First day of school 2013

This is a unique year for me, one that won't happen again. I have 3 kids kids graduated from their schools this year! Matt graduates high school. Aj graduate middle school and Elle graduates from elementary school! I think May is going to be fairly busy! Matt is trying to graduate in December so we will see! He is ready to be off seeing the world and being his own man.

Matt my colorful senior!

Connor my sophomore!

Aj 8th grade! Ready for high school next year!

Elle 5th grade, ready for middle school next year

Our cat Bones

Elle found this stray cat in the neighborhood maybe a few months ago. It is a beautiful cat and amazingingly well behaved. Kirk helped her build it a house and she got it a food bowl and food. He came by twice a day and meowed loudly until we fed it. He tried coming in the house once or twice but because Kirk is allergic we couldn't let him stay.  Unfortunately there is a large red stray cat that is a total bully, he kept chasing Bones, our cat, out of our yard. At night a few times I heard them fighting in the woods. Well a week ago a neighbor sent out a email to the neighborhood asking if Bones belonged to anyone because they wanted to bring him inside their house and keep him. I informed her that we were taking care of her and she was my daughters. She said thats fine they would just go to the pound. Then it occurred to me, that we were being selfish. If this cat could find a home where he didn't have to be terrorized by a bully cat and sit outside in the rain and possible snow, it's like wining the lottery and we couldn't block his good luck.
So their family brought him in and she is adjusting really well. When I told Elle she cried so hard and  felt terrrible. She understood that it was a good chance for Bones, but that doesn't make it easier. The family let us come visit her yesterday and Elle got to see how well she is doing and they asked Elle to come take care of her in November when they are out of town. It was funny to go visit a cat. But really sweet of them to let us.

Peachtree Road Race

Heres a nice post. My mom and Aj and I got to run in the Peachtree Road Race on July 4! Its the biggest 10k in the world, I think around 65,000 people run it and so many people apply you are chosen out of  a lottery. Aj wasn't really trained for running that far so it was awesome when he did it! About mile 4 we realized he thought he was running 10 miles not 10k and he was very happy to hear that! Poor kid! It rained and rained the day before and after we were done but luckily it didn't while we were running. The race ends in a giant park that was a huge mud pit, we sloshed everywhere!
All in all it was amazingly fun to run with my mom and son!

Delayed Posts

It's interesting. I've used this blog to share funny stories, sad stories, updates on our life. I tell the embarrassing stories and whats hard if I can make it sound funny. But this summer wasn't my best summer. Most of it I can't quite make funny yet. We are all still here, alive and well. But I'm not sure what and how to share yet. I've also learned that by sharing I meet others who share similar stories that I didn't know about and that helps. So give me a little more time and I'll be back to blogging our adventures.

Climbing

 This is Allenbrook in Roswell. A fun small historic area, I guess the house here was built in 1850 and the owner also built the cloth factory 1/2 mile down that was burnt down in the civil war. I couldn't have lived here with young kids, the beautiful green all over the ground is poison ivy and this cliff is in their back yard. It wasn't a perfect climbing day, it had drizzled that morning so the rock and leaves were a little wet and we called Porter to come along but he had a friend visiting and the friend made it a little difficult. At one point he slipped trying to go to the bottom and slid about 6 feet and barely caught himself before falling 10 feet. I was above him and couldn't even cry out it scared me so bad. My kids who are part goat basically skipped down the same area.

 The is AJ and Elle down below the cliff, this area is really only for rappeling. Which we didn't get to.

 Kirk tying up the ropes. He drove there with his helmet on which got him some awesome looks.

 This is where our friend almost fell off. I made him sit there until kirk could come help.

 Elle climbs like a boss! Her size, flexibility and fearlessness is perfect. Maybe her next team sport should be the climbing team, the heck with dance! :)

 Aj was the only one who could do the level 10 (?) cliff face, his amazing arm and core strength cannot be beat. Add in his total desire to be the best and not fail... so fun to watch.

 My first time belaying. I know I don't need my hand on the rope since it's attached to me waist but hello, thats my baby on a cliff.

Kirk got to repel down once, all his hard work. He's so great.

I didn't get any great pictures of me, mostly because AJ was taking the pictures and that kid can't hold still to save his life. But at least I got a few that show me on a cliff, I have to admit, I am a natural. If I only had AJ's upper body strength. Which only requires 10 hours of gym time a week :)

Mothers Day

Hmmmm mothers day. Well. I had a wonderful 10 mile run on Saturday morning. Then I got to go climbing with Kirk, AJ and Elle. That was really fun actually, except we took our nephew and his friend and his friend was a little difficult. He was a little too big for all our harnesses.
Sunday morning  Kirk brought me breakfast in bed, which was a doughnut :) And a giant balloon, because what 39 year old mom doesn't want a giant balloon attached to a grocery store calla lily. lol. i'm not being picky I swear it was funny.  Two of my kids left early from church, I made lasagna for the Johnston family dinner. I didn't want lasagna but I couldn't think of anything else to make. I also made a pesto for dipping and that was delicious. Following a delicious dessert made by my fabulous sister my oldest had a complete melt down, always worth witnessing... not. All in all a fun day.
Wait and Elle choreographed a beautiful dance for me complete with a small box of chocolate kisses. And I made myself a lovely corsage from my garden, the rose smelled so beautiful!

Becky's baby Shower

 Well I'm a little slow I admit, it took me a few months to realize it was my privilege to host Beckys baby shower. I have never been very good at hosting parties, not very many people show up to mine, and I didn't want to let anyone down. But with some very excellent food donations and inspiration from a couple of Pins on pinterest, I think it turned out ok. I think we invited about 28 women, mostly from Bex ward and a few friends from other wards and some friends of mine that we've gotten to run with. We had 18 women come besides Bex and I and I consider that to be pretty amazing! Especially for a Saturday midmorning in the middle of a record breaking rainstorm! I went with the dinosaur theme since thats the fabric they choose for the quilt mom made. I put a tiny little bit of pressure on Mom to finish the quilt in only 2 days so she could ship it to me and surprise Bex at the baby shower!!

 These are my pathetic looking trees, I couldn't find the right paper lol. But I loved the rawr sign. and Kristen gave Bex the totally cute pj's with the dinosaur that I could hang up!

 I set up 3 sides of my very old crib to hold all the gifts and you can see moms quilt hanging on the right side.

 Ok nobody drank the punch, but it was very pretty and totally matched the blue and green theme. I put a nest  found underneath with my version of a dinosaur egg. (dont' worry there weren't any bugs in it)

 One of my favorite ideas, you scoop out the top of apples and put a green mum in the top! My friend made the table runners for her sons baptism and let me borrow ;)

 Mostly Bex got the cutest clothes ever, a few diaper packs and some clever blankets made by crafty friends.

OK so I totally hate this picture of me, I was so stressed trying to get everything ready I didn't do my hair and I was sure no one would notice! But its a adorable picture of BEx so I will sacrifice and put it up!!

 Yeah for amazing quilts from Mom!!

 I forgot to get a picture of the whole spread, but it was delish :)

Gee did I not get in the group picture?? Lol neither did our friend Celeste.