Beverly Hillbillies!

Of course, neither boy knew what I was talking about when I posed them like the Beverly Hillbillies! I need to educate DanMan, and his sister and his cousins, about that classic TV show. Every year Santa brings DanMan a season's worth of Andy Griffith on DVD and Hannah gets a set of Dick Van Dyke. The Beverly Hillbillies doesn't quite rank up there with those two shows but, still, my grandkids need to be acquainted with the series. Most of the time, it was very clever.

Tom's old recliner had lived a full life and was ready to be disposed of. (If you look closely, you can see the huge rip in the back with the stuffing spilling out!) Tom invited DanMan and his friend, Zachary Morgan, to go to the dump with him. I promise they did not ride in the back like Granny Clampett but I couldn't resist taking their picture in the battered old chair, surrounded by junk!

Happy Fifth Anniversary, Jenny and Eric!

Five years ago today, Jennifer Marie Johnson married Eric Michael Paul, in an outdoor ceremony at the Tulsa Garden Center. It has been a busy five years: two beautiful babies born, two residencies and one fellowship completed, and two jobs secured - in Little Rock!!! Congratulations, Jenny and Eric!


Last Sunday, when we took my daddy to Little Rock to spend time with his grandchildren and great grandchildren living there, Tommy's brother, Alton, his wife, Shirley, and their daughter, Janel, with her husband, Gary, came to Jenny's house for a quick visit. Tommy and Alton are nearly ten years apart in age but have always been close. I love this unposed picture of them sharing a chair!



Janel and Hattie bonded quickly. I got several cute pictures of them but this is my favorite.



Last night the Wildcats played a scrimmage game against Nashville (Arkansas). To my untrained eye, our boys really looked good! This was the first time since Tommy retired that we were going to go to something like this without other family members. We left WAY early. I texted a good friend, who was born and raised in Nashville, to ask where we ought to eat some supper. She sent us to a diner named Starz. As we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed huge clouds of smoke not far away. Turned out all the buildings in the next block were on fire! Power went out soon after we entered the restaurant but they were able to feed us. Fire companies from all over the area responded. It was amazing. We have heard of no injuries, thank goodness! I knew Jimmy was driving the defensive bus so I texted him about the fire and the fact that Main Street, the normal route to the stadium, was blocked. Tom and I got to the field very early for spectators and there was no sign of any Wildcat personnel anywhere. We went to sit in the stands with Karen and Bill Reed, the head coach's parents. (Bill Reed was the head coach at our alma mater, JHS, for several years and won two state championships with the Red Devils - and with his son, Scott, now our coach, as his quarterback. Now Scott's son, Taylor, is our state championship winning quarterback! Scott's younger son, Lucas, ran several plays at QB last night so the tradition continues!) Finally Jimmy called me to tell me his bus had arrived. The equipment van had had a flat tire so it and the other bus were behind him, traveling with a police escort. I did not see anything about last night's fire in the paper this morning so I don't know any more details.

In a little while, Tommy will take me to meet Tanya at the nursing home; she is a physical therapist in a nursing home setting. She and I will pick up Hannah and a friend to go to Murray's Dinner Theater in Little Rock. ANNIE is playing there; last summer the four of us saw MY FAIR LADY and had so much fun we decided to try again. Tommy will pick up DanMan and they will do guy stuff. Their feelings certainly are not hurt to excluded from the two+ hour ride to see a musical!

Tomorrow DanMan is playing is a baseball tournament in Farmerville, Louisiana. He has to be at the field by eight. I think Tommy will take him and we girls will tag along later; after all, we will have had a late night! Tomorrow evening a semi-Purple and White Game will be held. Not sure what will happen. The turf was not ready for last night's scrimmage and I doubt if they will be able to play on it tomorrow. I do know that all players from 7th - 12th grade will be introduced and there will be a silent auction. I imagine the concession stand will be open. I put on my Wildcat spirit bracelet last night and it will be worn with my other jewelry until the season ends! GO WILDCATS!!!!!

Daddy and four more great grands!

After having to snap a last minute picture of Daddy with Hannah and DanMan (and Maddy, but she was included in another picture too), I made it a point to pose him with each of the Little Rock great grands. Stephen fed us a wonderful meal of shrimp and pasta before Tom and I took Daddy to the Airport Holiday Inn. After dinner, Lanie was buried in homework, now that she's a fifth grader, but I made her come downstairs to stand by her great grandfather and smile for the camera.



Kate had received a Minnie Mouse backpack and hat from her Fussell grandparents and was thrilled to show them off. Look at that happy girl!




Lucy had just gotten home from school when I asked her to let me take her picture with Grandpa. She is wearing her school uniform and holding her Cinderella fan. She normally uses it to cool off the car when she is getting in but she brought it into the house to cool off her Nannah, who was complaining about the heat!



Hattie charmed her great grandfather and it looks as if the feeling was mutual, doesn't it?

I had a nice long conversation with my dad this afternoon. His trip home was blessedly uneventful. He has been away for five weeks so he had stacks of mail to deal with. Hope he was able to take some time to just sit out on one of his lanais and enjoy the view!

Turtleback sweater

Think this piece of knitted fabric can be made into a sweater?



Now the seams are sewn up.

Here is Jenny modeling her new sweater!

This sweater is so easy and so much fun to make! I used Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande. It feels wonderful!

Well, fiddle!!!

When I last blogged, on Saturday night, I inserted three photos with descriptions. The entry looked lovely when I went to bed. Yesterday morning, Monday, I showed The Johnson Journal to my daddy on my laptop and those three pictures were absent! I have since tried my phone, my laptop, and my "regular" computer and the pictures are nowhere to be seen. Here they are again. If they magically reappear, I can deleted this entry. (Yes, I have learned to do that. I figured it out when my nephew very apologetically asked me to delete the long entry I had posted about our visit with him in New Orleans. Seems his job is such that it is not safe for him to have his name and photograph splashed all over the internet!)

Daddy should be in Dallas by now on his way home. I have more cute pictures on my camera to download and add to this journal soon.

It's almost time for Grandpa to go home already! BOO!

Unfortunately, all Daddy's Arkansas grandchildren and great grandchildren have been really busy during this visit and no one has been able to get in as much Grandpa time as they would have wished. We will leave El Dorado with him tomorrow morning after church so minutes together were valuable this weekend! Last night Jimmy, Tanya, and Hannah came to eat leftovers with us; they contributed to the leftovers in a yummy way - left over stuffed chicken from Hebert's in Maurice, Louisiana! (You have a choice of shrimp or crawfish stuffing and either is 100% yummy!)

Today Julie and Maddy came out to play. We thought Hannah and DanMan would be here too but both had school shopping to finish. DanMan had to buy MEN'S size 7 1/2 shoes and Hannah had to buy a new belt to be in compliance with the district's newly amended dress code. (ALL students MUST tuck their shirts in and wear a belt!) That meant GGpa was the only youngster left to play with Maddy!

This evening the Junior Johnson, the Nolans, minus John Paul, Tom, Daddy, and I drove to Spearsville, Louisiana to eat dinner at Hollis' Seafood. I realized, while we were eating, that I had not one picture of Daddy with Hannah or DanMan taken this visit so I quickly remedied that! This isn't the greatest picture; in reality, all four of them are "cuter than that"!

As we were leaving the restaurant, DanMan spotted the big map and he wanted to be sure that GGpa put a marker on Honolulu. He was like a salmon swimming upstream, poor kid, as he made his way to the front desk for a pin, but he was successful! It is now official that Hollis' has had a customer from Hawaii!

I hope that Daddy's next visit is not at a time that is so busy - or so hot! Football practice was just gearing up when he arrived so Jimmy sightings have been few and far between! Hannah was babysitting DanMan, another ten-year-old boy, and an eight-year-old girl during the two weeks before school began. That meant neither Johnson great grandchild was free to wander up here to visit. The Nolans have been busy getting Maddy ready for kindergarten and trying to get a "school night bedtime" and "school morning get-up" routine established.

All seven grandkids have started "school" now - four of them in new situations. Hannah (10th grade), Lanie (5th grade) and Kate did not have to change. DanMan (5th grade) started Washington Middle School. He had attended a week-long (just afternoons) orientation and seemed to be relaxed when the first day arrived. Maddy entered kindergarten at my old school and the first two days went very well. She is, I think, beginning to realize that her family has spies all over the district! Several times I have been asked, "How did you know...?" Jenny reported that Lucy was singing on the way to school the second day and we all took that as a very good sign. Hatttie began last Monday and has, according to the motherly lady who was holding her when Jenny picked her up on Friday, started to feel comfortable in her new environment. She has begun to "talk" to them more!

Daddy and Tom have had a good time during this visit, the first since Tom's retirement. They have played golf four times, gone to the Oil and Brine Museum in Smackover, and driven to Hope (home of Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee) for the Watermelon Festival. While they were there, they toured Clinton's boyhood home where Grandpa made a huge hit with their tour guide. Tom, not so much, when she discovered he couldn't e:mail well enough that she could send pictures of Daddy for Tom to forward to Hawaii. They have also made numerous visits to Memorial Stadium to check the progress of the workers installing the new artificial turf. The coaches did some of the manual labor themselves, working until one a.m. on one occasion! I will be glad when I can finally post a picture of the completed project. Last night was supposed to be the Purple and White game, the football program's major fundraiser, but it had to be postponed because the field was not ready.

I bought a new laptop on Thursday and I am having fun learning how to use it. I actually have a webcam! We haven't been able to figure out how to hook up my router though and that is frustrating. Wildblue had me disconnect the router when I was having internet problems long ago. I was told Wildblue wasn't designed for use with a router. It just doesn't seem right that I have a satellite solely dedicated to receiving the internet sitting on my roof but I am only allowed to connect in one spot! That one spot is our closet - and I'll have to do some major rearranging before I can let a computer tech in here!

She passed!!!!

Hannah Faith Johnson, proud owner of a learner's permit!!!

Time with El Dorado grandkids!

Hannah has been babysitting DanMan and two other children, a boy and a girl, this week. Julie and JP needed me to watch Maddy for a little while today. Hannah and I decided to get our charges together and let them play. Hannah had already done a manicure on the little girl before Maddy and I arrived. Maddy obviously loved having her teen-age cousin paying attention to her!

She also obviously loved her cousin's kitten!

DanMan had left his bike at our house last evening so, after all the parents had retrieved their children, he rode home with me to pick it up. Zucchini sure was glad he did!!!

Nature watch!

These pictures are self-explanatory. I am just sorry that I had to zoom and crop so much on the little hummingbird that he is a little blurry. All of these were taken from inside my house. I am thinking that maybe I should have darkend the last one a little. Maybe it will publish better than it looks to me now.

Using my camera, my relatively new camera, reminded me that I have not told "the rest of the story" about my last one. You might remember that I posted that it, my laptop, and my GPS had been stolen from my car while I was parked in the alley behind Jill and Stephen's. The first thing I saw when I walked in at the Fussells' on Sunday was my cute little bright red camera sitting on their mantle. It must not have been fancy enough for the thieves!!! One of the neighbors had found it in his bushes while doing yard work. The camera had been rained on and, of course, the battery was dead anyway. He removed the memory card and looked at the pictures on his computer. Most of them were from Atlanta, taken at the time of Hattie's birth. There were some, though, taken on the Fussells' patio and Jillers was in one of those. The neighbor recognized her and brought the camera to Jill's house. I really appreciate him going to so much trouble to identify the owner. Jenny was disappointed that those pictures might be in a stranger's hands. I have not tried charging the battery to see if it might possibly work yet. I'll let you know!

P.S. I just looked it up - MANTLE and MANTEL are both correct spellings. I think MANTEL is preferable for this usage - but not by me!

Monday, August 9th continued and Tuesday the 10th

Here is the final picture from our stay in Little Rock. Marge, Jill, Kate, Jenny, Lucy, Hattie, and I met at Faded Rose for lunch. When Lucy saw this photo, after I e:mailed it to her mother, she said, "But I don't know where Nannah is." Thanks for noticing I was missing Lucy Boo! My camera's battery died after this shot and I am so sad that I didn't get to take any more pictures the rest of Monday or on Tuesday.

Tom, Daddy, and Bill wanted to visit a submarine that is docked (?) in North Little Rock but it was closed on Mondays. They were able to tour their other destination, the MacArthur Museum. All of them thought it was very interesting and each mentioned the angry correspondence between Gen. MacArthur and President Truman that is displayed. Tommy called me as they were leaving there and as we were finishing up at The Faded Rose. He decided we girls had had a "great good idea" so that is where he took Daddy and Bill for lunch.

Monday evening Daddy, Bill, Marge, the Pauls, Tom and I ate some yummy pizza at Dam Goode Pies. (Of course, not all the Pauls got to eat pizza but Hattie was a good sport about it.) The Fussells had other obligations.

Yesterday morning about eight, Bill and Marge left Little Rock to return home to Eden Prairie, Minnesota. I was under the impression that they would take two days to make that 800+ mile drive. Imagine my surprise this morning, when I turned on my cell phone, to find a message from Bill saying that they were safely home, having arrived last night!

After Bill and Marge's departure, Daddy, Tom, and I watched Paul sisters while Jenny went to a meeting at the Little Rock Pediatric Clinic. Tom did make a quick trip out to visit Grandma Johnson during that time, too. Then Jenny, Lucy, Hattie, and the the three of us who would be soon heading to El Dorado went to lunch at Jason's Deli.

I am still fighting with my phone to post pictures I took after my regular camera quit. Fingers crossed that I will succeed but I have my doubts!

Jill flew to Chicago today (8/11) and Lanie should be getting home from Colorado any minute. School will be starting soon so my grandchildren will be on shorter leashes! Wish Jillers could take a break from work-related travels.

Monday, August 9, 2010

I told you in my last entry what fun Kate and Lucy had together during the last few days when they were 'the big kids". Here is photographic evidence!

Five of my favorite girls!!! Wish the other five could have been with us!

P.S. to Sunday, August 8

Here is the picture I could not stand not to post from our dinner at Cozymel's!

Sunday, August 8, 2010 in Little Rock

I have been excited for weeks about the arrival of my dad and my aunt and uncle in Little Rock! The day finally came - Sunday, August 8! Unfortunately Jenny had a stomach bug so she and Hattie could not join us for dinner at Cozymel's. Also, unfortunately Jimmy's family and Julie's family were not able to make the trip that day. Jimmy's bunch was absent because football has started - 'nuff said. Julie's didn't come because the traveling Jurkenses had no ETA (USAF for Expected Time of Arrival) and the Nolans had to be ready for Monday. Lanie is missing from this narration and all the pictures because she is on a vacation with a friend in Colorado!

Tom and I left El Dorado about nine A.M. I ALWAYS turn my cell phone off at night since reception is not great out here and because I like to go through all the e:mails on my computer before I turn on my phone; saves a lot of deleting! That meant I did not get Jenny's texted SOS. By the time I knew she was sick, arrangements had been made for Lucy to go play at Jill's. (Eric was enduring his first weekend on call - saw 60 patients on Saturday and did three surgeries. Sunday was more of the same.) Tom and I went to Fussells upon arrival in Little Rock. Dad, Bill, and Marge arrived mid-afternoon. We visited a while and left the dinner plans to Jill and Stephen. They made reservations for us at Cozymel's and it was the perfect choice for a fun evening together.

This first photo shows my aunt and uncle, Bill and Marge Jurkens. (Why do I always say "aunt and uncle" and then list them as "Bill and Marge"? I have noticed that our family always seems to put the person who was originally a member of the family first and the in-law second. Jimmy and Tanya, Julie and John Paul. Jill and Stephen. Jenny and Eric. Bet the couples are reversed in other households. Anyway, Bill is an original Jurkens - in more ways than one!!!)

Kate and Lucy have had a lot of fun together in the past few days. Usually, when the other cousins are around, things are wilder and they don't have much time to just enjoy each other. They made it a point to sit by each other at dinner on Sunday night and at lunch on Monday.

I sent Lucy to sit on Papa's lap to watch our guacamole being made. I just bet you she could do it herself next time.

Here is a picture I took specifically to show my sisters that we entertaining Daddy well while he is with us!

Well, fiddle!!! Once again my picture uploading is deficient! I will have to put a P.S. to this post to add a picture that I love of Kate and Stephen. Picasa did not tell me it wasn't going to accept the fifth photo so I thought it had uploaded. The P.S. will be above this original entry though and that is aggravating!

Daddy and the Enola Gay!

Well, I finally figured out how to upload this picture of my daddy, Col. E. A. Jurkens, a true World War II hero, posing with the Enola Gay, the B-29 superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb ever used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945. Daddy was a pilot in the Pacific and, while he never talks about it, others have made it obvious that he made important contributions to the eventual Allied victory.

Sleepless nights make sleepy mornings!

Jenny just posted this picture on Facebook and I couldn't wait to share it! Gotta get busy cleaning house now. My dad will be here soon and his bed is covered in yarn!!!!

News Notes

Jenny took Baby Hattie out to visit with Grandma Hattie and was able to get this wonderful photo! Grandma still can't believe anyone would want to name a baby Hattie but she is obviously very proud that Jenny did!

The last thing we are sure that my mother was able to understand as she was in St. Francis Hospice was that the great granddaughter to be born in April would be named Kate Frances with the middle name chosen in her honor. Thank you girls for honoring your grandmothers in this way.

Jenny just posted this picture of Lucy ready to skate. Jen's caption reads, "because all the chicks at the x games wear princess gear".

Hannah has a new kitten. She chose the very most feminine name she could come up with for this cute baby - LACEY!

I have two other photos that I have been trying and trying to figure out how to upload for this entry. One is of the thermometer in my car showing the outside temperature to be 106! I later missed an opportunity to capture it reading 108! The other is a wonderful picture my cousin, Jeff, sent to me of my daddy posing with the Enola Gay. I am NOT giving up! Speaking of my daddy, I will meet up with him in Little Rock on Sunday! YIPPEE!!!