October 2009: Poll Prediction Proven - Its a Girl!!!

Well we are still in shock, but Its A Girl!!! Good job on the poll guys:-) We had quite the crew in the ultrasound room this morning-myself, Mike, Owen, Eyan, my Mom and my Grandma (Tate stayed with a friend). The little baby (still hard for me to say "she") was laying in a difficult position to see throughout the majority of the ultrasound. The technician kept saying that she didn't know if she was going to be able to let us know today. Thankfully she didn't give up. She pushed the ultrasound wand around into my belly and was successful in helping the baby to move. She then was able to proclaim our little baby a girl. Automatically a stream of tears came trickling down my face. Everyone was so excited, particularly Owen:-). He has wanted a baby sister so bad. It has been so much fun to see and hear the excitement from others as we have shared the news this morning! We are very happy and maybe it will sink in within the next few months. Now I have to get planning the nursery; I'm thinking lavender, black, and white, maybe a little aqua but we'll see...

September 2009: Down, Set, Hike!

Owen is loving football! It is so much fun to watch these little 5-7 year old boys at practice and especially in a game. All these boys have known and seen of football is tackle. It makes sense to them that you tackle the one with the football, and of course anyone else on the field. What's this flag thing? They don't understand why you would pull someone's flag instead of tackle them. Or in Owen's case, put them in a head lock or yank them to the ground by their jersey. Thankfully they are beginning to learn. Owen loves to block or his form of blocking, see above:-) He also loves to be quarterback and run the ball of course.

The Johnson competitiveness hasn't fully come alive in him yet, but we have definitely seen some glimpses. Mike has laughed outloud a couple times at Owen's form of justice during a game in response to his getting his flag pulled, tackled, etc.. Mike says its exactly what he would have done; to me its not so funny. The coaches are SO patient, its commendable. We have really had a good experience with this program. Go Thundercats!

Owen has been able to have a few visitors come to his games: Grandma, Grandpa, and GG. He loves when people come to watch:-) He has a game at the end of the season at a high school field under the lights. Should be fun!

September 2009: Recipe 4: Strange but Tasty Crock Pot Chicken

I do have to say that I loved the name so I had to try it. I was also drawn to the fact that it is made in a crock pot AND you can put the chicken in frozen!!! No remembering to get the chicken out the night before, fabulous! And the recipe is...

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Strange but Tasty Crock Pot Chicken

as submitted by Jennifer Anderson

4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts (frozen is ok) :-)!!!

1.5 cups any salsa (I chose one of my faves Santa Barbara brand Mango & Peach salsa)

3T brown sugar

1T dijon mustard

Directions per Jennifer:

Put the chicken in the crockpot, mix the salsa/br sugar/mustard and pour over the chicken. Cook on low 6-7 hours or until chicken is done. Serve over rice.

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Wow, that's it! I've got to remember to use the crockpot more. Dishes like this make me think maybe I could cook a couple times a week at least:-). Is this really considered cooking though?

The chicken was so tender and the name says it all, "strange but tasty". We love Basmati rice in our family. Of course rice in our house has to have Mike's stamp of approval. Unfortunately our rice cooker is on the fritz so I sort of tried to do it in the microwave and didn't realize that having a oversized lid on the dish was not a great idea. All the ooey-gooey steamy residue from the rice dripped off the sides of the lid and all over the microwave. Oh well, the rice still turned out tasting pretty good. I shredded the chicken to make it easier for the kids to eat.

August 2009: Recipe 3: Homemade Mac & Cheese with Chicken Casserole

Ok, sooooo sorry I am VERY behind in my fabulous "Girl's Got No Skills Contest" but I hope that I have done an okay job explaining my circumstances. I am determined to do better. Who cares if I feel like I have the flu everyday, right?! I am waiting for a "You go girl" to sound out from the page. Oh well its just me here in this room so no affirmations yet. So I made Recipe #3 way back in August, but I took good notes so here we go:

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Homemade Mac & Cheese with Chicken Casserole
as submitted by Melanie LaSelle



1 lb box of macaroni. We use shells
2 cans of cream of chicken (reduced fat) soup (I used 99% Fat Free)
2 cups of milk (I used Fat Free)
1 can from Costco of chicken (or leftover chicken in the same ounces, chunked up)
1 16 oz pkg of shredded sharp cheddar cheese (I used aged Wisconsin sharp cheddar - yumm!!)

Directions per Melanie:

This looks not so good when making, but cooked is delicious.

Mix all together and bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

As a side, we make either petite brussel sprouts or broccoli.

Everyone always loves it.

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So I've never made anything with the word "casserole" in it. I do have to say that what I've heard from people about casseroles is true, they are pretty easy. Throw it all together and bake and voila!, dinner:-) Of course it wasn't exactly that easy but it felt easy and that counts in my book. I think if I would make it again, I wouldn't have looked at the fat content of the shredded cheese, yikes! Of course I'm not eating the entire pot so I guess its ok.

A friend of mine came over just as the Mac & Cheese was coming out of the oven and she was sold just from the smell and then doubly sold when she tasted it. She got the recipe and made it for her fam the next day.

Of course just as I was done plating the kids' portions, my camera died. I had to complete my photo series with a janky* photo taken on my phone. Sorry!

*janky- a fun word I picked up from my lil sis and her friends meaning according to the Urban Dictionay "(adjective) inferior quality; held in low social regard; old and delapidated; refers almost exclusively to inanimate material objects, not to people"; not to be confused with "jinkies" used by my beloved Velma from Scooby-Doo:-).

I served sliced plums (hmm, I wonder where I got those plums:-) ) and broccoli which my kids loved. I love the little kids divider plates and my kids love to eat off them. The meal was definitely a croud pleaser. Eyan told me that it was his favortie tied with "mutmeal", what our family affectionately calls oatmeal as named by Tate:-) That says a lot because my kids would eat "mutmeal" for every meal of the day if we would let them. (And all too often that resembles reality:-) )

September 2009: Announcement!!!

So it is definitely time for me to do a little bit of catching up. Hopefully this will explain my significant absense from blogging as well as an explanation for all of you who so generously participated in my "Girls Got No Skills" contest. For those of you who read my Spotlight and Spoiler, I promised that I would give the complete story, and I finally will.
To quote a bit from my Spotlight:
"The past 6 months has been a difficult time for our family. In summary, beginning in April my husband was no longer able to swallow food. For months he went to drs without answers as I watched him shrink and almost starve to death. Before this all began we had decided that it was time to try for another baby. I ended up miscarrying. On the same day Mike finally got his diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, we found out we were pregnant again. As you can imagine finding out that the person you love the most has a crippling disease that could take away all of his functions is beyond heart-wrenching. I was actual grateful that I had discovered I was pregnant that same day despite the wonder if this baby would know the amazing man and father as I know him. Knowing I had a child developing inside of me forced me to gain control of my convulsive crying.
Since then my extremely optimistic husband, my supportive family, encouraging friends, and my loving God have helped me to work through fear and despair. The realization of having this disease has only brought out the best in my husband, he is truly the most inspiring person I have ever known. This helps me to want to be that for him. I am not sure what our future holds but I know God’s hand is in it and I pray it brings out my true character as I move forward as a wife, mother, and friend."

Yes, I am pregnant, and what a blessing it is!!! Because of just recently having a miscarriage and because of pain I experienced early on in this pregnancy that I feared to be a tubal pregnancy, I have been very cautious about telling anyone. I am now 17 weeks!!! Of course I'm due in March, its THE month to be born in:-) It has been a relief to be able to go to my Dr.'s appointments and hear the baby's heartbeat and see its little Johnson body doing near back flips on the "Dr.'s TV" as Owen calls it. I have also been able to feel the baby move within the last few weeks and what an amazing sensation it is.

To add to my reassurance that everything is going great with the pregnancy- this is what my Dr. tells me:-) - I am having horrible morning sickness. I never experienced this with my past 3 pregnancies. I rarely felt sick and I had never thrown up (of course I had other fun & exciting problems which some of you are aware) but no morning sickness. Of course I'm not sure why they call it "morning" sickness because it can be an all day thing. I have been soooo sensitive to smells & tastes, its really annoying to someone who loves food. Gratefully generous family and friends have been bringing us meals and meals. Also Mike is discovering what he can eat, which is mainly vegetarian dishes, and has been cooking a little bit more.

Because this pregnancy is so different from my previous 3, Mike is convinced that I am having a girl. I am not convinced but have suddenly this week become anxious to know. My ultrasound is scheduled for Oct. 29th so I've got 3 more weeks of waiting. I love my boys and another one would be so much fun. Adding a girl to the mix would bring some needed femininity and of course some fun clothes shopping:-) I do have to say that my greatest reason for wanting a girl would be to have someone by my side in tending to Mike's needs if it comes to that. I know the boys would be there, but its different with girls I think.

So there you go, I'm going to put a poll up to see who votes for a boy and who dares to vote for a girl? (You know that its only a 20% chance that after having two children of the same gender in a row that you will have one of the opposite.) Your results of my poll will be in on the 28th!

September 2009: Picture Day

So the last day of the Spotlight that I had to offer up info on was Thursday, Picture Day. (On Friday they tell you nice things about yourself.) It was so fun to go through my photos of my life. Gratefully many moons ago I had conquered putting most of my "growing up" photos into chronological order. I had a good many laughs looking at them, including some "why did mom let me leave the house in that ensemble?"s. I ended up only posting a few because it was taking forever to scan them into my Mom's computer. Since most of these ladies have known me less than 6 months, I wanted to show the transformation of my hair throughout my life but I couldn't find the one with my horrendous home permed hair (maybe I chucked them) and I didn't have time to scan a few others. Oh, well, I think they got the jist. I also wanted to find one of my rad high school gangsta car, but the only ones I could find were either one at night in which you can't even see the car, although you can make me out holding my steering wheel or one of me in curlers-not sure why.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun for me to post these on the blog:

Little me:-) Love the woven shoes and awesome ruffly slit in my overalls.

Living in Alaska. Luke with his awesome side part is next to me, accompanied by our neighbor friends: Mark, Denise (my bff) and her brother Brad kneeling.

My good friend Rachel and I at EFY (Especially for Youth, a week long church youth camp) in Missouri my Jr. year.

One of Mike and I's engagement photos taken in Aspen Grove where we met. I love his curly hair:-)

My favorite wedding photo. What a picture perfect day it was!