Another Busy Week

We have had another busy week and weekend. Yesterday Kyle went to his first FFA Contest in Corning. He looked so grown up all dressed up and wearing his FFA jacket. I wanted to get a picture but we were running late and Kenton had to take us into town to meet the bus being as we had snow again Friday. We left the van in town Friday night because we were not sure we could get it home. Anyway, Kyle did very well at contest and scored 3rd out of 26 in the competition he was in. He will now go on the the district competition here in a couple of weeks.
After getting the van back home, Jessica and I took off for Des Moines to go Prom dress shopping. It is quite a struggle for her being so tall. We went to Stacey's in Urbandale and found it to be quite an experience. It is a large building and they advertise to have over 5000 prom dresses. We had to take off our shoes before going back to the large room where all of the dresses are. They assign you a dressing room and a helper and you then start going through all of the dresses. They are grouped on large racks with the sizes at the end. The place was packed and I don't think I have ever seen so many girls shopping for prom dresses. After about an hour and a half and thanks to our helper, Alana, Jessica found the perfect dress. It was just what she had been looking for and good for Grandma Johnson it fit perfectly. It won't need any altering and it is actually long enough. It is strapless, turquoise in color with silver bead work on it. It is very full and poofy on bottom. She looks gorgeous in it. I had to be the one to take the heavy dresses off the hanger, help her get in and out of them and then put them back on the hangers.

By the end I was exhausted, and have a new respect for sales consultants who do that on a regular basis.

On the way,we stopped at the fabric store in Creston, Quilts and Other Notions, to get some more fabric for decorating the baby's room. I had gone with Kenton's mom a few weeks ago and we found some that I fell in love with. I am not really any good at sewing but love fabrics and all of the beautiful colors. I decided to go with a rust color and green. We are going to work some farm animals into the decor as well, after all he will be a little farm boy.

I am so lucky that Kenton's mom is such a great seamstress. She is making bedding and sheets for the crib out of these materials. Can't wait to show the finished project. Baby Johnson doesn't officially have a room yet but we are working on that and probably will still be working on it after he is born.

We are home the rest of the weekend and getting ready for another busy week. It is snowing outside again and we are suppose to expect another 5 inches today. I hope Spring comes soon!

A Favorite Book and How Important Our Friends Are

The kids and I all share a love for reading. It is not uncommon to find all three of us with our noses in a book on these cold winter nights. Kenton, not so much. He reads the occasional farm magazine but does not share that love for reading that the rest of us do. I recently read this book by Kelly Corrigan called The Middle Place. It was a wonderful read. It discusses the author's struggle with breast cancer, and finding herself in that "Middle Place" where many of us are at. We are parents trying to care for our children, yet still someone's child needing our parents. I have to admit I am still a Daddy's girl so I could totally understand where the author was coming from. The book also includes this exert that Kelly reads on this You Tube video:

(I will warn you it can make you cry as it talks about our friendships and connections with other women.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_4qwVLqt9Q

I did a mini scrapbook a while back on the importance of the women, (friends and family), in my life. It was based on the album and products we received in a Rusty Pickle class I took a few years back at a Creating Keepsakes Convention. It is still one of my favorites.

We have had another busy weekend at our house. Yesterday was my birthday, the kids and I spent the day shopping for some clothes they needed for upcoming events. Kenton was busy working outside. Today he is stiff and sore. I think he aggravated a back problem he already had. I got to spend a little time scrapbooking, Kyle spent the afternoon ice fishing again, and Jessica continues to work on her individual speech material for contest. We are headed out for a 4 -H meeting now.

Update

I know it has been about a month since I last updated our blog but times are really busy. January was a a busy month for us. I participated in the health fair that the hospital sponsored in Maryville. Brenda Neff, Joshua Allee and I had a table with information about organ donation.
Since Kyle's transplant I have wanted to get involved with promoting organ donation awareness.
There was a good turnout and we were asked some common questions that we were glad to get the answers out there. Brenda and I have become friends not only through the common bond of organ donation, (her family lost their little girl, Abrielle, in a tragic car accident and they donated her organs) but also through our shared hobby of scrapbooking. Joshua and I work together at St. Francis as he is our hospital chaplain as well as a long time adopted part of our family.

I am now 23 weeks pregnant with Baby Boy Johnson and we are trying to get our home ready for the new little guy as well as pick him out a name. It has been quite a family involved deal and lots of fun to see what names the kids have come up with. We are still undecided. I am feeling good, just very tired. Probably another reason I haven't blogged much lately.

Kyle is doing wonderfully! He had his yearly cardiac catheter in the first part of January. The results were amazing. This time they checked his coronary arteries due to the fact that transplant patient have a tendency to develop coronary artery disease. Kyle's looked great and the doctor even told us, "actually, it looks like a heart of an athlete!" I almost cried. I never dreamed I would ever hear that said about my son's heart! What a miracle! We continue to monitor his anti-rejection medication levels. The doctors in St. Louis want him a little on the high end as he is so at risk for rejection, esp. with the rejection he had early on.

Also in the early part of January we received an amazing and emotional letter from Kyle's donor's family. I hope to post about it soon. It was a beautiful letter and her story is remarkable. I can't wait to tell you all about her.

Kyle has been busy watching football, basketball and ice fishing with Kenton. Sunday Kenton's brother-in-law, Kenny, brought up his ice fishing hut and they fished on our pond. I walked down to check it out but was having camera trouble so this is the only picture I got. If you like fresh fish, the ones caught this time of year are so much better than in the summer. They taste so much better, because of the cleaner water I guess. They do not taste so "fishy".

Kenton has been busy pushing and blading snow-what a crazy winter this has been! We are all craving green grass and sunshine. Spring can not get here soon enough. We started having baby calves this week. The first one was born on Superbowl Sunday and yet another one today. Caring for them in this weather keeps Kenton busy also.

Jessica has been busy with school and speech contests. She just got finished participating in large group speech contest at State. She was part of Musical Theater and Improv. Both of her teams made it to the state level where the competition was tough. They scored well there also.
We were not allowed to take video or pictures, I so wished I could have. She is amazingly talented with her singing and acting! Her solo part in Musical Theater included part of the song,
I dreamed a dream, the song that Susan Boyle sings. It brought tears to my eyes. She is working hard now getting ready for individual speech contest. She is considering a major of music in college. I guess I should have known that even when she was little and she and her Gramps would ride around in the truck checking cows both trying to out sing the other!

Sorry for such a long time between post and such a long one this time. I hope to post on a more regular bases again.