170 of 365 memories...does the tooth fairy visit the Gulf Of Mexico?

On our last evening of our beach vacation we took the kids to the local souvenir shop. Coming home without a tacky memorable item was not an option. Hannah had talked for some time about getting a shark tooth necklace. So off we went to find the cutest necklace in Gulf Breeze. We found one and I have to say that even though it is from the creature that scares the BE JEEZZUUSS out of me, it pretty cute :)

My boys also found necklaces with (what else) a sharks tooth on them.

All 3 kids got their item and everyone was happy. That evening when I was getting Hannah dressed for bed she asked me, "mom does the tooth fairy visit the sharks?"
"And mom why didn't you get a souvenir?"

"I don't know if the tooth fairy visits the sharks, maybe we can google it :) and I don't need a souvenir baby, that's for you and your brothers." I told her.

"But how will you remember the trip if you don't have a souvenir?"

You don't worry about me girl, momma's got lots of memories!!

Ready Or Not, Here I Jump!

I shared with you all here, a little bit of what happened when I went to take my college placement tests 2 weeks ago. (I still get a little giggly when I say college placement and my in the same sentence).


First off, I got there WAY to early so I had a lot of standing around and fidgeting thinking time. Which for me, is not always a good thing.


There were 2 other people there, young boys, they looked like they had just graduated high school. I was impressed thinking man I'm not the only eager one here 45 minutes early.

And as I stood there more and more people slowly trickled in. I walked off a few times and would come back and stand in the same spot on the wall. Most of the kids were sitting on the floor, for me this was not really an option because I had a skirt on and also because my right knee is shot and getting down is a lot easier than getting up :)


As the minutes were SLLLOOOWWWLLLYYY ticking by, I stood there playing around on my phone. The screen of my phone turns into a mirror when its in standby mode. I moved it from my pocket to my hand and when I did I notice a light suddenly reflect off of it, like a prism or (A MIRROR). So I look down suddenly, only to see one of the 2 boys that had been there from the beginning with me, suddenly slide his hand back towards him with his phone in it. He is now sitting on the floor ever so closely to where I was standing. And his phone happen to be one just like my phone, you know the one that turns into a MIRROR when it is in standby mode!


I look at him and asked"is that a mirror?"


"What, NO", the little pervert says.


"Is your phone a SHINE?" I asked with my voice slightly raising.


"NO!" as he slips his hand in his pocket.


I moved myself over to another wall, where one of the girls looked like she played the game of, how many piercings can I put on my face to REALLY piss off my parents?


And another boy looked like he was one of the Jonas Brothers, the cute one.



I'm thinking to myself what in the hell have you gotten yourself into old lady?!!



It didn't matter....



Was I the oldest? YEP


Was I the only one that looked like they had showered that week day? YEP


Was I the only one that could say I birthed 3 human beings, knew what year Alf debuted and was a REAL Madonna fan, you know when she was the REAL Madonna? YEP


But none of that matter, I'm jumping out of my comfort zone.


I took my tests, I had no idea what the Math was (which I knew was going to be hard). They tested me on college Math and when I was in high school I never saw a problem that looked like

Which of the following expressions represents the product of 3 less than twice x and 2 more than the quantity 3 times x ?


A. –6x2 + 25x + 6

B. 6x2 + 5x + 6

C. 6x2 – 5x + 6

D. 6x2 – 5x – 6

E. 6x2 – 13x – 6


And if you know the answer, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!!!


My results are remedial Math and that's it. I tested out of English and Writing, so I'm free to take any of those classes that I want.

I'm going to meet with an advisor in 2 weeks and then orientation is at the end of July. There I will register for my classes and then start August 15th.

I'm probably only going to take 6 hours (2 classes) just to start and see how I do with that.

Did I mention I'm SUPER EXCITED!!

I'm at such a good place in life right now and have been for awhile. It's like every year I'm letting another piece of my puzzle fall into place. I'm not forcing it or twisting it around to make it fit. Some pieces have taken longer than others to work but all my edges are done and I'm filling in the middle.

I'm ready....

I'm ready to jump.....

With no chute....

169 of 365 memories...just a few of my favorites!

I'm going to break the pictures up that I have so far. On my camera alone I downloaded over 300 pictures and when I get the other girls pictures, LORD help us!

Obviously I'm not going to bore you all with a gazillion pictures but I would like to share a few dozen or so :)

These 5 are my top favorites, everyone except the last one (thanks Ms. Rona) was taken by a member of the Johnson family. The picture of Brian and I was taken by Hannah, for 7 years old she is quite the photographer.

I have more to come!!

what day is it again??

(SIGH) Were home from our 6 days at the beach. I mistakenly said yesterday, our week at the beach and I was corrected by 2 of my 3 children that it was not a week but ONLY 6 days. It would of been a week, 7 whole days if we didn't have to go to Jakob's track meet (which he came in 8th in the state of Georgia!!) last weekend.

So for the record I was wrong, I know shocking.

My washing machine is going, my doorbell has rung 3 times, I have had to walk up 2 flights of stairs to get something only to get there and not have any clue what I went to get, the dogs are fed, children almost fed (pizza is on its way), my husband has a beard and I have dirty hair and a tan.

I can not even begin to say how important it is for me to get my husband out of town as often as our checking account allows us, he is rested and I believe the crackblackberry actually got lonely this week.

My boys (all 3 of them) fished everyday, some days they caught nothing but conversation with each other and some days they caught dinner.

My baby girl swam like there was no tomorrow and up until Friday it felt like there was no tomorrow. I think I asked everyday, "what day is it?" That's an awesome question!

Pictures are downloading and then I have 4 other pho togs to get pictures from.

What's funny is with all the thousands of pictures the 5 families took, I don't know if any of them will capture the trueness of our trip.

It was awesome, relaxing, chatty, tipsy, wet, delicious and full of memories.....

It was a family vacation.......

168 of 365 memories...Father's Day

NO, she's not a daddy's girl :)


my 4 reasons for being!!

the goodies!!

me and my man!

nothing but love in those eyes!

We celebrated Father's Day a day early this year.

Because the majority of our Sunday will be spend driving to Pensacola!!

Hannah and I made daddy's favorite lemon bundt cake and I grilled hamburgers. We took a little time out of our packing to sit around the table and relax!!

Within the thousands of reasons why I love my husband so, being an amazingly dedicated father is top of my list.

He is OUR rock and I am so truly blessed to have 3 babies with this amazing man!!

I LOVE YOU BABE!!

167 of 365 memories... NO not the suitcases!!

Were headed out for our week at the beach in the morning, after we make a pit stop for a certain little boy to run his 1500 meter race in the State Championship!!

When I took the suitcases out the other evening the dogs went into panic mode. They do not like to see the cases. So they have been very pissy mopey the last few days.

Oh well, they have the best neighbor and dog sitter ever known to man watching them, so I know they are in good hands.

Beach or bust baby!!

166 of 365 memories...cul de sac fun!

I can not even begin to tell you how much this bathing suit makes her happy. Were not bikini fans for the little girls and this 2 piece is just enough for her and just enough for her father and I!!
who says white boys can't jump?! Go Jakey!!

Alex and Blake trying to jump together, knowing these 2 boys, this is going to take awhile :)

this is what summer days are all about!

after the water balloon war, you gotta clean up your mess....

165 of 365 memories...is this what hell feels like?!

yes your reading this right! And the bad thing was we were driving to Jakob's track meet!!

800 meters in the blistering heat!

When do we set the clocks back again??

164 of 365 memories...mermaid girl

at the end of each hour at our pool, the lifeguards call an adult swim. This gives the lifeguards a little 10 minute break every hour to get out of the sun, use the bathroom and eat. The kids of course don't get why anyone would have to do ANY of those things on a beautiful day. WHY do they have to potty or eat? It's to nice to do that!!
This is what my daughter does when she has to get out for those 10 minutes. She sits there and WAITS and WATCHES the clock. 8 minutes mom, 7 minutes mom, oh mom 2 more minutes, I think their getting ready to blow the whistle!! Each time she speaks her voice gets a little louder to make sure that me and the lifeguards can hear her. What can I say, she loves the water!! The other night in the tub, I told her that I needed to check for her gills because I'm pretty sure she is part fish. She quickly corrected me and said "MERMAID mom, I'm a MERMAID, REMEMBER!!

Man don't tick off the mermaid, those tails are vicious!!

163 of 365 memories...Hannah Montana aint got nothin on my boy!

Alex finished his week of volunteering for the Safety Town program at our elementary school. It's a program to teach kids that are going into kindergarten all about fire safety, water safety, stranger safety and a few other things.
He had a lot of fun with the kids (if he doesn't grow up to be a teacher, I will be EXTREMELY surprised). Yesterday after he got off I took the kids to Chick Fil A for lunch. While we were there, 2 kids that are in Alex's group came up to him starting climbing on him and high fiveing him, they thought it was totally cool to see him outside of the school. I looked at my boy and said "man your a rock star, but you still have to unload the dishwasher" :)

162 of 365 memories...when the walls coming tumbling down.

Alex has always loved magic. He asked for his first magic set when he was 3 and pretty much memorized all the tricks in the first couple of days. As he has gotten older he doesn't really fool with it to much anymore. A few years ago he decided he was going to teach himself to juggle. And of course in true Alex style, he learned fast and became VERY good!

The other night during our 17th sleepover of the summer, Alex and his friend decided to build card houses. The 2 of them actually did really well. Jakob decided to join them and started off really well but as soon as his first house fell he was done. Alex and Blake kept it up for a few hours, each time saying how awesome the other was doing and then all together "OH MAN" when it would fall apart.

The simple life is so UNDER rated!!

I'm sorry, is that a mirror?!

Were in our 3rd week of summer (up in here!)
And don't be fooled by our tan feet and messy but clean hair, we are tired people (up in here!)
Alex is doing his 1st of 3 volunteering assignments he signed up for.
Jakob is training for his State competition this weekend.
And Hannah and I, besides for her workbooks, swimming and craft projects are STILL trying to figure out "how many licks it REALLY takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop" and guess what fellow bloggers? The world may never know!!


I know this is earth shattering stuff here and one more element of surprise for you my friends is I took my Compass test this morning for my college placement in the Fall!!


Next step is Orientation where I will register for classes and then (GULP) August 15th I START SCHOOL!



I'm past the oh my word, phase and have moved on to HOLY SHIT, here I go!!


I know I know potty words are bad but sometimes necessary :)


I have more to share about my testing process later, the voices in head even impress me sometimes and they were in full comical swing this morning!



But for now I can tell you I believe that a boy who probably is still a virgin tried to look under my skirt and if he is still a virgin what's under my skirt is not what he wants for his first, (let's just say) lookie poo!


Gotta love those Freshman!!

getting my ducks in a row

We are leaving Sunday for Pensacola! One week of fun in the sun, drinks by the pool, sand castles on the beach, drinks by the pool, fishing for my boys, drinks by the pool, no make up wearing for 6 days. And did I mention drinks by the pool :)

Before our fun in the sun starts, Alex has Safety Town volunteering all week, I have to take my placement tests for school and Jakob has his State Competition for the 800 meter and the 1500 meter Friday and Sunday. If he places in either one of those, then were off to Maryland the weekend after Fourth of July.


I have started to pack my groceries (and I mean my REAL groceries, not the ones that the lady in Target saw :)



Clothes are always packed at like midnight the night before we leave. I don't stress over packing, never had. When my kids were little, it was just basically pack the necessities and the rest they won't even know that it is gone.



Now it is even more laid back, ESPECIALLY for the beach.



Bathing suits....CHECK


sunscreen....CHECK


floating tubs....CHECK


Were ready to go!!


OH and did I mention that were going with 4 other families?



Oh and did I also fail to mention, that were all staying in the same house??

That would be 10 adults....

aren't we a cute bunch!

And 9 children.....

even cuter when we have our babies!

yes, that's 19 true Louisiana blood people in one house for a week.

Now do you see why there were SO many references to drinks by the pool!!

I have talked about my Louisiana crew many times on here, most of them are bloggers also, HEY Y'ALL!!

Each one of us, left our homes, families and pretty much EVERYTHING we all knew to move here after hurricane Katrina.

Each one of us is so very different from the next but in true New Orleans fashion we are a family.

We can talk about our family but YOU better not even think about it :)

I am excited for this trip, my kids are BEYOND ready to get out of Woodstock and get some sand stuck in some hard to reach places.

I'm hoping to come back with some good tan lines, a few extra pounds around the bottom area and some really good memories made with some really WONDERFULLY DELICIOUS peeps!!

161 of 365 memories....HMMM maybe me??

I don't know where she gets this from!!

160 of 365 memories...who's official is it?

Out of all the possibilities the summer will have in store for us, I truly believe that this one is going to be MONUMENTAL in the Johnson household.

Besides for the fact that my 13 year old has a (sigh) cell phone and my 10 year old is (sigh) starting to have feet 2 times bigger than last week besides for all THAT then there comes my side kick, my little mini me.

No people I know she looks like her paw, but she is SO me and sometimes quit frankly it scares the crap out of me.

I just came back from walking her across the street for her first official slumber party.

She slept at our good friends The Dinsmore's a few weeks ago and did great. That was the REAL first time without her brothers.

Tonight it is not mommies friends, it's all her.

She was SUPER excited and I pretended to be.

I will be excepting my Academy Award on behalf of all the blubbering, whinny baby moms, just like me!!

When I had her in the tub tonight getting ready to go, we were talking about all the do's and don'ts and to remember manners and BLAH BLAH BLAH and she said them all back to me so matter of factly, at that moment I had to look away from her.

She is growing y'all!!

Way to fast, she is MY BABY and she is at a slumber party!

I'm sorry but when did she turn 7?

Because I can promise you that I just switched her to Isomil because her tummy was upset!

Most of my friends have young children, I probably have the oldest in my circle of friends.

And sometimes I think that they forget that I too use to have babies. The three of them didn't just come out this way (have you seen my boys lately? That would just hurt!)

I started out one at a time and stressed to the max every step of the way.

But I learned early on, never let them see me sweat. Because honestly sweating the small stuff is what we as woman do to ourselves, usually anyway.

I told Brian tonight, this is her first slumber party and he politely looked at me and said no this is your version of her first slumber party.

And he was right, she slept at our friends a few weeks ago and that was REAL.

So why was this any different?

I don't know, because really I'm just a blubbering, whinny baby right now :)

But I do know that I will be having my morning coffee on my front porch and waiting until 10:01 to walk over and get my baby girl:)

Hey I'm better than I use to be, by the third one at least I wait until 1 minute after pick up time!!

159 of 365 memories...the ball boy

right after this picture I ate him, baseball glove and all.

I will try and save you a piece of my cutie next time!
Since the moment this child left my womb he has had some sort of ball in his hands. I had lots of cars, trucks and blocks from his older brother but that was not what my 2nd child wanted to play with. He would throw all that stuff and believe an alphabet block to the head is not pretty and it scars :) balls, he always wanted balls. And as he has gotten older, he is exactly the same way. He loves to run don't get me wrong but you will rarely find my 10 year old not throwing, bouncing, kicking something. Even sitting down, I need to tape record my voice saying "Jakob Johnson stop bouncing WHATEVER it is your bouncing in my house"!!
"K mom K".
Man am I going to miss that K mom K one day.......

158 of 365 memories...THE LEGEND LIVES!!

could that be the infamous picture dodging teenager?!

I heard he was making his way through these parts, in search of shelter during the afternoon storms....

and of course in search of food :)

And let me just say I didn't even threaten ask for this smile, he gave it up all by himself. I think he was just wanting to return to his prey lunch.

157 of 365 memories...it's bubbling up, it's bubbling down!

what is it about these little soap filled objects that make little kids and "big" kids

instanly have a smile on their face?

for the kids is it the wonder of how DID it come out of that stick, REALLY?

And where WILL it fall?

Or is it the let me see if I can catch it!

My personal favorite with my kids is to see how much spit they

actually have when trying to blow a bubble!

and the bubble dance that follows. Don't know what the bubble dance is?

Come on over our garage is ALWAYS open for ya!

156 of 365 memories....her head didn't (actually) spin around

one happy little lady!!
she didn't believe me that they were blue!!

I took Hannah on Tuesday to get her stitches out. They said 5 - 7 days and Tuesday made 6. I also knew because I took a sneak peak while she was sleeping and saw that they were ready to come out.

I joked with Brian the night before saying he should take her the next day because he could hold her down easier when she turned into the demon spawn. And yes my friends she did turn into Linda Blair's little sister and no my friends my hubby was NO where to be found. Oh yea, he has A JOB!! BLAH BLAH BLAH, that's ALWAYS the excuse :)

The truth be told, I wouldn't send him and not go. There's no way some one's sticking my baby or pulling things out and me not be there!!!

So now there out and HOPEFULLY I won't be back there for awhile :)

PRAY FOR ME!!

the great bathing suit debate!!

What exactly is it about a bathing suit that makes a woman in mid March break out into a cold sweat. Or the pains of agony that we feel when we step into a dressing room armed with 14 tops 27 bottoms and a bottle of Jack Daniels (I can't be the only one :)

For a long time I never really worried about swim suits, I had a few that I had had for a few years and they always seemed to fit. Well then one year they didn't fit, they didn't even pretend like they could fit. The only reason I know that they did fit is because I had evidence pictures, because once upon a time I allowed photos of myself in a bathing suit (and I wasn't even intoxicated).

Last year I introduced myself to the tankini skirtini. Or in other words, the don't look at any of my parts but I'm too lazy to by a one piece (have you tried to get one of those things back up after a potty break? It isn't pretty!)

I had 1tankini thing last year, that I loved and I wore it EVERY single day.

This year I have actually lost a bit of weight and been working on my flags to flap a little less. So I thought trying on bathing suits this year might not be so bad.

Silly silly woman, lets just say there were screams, tears and even a little bit of praying the Hail Mary's and all of this happened before I even entered the dressing room.

Round 1 was a disaster and I came home totally defeated and told Brian that if they served sedatives as we were entering the dressing rooms it would be so much easier.

Round 2 went so much better, I actually found items that I really liked and a few pieces that when I get a little drunk braver I might actually wear.

At heart I am TOTALLY a bikini girl!

No strings, glitter or jewels.

Just a little less tan lines gal.

I'm also 33 year olds and not nearly as cute as I once was :)

Do you think there is an appropriate age for styles of bathing suits?

I wore my bikini top today with my skirtini bottom and didn't feel all that bad about it. I also was there with my 2 girlfriends and it was the time of day that there weren't alot of people there, my momma didn't raise no fool! And did I mention I didn't move or breathe or eat, I just laid there motion less as so nothing jiggled or fell out of place.

I'm joking of course but no not really.

Sad I know, Hail Mary's and Jack Daniels, what'cha gonna do?!!

155 of 365 memories...the running man!!

am I done yet?!!

In order to move on to the next level of competition the kids had to place in the top 8 of the event. Some events has as many as 30 kids competing. Jakob came in 4th overall for the 1500 meter and 7th for the 800 meter. The next meet is a 4 day meet in Atlanta and this is the big one!! Jakob doesn't think much about going or not going, he just likes to run!!

That's my boy!!

154 of 365 memories...my troopers

I don't have a picture of Alex to go along with this one, I didn't bug him this day for a picture. I am a nice mother most days!!

Jakob had a track meet on Saturday that was about an hour and a half away from our house. That meant that we had to be out of our house by 7 am, on a Saturday, that's just WRONG!!

But we did it and it ended up being one of those days that tested EVERY ONES nerves. We did not leave the meet until 7:30 in the evening. And then had the drive back home. It was an exhausting day. Jakob did really well and will move on in the 1500 meter and the 800 meter, the next meet over Father's day weekend. The next one is a biggie and if he places in the finals we have to decide if we want to go to Maryland for the regional meet.

Sunday afternoon we took the kids out for dinner and as we were talking about fall activities (I know its crazy but the sign ups are in a couple weeks). We were talking about Alex doing fall baseball, Hannah doing gymnastics and Jakob doing cross country.

We talked about how cool it would be if Jakob does make it to Regional and we get to go to Maryland and then I told Alex and Hannah how proud of them I am for supporting their brother and how I know how hard it is to SIT and SIT and SIT and did I mention SIT at the track meets and wait! I'm not saying that none of us complain while were SITting their sweating and waiting but when it comes time for his event were all at the fence together cheering him on. Just like when the other 2 do something, were all each others biggest cheerleaders.

Trying to stress that the most important people in your life are the ones that you look at every morning, with your dragon breathe blaring, your hair looking a hot mess and your eyes full of crispy friends.

Their parents and siblings are the ones that look past the faults and love you know matter what. I hope some of it settles in, I haven't seen any of my words floating in the air from their ears when I talk so I guess were off to a good start :)

Guess would be the key word here............

153 of 365 memories...What if I puke??

Thursday was a pretty nasty day here and we had to take it easy for the first 48 hours with stitch face. So I decided it would be the perfect day to take the kids to the Bodies Exhibition. Alex is not very good with bodily stuff. Let's just say there will be no "paging Dr. Alexander Johnson in his future. Poor boy can't watch anything that has to do will blood or the possibility of blood. So yes his mother decided what a better way to spend the day but looking at real dead people :)

Honestly, I watched the special about it and researched it online and I really thought EVERYONE including pukey boy would like it. And guess what, I WAS RIGHT!!

He did say when we first walked in that he thought he might just walk right threw because he thought he might puke, but after he calmed down and started to read about what we were looking at he did so much better. Alex is not a visual child. He has to READ it to understand it, much like my husband. Where as the other 2 are like me, we need to see it, touch it, smell it to understand what it is. I think that's why Jakob, Hannah and I enjoy our food SO much more than Alex and Brian.

The nervous system part truly can hold your attention for hours. It was absolutely the most interesting thing I've ever seen.

Anyway, we had a really nice time and the exhibit is AMAZING! It is a bit pricey but it was SO WORTH it!

152 of 365 memories....DADDY'S HOME!

Brian gets gifts sometimes when he goes away for business. Usually it is some sort of shirt that is size XL. He was given a Coca Cola baseball jersey this time and YEP you guessed it, it was a tad too big! Oh well the kids had fun playing in it :)

151 of 365 memories...A HAPPY!!

Hannah had lots of friends at the pool the day she hurt her chin. So momma's phone was going off quite a bit while we were at the hospital. After we got home, Hannah got a surprise from one of our neighbors. Her little friend Cameron, was also in Hannah's class this year and I have to say that he became my boyfriend through out this school year. Always greeting me with hugs and telling me to have a nice day!! SO SWEET! His momma is a Mississippi girl, so you know she is GOOD PEOPLE!

They surprised Hannah with a cookie decorated just like her.

She was so happy. She asked me to take a picture of it and send it to her daddy, so he could she it too.

Thanks Cameron and Ms. Kelly, you were so sweet to think of my baby!!