Merry Christmas From the Johnson's!

(This was originally going to be the card we sent out this year, but I decided to use pictures throughout our year instead of these more formal ones!)

The Johnson crew is hanging in our jammies this morning, jamming out to Christmas tunes, and prepping for our upcoming festivities including church, hosting with my family afterwards, dreaming of sugarplums tonight while Santa visits (hopefullly!!), and then spending the morning together opening our gifts and celebrating Jesus' birthday before heading to Grammie Cindy's and Papa Mark's house for more festivities :) I love this time of year...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Kicking off the Christmas Season!

One of my favorite ways to kick off the Christmas season (aside from all the gift buying!) is to take a trip to Turck's Trees. First we walk through rows of trees to find just the right one ;) Then Max does the 'manly' thing and cuts down the tree for us where we bring it to the workers to shake all the excess branches/etc out. After that, it gets loaded into our truck and we head into the giftshop to visit Santa Claus and have some cider. Before leaving, we make a quick visit to the reindeer outside and then head home to begin decorating our tree.
Piper was a little intimidated by Santa this year (I figured she would be, but she did let me hold her and stand by him to take a picture). If you ask her what she wants Santa to bring her this year, she will tell you, "a teddy bear-- a blue teddy bear". (Which means my shopping is not actually done, because apparently I need to add a blue teddy bear to the loot!) Ryder chatted it up with the big guy and asked for "legos, snowshoes, and a flying helicopter". I have a feeling he will be a happy boy come Christmas morning!
My parents live close by and stopped out while we were there so I could snap some photos of them so the kids were excited to see them. :)

Hoping you and your families had a great Thanksgiving weekend as well! Between taking in our first movie as a family (Frozen--we all loved it!), stuffing our faces all day on Thursday, relaxing on Friday, shopping ALL DAY Saturday with my sister, and doing the tree thing on Sunday after church-- we are exhausted!! Spending this dreary/snowy Monday relaxing in sweats, cleaning, and finishing up with decorating for the holidays!

11.5.13- First Snowfall!

I'm not quite ready for old man winter yet, but I have to admit the snow was a nice distraction for my kiddos for a while and they were SO excited to be able to play in the snow. I'm even happier that it is long gone by now though!

snowballs were a must, obviously.

miss p wasn't quite sure at first what to think of it...

she did eventually warm up to it eventually and had a blast sledding later that night with her big brother :)

day to day living

Since staying at home full-time is new to me, I get asked frequently how I am enjoying it.
My answer is usually, "I.Love.It."
I never intended to be a stay at home mom, it was never in my plan. I loved every minute of college, and I've always considered myself to be career driven. That plan was great, for awhile. Until I started feeling like I was constantly putting more work into OTHER people's lives and families, than my own. I loved working, but I couldn't help but start to feel overwhelmed with being at a job that emotionally demanded more out of me than I could handle some days, and then coming home to two children who quite frankly didn't care what kind of day I had- they just wanted a good meal, some playtime, and maybe a bath here and there ;) Oh, and there is a husband who needed a little attention here and there also! So this year, my 'job title became "simply mom" --(is that an oxymoron??) :)
--I'll also be honest that before I stayed home, I always kind of wondered what SAHM's did all day. Certainly they had time to hit up the gym, get manis and pedis, keep up with the local coffee shop crowd while frequenting the Gap on a day to day basis, right?? Well, I quickly found it's not as glamorous as I probably once thought! Well, maybe it would be if money was no concern, but let's be real! Here's a quick play by play of what my day usually consists of....

We usually invite guests for breakfast, and by guests I mean any 'little people' she can get her hands on.

After breakfast, P usually gets to watch one cartoon while mom attempts to get ready for the day. Her favorite these days is Caillou, or Superwhy. 

Then we are off and running errands for the day, visiting Papa Steve at the post office when we can :) 

And we take naps....and by we, I mean her.... :) 

Oh, did I forget to mention we spend a vast majority of our time on the potty? She usually averages 2-3 successful pee pee's on the potty per day, so she's learning!

Well something has to keep us entertained while we are in the bathroom........ 

Oh, and pants are negotiable at our house. There are no rules during potty training :) 

Then finally, these goofballs come home and expect some type of edible food in their bellies. (I'm still working on the 'edible' part of this equation! ;)) 

Sunday's Juggling Act

At one point in time yesterday afternoon, Max and I were 'relaxing' and not doing a whole lot of anything and we both commented on what a perfect end to the weekend it had been. Now, thats not to say that we weren't busy, because we were. Here's a quick glimpse of what our Sunday was like:

Early A.M-- Max is up and out the door to go bowhunting. It's his "happy place" :)
8am- I am up with the kids, got them dressed and fed them breakfast.
9am- Max returns home (no deer, unfortunately!) and takes a shower while I get dressed and ready for a run.
9:40am- I head into town for my LAST long run before the half marathon this weekend! It was brutal and I had to run in the rain for the first 4 1/2 miles, but it was worth it and I made my goal of 12 miles. My leg issues are nearly healed and I was so happy to get that run over with!
10:30am- While I am still out on my run, Max takes the kids to church
12pm- I return home, stretch out with some yoga poses while playing with the kids, and feed them lunch while Max goes on HIS run for the day.
2pm- Piper is down for her nap, we spend some quality time with Ry before he heads to his dad's for the evening.
3pm- Ryder leaves with his dad, Max and I lounge around with coffee while making our meal plan/grocery list for the week -- (**We use the Paprika App on our Ipad and we love it! Check it out if you haven't already!)
4:30pm- We wake up Miss P from her nap so we can head over to my parents for the evening. Max and my dad went out bowhunting and us girls just relaxed, played, and watched House Hunters repeatedly!
7pm-- We headed home so we could put the kids to bed.
8pm- Kids in bed, Max runs to the grocery store and I picked up the house and started in on some laundry.

Needless to say, we slept well last night! Weekends (well actually, everyday!) is a juggling act for us since we both have our hobbies/stuff we want/need/like to do. And of course, we both want to spend time with the kids as well... Days like yesterday make me so appreciative for the relationship that I have with Max-- I can't imagine doing this alone!

from a frustrated runner....

I had planned for today to be a great day. It was Monday, yes, but good old' Christopher Columbus was going to pull through for me and allow my husband to be home with P and I today since Max didn't have to work. I had visions of us having a great time together, being super productive, kicking ass and taking names getting stuff done around the house, and just having one of those awesome days.
It didn't exactly pan out quite like that.
I woke up disappointed that I was still in quite a bit of pain from a running injury that happened early LAST week. I had been to the chiropractor and although most of the pain had been taken away, my left calf was still very weak for the most part and I knew the best thing would be to just accept the fact that although I desperately NEED to be training right about now, it needed rest to heal. I told myself that over and over as I continued to wait for the day when I woke up and it would feel back to normal. Unfortunately today wasn't the day, but I did have a follow up appointment at the chiropractor already scheduled so I went in and expressed my frustrations to the doc. I still had some resistance/swelling in my calf and because of the way things had shifted since last week, I was also having a lot of knee pain. My chiropractor adjusted me, listened to me whine and complain about how my race is NEXT weekend, and again told me to stay off of it for another day or so and then try to ease back into some short runs depending on how it was feeling at that point. I was really sore after leaving the chiro, but I am hopeful and excited about the fact that very late this afternoon, I noticed that I was able to walk around the house without noticing any pain in my leg. Either way, I am bummed at the thought of this race coming up. The farthest I have gone to date is 10 miles which really isn't terrible but now after a full week off from any type of cardio at all, I feel behind and inadequate once again. My head was not in the game during the last few months of training. Clearly, my body wasn't quite on board with this idea either as this is the 2nd time I've been held up due to calf/knee/hip injuries in the last two months. I am so excited for this race to be over (although I know it will be fun and I'm sure I will be glad that I did it!) so I can give my body a nice long break from pounding pavement. My gym will throw open it's doors in excitement to see me, because well, it's been a while. I will greet the elliptical machine with a big fat kiss. Well, maybe not, but you get the idea. I will give my body a well deserved break from running -- only of course until I realize how much I miss it when Spring rolls around ;)
Anyway, my day was not exactly as I had pictured it would be because of my running frustrations putting me in a bad mood. Combine that with the fact that my husband is quite positive he has strep throat (again) and really didn't feel great in addition to the fact that it rained for the better part of the day really made this Monday a flop. We did manage to run a few errands, but not much else. Oh well I guess! On a more positive note, I did make this stellar quinoa salad tonight and it's pretty delish if I do say so myself! It makes plenty to munch on throughout the week and it's packed with protein and yummy goodness. I found the recipe here:
http://fitfoodiefinds.com/2012/05/chunky-southwestern-quinoa-salad/

Enjoy!

little miss p....

Tomorrow morning, my baby girl will be a TWO year old.
I can't even begin to explain the emotions I am experiencing over this!! We are hoping the weather holds out for a fun filled day to spend time as a family tomorrow and we will be celebrating with a party on Sunday at our house...

Some other fun facts about Piper at age 2:

--usually wakes up around 7:30am, bedtime around 8pm
--takes one long nap (3 hours) every afternoon
--just recently began to eat vegetables, she would hardly touch them the first year and a half of her life!
--loves apples, her daddy's homemade pizza, and anything sweet that mama bakes
--she is fearless
--she has no idea when she is in trouble. She simply ignores the fact altogether and smiles and say, "no mom, just hug!" --(Honestly, how do you stay angry at that???)
--i'm quite certain that she loves getting to hang out with mommy all day, but she RUNS to her dad when he gets home from work
--she plays with mainly boy toys, she doesn't mind!
--she does, however, love a good pedicure from her grandmas and aunties
--she is also a big fan of sofia the first, "lella" (aka--cinderella), and minnie mouse
--she seems to think every piece of furniture in my house is a trampoline, especially her crib
--if you ask her what she wants for her birthday, she will tell you "I want pony for burday" :)
--she weighs in around 25lbs, give or take - and last I heard, she is a little on the short side
--she is a little mommy -- her newest cousin, baby jack, is her obsession. She feels completely confident that she is able to attend to ALL of his needs, including picking him up and feeding him. (Poor baby Jack!!)
she has many nicknames, including but not limited to: peeps, pipes, P, little miss P, peepsie pie, pips, pipsqueak :) --When asked which of these is her favorite, she says "Pipes"
--she copies everything her big bro does

Happy birthday to our sweet peeps! :)

piper's debut

I had to share this.
Piper was on the kitchen floor today playing with cups of water (Why, you ask? Well-- because water entertains toddlers like no other, so we roll with it.) We had the radio on, as usual to 97.1 and I noticed that Piper started singing along to some of the songs. I sat down with her and whipped out my camera to record her and although she got a little camera shy for a bit, she resumed her usual dramatic ways and belted out tunes like no other.
Her song of choice?? Well Rihanna's "Stay" of course :) Check it out to get your laugh in today at the expense of my little drama queen....

June '13

June may have been one of the craziest months we've ever had. Ryder finished up his Kindergarten year at Dassel Elementary and I finished up my own school year, for good this time.... Due to loss of funding, my grant was not going to be funded for the 13-14 school year and since we have been debating about the idea of me staying home with the kids for the last couple of years, it seemed like maybe this was the best time to make that transition. I will say that I have never in my life envisioned myself as a stay at home mom, but sometimes things change and right now, it is what my family needs. I think it's in my nature to always look for little things to 'dabble in' on the side because I like contributing to our finances and having a little extra money to spend and because I do actually love working most of the time, but for right now, Max and I both believe that home is where I need to be for a while....

Goodbye office, goodbye career!

So after we wrapped up with school it was full throttle as we jumped into basketball camps, vacation bible school, kinderball, and swimming lessons! I think my tahoe is still recovering from all the miles she had to put on in those first few weeks :) Then we celebrated the wedding of some of our best friends, Joe and Katy Beckman in Waseca. Piper was honored to be their little flower girl, Max was 'co-best man' and we had such a fun time!! The following morning was father's day and after the long drive back home we spent the rest of the day relaxing with our little fam.... The following weekend was busy as I threw my sister a baby shower honoring my little nephew to be (at the time!) and after that, Max and I said goodbye to our kiddos and our loving bed as we dove into the boundary waters for a canoe trip with Max's brothers and their wives.... I told you June was busy :)

my basketball stud...

I passed, mom! 

My sweet flower girl (who actually was NOT acting very sweet earlier that day!) 

Piper helping Auntie Lissa open presents for baby!

let's review....

The last time I actually blogged was back in April, I think. Luckily for all of you, absolutely NOTHING has happened since then ;)

Just kidding! Here's my attempt at very 'brief' (although it will probably get long--my apologies!) recap of the last few months....

April 2013: First up--our Nashville trip! We are so blessed to have had the opportunity to meet this amazing city and we definitely soaked up all it had to offer. We can't wait to get back there!!

heading to the grand ol' opry!

we saw some great performers, but our favorite was darius ruckert!

following the opry, we headed downtown... we had the best time ever and thanks to some awesome expertise from a friend of max's--we knew just where to go. The band was incredible and the drinks were pretty delish too, obviously! Note to self---always bring cash in to the bar bathrooms in Nashville or else you won'g get to use the soap! :) 

following our late night, we found a much needed coffee shop, had some breakfast and later went on a a beautiful run in a park downtown. 

Our last night in Nashville, catching a quick drink before eating quite possibly the most expensive meal we've ever had at Etch. Seriously, worth every single penny. We had a five course meal that was to die for. We still find ourselves talking about this place. If you ever find yourself in Nashville, do your tastebuds a favor and make reservations to eat here!!

Other things we loved about Nashville: the opry hills mall (it kept me company during the day when max was working!) The home2suites hotel was fabulous and we loved the location, the frothy monkey coffeehouse was worth the cab ride  and the neighborhood (12south) that it's in is very trendy and and full of 'my people' as my husband put it ;) Prior to our show at the opry we also grabbed an app and drink at The Patterson House. We would recommend this place over and over and over. Their drink menu is so unique and the bartenders have it down to a science. It is very tricky to find since it is a 'speakeasy' establishment and we happened to have gotten very lucky to find it, but we are so glad we did!! If you can't tell, we fell in love with this awesome town.... :)

Not long after our return from Nasvhille, this little guy went and turned SIX on us!

Look at the sweet smile! And yes, the tooth fairy had just recently payed him a visit if you can't tell from the big gap in his teeth :) Ryder is the most considerate and loving little boy I know. At six years old he loves ninja turtles, sports (baseball and basketball are two of his faves), hunting and fishing, swimming, (he is a little fish!), dirtbiking, and all things boy. He loves to be surrounded by the people he loves. I am so lucky to be his mama!

May 2013: 

May kept us busy with mother's day celebrations, bachelor/bachelorette parties, and field trips!

Mother's day snuggles and coffee with my little ones! (Check out Starr in the background!)

Ryder checking the giraffes on his Como Zoo field trip!

stay tuned.... :)

I'm still alive :)
Just now finally feeling like maybe I could find some time to sit down at a computer once again and play around with this so called blog. Considering the fact that the whole purpose of this blog was to document our adventures as a family and to be able to look back on and cherish these memories---I got to thinking that perhaps maybe I should once again 'document' --huh? :) So stay tuned, friends.... There will (hopefully!) be more coming soon and maybe a fresh new look as well ;)

1st annual girls/sisters trip!

A few months back, some girlfriends and I decided that we needed a girls trip. We all deserved one, of course. So like all things, we created a 'facebook event', set a date, and came up with a list of places we could go. Then, (with a homemade drumroll) we picked one of our travel destinations out out of a mason jar.

Fast forward a few months, make a few minor changes, and there we were in the quaint little town of Stillwater, Minnesota. There were 7 of us total, and coincidentally-- it was 3 groups of sisters! We didn't plan it that way, but a few of our friends had other things going on and couldn't make it, so the final group actually ended up being a big group of sisters :) We had so much fun, we all came home with (what felt like) 6 pack abs from laughing so hard!

When planning what we wanted to do on our fabulous girls weekend, we started to notice a pattern of two things that kept popping up -- spas, and drinks :) OBVIOUSLY! Therefor, we decided to spend our weekend at Just for Me Spa, in Stillwater. They have houses that you can rent out right next to the spa, and that is precisely what we did.

We checked in on Friday evening (and had quite the welcoming committee ;)) and started off the weekend the right way with some delicious homemade chicken alfredo lasagna, salad, and plenty of wine. Throw in some 'sex on the beach' jello shots, and our night was made!

Saturday morning consisted of monkey bread and mimosas, then a full morning at the spa where we enjoyed the hot-tub, massages, facials, and lastly, mani/pedis. I simply can not speak highly enough of this spa. The Just for Me Spa exceeded our expectations on every single level!! After the spa, we had some lunch, did a little shopping downtown, and finally got ready for a night out. I couldn't even tell you the name of the bar we ate/drank at, but I can tell you they had a fabulous dj for the night! ;) We even got our exercise in as we walked the whole way home (it wasn't close). Such a fun night....The following morning we made yet another fabulous meal consisting of breakfast burritos, and a much needed stop at Caribou to wrap up the weekend. It was quite literally the perfect weekend, and such a nice and appreciated break for this momma!

I love these girls....

One pretty awesome group of ladies :) 

Michelle and Amanda

Sara, Amber, and Emily

and of course-- my sister (Mellissa) and I :)

Can't wait for next year, ladies!!!

13.1--done!

Yesterday I accomplished one of my main goals for 2013-- I ran 13.1 miles and finished the Get Lucky Triple 7K Half Marathon in St.Paul with a time of 2hrs,8min,38sec. :)

Almost a year ago I watched Max finish Grandma's Half Marathon in Duluth and I was so proud of him, but also so bummed that I hadn't let him talk me into doing it with him. I brushed it off and said things like "This body wasn't built for running. These short legs can't make it that far. I don't have time to train for something like that."

A few months ago something inside me decided that maybe I couldn't finish a half marathon, but how would I ever know if I didn't at least try once? So, I did the most important thing; I found a good support team and a fun run to sign up for. Then I worked my ass off training for nearly 12 straight weeks. I squeezed in Yoga on Mondays, Runs on Tues, Wed, and Thursdays, and a long run on Saturday/Sunday each week.

When the day of the race finally came yesterday, I can say that I felt "prepared" but not necessarily "confident".  5AM came quite early as I got up, got dressed, and wanted to cry as I stepped outside to test the weather. Conditions were less than ideal being icy, a bit snowy from the day before, and definitely chilly (I think it was around 20 degrees when we were running??). I tried not to think about the weather, because it was one of the only things I couldn't change about the whole experience. We rode up to St.Paul as a big group with some of my favorite people which helped take my mind off of what was ahead.

As the race began, we (meaning Justina and I, along with Max popping in here and there) fell into a good pace and the first half went rather quickly, although a little crowded and icy at times. We had our sweet "cheerleaders"  (Jen, Mellissa, Kelsey, and Kate) at mile 4 and mile 9, so it was something to look forward to as we ran on! (Thanks, ladies--you are all rather awesome!) Those first 9 miles were pretty comfortable, but from mile 10-13, things really got difficult. I was trying to stay positive, even in my head because I know how quickly those negative thoughts can bring me down, but I was honestly a hurting unit at that point. I hadn't trained for quite so many inclines/hills, and it really took a toll on my lower body. I was aching and I felt as though I hit a brick wall. (Note to self, don't forget to stop for your energy chews part way through the race! Dumb mistake, because I desperately needed those towards the end of the race)... However, with Justina and Max by my side, they kept me trucking right along until finally I could see the finish line. When we crossed the finish, I had no idea what time we had finished in. I don't even remember seeing the clock, I was just so happy to be done. It wasn't until we were heading back to the car that I really thought to ask what time we finished in and I was pleasantly happy with my time. Since I had never done one, and since winter running is not the best for training, I had secretly set a goal of under 2 hrs and 15 minutes, so coming in almost 7 minutes faster than that was okay with me! The rest of the day was spent celebrating St.Patty's day as is tradition for our little 'group' meandering around Minneapolis visiting some local 'establishments' and basking in our own awesomeness together. It really doesn't get much better than that....
Pictures soon :)

chasing leprechauns...

The title to this blog is a little random, I must say. But the other night I had a dream related to my upcoming half marathon and in my dream the only thing that kept me moving was the fact that I was being chased by leprechauns.
Interesting, right?

In all reality, it may take those creepy little guys chasing me to keep going in the actual race. It is a week away from tomorrow and I have such mixed feelings about it...  I've been consistent with my training physically (although I'm slacking a bit this week due to STILL sick children--Ryder has bronchitis! Ugh!) but mentally I'm SO not there. I'm terrified and even though I know I can do it, I have  my doubts. Here's what I've learned in this (almost) 12 week journey thus far:

The Good:
*I have an amazing running partner. Justina-- simply put, you rock! She is the most positive and enthusiastic person and it makes for the perfect running partner. As we run, we tend to just get in our own grooves and do our thing, but it does make a HUGE difference to have someone next to you either way!
*Although I hate winter running (we'll discuss this again below!) and constantly regret signing up for my first half marathon in the dead of Minnesota winter, I will say that training for this 13.1 has given me a reason to stay fit this winter. I can't say I would have been as diligent with visiting my lovely little Snap Fitness if I wouldn't have signed up for this race...
* I get a free beer after I finish the race. That alone, is awesome. I'm not Irish in the slightest bit but on St.Patty's Day I like to take one for the team and play along because well, I enjoy the color green, and beer is always good :)
* This last reason is a bit ridiculous but one of my favorite things in the world is shopping for new running gear. Lululemon, Athleta, Gap, Scheels, and as always, Targetto make me so happy! New running swag is only appropriate of course, if I can justify it by saying, "I am about to run 13 miles, I deserve a new pair of running tights, damnit!" :)

The Bad:
* I am so over stressing about how to fit in my weekly runs, it is exhausting! Things get much more complicated when working, raising two monkeys, and having a husband who is also training. Oh, and trying to have a social life.... Oh, and trying to schedule running around that sassy Mother Nature.

*Speaking of the weather, I hate the wind. I hate the snow. I hate the ice. I won't continue on with this rant very long, but Spring is much needed in this household. Trying to run outside during winter weather conditions is just not something I plan on doing again after this race!

*This has been the worst couple months for my family in regards to illness. Stomach flu? Strep throat? Bronchitis? Teething? Yep--- at some point in time either my kids, or my husband, or myself, have dealt with all of these things. It makes training very stressful and for this reason (in addition to many others!) I will be happy when it's over...

The Ugly:
* I haven't figured out why exactly, but running is extremely emotional for me. Last week I ran my farthest to date: 11.53 miles with Max. I almost cried twice during the run due to frustration, and when we finally sprinted into our driveway, I was sobbing. I'm not even sure why, all I could say over and over was "It's so hard!" My ever loving husband's response: "Well duh. If it wasn't hard, everyone would be out doing this!" Very true, but it didn't do much to make me feel better at the time. I wish I could just be happy with the fact that probably a year ago I was convinced I would never be able to run that far, but instead I focus too much on my time and I feel like I'm never running well enough. Or fast enough. And if I could stop comparing myself to where I think I should be.... Or who I should be able to keep up with.

With all that said and done, I really am excited for next weekend! I still love running and I still love the feeling of panting for air and the look of flushed cheeks :) T-Minus 8 days until it's time to Get Lucky!

Still Rockin' It...

A few weeks ago, Max and I packed up the kiddies and made a mini road trip to Wood Lake, Minnesota to visit Max's Grandma Hazel. We had a great time visiting with her, catching up, and having some of her famous apple pie--YUM!
I will let you be the judge, but with nearly 98 years behind her belt, this lady is still rockin' it! :)

February 2013

why hello March, we've been waiting for you!

The last time I posted was February 1st, exactly one month ago. In that post, I described that our family was going to be participating in "No Spend February".  So....An update on how it went??
--Actually, it went quite awesome! I'm proud to say that we did extremely well, far beyond my expectations! I won't lie, I found it to be difficult at times, and somewhat of an inconvenience sometimes, but overall - it was a lot of fun. It forced us to be creative and organized.
As always when trying to save money, things did come up. If you can recall, we had decided to only spend money on GAS, GROCERIES, and BILLS. We did that. In fact, we rocked that. However, we did have more bills than normal, which kind of sucked. During the month of February we had plumbers over twice, a dishwasher repair man, and because it was the coldest month of the year, our heating bill was higher than normal as well. But even after paying those extra bills, we could still see a difference in our checking account. I can't give you an actual number-- my husband would be the 'numbers' guy--but I can tell you that he was super impressed! We didn't go out to eat or "grab a quick bite, or coffee, or snack" once --unless we had a giftcard to use. We didn't buy eachother pointless cards and gifts for Valentine's day. In fact,  I didn't step foot in a Target or a Mall, because that would have just been asking for trouble. I didn't even check out the sale papers because I knew there was no point! Everytime I started itching to buy something, I wrote it down. It's funny now to see the stuff that I wrote down over the month--they were definitely impulse buys! Looking over it, some are things that I definitely feel are important, but others are not so much at all.
So, we did it once, and we'll likely do it again. And, we even inspired others to give it a try! (Good luck, KJK!)  But for now, it is March and I feel like I can let out a big sigh of relief. In addition to not spending any unnecessary money, we've had quite the sick household for the last couple weeks. Ryder had the worst of it, but we've all been dealing with our own version of illness, and we are so ready for the weekend! Ryder is heading up to Breezy Point and Piper is having a sleepover with her auntie and grandparents, so Max and I are having a whole day/night together alone! I can't even begin to describe how excited we are to get out of the house and spend some time together sans kids... For now we are planning on spending the day in the cities to check out our half marathon course, do dinner, of course, and maybe grab a drink or two ;) --Oh yeah, and grocery shop....Isn't that what all hot dates include?!

February 1st...dun, dun, dunnnnnnn

Today is February 1st folks, so guess what.
#nospendfebruary-- thats what.

A few weeks ago the husband emailed me while he was at work. The title was "this looks cool, we should try it" -- I got excited, obviously, and clicked on the link.
It turned out to be an article on how you should jump start your savings and prioritizing for the year by spending NO money in February (other than the necessities--strictly meaning gas, groceries, and bills--nothing else).
Clearly-- I had questions. What about a quick $3.30 medium nonfat caramel mocha from MCD'S when I need a pick me up....? Surely that had to be an exception, it's practically free! Nope. It's not. What about when some friends of ours are meeting up for drinks, it's been a long week and I need a desperately need a cocktail?? Nope. Not gonna happen. What about all the cute and NECESSARY accessories I need for my kitchen/living room since we just repainted them?? Surely that doesn't count since it's for the HOUSE, right?? ........You guessed it, wrong again.
(INSERT LONG EXASPERATED SIGH HERE...........)

Then I got over it, and decided this would be fun. Kind of challenging, but kind of fun. It made me examine the month ahead of us and plan for it accordingly. I knew I had a girls day planned touring local homes during the month with friends, so I paid for my ticket in advance. I tried to plan for almost everything I could think of but really I figured out that there really wasn't much that I 'needed' --huh, imagine that!
So.....think I can do it?? To be  honest, I'm really not sure how well I will do, but I think it will be cool to see how much of a difference (if any) we see at the end of the month in the good ol' bank account. To be fair, I decided that gift cards will be my saving grace this month. Since coffee and chai teas are my best friends some days-- I should be covered since I have leftover giftcards to Starbucks, Caribou, and MCD's :) I may keep my sanity afterall :)
Ps----Oh, and if you are losing sleep because of fretting over my egg situation--no worries, I had a personal delivery with some farm fresh eggs last week :) Phew!! (Thanks!!)

Untrustworthy eggs...

It's freaking cold. My chickens, in addition to the rest of us, are not happy about it apparently. They are on strike and refusing to lay eggs. 

Since I've been trying to get plenty of protein in, I've been eating a lot of eggs in the mornings. Now my eggs are gone.

Yesterday, the hubby came home with a few groceries because he knew how much I had going on that night and there was a few things we really couldn't go without any longer. He whipped out a carton of eggs......That he bought from the grocery store..... They were white.....They were small..... They didn't look like my eggs and I had a really hard time accepting the fact that I was going to have to eat these eggs for a while. I was really struggling with these damn eggs, and even though I have a rather love-hate relationship with my chickens-- I suddenly really missed their egg-popping out abilities. 

Then Max laughed at me and reminded me that prior to two years ago-- I had probably only ever eaten "store-bought" eggs and that I would more than likely survive this rather temporary stage in my life. 

He may be right-- but until then, I will still miss my pretty brown eggs produced by my very own bitchy chickies. ;)

-15 degrees, why not?!

It is freezing outside. Actually well below freezing. However, it puts me in the BEST mood ever because it just means we are all hunkered down and snuggled up together for the next couple days and I.LOVE.IT :) It also means there is lots of extra time for coffee, pinterest, house projects, and playing! I'll warn you this blog is going to be quite random because I should actually split it up into a bunch of different blogs, but I'm not going to.... So just go with it :)

First of all, my best friend ran her very first ever half marathon in Key West this morning. A run I wanted so badly to do with her, but never found that money tree to buy my plane ticket with (Update: I'm still searching for that tree :)) Huge shoutout to goes to Ms. Kristin --you are truly an inspiration--not to mention a rockstar! You can read about her journey here :)
Now if I could only convince her to join me for the Get Lucky Half Marathon here in March--we'd be good to go;)

Speaking of running-- I'm happy to say that I not only met, but I surpassed my goal of running a race every month after doing the Winterfest Frozen 5k last year with my sisterinlaw Amy, and also finishing it once again for the second year in a row yesterday. If you remember correctly from MANY blogs back-- I had wanted to do a race through November, and I kicked that goal's ass and went ahead and did a race in December and also now in January--just to end on a good note. But like everyone with a good goal-- I know I could go farther. To date, the longest race I've completed is a 10k, which is around 6 miles... This year, my goal is to complete a half marathon--possibly the Get Lucky in March, otherwise maybe Fargo?? That reminds me that I'm facing a 7 mile run today--ready Justina/Betsy?!
I've said it before and I'll say it again... Runners are just good people.

If you're wondering why I have the time to blog all this randomness this morning it's because my little sunshine is napping, and I have to be on the computer anyway to upload my pictures to create my 2013 calendar  (only a month late--no worries!) Why the desire for a calendar now in the middle of March?? Well I would love to show you, but I'm going to withhold from showing pictures until it's all done.......I found a desk that I fell in love with the other day online and off to Menards we went to buy some wood. It's now sitting almost finished in my garage and I am absolutely thrilled with it so far. I've created the perfect little nook for it downstairs and I can't wait to decorate my new 'office area' and sit my (someday) brand new beautiful MAC desktop on it....(sigh!) :) I love that handy man..... I love having a husband who I can literally show a picture too and he jumps at the chance to play around with his tools to make it for me.

Speaking of my husband....that poor poor guy!! I drug him all over Willmar yesterday after our run to pick out new paint colors and a bunch of other fun materials for some new things I'm hoping to do to the good old casa de johnson :) I'm itching for some cosmetic changes, and what better time of year to do stuff than when you are stuck in the house due to the ridiculous temperatures outside??

---Stay warm :)

...What is this "blog" you speak of!?!

It's been well over a month since I last blogged. I wish I could tell you that my goal for 2013 is to blog more regularly, but I'd be lying.
And since my goal for 2013 is not to lie anymore, I won't say it. (Just kidding, that's not really my goal of course--we'll save those for another post..)
However, here we are! The holidays both dragged by and flew by at the same time. I love the holidays, but this year was tough on a girl! Every single shopping trip that I had planned (solo) was interrupted by either sick kids, bad roads, or something to that effect. Super stressful, especially because I am not a last minute person when it comes to Christmas shopping. I like to be done, and I like to be done EARLY. So aside from the stress that comes with that, our Christmas was great... We have such amazing families and we love to spend time with them, which is good-- because we had 3 full days in a row with them ;)
On Christmas morning, Max and I had two very happy children. Santa was good to them, and they were very pleased with all their new presents! I'm happy to say that the vast majority of everything we bought for the kids this year was purchased locally. Ryder loved all of his gifts--even the most practical ones (like a new sleeping bag!) and P was just excited to have boxes and paper to play with! We didn't go overboard for gifts this year, and I was a little nervous about how it would go over. We've really been trying to preach that giving is just as fun as getting, and that gifts are just a small part of Christmas, so we really didn't buy as many gifts as we have in the past...I was so relieved to see how happy they both were on Christmas morning and Ryder kept saying over and over what a great Christmas it was.... Made this mommy proud!
The rest of Christmas break was spent just hanging out. Both Ryder and Piper LOVE to go sledding and even just the little hill in our backyard can entertain them for hours :) Ryder also has recently fallen in love with skiing! His grandparents and dad have taken him a few times now, and he fell in love with it right away. Aside from skiing and sledding, he's also started basketball on the weekends, in addition to ice fishing with Max. That boy loves to keep busy. Now of course, he keeps asking when we can go ice skating.... There are definite perks to Minnesota winters. :) As for P, she's just chunky and cute and loves to follow her mommy around, which is okay with me :)
We rang in the new year staying in with the best of the best--good food, good family/friends, and good entertainment (catch phrase never fails to provide some good laughter!).
We have so much to look forward to in 2013 including more running/races, a girls getaway weekend in march, weddings, a possible boundary waters camping trip, and the annual Hendrickson Weekend in August--and of course, maybe a couple of other things here and there ;) Our family set goals together and we are ready to tackle them throughout the upcoming year!