Sunday, July 27, 2008

What's going on with the Johnsons?

After our friends Sonia and her son Isaiah came for a visit and to help pack, the "kids" needed to burn off some pent up energy - Here they are doing the splits

Life is wild around here, as you can well imagine, so I will attempt to get right to the point.

Noelle Stuff...

-Noelle is doing much better this week. She hasn't been as clingy, whiny or insecure as in the past month. She actually seems at peace in the midst of all the chaos. Weird, hu? Well, not when God's involved -Praise the Lord! Yours and our prayers are being answered! (Tho' keep on prayin'...)

-She has also been going down to sleep much better. She understands more and more each day what we are saying to her. We are making a concerted effort to reassure her of our return every time we leave her room. We say, "Close your eyes and go to sleep and when you wake up we will be here to get you / play with you / feed you a snack, etc. Mommy (or Daddy) will see you after you go nite-nite. We will see you in just a little while." We have been amazed how well this is working. She smiles really big and says, "A while! A while!" in a happy squeal. We leave the room and she is out for the count. She has even been sleeping in some days. Thank you God!

-She has acquired 2 very fun new words just in the past couple days:

She received a package in the mail (thanks Tonya!) and we let her rip it open. To this she said, "Wow!"

Daddy let her help him put up some colored flags on our "For Sale" sign out front. With raised eyebrows she said, "Cool!"

Having noticed our amused and 'delighted' (?) reactions, Noelle appears to have now made them an official part of her vocabulary. And she sounds like she's thirteen or something. She's got the 'tude!! :)

Moving & Miscellaneous Stuff...

-We are almost finished packing the first floor of the house. We've worked a little bit on the upstairs, though tomorrow we begin that task in earnest. This part should go a whole lot quicker, or so my husband assures me. Some sweet and thoughtful gals from church / community (and one friend even drove 1 1/2 hours to help out) have been helping me pack the house and will be helping with some final projects this week. Eric has had some strapping young and not-so-young fellows move items at the karate school to our garage, and several more guys are expected for our official "Load-the-Truck Day" on Saturday.

-We are planning a Moving Sale for this Thursday, Friday, Saturday (if we can finish the packing and house cleaning projects by, oh, say...Wednesday?!?!????). To the Ray County folks reading this I say, "Ya'll come on out now! And bring your pick-up trucks!"

-Thursday evening is our community farewell party (Ray County folks, you are all invited to the karate building at 6pm). Sunday morning is our final service and farewell potluck-- I sense some waterworks and 'raccoon eyes' ahead (translation for the guys reading this post: 'running mascara'). Good thing I haven't packed our Kleenex boxes yet!

-We sold our karate school to some wonderful friends of ours, the Mayberry's. We actually went through the ranks together. They are talented and skilled martial artists who have a heart for ministry in the community and will do a great job continuing what we started back in 2005. We both feel we are leaving the business, and our students (boy will we ever miss 'em!), in good hands.

-Eric has put his heart and soul into ministering to / with the Richmond Church of the Nazarene and community and is facing the difficult task of saying goodbye. He is completing his responsibilities for the church district, wrapping up community projects, and finalizing the details for transitioning in the next pastor of Richmond Naz.

-I played piano with the Richmond Naz Praise Band for the last time today. It was wonderful fun to rejoin the group (I haven't been on the platform very much since Noelle has been with us), but also very sad. I will miss our times of jammin' as we praise our Heavenly Father. BTW, Noelle did quite well watching me from the front pew. She sat with her buddies Morgan, Dawn and Sandy and seemed content to "sing along" a few feet away from mommy.

A recent visit to Independence Center Mall with our friends, the Wellman's

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