Family photos

I wore pink to match Elle, what a mistake. Color wise it's great but the sweater and my slouch makes me look so bloated in this picture!! I knew I shouldn't sit down, but my vertigo was so bad that day, which also helped cause my total Utah mom hair style!! UGH

Love LOVE this one! Maybe I don't need a family photo just a kid shot??

Love this one

These are from the photographers site, so the quality will be better when we order.

Johnston's run the Atlanta Thanksgiving 5K

This is Matts I hate you picture, but as you can see it can't dim my excitment!! Wahoo!! Thats Turner field behind us.

See how the smiles changed!! Everyone is happy now!

In the summer Kirk, Elle and I sometimes go and run a mile or 2 on the greenway, it's usually when Kirk has time and is trying to work out and then Elle enjoys going with him. So i thought it would be super fun to sign the 3 of us up for a 5k in Atlanta on Thanks giving. I asked Kirk when he was really busy so he vaguely approved it :) then I discovered if I signed up by a certain day, that day, we got our names printed on our race bibs! So that excitement morphed into why not have the whole family run!! I thought we could train together and it would help everyone get out of the house. But with Kirk schedule and the kids crazy schedule the only person who trained was me. But that didn't stop me!! They complained but were ok sports when we went downtown to get the race bibs, but once we got there my 2 oldest hated the expo and ruined it for me. And by the end of the day they were saying there was no way they were getting up in the morning. But I ignored them. However when I woke them up at 6am in the pitch black of the cold morning they tried their best to kill my enthusiasm. But I was too excited to stop! It took a lot of talking and threatening to get my oldest in the car. Kirks version of helping was to say things like, none of us are happy about it but we paid the money so lets go. While in the car Matt then said he wasn't going to get out of the car. I thought well I guess if he sits in the car like a dud thats his loss. But I just couldn't let it go, so again with some yelling and threatening I got him out of the car, it really wasn't THAT cold, it was like 50, thats the kind of temperature that you get warm when you're running in. Finally he got out of the car but refused to put his race bib on, wouldn't get in pictures until I asked a professional and then he stood there grudginly. There were 3000 runner in the 5k, even more in the 1/2 and full marathon so it was pretty crowded. Once I got them in the race corral Kirk began to look pretty nervous and then I saw Matt quietly putting on his bib. We agreed I would stay with Aj and Elle since those 2 are in the best shape and might be fast, but once the race started Matt and Connor took off! Kirk ran a steady 10:30 pace mile and Elle needed to stop for water and then Aj needed to tie his shoes twice, so we lost Kirk. Who continued to run looking for us and we couldn't catch up! Elle kept wanting to walk and I was the meanest mom I said no!!! Lol. Connor meanwhile who skipped dinner and hadn't eaten anything this morning ran really slow poor guy. So Matt came in first for our family at 550 out of 3000 people! Kirk was 2nd, then me , Aj and Elle followed by Connor 5 minutes later. Everyone looked really happy after and I think they had fun. I told them we will be better trained for the Peachtree 10K on July 4!! But all I got was groans. I am a smart mom however and I know how to get on their good sides and we ate waffle house on the way home. Best Thanksgiving Ever.

Memories, all alone in the moonlight

You know kids grow up and think whatever they are going to think about us as parents.  I grew up with really fond memories of my formative years, and I've perhaps chosen to forget somethings :) Some kids grow up remembering only the bad things that they remember and perhaps sometimes it was bad but sometimes the bad memory is flavored by how it felt to the child at the time. For instance Matt is going to grow up thinking I was a terrible insensitive jerk for a mother. I know I am not, but because he pushes so many buttons of mine he gets to see the strict parent side of me more than I would like. Matt who I love with all my heart, is a undiagnosed hypocondriact. Everyday, EVERYDAY, there is something medically wrong with him. His current favorite is that he has IBS. Oh and a growth he has diagnosed by the internet that he is sure he needs to have surgically removed. My favorite is when he comes out of a long trip to the bathroom where he was clearly searching medical sites on his phone while using the facilities and he comes out with another medical problem that i've neglected to have treated on him. So I am just bracing myself for him as an adult, I know he is going to joke at dinner and with his (heaven help her) future wife at what a terrible uncaring mother he had, who never got him medical treatment. When I know this is not the case. I've taken him to Drs to have blood drawn and tested, I taken him to poop in vials and then drive that poop 25 minutes each way to be tested. I've paid a fortune in prescriptions that sometimes has caused WAY more trouble then it was every worth.

Sigh.

We'll see if I leave this post up, it's a little negative.

Language problems

You know I think I understand how the people felt after the fall of the tower of babel, my family and I used to all speak the same language but all of a sudden I think we all speak in different tongues. I actually resorted to sign language last week.

Silver Comet Half Marathon 2012

 Before the race, we all decided we were warm enough without our sweatshirts but I chickened out and put mine back on then everyone did and they they were off and around our waists before mile 2.

After the race with our new cool shirts and medals! we could choose shirts in brown, white or a tan color. It was a really hard choice!!
 Bex when she started training this summer wanted to find a local race. I ran this one last year and suggested it was a perfect first race, it's small and flat and really pretty. Since we were training together we both signed up and then we realized that the Saturday of the race mom was running a 12 mile training run for the race she and I are running this December, so why not come run 13.1 with me and Bex and get a medal for it!! It was so cool to run together! We got a hotel room the night before even though the race was only 45 minutes away mostly because my family does not let me sleep at night! I slept great but Mom and Bex were kept up by a loud domestic dispute at 3 in the morning, sorry guys!

I knew that about 2 miles into the race was the race photographer so I told Bex she had to stay with us at least that far but she was chomping at the bit and left us eating her dust about 1.5.

 Who wouldn't want their picture taken with us two??  Those are my 3 friends behind me, I didn't mean to hog the camera!

                                 This is me racing at the finish line, not as scary as I thought right!

I thought I was going to be able to stick with Bex but it wasn't to be. I stayed with mom until about mile 9 when I think I accidentally lost her at a water station. I was afraid if I walked I would never run again but she needed a short walk. The first time it happened she found me, and I heard foot beats behind me and I totally knew it was her, I think because we've run together enough or something, I think I practiced my sweet talking on her and said it sounded like my heart catching up to me.  The 2nd time I didn't see her again. Then around mile 10 I saw my friends ahead of me and began to run faster to catch up with them but then I couldn't stop so I kept going pretty fast and ended up with a decent time of 2:06. My best is still 2:03 which I'm hoping to break in december but I'm not holding my breath. Mostly these days I'm happy to finish.

Sweet talking boy

Aj likes to try out his sweet talking on me and I love it! Today we stopped at the park for only 15 minutes to see Bex and Chloe before taking Aj to gym practice and he was only in a muscle shirt and shorts. I was walking behind him and I wrapped my arms around him and offered to be his coat so he would be warm where ever he went. He said, "well it;s not really working to keep me warm, but it keeps me warm on the inside" awwww my little walking hallmark card! And he's 13 on saturday!! Thank you heaven for everyday his hormones aren't raging out in unexplainable anger like his brothers!

My Eagle Scout

 I thought the lake picture would be the Christmas card, but this is pretty great too! Elle almost wore purple, I was so glad mom was here to see and have the brain power to stop it! The red is perfect

                     I love his real smile, and look his hand is curled on my back! He loves me!

                                   This is Kirks face as Connor chose him for the mentor pin!

I miss writing for a week and I miss 4 major events! What a crazy week! So in no random order I will attempt to put down my week. On SUnday was the culmination of years of work when Connor had his Eagle Court of Honor. It was a lot of work to put on, programs, food, decorations, making sure my 4 scouts had every patch in place and ready to look nice. I think Connor would have liked to skip the whole thing, but he ended up having a good time. As you can see we even got a few real smiles caught on camera! This was the first time our ward had the Eagle hand out a mentor pin, and Connor chose very well by giving it to his dad. You can see kirks face in the one picture when Connor said his name. Kirk has spent so much time with our boys and he set up the varsity troop in our ward. I got a little teary when Connor was taking the Eagle Oath, its a wonderful standard and I hope it means something to him. I submitted a picture of Connor, Matt and Kirk all eagle scouts with Bill who has a Silver Beaver to the National Eagle magazine, I'll let you know when that gets published.