New Addition

O.K. yesterday when we came home from Phoenix, we brought back a new addition--- An African Tortouse!!! Her name is Dot, because she is as big as a dot (ha!Ha!) and because dot leaves dot spots on the ground. She is so calm and loves the kids already, except I think they fed her too much today which my sister thought was impossible to do because she will just keep eating. So the scoop on Dot (previously referred to as Terrance until it was determined that "he" was actually a "she" and we renamed her on the way home from Phoenix). Well, Dot is my sister Becky and her husband's tortouse and since they have a small backyard for a year or so while they live with Jeff's parents, Dot has come to hang out with the Johnson's up here in Bagdad. She even has a dog tag drilled into her shell in case she decides to wander off in a slow fashion. She really is a delight and today she traveled all around our backyard all day long, seeking out new shade spots and following the kids around to see what they were doing. Quite an easy pet really and we are excited to have her here. We may even be inheriting her brother next week or so, but that is still in the works. But in the meantime, we love our little Dot.

I KNOW I can fly!!!

Do you remember when you were a kid thinking that if you just ran hard enough and got the right jumping speed that you could actually fly??? O.K. maybe that was just me, but it sure runs in the family because the kids yesterday strapped a child-sized tent to thier backs as wings and swore they could really fly!!! And maybe they can, we will let the pictures do all the talking and you can be the judge. Consequently, this mornging I woke up to see two rows of gardening tape stretched from one end of the backyard to another and Lund explained that he needed a runway!! Creative kids!!! They had lots of comments to each other like, "Maybe if I just put some more weight on this end." or "Hey go get me some cardboard, I have an idea that I know will work" and "Did you see how much air I got that time??!!!"

You got to love kids and their creativity/imagination!!

The Results Are In.....

Well, the 2008 Poop-A-Thon finally ended tonight at 10:38pm, much to my dismay. I was really enjoying not changing diapers!!! But we had fun times and stinky times too, but they were all times!!! (I am not quite sure what that means, it is after midnight)...
So, without further ado, here are the results....
Will had 11 poopy diapers this week and 20 wet diapers for a grand total of 31 diapers from Monday until bedtime on Friday. I had NO IDEA that he went through that many diapers in a weeks time or that he poops that often. It was surely an eye-opening experience, especially because the kids only changed him when they "Had to" so I know that they weren't wasting any diapers just for fun!!! Just for those people who are particular about details, I am including what time and who changed each diaper, just for fun....
Monday
9:20am Wet diaper changed by Cassidy
11:05am poopy diaper changed by Lund
12:53pm wet diaper changed by Cassidy
3:21pm wet diaper changed by Lund
5:43pm poopy diaper changed by Cassidy
8:10pm wet diaper changed by Lund

Tuesday
8:20am wet diaper changed by Cassidy
9:41am poopy diaper changed by Lund
10:20am poopy diaper changed by Cassidy
3:32pm wet diaper changed by Lund
5:11pm wet diaper changed by Cassidy
7:18pm wet diaper changed by Lund
9:01pm poopy diaper changed by Cassidy

Wednesday
6:30am wet diaper changed by Lund
8:32am wet daiper changed by Cassidy
10:43am wet diaper changed by Lund
12:30pm poopy diaper changed by Lund
4:20pm wet diaper changed by Lund
7:42pm wet diaper changed by Cassidy
9:31pm poopy diaper changed by Cassidy

Thursday
5:39am wet diaper changed by Lund
10:43 am wet diaper changed by Cassidy
1:11pm poopy diaper changed by Lund
(They decided to play with friends, thus losing fundraising profits for, like five hours)
8:07pm poopy diaper changed by Cassidy
9:22pm wet diaper changed by Lund

Friday
10:44am wet diaper changed by Lund
12:56pm wet diaper changed by Cassidy
1:26pm poopy diaper changed by Lund
4:02pm wet diaper changed by Cassidy
6:26pm poopy diaper changed by Lund
10:38pm wet diaper changed by Lund

Wow, that is way more information than any of you EVER needed, but I wouldn't want you to think we were faking it or something. Plus, this has got to be good research data for something.....just not quite sure what......

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts and diapers for donating or simply laughing about the 2008 Poop-A-Thon!!! Three cheers for Cassidy and Lund!!!

P.S. Cassidy thinks maybe next time we could do a walk-a-thon or read-a-thon, anything BUT a poop-a-thon!!!!!

2008 Poop-A-Thon

Hi, this is Cassidy and Lund Johnson. We are going to California with our mom and we want to see some fun stuff like Sea World and the beach. But, child labor laws say that we are too young to work, so mom had a great idea.....We are going to have a Poop-A-Thon!!!!

What is a poop-a-thon? It is our mom's crazy creation and she is pretty excited about it. (she is a bit crazy!!)

Here's the rules: From Monday July 21 until Friday July 25th Cassidy and Lund will change ALL of Will's diapers in the Johnson household. Just so you don't think that we will cheat, we will wait 2 hours between daiper changes unless he is stinky!! (Plus, mom says that wasting diapers is never a good idea).

Here is how it works: We will keep a charg of how many diapers we change from Monday morning until bedtime on Friday (he averages 4-6 diapers a day). You get to donate per diaper just like a walk-a-thon. At the end of the week, we will let you know how many diapers were changed by Cassidy and Lund and that is how much money you donate to our wonderful cause of discovering California. Mom calls this a "win-win situation" cause she gets a week off of diaper changing too!!

So, without further ado, we give you the 2008 Poop-a-thon...

Meet the "workers": Here are the willing workers, Cassidy 9-years-old, and Lund 8-years-old...

Here is our willing brother (His name just happens to be "Will"! Coinscidence or destiny,.... you decide)....

And here is our crazy mom....

p.s. no 2-year-olds will get hurt in the 2008 poop-a-thon as long as they hold completely still while they are getting changed!!!!!

Braces, Braces, Braces.....

I have been meaning to add pictures of Cassidy lately because she got braces on about a month ago and she is a new woman!!! I feel like she grew up overnight or something. She is handling them like a Champion, much better than I would have done at age 9. She enjoys getting the rubberband colors changed at each appointment. She is definitely a cutie!!!!

The "Young and the Restless" Project..

I am in charge of an Enrichment Group in the Bagdad Ward. I named it the "Young and the Restless" because it is mostly geared towards mothers with kids or grandmothers with kids. We hold our activities during the day at the church and the kids kind of just run amuck. But we do have fun. Yesterday the project I did was making signs for our homes. I am sending a few pictures of the end result. Cute job ladies!!!

My quirky son!!!

Will loves to wear "neckwaces" and so here are a few pictures of Will with his sisters help. I think maybe they wanted a new doll instead of a baby brother. Poor guy!!! But he just loves it!!!

Four Things Tag

Four random things I like about my husband:
1. He is a really hard worker
2. He never brings work frustrations home with him
3. He is an AWESOME cook
4. He is stinkin' smart and stinkin' cute (I snuck an extra one in)

Four jobs I have had:
1. Medical Transcriptionist
2. Coach
3. Site Supervisor in charge of coaches
4. JC Penny's Photographer

Four movies I have watched more than once:
(I hope this means, "Four movies that I have seen INTENTIONALLY, because I have unintentionally seen every Disney movie about a gagillion times)
1. Bend it Like Beckham
2. Tomb Raider
3. National Treasure
4. Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail

Four places I have lived:
1. Mesa, AZ
2. Rexburg, ID
3. Flagstaff, AZ
4. Boise, ID

Four TV shows I watch:
1.
2. Office (via Netflix)
3. ..... we don't have any Satellite TV and love it.....
4.

Four places I have been:
1. California
2. Mexico
3. Utah
4. Idaho

Four people who e-mail me regularly:
1. In-laws on mission
2. Wells Fargo
3. Oriental Trading
4. LDS living

Four of my favorite foods:
1. chocolate chip cookies
2. brownies
3. Honey Nut Cheerios
4. Morgan's BBQ food (Any kind)

Four places I would like to visit:
1. church history sites
2. Scottland
3. Really, anywhere would be nice... I would love to travel
4.

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. My in-laws coming home from their mission in Jan'09
2. My 11th Wedding anniversary
3.
4.

Four People I tag:
1. Kayla Newman
2. Erin Guymon
3. Lauree Strong
4. My in-laws, Elder and Sister Frozen in North Dakota

Family Garden

By the way, this is Morgan. I am getting sucked into the blogosphere against my better judgement, but oh well, you only live once.

The family garden is doing well. At the request of my parents, Elder and Sister Johnson, I am posting a couple of pictures of our garden. The first is just after we planted, and the second is from yesterday. The second one was taken from our roof top for a better overall effect. Everyone in town is complaining that thier tomatoes are not doing well this year, and ours are no exception. My great hopes for this years garden lie with our watermelons. You can see a few in the picture if you squint just right. There are about 20 melons set, but they have a way to go before they are ready to harvest. I am pampering them more than I probably should, but I make a point of involving the kids in the process, so that makes it okay, right?

I hope you are all doing well, and I will close with a garden-related quote from Presiden Kimball that was shared in ward council meeting today "One must live, not only exist; he must do, not merely be; he must grow, not just vegetate."

Lizard got your tongue, I mean ear

At our Ward Corn Boil on Friday night, some kids in the ward found a big lizard and then it got loose in the church. Well, the 1st Counselor, Jim Mentzer picked it up and it ended up biting his ear. Before he pulled it off we got this picture. His ear actually bled from the cut. Ouch! The lizard also bit Will and another kid in the ward too. Fun times!!!!

One of these things is not like the other...

I was just wondering if you can find which plant is a little different from the others.... Maybe the Morgonia.... Maybe ....

Just Sarah...

After church on Sunday I told Sarah that I wanted to take her picture, so these are just pictures of Sarah being Sarah.... goofy and loving animals as always. She also cracks me up because she picked this necklace out and she wears it everywhere, even if she just has her underwear on. What a goofball!!! We love you Sarah!

4th of July

We had a magnificient 4th this year!!!! We had Buck and Raychelle Shumway up here making their usual trip around Arizona together. We love when they stop in Bagdad and this trip was fun! Here was our 4th of July schedule..... Morgan and Buck got up early and did a two hour hike even before the rest of us woke up. Way to go boys!!! Then, we all went down to Main Street and watched the Bagdad parade which consisted of lots of horses, a few local churches trying to get kids to commit to come to their Vacation Bible School and of course the Volunteer Fire Department who had a total of 10 different vehicles and quads, etc all blaring loud. They sprayed everyone with water and it was fun, but Will didn't like the noise. The kids loved running out in the street and grabbing the candy that was thrown. Will finally caught on towards the end that everyone was throwing candy and then we couldn't get him out of the street. It was fun!!! Then we were off to the Community Center for a free day of fun. They had a rock climbing wall, jumping things, laser tag and more jumping things. The pool was open and the Fire Department put on a free lunch of shredded BBQ beef sandwiches, cole slaw, and beans and drinks and it was so yummy. We were then exhausted so we drove home, only to stop and buy 25 cent snow cones. Then we went home and rested. I conked out for a couple of hours and I think the other grown ups did as well.

That evening we had a wonderful BBQ here at the house with Buck and Raychelle and we invited Karen and Thor over as well. It was Morgan's El Pollo Loco chicken and it was AWESOME! We then made homemade indoor s'mores and got out Morgan's fireworks and did sparklers and other such non-violent fireworks. Of course the boys did have to let off one or two very noisy ones as well.

All in All, it was a wonderful holiday and a great memory in my mind...

Need I say more???!!!!

This is what happens when Morgan goes on business trips and I am not there to keep him in line!!!! Gotta love it!!!

Swim Lessons

Sarah and Cassidy and Lund have been taking swim lessons from the local Community Center. They offer it as a free summer service. They are really big on "Free Community Stuff" lately and it is WONDERFUL!!!!! I had the camera at the pool on a day when only Sarah was in the pool for her lessons. Cassidy and Lund had their classes on different days and so they were all home with the babysitter so that this time in the water could be speical for Sarah and I. I am also including some pictures of her friends that took swimming lessons with her because they are such cutie pies!! We love friends!!!

more pictures from Baptism/BBQ

Here are some more memorable moments from last week. We are enjoying Morgan being off of work for a week. Tomorrow we will head to Prescott and see Wall-E or however you spell it. The kids are really excited!!