Last Day of Summer

It is so sad that summer has come and gone and we barely caught a glimpse of it. It reminds me; however, that it seems that happens with lots of things and that I need to remember to slow down, take it all in, and capture the memories. It has been a long time since I posted. But, with such a big day tomorrow I thought I should catch up so that I am in a good position to relay all of the excitement that is to come this year.

I think I left off at Dusty's birthday last year. The girls surprised him by having me wrap them up in a big box and give them to Dusty for his birthday. It was really cute.

The school year was great. Naomi did well in her class, was well liked, and overall had a good time. She went Monday, Wednesday, and every other Friday. On Tuesdays when Naomi was home we went to Community Bible Study, and on Thursdays we had our science class at Jay Cooke State Park.

Freja was home schooled again this year and did very well. She did two year's worth of math and read up a storm. We did unit studies based on children's books and we learned a lot about other cultures and geography. At the end of the year we had to give her a standardized test, and she tested between mid-4th grade and mid-5th grade on all subjects.

As for extra-curricular activities (ie. socialization) we had plenty. The girls both took piano lessons and did very well in their recital. They also took ballet from a very accomplished ballerina who opened a studio in town. Of course they were in AWANA's again this year. Freja graduated to the next level after memorizing 462 scripture verses over the past 2 years.

This summer we tried to take it easier than we have in the past. We had Freja's "Girls Club" every other Wednesday, and the girls went horseback riding just a couple of times. If it was a nice day we would try to get down to the beach. All three of us love it down there. The rest of the summer was preoccupied with all the wonderful things associated with having a baby in the house. The girls have been so much help with him it is unbelievable.

So, that is the year in a nut shell. Today, the last day of summer, we went down to the beach, and then over to Dennis and Kathy' s for dinner. It was a nice ending to the summer...if it has to end. The girls are all bathed and tucked in, they have their new backpacks, and their pretty outfits picked out. Naomi is fine, but Freja is a bit nervous. Fortunately, the principle allowed Freja to be placed in her best friends room. This was such a blessing as I can't imagine how nervous she would be if she didn't know anyone. They'll be fine. Me, I am sad. I do everything with those girls and even though they bicker and are loud and annoying sometimes, I am going to be really lonely without them here. I have plenty to keep me busy, but I sure am going to miss my girlies:(

Merry Christmas

Make a Smilebox greeting

Fall fun

A couple of weekends ago the Johnson's gathered at Como Park in St. Paul a little earlier than usual for the Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome. We have been getting together annually for the event to support and encourage our niece Abby and her parents Brenda and Jeff. It is always a fun day and a great chance to get together and accomplish something good.

It was a beautiful day, and after the walk we all went to the Como Zoo, the carousel, and the conservatory. That zoo has changed so much over the past few years but there are certain things that remind me of the times that my parents would take me there when I was very little. The oragutans are so cute, and I still remember Ginger the first como orangutan and many other things. It was one of my favorite places to visit and still is!

We came back and had a great week of school. Naomi is getting more comfortable and actually brought something for show and tell this week. Freja and and I started a new unit the Rag Coat and had a lot of fun with it.

The girls had their second to last horseback riding lesson. Freja got to go without a guide this time and she did really well getting Stormy through her cones. Naomi trotted for the first time. Last Saturday we went to the Art Institute for the free family art day, then to a birthday party for Cort's daughter Hattie, and finally to the Lester River Rondevue. Those things always sound like a good idea, but really they sort of freak me out. Those people, full grown adults, who get together and play cowboys and indians are really strange! Some people are afraid of clowns. I have decided I don't like rondevuers. Freaky.

This week we had a lighter week than usual as I was getting ready for a garage sale. Freja did help a lot though with pricing and she ran the table for me on Friday collecting all the money and giving change. Today Kathy took the girls to breakfast and to the Home Depot project day while I had the final day of the sale. Glad that is done.

Dusty has been down in Albert Lea since Wed. working on the Extreme Home Makeover house. He sounds like he has been having a great time. We all can't wait to see him tomorrow though. We have a surprise for him so I'll write again after tomorrow.

Hawk pictures and more!

Here are the pictures of our hawking experience...

Pretty cool, huh!

The rest of the week was good too, but this was the highlight.

Wednesday Freja had her 2nd "real" piano lesson. She had been taking pretty informal lessons from our neighbor girl for a year or so. At least on the weeks it happened to be convenient for all the parties involved. But, the girl moved away and that ended awhile ago. Last year about this time I "won" a silent auction bid for piano lessons at a music academy but I was saving them until Freja was a bit older so that she would benefit the most from them. I think it paid off because she is doing very well despite not having anything to practice on.

Last week we had a guy out to tune our piano that we got off of freecycle a couple of years ago, and he basically told us it wasn't worth paying him to do that. The piano was a piece of junk. So we unloaded it on Freecycle to some other sucker at the beginning of the week. Today we went to Music-Go-Round and picked up a 1980's electronic piano for a song (ha ha!)! Freja has been practicing now this week but she doesn't want to play the songs in the book, she wants to play her own songs that she is making up. Hmmm...that's a tough one, let her explore the music and come up with her own songs, or sit there and force her to play Row, Row, Row, Your Boat. Well, I told her if she wanted to play her own songs that was fine, but first she would have to figure out how to write them down. Until she can do that she will have to use her practice time for the songs her teacher told her to practice and save the creative playing for her free time. She pouted a bit until I told her that if she didn't want to do what the teacher said I would let Naomi take the classes instead. Wow, she played every song on the list in about 10 minutes.

Friday Freja and I finished up a great week of school. We had been studying France this week. Freja loves France because it is the home of all things Fancy (at least that what she learned from Fancy Nancy). Friday afternoon after we had finished we went to help out in Naomi's classroom. It was fun to see what Naomi is up to! She has made lots of friends and really didn't pay much attention to Freja and I at all. She just went about her business and had a grand old time painting. We also took a mini-field trip to the outdoor classroom where they ate their snack and observed the changing fall colors. We helped with the projects, and the distribution of snacks. Freja can be so bossy with her sister, but she was very patient, kind, and helpful with all the kids.

Today we met up with our friend Kathy at the Chester Bowl Fall Festival. We had a great time browsing the vendors booths, eating blooming onions, cheese curds, and carmel apples. The girls especially loved the pony ride and face painting. Afterward the girls went to Dennis and Kathy's for the afternoon while Dusty and I went and looked at some of his job sites and just hung out together. Afterward we went back over to their house and had pizza and a grand old time just chit chatting. We probably stayed about 1/2 an hour too long because by the end of the night the girls had gotten their second wind and were bouncing off the walls. We bounced them out the door and home into bed just in time to avoid the up-to-late melt downs.

Homeschooling Fun!

Wed. AM we spent the morning trying to come up with creative ways to get Naomi's first tooth out of her head. She wouldn't go for any of them and wanted to do it herself. She worked it and worked it and finally out it came. Naomi did get a visit from the tooth fairy and received a 1oz Troy silver dollar (Freja knows better than to spill the beans). My Grandpa had given me some and I wanted to do something special with them so the girls each got one for their first tooth and it went directly into the safe deposit box so they wouldn't loose them.

Thursday we took a trip down to the cities with some other homeschooling friends to the Dodge Nature Center. We took two classes...Meet the Milk Makers, and Bee Ecology. They were excellent. The girls got to see lots of farm animals, make butter, and milk a fake cow. On the bee class we got to see a bee keeper collect honey from a hive and then we got to sample the honey comb. YUMMY!

After our classes we headed over to Mom and Dads to see them, Amber and Ronan, and Grandma was there too. We visited for awhile before we went back to our hotel for the night.

The next morning the girls, Amber, Ronan and I went to the Minnesota Zoo for the day. That was lots of fun and we saw a lot of animals that the girls had never even heard of before. The highlight of the day though was actually the "Farm" where we got a continuation of our lesson from the nature center. We actually got to see a cow being milked with modern equipment, and the girls got to hand milk a goat! After the zoo we went to my Aunt Judy's for a great dinner and then back to the hotel.

We came back on Sat. night and had a pretty uneventful rest of the weekend. Bubbles (who is doing great) got her new kennel. I also learned a new trick from Shila on how to make a dog puke it's guts out, along with whatever foreign body she may have swallowed, which worked quite effectively on the most recent of Dusty's tube socks. Between the two hopefully this will be the end of her ER visits.

Monday was a pretty typical school day, but today we had our first day of Community Bible Study which is a very well established and organized international organization. The girls were very excited as they have an excellent kids program. I was very excited because it is nice to be around other grown ups.

Afterward, we were on our way home when we unintentionally found ourselves at Hawk Ridge, which I have since learned is the 3rd biggest hawk migratory station in the world. We didn't realize that today was actually one of the best days to see migratory birds and it was a gorgeos day so it was just abuzz in activity. There were naturalists on hand teaching about all the different kinds of hawks. We ended up adopting a Sharp Shinned Hawk which I got to hold and release after it was banded. They brought out several other kinds of hawks to be released and they were so impressed by Freja's answers to their questions about hawks that they invited us to the "catch station" (a rare treat) so that she could have her own adopted hawk to release. She had been skittish about them earlier so I didn't know if she would chicken out or not, but she did great. She held her bird for about 5 minutes before releasing it for it's long flight to Central America. We will get a profile on it and every time it shows up at a station we will get an update as to it's travels.

This is one of the days that I am so happy I homeschool. It actually was our science day, but on one of the last beautiful days of summer we quite accidentally took our lessons outdoors and learned more about raptures, migration, thermals, aerodynamics, and conservation in a much more real-life, hands on way than would be possible at home or in school.

First Day of School!

It was the best of times....It was the worst of times.

Naomi was soooo excited to start Kindergarten, and Freja was so excited for Naomi to start Kindergarten:) They were both up at the crack of dawn and had their chores done before I asked. Naomi was dressed with her headband on by 7:00 AM. So the first day was going well. We got their brand spanking new chore chart checked off, ate breakfast, brushed teeth, did our devotional and they even had time to play a little bit, before it was time for Naomi to hop on the bus. I had offered to take her, but we had been to her class the day before for the open house. She knew that a good friend of hers was in her class and she insisted that she would take the bus.

So at 8:45 we all went to the driveway next door and anxiously waited. When the bus arrived there was a split second hesitation before Naomi started walking. We got across the street and she let go of my hand and wasn't even going to look back but I grabbed her and gave her a kiss and a hug which she rushed through and off she went.

I only cried a little bit, but the cars that were stopped waiting for the bus to load were really supportive. One guy gave me the thumbs up and the lady behind him clapped which made me laugh. So, Dusty went back to work and Freja and I went inside. Freja had burned through her 4th grade reading lesson and was letting Bubbles out while I quickly checked my email when I heard her scream. I ran outside just in time to hear the THUNK. Bubbles had been hit by a truck.

It was awful. Freja was screaming this gut-wrenching cry. Bubbles was lying motionless making this awful sound. The poor guy who hit her came up and apologized and I just told him to help me get her in the van. We got her in without moving her too much while Freja went and found my keys. Our office worker had called Dusty and he came home and we were off in about 10 minutes after the accident. Unfortunately, poor Freja thought the whole thing was her fault. We explained over and over that it wasn't but she felt awful.

It was touch and go for Bubbles. She didn't have any broken bones but she had internal bleeding and a collapsed lung. There wasn't anything we could do so Freja and I went home and tried to keep our minds on school. We actually had a very good school day. I think both of us were just trying to stay focused on our work rather than Bubbles.

Freja begged me not to tell Nomi. She missed Naomi and wanted to play with her and didn't want her to be crying. I told her that I wasn't going to lie to her but I'd try to downplay it. We went and picked up Naomi and she had an awesome day. She was so excited. She kept saying she loved it. When we got home she asked where Bubbles was and we just said at the vet. She didn't ask any more questions so we didn't tell her until it was time to go get her and move her to the ER Animal Hospital for the night ($$) at that point it was looking optimistic for Bubbles.

That night Freja and I were talking about why bad things happen, and that He turns all things to good. With incredible insight that is way beyond her years she says "I have been having a hard time believing everything, and because of this I have been praying really hard and God showed me that He is there and is listening".

We have continued to pray and Bubbles has continued to make a miraculous recovery.

The girls have had a great week of school and both are growing and thriving so much. Naomi has loved school and all the kids and it is so good for her to have her own thing, but she's been melting down in the evenings. She has such big days and has to be so reserved all day long so she comes home and is so excited to be home that she just uncorks, but I'm sure that will pass. Freja and I have been having a great time together doing her work. She really needs this one on one time and has had a major attitude change for the better just this week alone. The curriculum we are using is like it was made for her, and she even loves even the math program we chose.

Freja and I have even been going out to the trampoline for recess and doing a mini gymnastics lesson. She loves that. Earlier this week, I won the cool mommy of the year award when she had a friend over and I gave them both a basic lesson AND a demo in back to front tucks and full twisting layouts. Yes, I can still do them, although I now know that the reason there aren't more 30+ gymnasts is simply that the leotards just wouldn't look as good over the Depends it would require. I was a little sore the next morning, but the look of pride and the wink that I got from her when her friend was clapping was so worth it.

Freja and I have been studying China this week so the end of the week we had a China Party. They helped me make Chinese stirfry and eggrolls and we ate them on the floor sitting on floor cushions just like the Chinese. To top it all of we had fortune cookies and watched Mulan. Having a "party" is a great way to get kids to eat lots of weird new vegetables!

Labor Day Weekend

This year we actually took a three day weekend and went camping at Moose Lake State Park. Another park checked off the list in our quest to stay at every state park in Minnesota over the next few years. This effort has been made much more possible and enjoyable given the generous gift of an old pop-up camper by some good friends of ours.

Moose Lake is a nice park. It has a nice swimming beach, fishing pier, it is a pretty small campground so although the sites are not huge, it was very nice and quiet (till we got there, that is). When we arrived the site directly accross from us was still available. We had been talking to some friends about them coming with and they had decided not to, but we gave them a call and they mobilized right quick and came on down.

We had a very nice time. The girls played with their friends Ashley and Isaac non-stop. We visited the beach twice, went fishing (0), hiked all the parks trails, and even went on an adventure to the soo line pitts. We went to look for agates, but all we found was mica, and quarts crystals. It was entertaining though to watch the extreme four-wheelers that were riding down there.

It was nice and relaxing, Dusty's phone was off all weekend so no labor was happening and a good time was had by all.