Officially Done

Graduation was last week, and while we're still sort of picking up the pieces from a busy weekend, we had a great, fun celebration. I thought it might feel anti-climactic to walk after being done with classes for five months, but I'm glad I did--nice and official-feeling.


Both my parents and Jason's parents came out for graduation, which was so fun. They had met exactly one time (wedding), so this second visit was long overdue. We're so lucky to have parents who like each other, get along well, and are generally nice, stellar people.


We had a big graduation party on Friday, debuting the fabulous new back yard and celebrating with friends. Steven was designated photographer, so we'll get some pictures up here soon, but let me just say that our yard is awesome. Oh, and send a big shout-out to Dad and Jason, who planted way more flowers than they expected to on Thursday and Friday. So worth it, really.


Also, a post about graduation would not be complete without a shout-out to Jason. I love this picture above of him helping me figure out how to put on my hood. So symbolic of my entire grad school career, during which he put up with an exhausted and often tearful wife, read my entire thesis (God bless him), told me I was a good writer, didn't let me quit, set the timer so that I could read for an hour and then take a break, thought a Masters was worthwhile even if it didn't come with a promotion or a pay increase, prodded me with tea when I was losing it, gave direction for my scholarship application, made more than his fair share of meals, figured out what the heck I was trying to say in my thesis, and never complained (okay, well he might of complained once about having to read my thesis...). Lots of people have told me that they were glad that they weren't married when they were working full time and going to school, but I could.not. have done it without him.

Just Right

We had the most lovely week of weather this past week...which means I watched the 75-degrees-and-sunny-with-no-humidity pass by longingly through the window by my desk. Still, mmm. Spring has been spotty so far this year, but it finally seems to have settled in for a bit before making way for hot, humid summer.

Last night we went on a run then puttered around our garden for a bit. These radishes were part of dinner--I don't really like radishes, but do you know they are ready to harvest in 20 days? Um, that is awesome. I have, like, three rows of them. But not for long. They are all ready to go and about to pick themselves (and actually pretty good roasted). How's that for gardening?

Risen Indeed

I know I am SO BEHIND, but I still feel compelled to write about Easter. My Lenten preparations this year involved not only giving something up, but committing to do as well—I worked on being diligent about Bible study and journaling, and I also spent March and April reading One Thousand Gifts and N.T. Wright’s book on the resurrection, Surprised by Hope. Both books were incredible. Surprised by Hope in particular brought home what the resurrection really means, that God is in the business of restoring the world, us included, something that brings meaning to everything we do. I love that, I want to embrace that in my every day, the idea that what I do matters.

I know that in the wrong spirit Lent becomes legalistic, but it shouldn’t be. Lent this year was about putting myself in a place where, on Sunday morning, I had tears streaming down my face singing, “Christ is risen from the dead, we are one with him again!” and wanted to shout that “He is risen indeed!” Wright talks about celebrating Easter at least as long as we prepared for it, and even today, three weeks later, I feel like raising my hands in gratitude that I get to be a part of the new creation Jesus ushered in at his resurrection!

I missed spending Easter with Jason, but it was—and always is—really special to spend it with my family. Prep for Easter also includes egg decorating, of course, and we had a lot of fun dying eggs with the boys. Mom wisely moved things outside, since Mason was blue from the top of his head to the tips of his fingers within about two minutes…and had also cracked open at least one egg and was eating it, dye and all.

At least he knew where to put the yolk when he was done with it???

We got a fabulous Easter surprise when Casey and Kim randomly joined us for dinner at Texas Roadhouse on Saturday night--they'd driven down from Potlatch to spend Easter with us! What a treat to get to spend time with them! Made everything extra fun. It was the first time more than one boy was into the egg hunt, and then during the grown-kids hunt, Kim came away with the golden egg! I was hampered in my hunt by Kade-boy, not a bad deal. :)
What a glorious celebration!

Ice Cream Dates

When Kade was born, I sent Cole and Mason a "New Big Brother" package, complete with awesome goodies like monster cookies, pieces of gum, quarters, and coupons for ice cream dates when I was in town next. The latter was the hit of the week while I was in Idaho--for the boys and for me.

Cole was pretty keen on getting to go to ice cream all by himself--he'd generously invited Granny to join us at one point, but by the time our date rolled around on Friday, he made it pretty clear that we should NOT invite Mason to come! We had two rounds of the sundae bar at JB's, and I had so much fun hanging out with Cole--he is so funny and so smart and so grown up...even with his silly camera face!

Taking Mason and Troy for ice cream required a wee bit more planning...and some strategic backup. Mason is lightening fast and slips through your hands like they are buttered--watching Shaanti strategically tackle him is pretty amusing (for me, not her). And it takes Troy a while to get warmed up to me...even when ice cream is in the mix.


The solution was to take Papa with us. He may not be sure about Aunt Missy, but Troy adores his Papa--at the dinner table one night he thanked God for Papa but left everyone else off the list--and between the two of us, Dad and I managed to limit the number of things stained bright blue by the ice cream (you'll notice that lips and hands escaped our control). We had a great time. It's hilarious to watch those two carry on a conversation, and between their two smiles you just want to laugh out loud.

Coop and Kade missed out on the ice cream dates, but there will be time for that next time.

Best Day Ever.

Here are five things I loved about what quickly became known as the Best Day Ever:

1. The giddiness in Shaanti and Jenny's voices when they marveled at how easy it was to shop, shop, shop without (most of) their energetic boys in tow (we took Kade along so that we'd have someone to coo at);

2. How tan my mom's feet look in the picture of our pretty new pedicures (wonder which one of us spent two weeks in Hawaii this spring?);


3. Having the opinions of the people I trust most while swim suit shopping (yikes!);

4. Prawns and halibut chunks at the Stagecoach--the ultimate "special occasion" dining experience for the Johnson family;


5. Staying at the mall...and then the restaurant...and then Target as long as we wanted to (or until they kicked us out), with no pressing engagements or responsibilities weighing on us.

The only thing not to love was the absence of Kim, who would have rounded out our Johnson Girl Day Out experience perfectly. So, so fun.

Hi, Again

Hey, remember us? We used to blog here. I'm not sure how we disappeared off the face of the earth--maybe it was the traveling, maybe it was the fact that the "busy season" at work seems to be stretching into a "busy eternity," maybe it's just taking me a long time to figure out how to move pictures from my iPhone to the computer.

We're doing our usually Sunday night thing, trying to get our ducks in a row for the coming week--Jason is calming ironing while I am frantically wondering how my Cooking Light subscription expired (don't they send you, like, a million notices before that happens?!?) and just realized that my laundry is still not put away. It's really hot tonight, and yet I still have sweaters hanging in my closet. So we're a little behind in other areas of our lives, not just the blog.

Dawn had a great blog entry this week about how she gets sucked into thinking she has to "catch you up" on every detail of the big events that happened while she was not blogging, and I should totally follow her lead and just start from today...but I have such fun pictures of my nephews to share from my time in Idaho, so I probably won't do that.

I'll be back, just didn't want you to feel neglected anymore.