Busy making things

Well, fiddle!!! I just learned something important! I thought that, inside a blog entry, photos would be entered in descending order - just like lines of copy. I intended for Tommy and DanMan to be above the baby stuff picture not below! Anyway, here are the items I made for an auction at Lucy's school. Jenny ended up being in charge of the class donation and I offered to make some things. Shown above are a blanket, sweater, bib, and wash cloth.

Ever since we moved to the country, Tommy has taken great pleasure in our bird neighbors. We have multiple, multiple bird feeders and he is faithful about keeping them full. Recently, he decided that we needed more birdhouses to attract more birds so he and DanMan got busy making some. Saturday he hung one on a sweetgum tree. He started to walk away, turned to look back at the birdhouse when he was about fifteen yards away - and saw a little chickadee fly into it!

Baby Hattie gave us a scare last week. We were afraid she wanted to share Uncle Stephen's March 1st birthday! Jenny was in the hospital for several hours but the doctors were able to stop her contractions. Due day is not until mid-April so we are all relieved that Hattie agreed to wait. Jenny will be 35 weeks tomorrow.

Championship ring!

The El Dorado Wildcats held their football banquet and ring ceremony on Thursday, February 25, 2010! I realize that you really can't tell much from this picture but I wanted you to know that I have been telling the truth! The Wildcats really are state champs; you can read the word CHAMPIONS on the ring! The Cats are graduating so many fine young men. It is sad but exciting. Some of them are boys I taught in elementary school; some are students I met during my long-term sub situation in the EHS library last spring. Some I don't personally know but I feel as if I have gotten to know them by watching them on the field and listening to Jimmy and DanMan. You would be surprised by what you can learn about a person's character by the way he treats the water boy!

Yesterday was Math and Science Fun Day for DanMan's elementary school. A good friend of mine is the focus coordinator there so I have been volunteering in recent years. Yesterday, for the first time, I had DanMan in one of my groups and my friend took our picture. It is not a flattering photo of either of us but still I treasure it! Fun Day is a wonderful learning experience for every child at Yocum Elementary. I did my experiment with 1/4 of the 600+ children enrolled there so it was a L-O-N-G day! I had such a good time though. DanMan (and all the other kids) first tried to blow out a candle with a funnel by blowing through the small end. Then we turned the funnel around and blew through the large end. If the child managed to "aim at the flame" (my mantra for the day), blowing through the large end was obviously the most effective! This is DanMan's last year at Yocum but I imagine I will continue to participate in this activity. I feel kind of guilty because I retired from Hugh Goodwin Elementary and still think of it as MY school. HG does some wonderful learning activities too and I volunteer there as well. El Dorado has gone to a focus concept and DanMan and his parents decided that he would fit best at the Math and Science School. Maddy begins elementary school next year and she has chosen MY school - the Academy of the Arts!

Hannah's first dance!

My precious Hannah Banana went to her first dance Saturday night! I was lucky enough to be invited to go along dress shopping. Didn't we make a great choice?

Grandma with-the-cows 99th birthday party!

Tommy's mother turned 99 on February 1st. Many family members met at the St. Vincent Rehabilitation Hospital on January 31 to celebrate with her. She made me laugh so hard after she was pretty woozy on her way to her hip replacement surgery on MLK Day. A tech of some sort leaned over her and, saying he had to be sure he had the right patient, asked her her birth date. She replied "TWO - ONE - ELEBEN. I'm an old coot!" No, I didn't misspell "eleven"; that's how it came out! (Many thanks to Natalie Doss Costner for my blog tutorial. I THINK I should be posting a picture of Grandma and her sugar-free birthday cake when I click SAVE NOW.)

Over two years later!

I last posted to this journal over two years ago. I am ashamed of myself. With all of the cute people I have to report on, I should be posting daily!

Tom has a retirement date - June 1, 2010. He is counting down the number of weekends he has left to be "on call" - FIVE!

Jenny and Eric are expecting a second daughter, to be named Hattie in honor of her ninety-nine year old great grandmother. The baby is due in mid-April and will be born in Atlanta, their home until July of 2010. Eric is doing a fellowship at Emory in minimally invasive surgery.

Jimmy's Wildcats reached the state championship game in 2008 but lost to Lake Hamilton. In 2009, though, the Cats managed to win their first state title in 51 years!!!! We are so proud of everyone connected with the team! Jill created a book documenting the game from a Johnson perspective. It is a treasure!

The rest of us have no huge news but are well and happy.

October update

We have all been busy and everyone is doing well. Tom is talking SERIOUSLY about retirement - not tomorrow or anything. He has surprised me 'cause I thought he would never give up the practice of veterinary medicine. I have been having fun with the grandchildren and my yarn work. I went to the second annual "Knitting for Noggins" at Arkansas Children's Hospital. Two ladies at my table inspired me; they delivered 1000 hats and had made all but 83 of them themselves - since June!
Jimmy's family is making progress on their home addition. (Julie has promised to teach me how to insert photographs into my entries. This would be a good place for some!) It looks as if the Wildcats should make it to the playoffs so B0 is happy. Tanya is preparing to spend a little over a week in British Columbia so she can be of assistance when her father has a knee replacement. Eric has been coming home every weekend to cheer on his former teammates. I think he is settling in at SAU well though. Hannah is busy with friends, piano, soccer, and school but she made time to snuggle with me last Sunday while we watched "The King and I". DanMan won two trophies (one of them HUGE) at a karate tournament. (Another spot I would like to insert a picture.) He is having a wonderful time at his flag football games on Saturday mornings. Last week he caught two passes and ran for a TD!
They are really getting ready for Halloween at Julie's. Maddy seems to understand what is going on this year. She will be Tinkerbell! (Maybe I'll know how to add a picture when she trick or treats here!) Julie is working hard - and trying to catch up from two missed days of work while she was Memphis helping a friend through a C section - and an emergency hysterectomy. John Paul is surprising himself with his success in college.
I am expecting Stephen and the girls for the weekend. The plan was to have a weenie roast and camp out but I am not sure the weather is going to cooperate. Jillers will be in San Francisco. I visited Lanie's class a few Fridays ago and was very impressed! She was so excited to have me there that, when one grandmother asked me which one was mine, I answered, "The bouncy one!" Kate is reading and wrote her name for me. Bless the person who invented her "talker"!
Jenny went back to work on October 1. She misses her little Lucy so much but knows that she is leaving her in very capable hands during the day. Lucy attends Riverfield Country Day School and I am getting to keep up with her through a daily post from the school titled "Today We..." There have been some adorable pictures of Lucy posted and the activities shown are amazing! I think both Jenny and Eric are even more enchanted with their baby girl than they expected to be.