Hattie Belote Johnson February1, 1911 - December 6, 2011

Hattie Belote Johnson, the beloved matriarch of the Johnson Clan, died on December 6, 2011. She left us to join Virgil on the 83rd anniversary of their marriage.

Cousins

Hannah was in a play titled HOW I BECAME A PIRATE. Jenny brought Kate and Lucy to El Dorado where they joined up with Julie and Maddy. Here are four of my grandgirls after the performance. Pictures like this one make a Nannah's heart sing!




Jill and Stephen made a weekend trip to Memphis leaving their girls with the Pauls. I am not sure why Kate needed to be made up AFTER her bath but Lucy looks like a pro as she "does Kate's face".

FINALLY downloaded pictures from Homecoming!

I think these pictures will be recognizable to anyone who reads The Johnson Journal. What a bunch of precious Wildcat fans!! DanMan joined us late and Hannah was busy doing big girl stuff!

Halloween approaches!

Just wanted to share these creative pumpkin designs! All three are "homemade" rather than purchased already decorated.



Julie and Maddy created this cat for the display at Hugh Goodwin Elementary!

Each Paul girl has a pumpkin. Hattie's is Elmo and Lucy's is Ariel. Pumpkin art sure has changed since our Js were small!

Homecoming 2011

I stole these pictures from Jenny's facebook page. I will continue to try to add a picture of Hannah from my phone and one of Maddy from Julie's phone. If anyone can explain to me why I have such a terrible time saving phone photos to Picasa - SOS! I still have pictures from my "real" camera to download too.




Wanted everyone to see just how great Julie Beth is looking these days. Poor, precious Lanie Beth was hit right across the face by a branch during a spirited game of chase the night before this picture was taken. She still looked 100% adorable!

Lucy loved everything about the Homecoming Parade. You can see Kate, in her corsage, standing just behind Lucy.

Hattie was a little unsure about all of the excitement at first - but it didn't last long!

Wildcat game

Two of my very favorite grandchildren were on the field for Friday night's Wildcat game!




DanMan takes his job as ball boy very seriously! I think this was the night he had to take the biggest ref he could find to the far sidelines to retrieve two balls the other team had tried to steal. The players denied having our balls but DanMan could say, "Number ?? has one of them under his arm and the other one is in their ball bag." Tell me he doesn't pay attention!

Maddy had been to a mini-cheerleader clinic during the week. It was obvious that she was having a ball as she performed!

I think her Aunt Jenny will be very proud of her form!

Hannahella!

I cannot believe it has been so long since I blogged! I have so many cute pictures to share!




To explain this photo, I am just going to copy and paste an e:mail I sent to my sisters on September 26. If something needs to be clarified, I will put the info in parantheses.


"Our weekend began with a Wildcat win - that had a timeout for me while I talked to Daddy from the stands! WHEW!!!! Had a nice long conversation with him yesterday afternoon and we are all caught up now!" (Dad had had a growth removed from his bladder and was calling to tell me about the procedure and that all was well!)

After the game, I made pizza dough so we could have Jimmy's family (minus Hannah) and Julie's family (minus JP, it turned out) for pizza and football on Saturday. Our QB from last year - the head coach's son - is the starting QB for Memphis and we planned to watch the game together. Of course, the kickoff time I had written down was EST and I was planning for our time zone so things didn't exactly go as planned. Jimmy didn't get off work until after game began and we didn't even tune in until well after kick off. Memphis has only won one game so far this season - but we don't care - as long as the O line can protect the quarterback! Our pizza was the best yet!

When Alabama and Arkansas started (ROLL TIDE!!!), Tanya and I came back to my room to start writing clues for the surprise in store for Hannah. I think I told you that her parents were trying to locate a lime green bug for her. Well, it was delivered on Friday, while Hannah was out of town at a drama competition. She had no idea that they were looking for one. She had long understood that she would be given her mother's Honda when a new car was purchased for Tanya. Tanya knows exactly what she wants and they decided that they really didn't need to invest in that car right now so they decided T would keep the Honda and Hannah could have her bug. It is a used 2010 and sooooo cute!

Our plot was not a scavenger hunt but along those lines so Hannah (Hannahella) would be occupied long enough for us to move out Tanya's car and hide the bug in the garage. Hannah has always been a Disney princess kind of girl and Tanya came up with a Cinderella theme. Belle is Hannah's favorite but, since the only transformation in that movie is the Beast, we decided to go with Cinderella so we could turn a pumpkin into current transportation. I printed up the clues and the fairy godmother's (Julie) speech in Print Shop. There are two videos. The one from Tanya's phone has already been posted to facebook and I will try to figure out how to get it to you. The other, longer one, following Hannahella around as she did her chores, has not been shared yet. I showed Lucy the short one yesterday morning and, when it was done, she turned to me wide-eyed, "Did her pumpkin REALLY turn into a car?" I just hated to tell her the truth - that the pumpkin was still there!

I was able to show it to Lucy because, after the surprise for Hannah, Tom and I left for LR about nine P.M. yesterday morning Hattie was dedicated in a very nice church service and we would not have missed that for the world! After church, Jenny and Eric took us, Eric's parents, the Fussells, and their across the street neighbors to brunch. THEN, Tom and I climbed into the car to go to a mini vet school reunion in Louisiana! It turns out that our host really only lives about an hour away through the back roads. We came home the short way but took a little longer route going. The get together was a lot of fun, even though none of the people I knew particularly well were there.

I have taco soup in the crockpot - even though I have a birthday dinner to go to myself tonight. That is all I have accomplished today though. Better go do something! Much love to all! jjj

P.S.

Looked at my last entry and realized that two of my cuties were missing. I went looking and found a picture of each of them on their first day of school this year!




Jill's caption for this picture: "Lanie, first day of middle school today... and holding a picture of herself (and striking the same pose) on her first day of daycare/preschool back in 2002."

Here is Miss Maddy sitting at her desk in Missy Inman's first grade classroom. As Julie says, "She looks ready for anything!" As I have mentioned, Maddy is at "my school" and I know Missy will take good care of her. Maddy has become such a good reader and it makes me so happy when I see her bring home a library book that I purchased and processed!

Sharing photos shared with me!

My kids have been sending me some wonderfully cute pictures and I just had to share!
(I have no control over the order in which these pictures are posted!)



Hattie has been famous for her WILD hair but here she is with an actual "do"! Jenny is quick to mention that the sock choice was Eric's!

Lucy is excited about going to a Power cat baseball game in the photo above! Jenny said she went around the house singing, "I am going to a baseball game. It is for one of my cousins."

Eric's surgical group had tickets to the Razorback football game on Saturday, September 10. As part of the remembrance ceremonies for the tenth anniversary of 9/11, fans were assigned, by section, a clothing color - red, white, or blue. The Pauls were to sit in a red section - and they had no red. Eric's birthday is the 9th so his family gave him a very nice red Razorback shirt. Jenny, who bleeds purple and gold, couldn't quite take that step but she was lucky enough to find a red shirt that read "I (heart shape) AR". I was amazed when she pulled a Razorback cheerleader uniform for Lucy out of her shopping bag. She has been trying to be flexible enough to let the girls appreciate both the Tigers and the Razorbacks. As she said, the true test will be to see what the the Paul girls wear the day after Thanksgiving!

DanMan had to go to a birthday party at the Country Club. Hannah, with her new driver's license, was his chauffeur.

Kate, as I have written before, loves her baseball league. Cliff Lee, who pitched in the World Series last year, is a generous donor for the Miracle League and he was happy to pose with a fan. DanMan was so terrifically jealous. Jill and Kate came home with no idea who this guy was and DanMan, who was in town and went to Lanie's soccer game, would have given his eye teeth for an autograph!

Grandpa Jurkens and his Arkansas family

While my daddy was on the mainland, I was determined to get a picture with him surrounded by his Arkansas fan club!

DanMan explains his iPod Touch!

I really like this series of pictures of DanMan explaining his iPod Touch to his great grandfather! I love that they had this time together; we had to call them to dinner multiple times! My dad has nine great grandchildren and only one is a boy! (He is the father if three daughters too! His six grandchildren were evenly split though - three girls and three boys.)

Maddy's birthday shake!

I have tried and tried and tried and tried to save this picture from Julie's facebook page. The computer acts as if it is saving the picture and then I CANNOT find it anywhere!!! Finally I had to e:mail it to myself - and that caused it to be down-sized!!! Anyway, here is Maddy with her free birthday milkshake from the Purple Cow!

Fussell sisters

These two pictures illustrate how protective Lanie is of her younger sister.
What a precious pair!!!!

Jill's facebook caption: Distracting myself in my office at lunch time...this poster Lanie made last year caught my eye, and put a little lump in my throat...Kate couldn't have a better big sister."

Recent visit to Grandma Johnson

Uncle Bo must have an awesome lap!

Don't know why Tom looks so fierce. I thought Lanie looked awfully cute though!

Now Tommy is in a better mood!