June gloom

In Southern California the weatherman always refer to "June gloom", the marine layer that lingers in the mornings and brings cooler weather when most of us so. cal. residents are itching for warm days and clear sunny skies. Well, this June that term has taken on a new meaning. June gloom set in at the Johnson house on June 8th when instead of waking of to a heavy marine layer I woke up to a swimming pool in the master bedroom. It has been a rocky ride since that morning when I literally walked through the house speechless and with my hands in the air. Our supply pipe to the toilet broke overnight and our whole house flooded. That made for a whirlwind week of meeting with restoration companies, insurance adjusters and contractors. Luckily we have a contractor in the family and so that portion was made easy. We realized that our home would not be livable for a while and the insurance company found us temporary digs at the local Residence inn. In the week to follow my work was raided by the IRS and FBI, Indiana had much trouble adjusting to hotel life and had to go for an extended stay at grandma's house, housekeeping threw away Zachary's retainer and Scott took up the good fight to get the hotel to pay for the retainer (this issue remains unresolved to date), the pods with all our belongings inside were almost broken into the first night they were in our driveway (thanks vigilant neighbors) and I have taken to late night dips in the jacuzzi to save my sanity. Ahhhh, but I am truly learning to roll with the punches and enjoy the blessings of family and friends, not things!

Rock and Roll 2010

I ran my first 1/2 marathon today and it was a GREAT experience. The weeks building up to it were stressful and I worried about so many things, but when the day finally arrived it all turned out ok. I carpooled down to San Diego yesterday with my friends Shari and Diana. We got to spend plenty of time at the expo before checking into our hotel. Then we met some of my other running friends for a good pasta dinner before turning in at 8:45. Are we party animals or what? You get the sweaty end of race picture first because that is where blogger put it and I am too tired to move it :)

This was our view from our corral while waiting to start. Let's just say the term corral is appropriate. I truly felt like we were being herded to the start. This was the only time that I felt the crowd of 40,000 runners. Every assured me that things thin out pretty quickly once you start, but I did not believe it until I saw it for myself.

I had to include a couple of pictures of the views we got while running on the freeway (which was obviously shut down). I really found it fun to be running on the freeway, but I am sure anyone trying to use the freeway and encountered barricades was not quite so giddy. Sorry commuters!

This sign was really a motivator and although they were not passing out margaritas, damn, they did have a great band, a hose and energy drink. All good!

I finished in a respectable 2:38 and am surprised to say that I would not be opposed to doing another one someday.....

8th grade promotion

Yesterday we attended Zachary's 8th grade promotion ceremony. He will be off to high school in August. It seems like just yesterday that I was combing his (short) hair and sending him off with his scooby doo backpack to kindergarten. Now he is growing into a real young man. His voice is currently changing, so it goes from the deep sounding man voice to high cracking sounds in the course of one sentence, think Bobby Brady in that episode of Brady bunch. Oh, and his top lip has this odd fuzzy substance on it and there is talk of shaving. I keep having that scene from Father of the Bride flash in my head where she is telling her dad she is getting married and he sees his little girl saying that. Well, I keep seeing my little boy holding his Zelda figurine that he carried everywhere with him for over a year saying "mom I think I will sign up for drivers education next semester". Well, enough of my whining about my baby boy growing up. Here are a couple of pictures of his promotion ceremony.

Riley's solo

We are so proud of Riley and the great job she did tonight at her choir performance. She was a little nervous about her solo, but she did great. We love you Riley!

I draw dead people

Last night Scott and I were out to dinner with the kids and we were remembering stories from when the kids were younger. Zachary brought up this one and it had me laughing out loud.
When Riley was about 3 (and Zachary 7) she could sit at our kitchen table and draw for about an hour at a time. For my active little girl having an hour of her sitting calmly was a true blessing. So one weekend when Scott was working and I was trying to get things done around the house I sat Riley at the table with paper and crayons. I proceeded to clean house, get some laundry done, etc. I would periodically check in on Riley's artwork and see what Zachary was up to. As I passed by Riley at one point I commented on the cute little girls she drew in the pretty flower filled field, but I questioned why all the eyes were X's. Riley continued coloring and calmly replied, "because they are dead girls mommy". So as I mentally calculating the cost of intensive therapy for my daughter I calmly asked, "why are the little girls dead?" All the while thinking MY LITTLE GIRL IS SCARRED, SOMETHING TRAGIC HAS SCARRED HER PSYCHE AND SHE MAY NEVER BE THE SAME! Riley responded to my question with "Zachary saw my picture and told me to make the girls dead." Oh, so that explained it. Why was it so much less disturbing that my son was messing with his sister and telling her to make her cute happy picture less cute and happy as opposed to my innocent little three year old drawing "dead girls". Awww, well they are 14 and 10 now and seem well adjusted....enough. LOL!

Goals!

I am a very goal oriented person. I need goals to keep me focused and moving forward. So last year just after my 39th birthday I started feeling down about 40 closing in fast. I started to feel "old" and I came to the conclusion that I needed a goal to shoot for before my 40th birthday.
I decided to take on running. I have been pretty fit most of my adult life, but running has always been something that I would liken to being about as pleasant as pulling out my toenails with tweezers. Add my asthma into the mix and running just sounded like a hoot.....NOT!
So I set the goal of running a 5k before my 40th birthday. I dowloaded Couch to 5k on my ipod and got started. I had several setbacks along the way with summer asthma issues and then cold/flu season, but I signed up for the Thanksgiving day local 5k and I finished with a decent time of 34 minutes, but then I was left with still having several months ahead until my birthday and now I had completed my goal. So in my head (because I could not verbalize and therefore commit to the goal) I decided to keep pushing and shoot for being able to run 10k.
Well, I kept pushing and had been up to 5-6 mile runs each week. Then my trainer talked me into going out with her running group today since they were doing a 10k run. I was worried that I would not keep up or even worse, I would hold them back. So I showed up this morning feeling apprenhensive and wondering if I would make it. I met them at the designated spot and the group of 7 runners were ALL wearing their LA marathon hats. WTF? Summer, my trainer, had not mentioned these were all her marathon runner buddies. Geez, I just about threw in the towel right there. 10k for marathoners is a walk in the park. I did not give up though and off we went. I made it about 5 miles before I had a mild asmtha attack and my inhaler was back in the car, I know totally irresponsible, but I pushed through it with my practiced breathing techniques and although it sapped a lot of my energy I was not giving up at that point. Summer asked if I wanted to walk and I said no, but in my head I was screaming "hell, yes and bring me a margarita". Needless to say, since I am writing this, I finished my run with the big girls and lived to tell the tale. I am even looking forward to my next run with them. It really is easier to have someone there pushing you along when you need it. I am still not calling myself a "runner" even though I am running three to four times a week and averaging 12-15 miles because runners are "crazy". LOL

Just say NO

This morning when Scott was trying to give our labrador, Maggie, her pain/anti-inflammatory medication and her benadryl (clearly she has some health issues) and she refused to take it. He tried hiding it in a piece of cheese to trick her into taking it. She took the cheese/medicine from him right away, held it in her mouth, walked away and dropped it on the carpet. She is clearly too smart for her own good. The squirrely dopey mini beagle, Indy, on the other hand eats first, thinks later. So before we could even get over to Indy she had gobbled up the cheese/pills. Mind you, Indy weighs a mere 10 lbs as opposed to Maggie's 70 lbs. I was a bit worried that this would be the death of her and Scott immediately called the vet to find out if we would be forced to make her vomit. The vet was totally unconcerned and said she would be fine just keep an eye on her. Well, we have and let me just say a drugged dog can be quite entertaining. Her blankets are her most prized possession and generally she carries them around in her mouth with her, but now if she is carrying them and anyone approaches she growls at them while giving them drugged up stink eye. While clearly having difficulty just staying upright. She is also unusually mellow which I have to say is a nice change. Her average day usually involves much hunting, howling and running around in general. Today her day has involved a little loopy walking and lots of naps. So remember kids just say no.

Time change

I think this time change will be the death of me. Usually I love this time change. I get more sunlight all evening after returning home from work. Time to spend in the garden or riding bikes with the kids before the sun goes down, but this year my body just cannot adjust. Every morning I struggle to get out of bed, hitting the snooze button multiple times, then rushing to get out the door on time. Every night I plan to get to bed early and catch up on my sleep, but on the nights that I actually get to bed at a decent hour I cannot fall asleep. And here I am, another night where I should be heading to bed, but wide awake! Ugh! Just shoot me now!

Locks of Love

After two years of growing out her hair Riley finally had enough hair to donate today.

We had to take a few before pics to show how long it had gotten before we headed out for the big snip snip.

Riley was not nervous at all, just very excited. Here she is waiting in the salon and reading the instructions we printed from Locks of Love.

Wow, that is some long hair she has there.

AND....... the end result!

No more expander

Riley got her expander off today and as is the tradition in our house she got to pick the treat of her choice. It was a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Grasshopper apple. I am assuming it was delicious, but I did not get a taste. After almost a year of wearing the expander Riley is orthodontia free for at least 6 months. Crossing our fingers that we get lucky and she does not need further orthodontia work, but we will have a follow up in August.
Now she can happily enjoy popcorn, chips, bubble gum and caramel apples!

I am not a detective, but I play one in the library

Some time last year we had someone checking out library books on a stolen library card then selling the books on Amazon's used book marketplace. When one of the books was returned to us after being purchased we managed to find out who had it, I tracked down when exactly the books were checked out (on our self checkout machine) and then we were able to get video of the man checking out the books. A bit more detective work and we figured out that this man also had his own library card and we were able to get his name, address, etc. and turn him into the police who were able to recover the remaining books that he had listed on Amazon and prosecute him.

So fast forward to last week when we had a Valentine's day program for the teens. It was held in our historic Carnegie building (built in 1913 with a grant from Andrew Carnegie and the original library). It was a great program for the kids full of plenty of activities and tons of chocolate. Well, apparently during the program one of the kids tagged in the men's restroom. So the following morning the custodians called to inform me of the tagging since I am in charge of the building. I was PISSED! Not only does tagging alone set me off as it is such a stupid waste of our resources to have to cover it up, but for some kid to do that while we were providing them with a fun program was the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak. So I took photos of the tagging and sent them to our YA librarian. Lo and behold, but she knew who did it. The kid was dumb enough to tag his same "signature" in the chocolate pudding finger paint that was one of the activities and our YA librarian had a picture of it. Looking at the two photos side by side it looked like one had been used to trace the other. How dumb is this kid? Has he been sniffing markers for too long? He knew his photo was taken with the signature in the finger painting and then he goes and tags it on the walls? DUH! So we called the police as soon as the kid came into the library after school that day. Our security person kept an eye on the kid waiting for the police to come in. When they arrived he was in the restroom downstairs so they kept an eye on the door from upstairs. The boy exited the restroom and got into the elevator so the police walked over to meet him when the doors open. This is where it gets good. The doors open and the boy is in the middle of tagging the same signature on the elevator walls! The cops just stood there watching and waiting for him to turn around. The boy jumped about a foot off the ground when he saw them. PRICELESS! Some people are too dumb to be criminals.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Yesterday when I was at the gym I noticed a man working out on one of the weight machines. What drew my eye to him initially was his attire. He was not wearing standard workout clothes nor was he wearing a ratty old t-shirt and jeans. No, this person had chosen the hands down winner of “odd gym outfits”. He was wearing a turtleneck (yes a TUR-TLE-NECK) with a pull over sweater on top (think Cliff Huxtable in The Cosby show), beige dockers, socks and leather loafers. What…the…heck??? Truthfully he did not seem to be working out all that hard. He would wander from machine to machine, do a couple of reps and move on. At one point he ended up on the bike next to me and pedaled for a good 3 to 5 minutes before moving on to the next machine. Odd, I know. So “sweater guy” got me thinking of all the odd people I have observed at the gym over the years and believe me there are many. Here are just a few of the interesting people I have seen.

BIG GULP GUY--Big gulp guy was at the previous gym I belonged to and I kid you not he was there EVERY time I went. It did not matter if I went at 8 in the morning or 9 at night. Big gulp guy was there. He is aptly named since he ALWAYS carried a big gulp size cup from Jack in the Box, which happened to be across the parking lot from the gym. Big gulp guy walked around the gym just watching people, occasionally trying to engage a woman in conversation and sipping his over sized soda. Never once in all that time did I see Big gulp guy touch a piece of equipment or even appear to exercise. I think big gulp guy was just hoping to get lucky some day.

STRIPPER GIRL--Stripper girl got her name not only from her half silicone physique, but also from her choice of clothing. And no stripper girl… sports bras or not shirts! Stripper girl also likes to practice her moves on the machines. You never want to be the unlucky person on the treadmill or elliptical next to stripper girl because there is a good chance you will get knocked off your machine during her “routine”. She does more gyrating and shaking than my Kenmore washer on the spin cycle and don’t even get me started on the soft porn moves that go on at the weight machines. Who knew the gym door needed a rating sign on it?

BRAZILIAN BOO-TAY GIRL--She got her name since she left the gym one day with a concave derriere and the next time she was seen in the gym she had a very pronounced bootie that was clearly surgically enhanced (googling was required to see if this was actually possible). Said surgically enhanced bootie received great exposure since I think her shorts are purchased in the kids department.

Honorable mentions include
Silk shirt lady-Older Asian woman wearing a long sleeve colorful silk shirt, silk pants and what appeared to be slippers while on the treadmill.

Flip flop girls-two teens in short shorts, tank tops and flip flops on the treadmill. They must have confused the gym with the poolside at the MGM.

And last, but not least the man who put us all to shame and made me realize I will never have an adequate excuse to skip the gym.

Oxygen tank guy-yes he was pulling his portable oxygen tank along behind him during his entire workout. Trudging along on the treadmill with his tank beside him. Talk about dedication!

Last hurrah!

We spent all day Sunday at Disneyland and CA adventure theme parks. Our annual passes expired today so we soaked up all we could on our last day there (the boys still have some time on their passes). Riley and I went with Erica, Luke and Presley and we all had a great day, although I feel for Erica because I was exhausted at then end of the day and I am not 6 months pregnant.
Here are just a few picture from our fun day.

Even though Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain were both closed we got to ride on most of our favorite rides even Small World, which the boys always grumble about going on, but Presley was thrilled with. I think I spent more time watching her face react to everything than I did watching the ride.
I think it was very thoughtful of the Disneyland gardeners to plant my favorite, pink tulips, around the park. How did they know?

Two of my favorite girls waiting in line for Pirates of the Carribean. Presley has taken to calling me Aunt "Cherry" and all day long I heard Aunt Cherry, Aunt Cherry. She cracks me up, but how could you not love that face?

No need to check your calendars

Yes, it is the end of January and yes, we are making witches brew. Back in October when I was in Nebraska for my grandmother's funeral my mom and I found a cute little gift shop that was selling "sour apple witches brew". I bought one and brought it home for the kids. Well, really for Riley because a 14 year old boy really does not give a hoot about making witches brew.
The witches brew was never brewed though. The first obstacle was that I forgot the witches brew in my bag for a while so when I found it, it was almost Halloween and I figured we had better make it right away. Then I read the directions and realized you need to mix it with club soda, soda water or 7up, none of these are staples in our pantry. Then we/I kept forgetting to put one of those items on the grocery list. Finally Halloween passed and I figured the witches brew could wait until next year. That is until Riley had a light bulb moment one day and said, "hey we never made the witches brew". So I had to dig the mix out of hiding and add 7up to the grocery list. Oh, but the witches brew did not get made that week. Scott did not know the 7up was for witches brew and drank it. One would think that we would give up on it at this point, but Riley really wanted that brew. So today, FINALLY all the stars have aligned and we made the witches brew. Riley even chanted "boil, boil, toil and trouble...." while making her sticky green brew. Personally, I think that after waiting almost three months it really looks like a letdown. Thick green sour apple gook. Riley said it tasted like kool-aid and 7up and we are taking her word on this one. If you added some vodka, jello and put it in a shot and served it to me on March 17th then I would probably give it a whirl, but in lieu of those circumstances I will pass.

Lovely green goop!

My little witchy poo enjoyed the brew. I had to cut her off after two glasses.

Just call me Martha!

I had been buying peppermint syrup (you know the kind they have at Starbucks) over the holidays. I love it in my coffee and even add a spoonful of nestlea cocoa, a bit of whip cream and sprinkles for my own poor man's peppermint mocha.
Well, somewhere along the line the kids caught on to the peppermint syrup thing and started putting it in their hot cocoa. Soon we were blowing through those $6 bottles of peppermint syrup like water.
Well, as they say necessity is the mother of all invention. Soon I was on the internet googling simple syrup recipes. Once I found out how to make that I figured I could just add peppermint extract and voila peppermint syrup. So one night after the kids were in bed I washed out the empty peppermint syrup bottle and stood over the stove making peppermint syrup. You might wonder why I washed the old bottle for re-use. That would be because my kids are food snobs and don't trust imitations. Any substitutions or generics are quickly dubbed "gross". So once I cooked and cooled the syrup I poured it into the Torani syrup bottle.
After about one week I confessed that it was syrup I had made. Neither one of them could tell the difference and neither could I. So no more overpriced bottles of syrup for us. I will be making my own, how very Martha Stewart of me.

Peppermint Syrup Recipe
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 - 3/4 tsp. peppermint extract (depending on how much peppermint flavor you want)
Bring mixture to a low boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Let cool and refrigerate.

Now I am thinking about other flavored syrups I could make. Lemon syrup for a lemondrop martini would be yummy!

MISSIONS

For kids in California this mission project is a rite of passage. Every fourth grader gets assigned a mission and then they get an creative project involving their mission. Back in my day we had to build a model of the mission, but Riley's teacher said that they got tired of parents building missions for their kids, so no more models. Riley got to choose from three projects and chose the poster.

She has to draw the front of the mission on one side and on the other a layout of the mission and also two long paragraphs with information on her mission. She is doing her project on Mission San Francisco Solano. Then she presents her project in class so the kids get to learn about all 21 of the California missions.

Grief

Grief is an odd thing. I remember being in my early 20's and having never experienced the loss of a loved one. I could offer sympathy, but not empathy. Then I experienced my own losses and knew how all consuming that grief is in those early days, where just getting out of bed and going through the motions of living are exhausting and sometimes too much to bear. Slowly that blanket of grief lifts and you have moments in the day where you feel like you can manage the day to day things. Then one day you laugh again and feel horrible for it. How can you laugh when your loved one is gone? But you do go on and laugh because your loved one would want you to laugh and live life to the fullest and as time passes it gets easier to live instead of just pretending to live, until those moments when grief smacks you in the face again. It won't take months and years for that blanket to lift this time, but you have had the wind knocked out of you in that moment and it will weigh heavy on your heart again for a while.
I had one of those moments today and I honestly can't remember what triggered the memory, but I vividly remembered laying on the exam table in my perinatologist's office and hearing him tell me how sorry he was. I remember being in denial, that this could not be true. This was not part of the plan. I was healthy and did everything I was supposed to so how could I be sitting here in this room with my life as I knew it ending. I remember collapsing in the parking garage outside the hospital and Scott holding me up while I sobbed and asked God why. I remember that empty feeling when my son was no longer in my body and I had to give up the last hope that this was all some horrible nightmare. I remember the days following when I could not get out of bed and could not take care of my other son who needed his mommy too. It may have been over 11 years, but I still grieve for my son. I still shed tears for Nicholas and I will never forget him. I will never stop wishing that Zachary had a brother to act as his best man the day he marries or that Riley has another big brother to watch over her and be there for her as she becomes a woman.
Yes, grief is a sneaky bastard and you never know when it will throw you for a loop. I know from experience that this feeling will pass. I know from experience that I have a full life, but it is not whole.

Gourmet Chef

Since Scott has more time on his hands he has been making an effort to cook dinner on days that I work. They are generally simple dinners, but for a guy that limits his usual cooking methods to the toaster or microwave this is a huge effort on his part. Tonight it was hamburger helper and salad. The kids LOVED it. Apparently I am making too much effort in the cooking deparment and I should just pop open a box a good old hamburger helper. Note to self!

Sigh

This weekend while Riley and I were away in San Francisco with my mom we shared a bed at the hotels. Saturday night Riley snuggled up under my arm and laid her head on my chest. We snuggle like this often at home when I come to tuck her into bed at night. Saturday night though we snuggled longer than usual and she fell asleep on my chest. I could tell the moment her body softened, her breathing deepened and she was asleep. It made me recall all those times when she was a baby snuggled on my chest or with her head in the crook of my neck. I also realized that this could be the last time that I experienced my child sleeping with her head nestled on my chest like that. So I savored the moment as much as possible until sleep finally overcame me. Sigh, if only I could capture those moments forever.