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!