Off to bed sleepy head

Everybody is on the mend in our home!

We've still had beautiful days this week and have spent every afternoon outside.

After a heavy afternoon of playing in the dirt and painting with the neighborhood girls, these Johnson girls were in need of bubble baths and bed...
this is how we calm down before bed!

There was nobody on the other end of the that phone...
she kept pressing the button that makes the phone ring and then answering it!

And yes, I did eventually put some pajamas on that little one!
She's just too cute running around the house like that.


Someone precious
is turning 6 in two days and can hardly stand it!

Someone else who is precious
arrives in Chicago in 3 days, just in time for another birthday party!
Let the slumber party begin...

and you thought you'd be sleeping alone?!

On the last note for the night-There is work to be done in our house...little does MorMor know the projects we have in store for the week! I thought I'd add two pictures I've taken of our home. One is of the girls room and the other is looking at one side of our living room. Our biggest issue with the house is storage...there is none. So, we have stuff and we need to figure out where to put our stuff. Please disregard the mess in the pictures below. I'm planning on taking more pictures at some point and then getting your (Mom and Lauren's) advice on what I should do! Anyone else can add their two cents if they'd like...I'll just probably be more likely to take Mom and Lauren's...no offense!

Living Room

I'd love to get some type of wooden or dark sculptural piece to go along horizontally under the clock...something like a wood carving of the last supper--wouldnt' that be perfect!? Since I don't have any of those kind of pieces, I'm thinking of hanging some plates that I have...but not sure if that will look odd with the three pieces going up the side? I also arranged the bookcase, by color although I haven't done anything with the top shelf yet. Most of the books on this bookshelf seem to be my books, so Greg doesn't care that they are organized in a manner that has nothing to do with the books other than the color of their jackets! The bottom two shelves are for toys and the girls books and look a little messy. Roger brought over dinner from Panera that night, hence the paper bag.

The Girls Room

Here is a picture of the girls room taken from the door. The puff balls look really pretty against the bright blue of the walls. Not knowing how long we'll live here, I keep thinking two matching twin beds would look so cute in this room. I can't remember when we moved Lily out of the crib...but, Hannah Grace has never thought to get out of the crib, so she'll be staying there for awhile.

Well, this sleepy head is off to bed--hope ya'll are having a good night!

Conversations on the way to Church

This morning the girls and I went to Church by ourselves. While Greg recovered quickly last weekend from the flu, he became very sick just as quickly during this past week. Yesterday, at the Doctor's office his temperature was 102 and his lungs were very congested. He goes tomorrow for chest x-rays and was told that if his temperature rises above 102, he is to go to the emergency room. So, he staid home in bed and the girls and I got ready to leave. We were having a quiet ride listening to music until Lily piped up....

"Mama, do you like Daddy?"
(the other day she had told me there was a boy in her class she was going to marry, so I knew where this was going!)

"Yes, I like Daddy."

"Do you like-like Daddy?"

"Yes, I like-like Daddy."

"Do you like-like-love Daddy?"

"Yes, I like-like-love Daddy."

little snicker giggles in the back seat.


About 5 minutes later....

"Mama, do you think the police officer would let people go really fast if there was a tornado coming?"

"Yes, I think they would."

"What about for a hurricane."

"Yes, for a hurricane as well."


Another 5 minutes later...


"Mama, should we tell Daddy to dig us a well? That way we can have lots of water."

"Where would Daddy be digging this well?"

"I'm not sure, but we'd have a lot of water."

We are having great weather this weekend, which makes it fun to be outside! Well, one of us is still resting and staying under 102 degrees, another one of us has messy pants, another one has a gymnastics birthday party to go to in half an hour, and the last one of us is going to take care of the first three people mentioned and their different needs and then enjoy a nice cold diet coke!

We hope ya'll are having a good weekend!

Ways to get rid of the flu.

Well, come to find out, the way to cure the Johnson family of the flu is to talk about not going to Stormy. By Friday evening everyone was healthy and Greg and I decided to go for the weekend and to leave at three in the morning. I packed up some things and went to bed to sleep for a while before we left. At some point, Greg came in the room and told me that it was three o'clock and time to get up. I lay there in bed looking at him wondering why in the world he felt it was necessary to tell me it was three in the morning until I remembered that he was telling me this because it was time to go to Stormy...on a side note, I was awoken the night before at 1.30 in the morning by Greg as he told me someone was pounding on our front door and I just kept muttering, "I know, I know!" Greg went to investigate and met "Mr. Repo Man" (name given by Greg). After a very confusing story with all of Greg's comments repeated by Mr. Repo Man it turns out that neither of us was named Wendy So and So, nor do we own a certain car Mr. Repo Man was looking for...when I first saw the tow truck through the window I wondered how the road side help could have gotten things so mixed up they sent the truck to the wrong place. But, then I realized it wasn't a tow truck offering help...but that's another story for a different post!

Back to Friday night--we quickly got both girls up from their beds, placed them in the car at which point they both decided to fully wake up and get excited about the trip. As we drove through the dark quiet streets of Downers Grove, Northern Illinois, and lower Wisconsin we hit every green light. Lily kept saying quietly in the back seat, "It's just so beautiful" as she looked out at the lit up city lights. Eventually we (the Johnson girls) all feel asleep and Greg drove in the darkened silence...until around 5.30 when Hannah Grace suddenly yelled out "Set, Go!" I think it about stopped Greg's heart! I don't know what Hannah Grace was thinking but she sounded a little fit to be tied! She quickly quieted back down.

We made it up to Stormy around 9.30 where Uncle Doug was waiting for us and quickly headed down to the lake! Here's a picture story of what we did over the weekend!

These two had a lot of fun...can you imagine them 10 years from now?! I pray they are still having this much fun together!

We had dinner one night at some friends cabin. They had some friends up visiting from Chicago who had just adopted a 5-year-old boy from China, who we'll just call Charlie. Charlie had only been with the family for a month, but seemed to be adapting really well to his family and the United States. He understood a lot of English but only spoke Chinese.

Now, you all know this girl....
There is nothing this girl loves more than another 5-year-old...English speaker or not! Well, she jumped right into the mix sharing the three Chinese words she has learned from watching Ni Hao Kai Lan, which amount to Hello, Thank You, and Grandpa. We also know how much she loves to demonstrate her knack for picking up foreign languages from animated kids shows. It was pretty funny watching the two look at each other, Lily throwing out a random "Grandpa" in Chinese, Charlie looking at her quizzically then launching into an animated dialogue in Chinese (and mind you nobody else there that night spoke Chinese) then the two of them nodding their heads in agreement and then chasing after each other! The evening ended with smores around a campfire. Hannah Grace had a fun time too. She spent the campfire trying to weasel her way into the laps of whoever had made the most recent smore!

And so, we came home Monday night, tired but having had a fun weekend. I was going to post about our weekend last night, but my new Bible study began last night and I was just a little too tired! I hope everyone else had a fun holiday weekend!

Sick Days

Well, Lily is on her fourth day of running a fever. She always feels better have taking her Motrin, but still isn't able to go to school. Greg is on his second day of a fever. And, lastly, Hannah Grace is on her first day of the fever!

So, with all this going on...I am on my first sick day of the school year! Of course, both schools (mine and Lily's) are waiting to hear me say "yep, the Johnson's have the swine flu." But, so far, it just seems to be the flu. Although I do know that some of the teachers in my district have had their college aged kids sent home from school with that flu....

Hoping to maybe get some cleaning done today. We were going to go to Stormy this weekend, but Greg and I aren't sure about the wisdom of bringing the fevered Johnsons on 7 hour car trip!

But, that little one pictured above, assured me that it would be ok for us to go to Stormy..."since we are all already sick, we can't get each other sick!"

Now you see me, now you don't

Today was the first day of September and here in Illinois the weather cannot decide if it's still summer or if it just switch completely into fall. We kept Lily home from school due to her cold but I didn't take any pictures. The girls spent the day with Grandpa in Clarendon Hills...Lily spent a good portion of the day laying on the couch and Hannah Grace followed Grandpa around the kitchen saying "Grandpa, follow me!"

While not taking any pictures today, I thought I'd just give you a picture story of what happens when your almost 6 year old gets a hold of your camera and plays spy.

I realize some may say I should be more involved, but I do feel it's important for the girls to spend some time together on their own...but sometimes I have no idea what they are doing...

Lily started playing a new game at the beginning of summer whenever we took a walk somewhere. At first I couldn't figure out what she was doing, but then I realized she was practicing and perfecting her Sydney Bristow CIA spy moves so that she would be ready for that entrance exam to Langley after she graduates from college. As we walk and I push Hannah Grace in the stroller, Lily walks alongside me, but when a car approaches from any direction she immediately darts behind the nearest tree (throwing her scooter to the side) and makes sure the people in the car can not see her. This happens frequently and can make our walks take a little longer, but as long as she passes that entrance exam and lives the secret live I've always dreamed of (MorMor you know what I'm talking about) I enjoy the long walks.

However, Lily has taken her spy training a step further. She has now begun to "disappear" whenever we enter stores with security cameras...you know, the security camera and TV that Target has up in the front of the store? Lily hides from the camera as we enter and then exit the store. She hides behind me, behind Hannah Grace, sometimes she'll dart behind random strangers all while keeping an eye on the TV to make sure she does not make an accidental appearance.

Now, I realize, were she about 10 years older, the store security team may feel the need to keep an eye on people who "hide" from the cameras when the enter and exit a store. But, taking a look at this face who could ever think she had any other motive then perfecting those moves her Langley instructors will be so impressed with!