excerpt from liesel's blog

after much deliberation and debating and counseling and a few prayers, we let liesel and gwyneth watch twilight. this is what liesel wrote on her blog about seeing the movie:

All I have to say about that movie is:

1. it's not as good as the book

2. it's way too artsy

3. and every one thinks I'm nuts to not like Taylor

4. and I'm really hoping New Moon is better

do you think i should let them watch new moon?

am i really this transparent?

i just called the girls in to the living room for a 'conference'. as soon as we sat down, liesel said:

"hey, mom. i bet i know what you're going to say. 'we've all had a very fun day. liesel and gwyneth got to watch twilight and go shopping for new shoes, and madeline and gretchen got to play at a friend's house. now everybody needs to pitch in and get the house cleaned so we can have a good end to our fun day!' (picture this all being said in a high mom-voice) ........so, did i get it right?"

madeline jumped in at this point and said "you forgot the part where she says 'and since you've all had such a good day i need you to show me how thankful you are by being extra happy and getting along while we clean.'"

apparently, i need to come up with some new lines.

halloween and 1/2 marathons

loren started off halloween by running in a 1/2 marathon! he did a great job (finished in 2 hours and 20 seconds). this picture is of him at mile 4. my camera died after this, so i don't have any other pictures. sadness! i guess he'll just have to run another one!

i was able to get in my workout while i was waiting for the race to start (i had to drop loren off at 6 in the morning for him to catch a shuttle to the starting line, so i had an hour to kill). i'd decided i would go for a run--let me tell you, south miami at 6 in the morning (before daylight savings=pitch black dark) is not the best place to run if you're alone and you're a girl. i was figuring people would be out running on the boardwalk by the beach. nope. just me. and the riffraff. 5 seconds after i started running i turned around and ran back to the car to get my mace. i started off again, running slightly faster than normal and practicing my escape/attack plan. i finally saw another lady jogger and asked (begged) if i could run with her. phew! (side note--i found out she does bikram yoga, too. maybe it's affected both our brains.)

anyway----------it was so fun to see loren in a race. he trained a lot for it, so it was fun to see his efforts pay off.

okay, so halloween in south florida is great. it was the first year ever that i didn't have to bundle my children up in their costumes to brave the weather. (even in california, it gets chilly at night if you're out for long). there were no long-sleeved shirts sticking out of fairy costumes. the "lowest" it got was a comfortable 80 degrees.

when we started trick-or-treating, we discovered that in south florida, you don't have to knock on people's doors to get the candy goods. everybody sets up lawn chairs in their front lawn and hands out candy outside. it's a very efficient system, and saves a lot of time not having to knock on doors of people who might not even be home.

we went to a friend's house and set up camp in their driveway for the festivities. we had pizza and a snow-cone machine and had a great time.

and to think that loren wants to move to canada next!

my pace man was an army guy. he loved his "halloween", as he called his costume. when i showed him his face in the mirror after i put makeup on him, he just stared and stared, and then finally said "that's pace!" and broke into a huge grin.
gretchy was a ballerina/tinkerbell/fairy. we had sort of motley costumes this year. i think she was happy in the end (after 20 or so costume try-ons). i put glitter on her face, and that helped things a lot.

madeline was sleeping beauty. wrong color of hair, i know, but the snow white costume was dirty.

liesel and gwyneth were "nice vampires". their outfits were decided upon after much deliberation/compromise. i'm not a big fan of scary costumes on my children--on other people's children it's just fine. i got them some great wigs that made me want long, curly hair. under their wigs, they sprayed their hair with pink stripes. very exciting and tweenish.
i got in the spirit of things and wore my friend's long, black wig. i lived my dream of having beautiful hair for about 2 minutes, until the wig got hot and scratchy.
i did leave the fun socks on. they are a throwback to my college days when i was very into socks and wore a fun pair every day. in fact, the first gift loren ever bought me was a pair of socks.

one more triathlon

this post is mostly for my mom. she never gets tired of hearing about my fun, right?! the rest of you can read if you wish.

my friend just emailed me this as i was getting ready to post this. again, i will never figure out how to get the pictures in a reasonable order.

gotta have one picture of me with my trusty steed.
okay, here' s the original post:

i forgot to put the pictures in reverse order. someday i will actually figure out this blog thing. that's okay--the finish line is the best place anyway, right? might as well start with it......

i really enjoyed this triathlon. a couple of friends did it with me this time, which made it extra fun. i was in the "mom" division--it was an all-women triathlon, so they had different divisions. so, that was fun too.

it was the same course as the first tri i did, only the swim was 300 meters longer, because it wasn't my first one. they figure if you don't drown the first time, you can handle a longer distance the next time. i beat my original time by 3 minutes, even with the longer swim--hooray for really hard workouts! also, I DIDN'T HATE THE RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes, that deserved to be in all caps. i'm not saying i liked it, i just didn't hate it. which means i didn't have to say a million "you will keep running"-type things to myself. it was nice not having to have a stern talking-to with myself.

anyway, here are some pictures of the big event:

us at the finish line. you're lucky you are just looking at us and not smelling us. we are pretty sweaty.

holding our medals (i got 1st in the mom group/4th in my age group/21st overall)
trying to flex?
loren likes this picture because he says it looks like i'm ready to beat someone up. i'm not. i'm just making a goofy face. i put it on here just for loren.
waiting for the award ceremony
running to the finish line
my face might look like i'm hating it, but i'm not. i'm just concentrating hard.
a blurry bike picture. it's my only one. oh well.
running to the transition area to get on the bike
getting out of the swim part
waiting for the tri to start. the water's cold. well, for florida.
waiting for it to start! now i'm wondering why i'm posting pictures of me in a swim cap for all to see. i have no pride left, obviously.

the johnsons come to visit

my mom and dad and two brothers came to visit us a couple of weeks ago. it's taken me this long to put the pictures onto the computer. laziness! i got into vacation mode while they were here and it's been a struggle to get back to real life. we had the best time while they were here! the highlights of the visit are as follows: we went to the beach twice in the 4 1/2 days they were here (see, i come by my beach-worshipping honestly-- it's obviously genetic); the menfolk and the children rented boats and went alligator searching (pace and i took a 15 minute ride to get enough of the experience for pace to talk about riding in a boat for days after, and then my mom and i and pace went home to relax/cook dinner/put pace in bed/talk/clean); my mom played the piano in sacrament meeting for the primary program (i am the chorister and we have no piano player........does anybody who plays the piano please want to move into our ward?)....................................i am going through family withdrawals now. who wants to come visit next?

why i love being home with pace

earlier today, the whole time i was checking my email/blogs, pace gently drove cars on my back and legs. it actually felt really good and i spent more time on the computer than was strictly necessary.

i love it that pace follows me around the house as i do my thing. he carries all his toys with him and plops down wherever i am. he doesn't ever mind when i'm cleaning the house, because he just follows along behind. he also loves it when i do "sgetches" (stretches/exercises) on the exercise ball. he gets his own ball and does them all with me. he'll breathe all hard and act tired and he loves to say "ooh, i sweaty".

i love having a little buddy all day long. i'm always surprised at how much i love my 2-year-olds. i shouldn't be, since he's my 5th--i must have a short memory.

i know this is on the cheesy side, but i was just thinking how lucky i am that i get to stay home with him so that he can follow me around and drive cars on my back.

not to say that i won't also love it when he goes down for a nap in 15 minutes.

pace's toenail polish

some of you have wondered about my son's toenails. yes, they are quite frequently painted. such are the consequences of living with 4 older sisters. i do have a rule that they have to be painted a manly color--blue, green, etc. loren tries not to panic.