MightyJohnsons

Holiday Festivities

‘Tis the season of festivities. With the holiday season comes every concert and activity imaginable. We attended choir concerts, band concerts, school programs, and more. We also decorated sugar cookies, a gingerbread house, and visited Temple Square and the lights at Thanksgiving Point. We also attempted to go to the local nativity and walk around Bethlehem but after seeing the line was an hour or more of a wait, we went home and looked at the neighbor’s plastic nativity instead.:)

Traditions are important around here. Don’t worry, even if I try to forget one or two, the kiddos quickly remind me. It is a special time of year and I love that my family wants continue those traditions every year. I guess that means I am doing something right. 🙂

See below for a photos of what we did.

IMG_5133_2 — Highland Children’s Choir Concert

We love when G’ma & G’pa come and support the kiddos!

Mountain Ridge Band Concert. Jake plays the alto saxophone and Megan plays the clarinet.

Bear Hollow Preschool Christmas Performance

Drew’s Gingerbread Play at Highland Elementary

The family at Temple Square (minus Jake)

2014 Christmas Card

Confession: we didn’t do Christmas cards last year. But did anyone notice? Did anyone miss hearing from us? I’m not sure…

Manina loves getting an actual card in the mail and puts all of them up on the inside of our front door. So, she insisted we do one this year after skipping out on 2013.

This year, we went with good-ol’ Costco cards (they’re affordable) and spiced it up a bit by adding a little insert with some additional info about each of us.

I’m a little less sentimental. I enjoy seeing the card and pictures up on our door, of course, but in the day of Facebook and Instagram it seems superfluous. I certainly understand the tradition of the thing, but I’m not sure how much longer Christmas cards as such will be around.

Hopefully all of you (who wanted one) got a card this year. If not, let us know and we will add you to the list.

Also, I’d be interested in your feedback: Christmas cards, yes or no?

Life and Health Insurance Exam

I began working for Links Consulting and Producers FMO about a year and a half ago. Not long after I began working there, my boss, Mike, confided in me that, although I was mostly just doing the billing and commissions, one of the main reasons he hired me was because he thought I had real potential in this type of business. At the time I didn’t think much of it. I was having a tough time just keeping my head above water, much less think of future job opportunities. After about a year on the job, and after Ellie started attending three days of preschool a week, I realized I had more time that I could devote to my work.

In September, Mike inquired as to whether or not I would want to take the life insurance exam. I knew I did because this would open up other opportunities, but I wasn’t sure how I would find the time. I decided to bite the bullet and around mid-October I decided to do it. I ordered the study materials and began the preparation process. This is not known as an easy test. I had been warned. The goal was just to pass the test, not score high. No one scores high. My competitive nature was sure I could but after I saw the hundreds and hundreds of facts and definitions, I knew I was in for a long haul.

I also attended a two-day class where the instructor went over the majority of the materials. It was quite helpful because he made it easier to understand and apply the information to real-life. I don’t think I mentioned this, but Mike suggested I take both the life AND health insurance exam. He never did but wished he had so I agreed. Unfortunately, this added on even more study material. I spent hours and hours studying. I would lock myself up in my room for hours at a time. Every place I went, my book was in hand. I gave it all I could considering I was raising a family and being a wife and mom at the same time.

Finally test day arrived, December 5th. I remembered what my instructor said. He told me, “You can miss 45 questions out of 150. You have to look at it like that.” He was right. I knew I had to get a 70% or better. That was all I needed. Seth was so supportive through this process. The day of the test he put these cute notes and treats all through the house and all the way out to my car. It was so sweet.

I got in the car and headed to McDonalds for a Dr. Pepper. I knew I would need one to get me through the test. Twenty minutes later I arrived at the testing center. Who would have known what an ordeal it was to get into the testing center. I had to empty my pockets, take off my jewelry, lock up my stuff, go through a metal detector. They weren’t messing around. Once I settled into my cubby and began working through my test, the jitters lessened. I marked my scratch paper each time I was unsure of a question, making sure I didn’t have more than 45 I didn’t know. I was getting worried. I was making too many marks.

There was a time limit, two hours to be exact. At 1 hour and 45 minutes I had completed the test. I reviewed a few questions and counted the ones I wasn’t sure on. I had about 40 and of those 40 I assumed I probably got close to half of those right. In my mind, I thought I had passed, but some doubts were creeping in. Oh well, time was up. I submitted my test and immediately on the screen I see “PASSED”. Man was a I happy! I didn’t even care that I had only gotten a 78%. I was just thrilled to have passed. So now I have my life and health insurance license. I am “kind of” happy about that. Now I just need to learn how to use it! 🙂

Ellie’s 5th Birthday!

Man, where does the time go? My baby turned 5 today. Can you believe it?! I can’t. Ellie had preschool on her birthday so I got to go in and help in class. We sang to her and displayed her life through pictures on the wall.

After preschool, she had an appointment to go see Dr. Wise, her pediatrician, for her five year well-check. She passed with flying colors and received more shots than I can count, but now she is ready for kindergarten. She was so brave that we took a special trip to the store afterward for a few of her favorite treats.

That evening we went to her restaurant of choice, Pizza Pie Cafe, and came home for cake and presents.

On Tuesday we grabbed her three closest friends and headed to Kangaroo Zoo for an afternoon of jumping and fun. They had a great time!

Yes, Ellie is my baby. She makes me smile and melt nearly every day. If you took a vote around our house, everyone would say she is their favorite. There was a time that we thought we wouldn’t have a sixth child. I can’t even imagine it. She is funny, hard-working, helpful, and a great side-kick to keep me company. And if you can’t tell from the pictures, she loves to change her outfit, many, many times each day. She actually has a great fashion sense and is always giving me advice on what to wear. I sure do love her…like love her a lot. XOXO

Coronado Getaway

Work has been very busy the last few months. I’ve had some major projects going live, and lots of deadlines and stress. Manina noticed that I needed a break and so she arranged a surprise vacation getaway for just the two of us.

Manina had been in San Diego with Ellie a few months ago and when visiting Coronado Beach thought that it would be a great place for us to spend a few days together.

So, she emailed my boss and arranged some dates. Manina also swore him to secrecy and then booked a hotel for us. She even set aside some secret cash to pay for the whole thing. What a gal!

We hit the road on Wednesday, stopping for the night in St. George. We went to the St. George temple and then stayed with Gary and Kathy (thanks again!).

We drove to the Coronado Marriott on Thursday. Driving was part of the getaway. It was really nice to not have a schedule, not to worry about kids fighting in the back seats, and to have time to chat uninterrupted during the drive. We also listened to several episodes of the fantastic Serial podcast along the way.

Coronado was really nice. We’re simple Alaska folk, so the hotel felt a little too fancy for us—we were a bit out of our element. But, we enjoyed our room had a great view of the bay and the San Diego downtown skyline.

There was also a nice biking/walking path right along the back edge of the hotel, which we used quite a lot. That evening, we walked to dinner. Then in the morning we got up and went for an early-morning run and breakfast stop along the path.

We really liked Coronado and wish we could have stayed there a little longer.

The next few days were spent with our good friends, the Denneys. They recently welcomed their third boy and were still gracious enough to let us hang out with their cute family and show us around their new town. We ate and ate and ate, but had a great time with them and their three boys.

On Sunday, we made the long drive home. It wasn’t quite as nice as the drive there, but we still enjoyed our time on the road. It was a great surprise getaway.

Happy 11th Birthday Katelyn!

It wasn’t Katelyn’s turn for a friend party this year so I downplayed it and just told her we would have cake and ice-cream in the evening. Little did she know, I had planned on checking her out and taking her to lunch and then to “Color Me Mine”. She has been dying to go there and I thought this was as good of an excuse as any.

Seth decided to make the surprise even better. When I checked Katelyn out of class Seth went in to get her dressed as her Uncle Joe Billy, a completely fictional character. Nothing I write will portray the scene that took place. Seth jammed out in his best air guitar impersonation and made quite a lasting impression on both her classmates and teacher. (As you may have read in earlier posts, Seth enjoys humiliating his kids.)

After chuckling about the whole situation – Katelyn handled it very well – we got in the car and headed to lunch. Katelyn really wanted Megan to join her so we checked Megan out as well and went to JCW’s for lunch (Katelyn’s choice). Afterward, we went to “Color Me Mine” where we spent a small fortunate coloring a few pieces of pottery.

Following tradition, we went to dinner as a family and then headed home for cake and presents. We all had a great day. I hope Katelyn felt as special as she is. I just adore her. She is the sweetest, most tender child. She has a knack for making everyone feel special. She is always aware of people’s feelings and makes friends easily. She has a soft but caring voice that everyone seems to love. Creative is a word that describes Katelyn well. She can create or make just about anything out of just about anything. She is a special girl that adds a wonderful spirit in our home. I love you baby girl!

Happy Halloween 2014

Happy Halloween from the Johnson Family. We all managed to dress up this year for various activities. Jake is the Student Body President and was required to dress-up but not sure he would have otherwise. Megan and her besties made their costumes from scratch. They were excited to use a play on words and be “ceiling fans.” The other kiddos dug out costumes from the past and made them work. Well, except Ellie. I found her cute costume at a yard sale and picked it up for .50 cents. I made a few adjustments and attached a spider and wallah! She is the cutest Little Miss Muffet ever.

We celebrated with friend parties, class parties, work parties and ended it with a neighborhood “trunk-or-treat” and trick or treating. It was great evening filled with loads of candy!

The Forgotten Lunch

Megan is in 7th grade. She’s a wonderful girl, but is extremely susceptible to paternal humiliation (as most junior high girls seem to be). I have a devious side, and couldn’t help myself when Megan unknowingly provided me with a perfect opportunity to embarrass her at school.

I was just about to head off to work when Megan sent me a text message about forgetting her lunch.

IMG_2772-1

Being the nice, kind, and loving father that I am, I immediately located her lunch and started devising a plan to humiliate my daughter.

I found her lunch, all nicely packaged in an unassuming brown paper bag, neatly folded at the top. Picture perfect.

That just wouldn’t do. About a foot away from her lunch was a big, ugly, yellow popcorn tin we’d used for family night treats the day before — it even still had some leftover popcorn in the bottom.

It was perfect. In just a few minutes, I located some ribbon and some tape, decorating the popcorn tin to make it even more of an eyesore. It was time to deliver my daughter’s lunch to her at school.

When I walked into the office, the receptionist looked at me suspiciously. I came clean, explaining that this was my daughter’s forgotten lunch, and that I was duty-bound as a father of a junior-high-aged girl to deliver this in the most humiliating way possible. The receptionist loved it. She was laughing as she wrote Megan’s name on it and told me she’d make an announcement to have Megan come pick it up between classes.

Megan had read my text message, and was curious about what it meant. When the class period ended, Megan heard her name called summoning her to the office. She walked into the lobby and saw the decorated popcorn tin from about 40 feet away. She knew. She walked away and just went to her next class, leaving her special lunch container just sitting in the office for the last period before lunch. She needed to figure out what to do.

Megan met her friends at lunch and told them of her plight. She was just going to leave it in the office all day and skip lunch. Her friends giggled about how embarrassing this whole thing was, but eventually offered to escort Megan to the office to pick up her lunch. Strength in numbers. Megan made one of her friends carry the container. She was too embarrassed. But now at least she had a lunch to eat.

After eating lunch, Megan continued our conversation by text message.

I was at work and got a good chuckle when she sent me the “I hate you” text. I had succeeded.

Unfortunately, my plan of having to force Megan to walk around with a giant ugly popcorn tin all day was thwarted by my wife, who knows all too well what it’s like putting up with me. Megan convinced Manina to come to the school after lunch and pick up the popcorn tin to take it home. I wasn’t disappointed that Manina bailed Megan out because my purposes had already been accomplished. Megan won’t be forgetting her lunch any time soon. And, if she does, she won’t be calling on her dad to do her a favor.

Surf Soccer

Megan’s Surf soccer team dominated this season. They were undefeated, beating some of the teams 12-0. We were obviously put in the wrong division, but it sure was fun to see them come together as a team and do some damage.

They will move up in the spring. It will be interesting to see how they do at a higher level. Megan continues to play mid-field and does really well in that position. She almost always wins 50/50’s. She continues to be speedy on the field and still has a real love for soccer. Although she is playing futsal right now, she is transitioning into basketball for the next few months. We love our cute athlete!

Jacob’s Eagle Court of Honor

After many years of hard work, late nights, projects, camp outs, long hours, Jacob has finally achieved the rank of Eagle Scout.

This is nothing short of a major accomplishment. The beginning stages began when he turned eleven and went into “Eleven Year Old” scouts. He quickly jumped head first into completing the more difficult merit badges (ie. environmental science, first aid, citizenship in the community, etc.). It wasn’t long before he began attending the BYU Pow Wows where he earned even more merit badges.

Once Jake turned twelve and became a deacon, he joined up with one of the best Scoutmasters out there. Yes, it may have been his dad, but don’t let that fool you. Seth did no favors for Jake and only expected the best from him. They made a great team and worked hard together.

Jake really excelled as a scout. He quickly took on the role of leader and was a great example to the other scouts of what they should and could accomplish. In January Jake completed his Eagle Scout Project. After completing this he was left to finish his last required merit badge (cooking) that was added on as a requirement just weeks before.

At the conclusion of the summer, Jake had met with all the right people and completed the endless amounts of paperwork and was ready for his ceremony. I joined up with three other moms and we planned and executed a pretty great ceremony. It consisted of the ROTC leading the flag ceremony, a presentation with a real bald eagle, a great slide show and delicious, patriotic food.

I am so impressed with Jake. Although he fought me at times, he really was determined to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout for himself. Surprisingly he did most of it on his own. His dad and I were there to push him along, but the majority was him wanting to get it done. He did it and we are proud parents. Love you Jake!

**On a side note, on the way to the ceremony, I accidentally ran over the back of Jacob’s ankle. I thought he was all the way in the car and as I started to drive off he yelled that his foot was caught under the tire. He ended up being in crutches for the night. It broke my heart and made it an extra emotional evening for all of us.

It was really special for Seth to be both Jake’s dad but also his Scoutmaster.

Jake with his Great Grandpa Walt and his wife Mary.