it was time to get back to our backyard makeover! Just as a reminder, here is the very sad before picture; weeds instead of grass, a forgotten flower bed, etc., etc.:

The sod arrived good and early in the morning so Andy got right to it. The ground had already been tilled so he and a friend scattered fertilizer and then used a rake to stir it in and level the ground.

And then: BOOM-O instant grass!

Since we were in gardening mode, we went ahead and ran to home depot to fill up our square foot garden. We got tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, thyme, red bell peppers, corn & basil (if I remember correctly. Since then, we've gone to Lowe's and added snap peas, some more herbs and strawberries. We have one more square foot to fill and we're thinking we'll get some cherry tomatoes.

Here's where I planted the herbs (the pics were taken before the Lowe's trip).
So here it is, our outdoor oasis all ready for some yummies and summer fun for Tyler. I see a kids pool and some patio furniture in our future...

Prayers for Tyler

Hi everyone,

For those of you who haven't heard, our Tyler's had a rough week. It started last Sunday. We had had a great day and were at our small group. Tyler was busy, as usual, playing with his blocks and walking in and out of the room. Suddenly he laid down and sucked his thumb. I went to rub his back and he was very warm. It was near the end of our small group so as we were on our way out, he threw up all over us (me and him). We tried to get cleaned up as best we could and hung out a little bit longer to make sure he was done. When we got in the car I called mom and as I was telling her what happened, I looked back at Tyler and he threw up again. I said "OH! Oh mom! He's doing it again! We're coming over - we need to get cleaned up!!" (we were on her side of town). :)

We all got cleaned up and I called the advice nurse, who just gave us the "sip liquids, no more solids tonight" advice and since it was pretty much bedtime, we went home and put him to bed.

The next day he was a little whiny, but didn't seem sick (no fever or anything) so he went to daycare, but I got an email that he was acting as though he was not feeling well. I got him at 3 and took him to the doctor. They just felt like he had a bug, and so keep sipping liquids.

Tuesday he had seemed to make a full recovery, did well at daycare and was fine that night at home. Wednesday too. Then Wednesday night, out of nowhere, he threw up again. Thursday morning Tyler woke up pretty lethargic and after eating, we noticed his lips were blue. We took him straight to the doctor, but by the time we saw the doctor, his lips had regained color. I told the doctor everything I could think of: Wednesday night we had noticed a molar came in, he had a big blowout diarrhea diaper that morning, he seemed to be throwing up fruit from breakfast, even though he was chucking up in the evening...None of it seemed to fit together. Doctor thought it may be that he's not chewing his fruit so it isn't able to be digested and it stews in his tummy all day, which irritates his stomach and then he throws up. We were do a pureed diet for a few days and then on Easter, try more solid foods again.

So...since it didn't seem to be an illness, per se, we were given clearance to go to daycare. He did fine at daycare Thursday, but when we got him home, he was very lethargic and not himself at all. Friday morning I went to work and Andy called to say Tyler had thrown up again, but this time just a little. Since he was still acting funny, Andy made him an appointment at the doctors (especially since we were entering the weekend and didn't want to end up waiting in urgent care or emergency). I worked a half day so I met them at the doctor's. At that point, Andy started feeling really bad, so I sent him home, almost relieved, since if Andy was sick, this just must be a bug and we'll be fine. The doctor had given us orders for blood work at our request, but we decided to see how he did.

Andy was very sick Friday, and Tyler threw up 2 more times. However, Andy recovered and is back at work today (i have the day off). Tyler did okay Saturday and then woke up from his nap Sunday mid-morning not looking so hot. He finally threw up again Sunday night, so we took him for blood work this morning.

Please be in prayer for us - that if indeed this is a nasty bug, that it run it's course quickly. Mr. T is such a tiny guy already, and not being able to keep much down for a whole week certainly isn't helping things. Also, if it is something more, please pray the blood work will show what it is and the doctors will know exactly how to treat it.

Thanks everyone for your prayers already. We love you!
The Johnsons

Tyler's First Haircut

Well, the time had come. In fact, I had been putting it off. I knew I wanted to be the one to cut his hair, but I didn't want to mess it up too bad, seeing as how I had never cut hair before. But I bought some scissors and went to it. Here are some before pictures:The picture showing the back of his hair doesn't really show it well, but it was getting long and kind of curling under like a bob! hahaha! And when he had bed head, it was crazy to the point we called him a "mad scientist". Sometimes it wouldn't comb down very well at all, though it was still cute (of course!).

Oh - and here we're just having fun. :)

So we tied him in a desk chair and I wet his hair... And I, er, went to work. My first client was a little wiggly...

He wasn't very patient with me and so eventually we let him up and I just chased him around with the scissors and comb (and there are some spots where that is obvious). Fortunately, all his friends are his age and just as obivious about his looks as he is so I have some time to get it down. (Sorry son!) Here are the results:

Now he REALLY looks like his daddy! Handsome fellows, I say! :)