Food glorious food

So I will here publicly admit I've gained a couple of pounds over the last week or so. I'm not happy about it, at all. It puts me at a weight i haven't been in awhile and most of my pants don't fit. I started running again maybe 2 weeks ago after a 6 month break so that annoys me even more. Anyway so I ran my 5 miles today, hating every step because I'm so much slower than I was and running hurts again. Then I was very careful to eat healthy all day. Which was actually very hard to do. I have had a horrible headache that radiates up behind one ear and throbs when I try to lay down for about 6 days now. So I eat to feel better, it doesn't work but I enjoy eating so I guess that explains the weight gain. Anyway so I'm dealing with a throbbing headache resisting the easter candy and I absolutely refused to give in and have a pepsi... which lasted for 1 hour after having Matt in my car after school. Then I happily ordered a drink like it would cure the worlds problems. Maybe I should just buy the bigger pants.
BTW he actually stomped his foot at me today, I'm telling you it's amazing. It's like he's 2 again.

Wahoo!

So I had this idea when I took the kids picture, and now here it is compete with kids signature and the date on my wall! I had a tough time finding a frame I loved, but this one has little circles around the edge which ties in with some symbols we were pointing out to the kids in the temple design. I'm sure I am the only one who will look into it that deeply, but it makes me happy. (According to the book I have it says that the circles in the squares represent heaven on earth.) Luckily for me I have a friend with a cricket so all I had to do was buy the vinyl and she printed it out for me so I could have it up! I was a bit in a hurry, I wanted it up now now NOW!! I looked everywhere for the right quote. I saw amazing ones about families and eternity, but we have some of those, I wanted this to be the place for the kids to remember they have made their goal to go back to the temple. And it is for me to walk by when I am having a tough day and remember the incredible feeling I had while standing in that sacred room with my kids.

Atlanta temple openhouse

Our temple is being dedicated after almost 2 years of renovation and we are thrilled! I had the wonderful opportunity of being a tour guide for 2 days last week and loved it. We took the kids with Kirks ENTIRE family who live in Georgia last Wed night at 7:30 and as I predicted it was crowded and the kids only really noticed their cousins. Also the temple guide, who tried in her own way, read the cards monotone, which is a gift really, we were in a group of 30 not all Johnston's, babies of the other family were crying/screaming and then their parents allowed them to jump on the cushions in the sealing room. Needless to say it was not what I was hoping for. So this morning I took them late to school and went down again. They sent us through with just me and the kids, the guide still read the card, Maybe our stake was ambitious but we were told to memorize not just look at the card, but he was very sweet. The kids were better able to absorb the incredible artwork and detail our wonderful church puts in our temples. When I stood in the sealing room and looked in the mirror with my 4 kids and thought back to when it was just me and Kirk, I could hardly speak. I had the chance to tell them a short testimony and told them I hoped they remembered being in there together because it will be a long time before we are all in the sealing room together again. I guess all I can do is keep my vision of that moment and do my best to remind them that that is where they want to be.
If anyone who hasn't been or has gone in the evening or weekend, try it again on a morning this week. We can never go enough times right! I hope I can keep the spirit that I felt there and feel now with me for a long time! I ran to Costco and printed out a great picture of the kids on the grass as a 11/14 and I am going to have them sign it on the grass part tonight as part of our setting goals to return to the temple, then frame it on our wall so they can see their signature on the goal. I guess anything little thing that can make a difference!

Aj and the seagulls

Aj and Connor were baiting seagulls by having AJ lay under a towel and they saved their french fries from lunch and put them all over Aj. As you can see it attracted a lot of seagulls and people.

Spring Break Pictures

The ONLY picture of me, but it's ok
Connor and Kirk with their sting rays, this is the only picture the boys took with Kirk in it, clearly he was unimportant for the shot :)

AJ with his sting ray
Looking out our hotel room, you can see the Island in the back ground, look after the pool, ocean, island
Rented some really cool beach bikes on the beach
Boys in their Kayak, we only took one and that was enough to deal with!
A very nice wanna be grandma stopped by to help Elle buid this sand castle. Was she trying to make me feel guilty for sitting there in the chair? I just spent 5 hours in the car with the kids, I WANT TO SIT IN MY CHAIR!! But it is a cute castle! (do you see Kirk fishing in the background?) Lol

Spring break (pictures forthcoming)

We had a really fun last minute trip down to St Simons Georgia. Sounds more exotic then it actually is. It's one of Kirks favorite places togo because he sits there and fishes in the surf the whole day, and it's only about 4.5 hours away. My favorite is Panama City FL which is more like 6. I've gotten a promise we will go to FL next year.
ANyway we had a lot of fun this year. It was actually in the upper 80's so the water felt great. The first day we couldn't really swim because there were tons of jelly fish in the water. But by the next day they were either dead on the beach or gone. About 1/4 mile off the beach at low tide a Island appears for about a hour or so, which we love to go out to. Matt and Connor were in the Kayak out over the area waiting for the water to be shallow enough they could stand on it when a pod of dolphins came by. I pointed them out to Kirk and we were hoping they saw them. Even better than that, the dolphins played around the boat followed along side when they paddled, allowed the boys to pet them. A speed boat came along and scared them off but once it left the dolphins came back and then the boys followed them quite a distance out to sea. their arms were so sore byt he time they came back. It was funny to hear their reaction, they said at first they screamed and thought it was sharks :) then they would pet them but only the parts out of the water so they wouldn't get bit under the water. So hilarious. That right there was worth the whole trip. For Kirks 40th bday I bought him a day fishing trip on a boat which he has wanted to do for 8 years here but never wanted to spend the money. I thought the should go alone but he was super nice and took the two boys who wanted to go, Connor and AJ. Unfortunately we now know Connor gets sea sick and barfed twice, the sunblock I bought them instead of protecting them from the sun seemed to magnify it and they are baked. So instead of the "hundreds" of fish they were told they would catch, they caught a few sting rays which they could catch in the calmest part of the water. Poor Kirk!! I'll have to save up money and send him out on his own!!
Next year we will remember to go on a trip the first part of spring break rather than coming home late the night before school resumes. And I will remember to purchase sunblock here at a reasonable price and look for ones with higher Zinc, cause my family is all burnt and tired at school and work today!

Elle's state meet

Well it was our final gymnastics competition this weekend thank goodness! AJ finished his a few weeks ago but Elle had her state meet. I was talking to some of the other moms before and we were talking about other gyms and possibilities and what we think is best and if you have your girls on the USA track as opposed to the AAU track its a higher chance for Olympics and I'm sitting there thinking wow maybe I should be looking into other gyms, but it's so hard because umm I have more than Elle to take places after school. This is gym is a pain because it's 20 minutes away, but both AJ and Elle go there. Most other gyms don't have boys programs. So i'm thinking and giving myself a headache and then our team wins 1st in state... why would I leave? I'm not trying to the Olympics, my kids aren't trying for it. We are in this to have a good time and for them to learn cool things that they love. Granted next year is going to be hard, with Connor rowing 20 minutes the opposite direction from our house that the gym is. Maybe I need to renew my push for Mom to move out here so she can be my Alice... maybe I shouldn't put it that way... might not help my cause! ANyway Elle did great her best overall score of the season she tied for 2nd in vault and was 7th overall, but better than I feared! But hey the kids only been doing this since January! Well she did tumbling for a year which gave her the back handspring which helps alot!