Backyard Pool

10 Year College Reunion

Did I mention we went to Texas for our 10 Year College Reunion?

Sasha, Lily, Mike and I flew into Dallas and took that long and flat drive to Abilene. For those of you who know me, you know how shocking this news is. For those of you who don't know me that well yet, let's just say Texas and I did not get along very well. At all.

Driving away from Abilene after graduation was such a strange day for me. I cried and cried as I said goodbye to my many good friends and memories. At the same time, I heaved a sigh of relief to be heading West again. Water! Mountains! Trees! Halelujah!

So going back to Texas, on purpose, still surprises even me. We talked my sister and husband into going with us. Well, maybe they would have gone anyways, but since we all went together we got a free place to stay out of the deal since Chad's mother, Jane, lives in Abilene. She graciously put us all up, a total of 10 extra house guests!

We went to the Homecoming Parade and I cried through the whole thing. What was that all about!?! I felt very sentimental and proud of my Alma Mater and could even envision my children moving off to ACU for college. (And then I came to my senses: NO WAY are they moving that far away!)

We spent some wonderful time visiting with our dear friends the Kasselmans and their two children. It was great to catch up and realize that no matter how much time you spend apart, good friends pick up right where they left off after all these years. We were saddened not to connect with more of our friends from those years. The Robinson's could not make it, but we know their hearts were with us! Now they'll have to come to Washington, since we made the trek out to Texas! (That of course is an open invitation meant kindly and genuinely.)

An odd and overwhelming realization for me: We are ten years out of college and 9 years out until Sasha goes to college. 11 years until Lily goes. 8 years until Chloe goes. 7 years until Isaac goes. 6 years until Gabriel goes.

Response? Terror and relief. Simultaneously.

Spring Happenings

The Johnson 5 are gearing up for summer!

The count-down is on:

• 2 weeks until Lily's gymnastics performance.
• 3 more weeks of school!
• 3 weeks until our 15th Anniversary! (wow, how did that happen?)
• 4 weeks until swim lessons start.
• 5 weeks until Ballet/Jazz recitals for Sasha and Chloe.

The swimming pool is already put up in the backyard, which is sort of like tempting the Rain Gods if you live in Seattle. However, we had 3 days in a row when the temperatures hit the high 60's, and since that is basically as good as it gets in the Northwest, we brought out the shorts, tank tops, sun screen, and pool toys. I confess to having a sunburn.

My sweet husband has been working on the yard for me non-stop. It's not that he loves yard work or anything. (He finally confessed after 15 years of marriage that he hates yard work. I've known it all along :) ) But he prefers working in the sunshine than in the rain, and so he put up a new fence that encloses the whole yard and then we puled up about 2 tons of ancient junipers. Those things of from the dark side. I hate them. They are dead now.

Summer in Seattle is an odd thing. We come out from the woods (sometimes literally) with flesh white and ghostly. And although it's only in the mid-60's, everywhere you look we are wearing sandals and tank tops. Within a day or two of sunshine, you start to notice that the white ghostly shades have been replaced by a vibrant pink. I'm not sure which is worse. . .

But it is a beautiful place to live and spring doesn't get any greener anywhere in the world. We'll spend the next few months leaving work early, taking 3 day weekends, skipping church, calling in sick to work, and generally making the most of absolutely every sunny day. By August we'll be complaining about the heat and running our fans non-stop. Air conditioning? What's that?

Wherever you are spending this spring, I hope you enjoy it as much as us Washingtonians do ours!

Family Photographs

I have discovered something about myself: I hate bad pictures. Call it vain, call it snobby, I'm sure you'd be right. But, what can I say? This picture is just awful.

So the question is: Why post it?

Well, to be truthful, I think it's a funny picture. You know how Olan Mills comes into churches and does their directory, and tries to sell you their pictures? That's what this is. So, this picture is what will go down in history for our church. This is what we'll be remembered by and this is what people who don't know us will see and this is what the other kids will make fun of when they see it. It's ripe for mocking, if you ask me.

Despite it's less than quality portrayal, it also is amazing in how utterly it misses the personality of every single person in the shot. But what can you do? Free is free.