Elizabeth's 14th Birthday

My niece Elizabeth turned 14 on December 27. Wow… 14! It's hard to believe. A benefit of Elizabeth having a birthday so close to Christmas is that we always get to celebrate her birthday together since her family almost always visits for Christmas. I really treasure the time that I get to spend with my nieces and nephews since I don't see them as often as I'd like. It's always special when we're actually together WITH family on birthdays or holidays.

In the morning Sharon's family went to the Butterfly House. My mom and I didn't tag along on this adventure, so I sent my camera with my sister so that I could at least be a part of the fun via pictures.

They also played on the playground equipment and also went to the big indoor carousel that is right by the Butterfly House. Rides are only $2, which isn't too bad.

We had dinner later that afternoon. Elizabeth wanted pulled pork enchiladas. I've never had enchiladas made with pulled pork before, and I really liked them. Elizabeth wanted blackberry cobbler with snickerdoodle ice cream for dessert. That was an interesting choice for a birthday dessert, if you ask me! When my mom went to the store she couldn't find snickerdoodle ice cream, and saw that two boxes of blackberries cost nearly $20, so she called Elizabeth and they decided to do a mixed berry cobbler with French vanilla ice cream instead. Cobbler isn't my idea of a good dessert, especially for something as special as a birthday. My philosophy is that if a dessert has fruit in it, it's not a dessert! Hold the berries and give me some chocolate!! ;)

Elizabeth opened her presents after dinner. Between Christmas and her birthday, Elizabeth got everything she wanted. Getting everything you want is doable when you have requests as modest as Elizabeth's were! After the little kids were in bed, we watched Catching Fire to prepare ourselves for seeing Mockingjay part 1, a few days later.

The beautiful birthday girl:

Christmas 2014

I'm finally getting around to making a post about Christmas. My sister Sharon and her family came from Mississippi to spend Christmas with my mom, youngest sister Chandra and me. We've been lucky enough to spend Christmas with Sharon's family every year since 2007, and it's always a blast. It's great to have kids around for the holidays, too, since they make everything more exciting. I wish more of my family lived close enough to join in on the holiday fun, but I will take whatever visitors we can get!

We agreed to start opening presents at 8, which always feels late to the kids, but to the adults that have to get up a couple hours earlier to get everything ready, 8 AM feels like good compromise. We started by opening stockings to see what Santa brought for the kids. Then we had our breakfast of sweet rolls (made by Sharon). This year we did caramel pecan rolls and cinnamon rolls with maple frosting. After breakfast we started opening presents, which always takes a couple of hours, since we're the kind of family that opens them one at a time.

In the afternoon we had some friends over. Our long time family friend, Paul, and Laura, a new gal from church. Laura's new to the area and doesn't know very many people. Her husband had to work, too, so she and her two little kids came over to hang out with us. It was great getting to know her better, and her daughter played well with my sister's kids. Her baby boy is a doll, and everybody loved holding him!

Christmas was a relatively low-key day, but it was just relaxing and nice to spend time with family and friends. Chandra had been working tons, too, especially with the busy holiday hours. Fortunately, she got four days off during the time that Sharon's family was here, so she was actually able to hang out with us.

Here are some pictures from Christmas day. 

Rachel and Emily each got Bitty Babies for Christmas. Emily (who is two) walked around saying "baby bottle" over and over after she opened her doll. Fortunately, my mom got her some doll supplies, including two baby bottles. :) 

"Unbroken" and "Mockingjay"

I seriously slacked on my movie watching in 2014. As of Christmas, I hadn't even seen ONE movie in the theater the entire year. So, the day after Christmas my sisters Sharon and Chandra and I went to see Unbroken. I've been eagerly anticipating seeing this movie ever since I heard that the book was being made into a movie. When I read the book three years ago I was mesmerized by Louie Zamperini's story. He was an amazing and inspiring person, and I found his story very compelling.

I really liked the movie, but as is the case with most movies based on books, the book was much, much better. The book is pretty long and very detailed, so there was no way they could cover all of Louie's life in one movie. The movie briefly covered Louie's childhood, and it was mostly about Louie's experience in the war, which included being lost at sea for 47 days and being held as a prisoner of war in a Japanese POW camp for more than two years. The movie ended with Louie coming home after the war. There was a brief summary of his life post-war, but it was given in just a few words and pictures. This was pretty much the only thing I found disappointing about the movie, since it didn't show the part of Louie's life that I found/find the most inspiring. As amazing as his survival of all of that horrendous stuff was, what happened to him AFTER the war was truly miraculous. I wish the movie would've gone into this a little more and told how he found God and triumphed over his demons. I still thought this was a really good movie, though, and I really don't have anything bad to say about it. I just wish there would've been even more of it!

Louie as a young Olympic runner on the left, and Louie as an old man on the right. (Louie died on July 2, 2014.)

Angelina Jolie was the one responsible for bringing this movie to the big screen. She and Louie developed a close bond while working together.

A few days after Christmas, Sharon, Chandra and I went back to the movies, along with my nieces Elizabeth and Kate, to see Mockingjay, part 1 (this was Elizabeth's request for her 14th birthday). I wasn't super excited to see this movie, but I really enjoyed it. The movie went by so quickly, and all of a sudden it was over. This was just part one of the final book and it ended in a cliffhanger, so I didn't really come away from the movie feeling very fulfilled, but I did like it. I can't wait to see part two next year!

Here we are at the movies:

The Latest

For someone that doesn't get out and about much, I really stay quite busy, hence the reason why I've been MIA on my blog lately. I have had so much to do that there really hasn't been any time for making blog posts. Here are a few things that I've been up to lately:

I went to the dentist last Wednesday, just for my six month cleaning and exam. I know a lot of people absolutely hate going to the dentist, but I don't mind it at all. The worst thing about it is that the office I go to is about 40 minutes away, so it's a bit of a drive. I've been going to the same dentist (Dr. Farmer) basically my entire life, and he always makes everything "a piece of cake." My mom and I were in and out in just over an hour. No cavities for me. Woo hoo! I still haven't had any cavities in my permanent teeth and I will try my best to keep that the case as long as I can.

After the dentist my mom and I stopped by Target to pick up a few things for Christmas. I've been able to do almost all of my Christmas shopping online, but sometimes there are just things you need to get at an actual store. As nice and convenient as online shopping is, there's just nothing like being able to see with your own eyes what you are considering buying, and not just a picture where it's hard to tell the actual size, quality and fine details of a product. Even when I am at the store, sometimes it can be very frustrating to shop because it's really difficult to tell people just what item you want brought closer in order to get a better look. Imagine only having your words and not being able to point or gesture when trying to direct someone to a specific object. It's harder than you would think, especially since there are so many products on display! Sometimes only looking with your eyes, even in person, and not being able to actually feel or smell or touch the merchandise just isn't good enough!

My younger sister Chandra turned 26 last Saturday (the 13th) and we celebrated together on Friday, since she was off work. Chandra was lamenting the fact that she is "so old" now. 26 is really not that old, but I can kind of relate to where she's coming from, since all of our sisters were married and most of them had children by that age, as well as a lot of our friends, too. Chan is doing great at her new job working as a sales rep for AT&T. She works loooong hours, though. Here's what her day was like yesterday, just to give an example: She worked from 9 AM to 8 PM, but didn't get off until 9:30, since you have to stay with the customer you're helping until you're finished with them, even if that means staying an hour or two after the time you're scheduled to be off. Then she went to the gym to work out and didn't get home until after midnight. The store she works at is about 50 minutes away from our home, too, so she has quite a drive to and from work every day. During the holiday season she has to work six day work weeks, too. Needless to say, I don't see Chan much anymore, so any time we do get to spend together is definitely a treat.

I teach Sunday school at church to a group of 12 and 13-year-olds (I've been doing this for the past two years.) My mom is my assistant, which is kind of funny that she is the assistant and I am the teacher, since my mom has been teaching the youth at church for more than 30 years and is WAY more qualified to teach than I am. I do my best, though. I spend so much time working on my lessons each week. I only have two more weeks with four of my six regular kids, since the four that turned 14 this year will be moving up to the next class when 2015 starts. I'm going to miss them so much, because I've really come to love them dearly! I will get at least three new regular kids, though, when the new class of 12-year-olds move up in January. I took a group picture with the kids I teach about a month ago. Such great kids!

I've been busy working on the annual family slideshow I make at the end of each year with pictures of my sisters, their kids and Mom, Chandra and me throughout the year. It's a lot of work, but I think it's worth it. I know how much I would treasure a slideshow like this if I were able to watch one from each year of my childhood. I hope my nieces and nephews treasure these slideshows as much as I know I would if I were them, because documenting their lives is a major part of why I continue to make these year after year.

This is just an update on what's been going on. Time to get back to work!

Meeting My Cousin

Last Wednesday I was able to meet one of my cousins, Bill Jr., and his family. They live in Virginia, but were traveling in the area for the Thanksgiving holiday. I may have met Bill Jr. (who is 10 years my senior) when I was a little girl, but if I did, I was too young at the time and have no memory of it. We are Facebook friends, but don't really correspond, so it was basically like meeting a stranger.

Bill, his wife, Melinda, and their two sons, Thomas and Tre, came for lunch and stayed for a couple of hours on their way from Aurora, MO, to Evansville, IN. It was great learning more about Bill and Melinda, how they met (in Italy when they were both in the Navy) and more about their life. 

Bill Jr.'s dad, Bill Sr., is my dad's oldest brother. We rarely got together with the Johnson side of the family when I was a kid, and don't know much about my cousins on that side of the family. My only Johnson relative that I know much about is my Uncle Paul, so it was really nice to meet Bill and get to know him a little better. Bill and his family were great and I hope to spend more time with their family in the future when they are near the area.