Addicted to Blogs!

It’s official! I’m addicted. I cannot stop reading. There are too many blogs, and I keep finding more! I even have found a website that helps me stay an addict. It’s pathetic. I love them! Some make me laugh, some cry, give me recipes, and some, well they just make me happy. So, thanks to you all, for keeping me entertained, keeping my thirst quenched and hunger satisfied for your words, recipes and life stories!

Here are my favorite blogs and my categories (at least for now):

Recipes & Other:
· www.kevinandamanda.com (recipes, fonts, picture taking advice)
· www.picky-palate.com (great recipes)

Savings:
· Both of the following are from central Indiana and have helped me save dollars!!
o www.bargainbriana.com
o www.ingoodcents.com

Mommy Blogs:
· http://growingupimel.blogspot.com
· http://the-laughlins.blogspot.com
· http://tinybitofheaven.blogspot.com/
· http://libbyryder.blogspot.com/
· http://www.thebigcursivel.com/

Birthdays! Birthdays! Birthdays!

September has so many birthdays for my friends & family! Seems like I cannot keep up with them there are so many. The month of birthdays starts on the 1st and goes straight through to the 30th! Here is the list.

· 1st – Roland (nephew-in-law)
· 5th – Bobbie (friend)
· 15th – Kieran (my step-grandma)
· 18th – Stephanie (step-daughter)
· 18th – Shannon (good friend)
· 21st – Jason (cousin)
· 23rd – Brenda (aunt)
· 26th – Larissa (niece)
· 26th – Shawn (my mom’s husband)
· 27th – Perry (uncle)
· 28th – Sherry (cousin)
· 30th – Lisa (sister-in-law)

I think that is more birthdays’s than I can handle for one month! I cannot think of another month in the year that has so many at least for me!

Speaking of birthdays….. Cooper’s birthday is Oct 3, his party is this coming Saturday and we’re in party planning mode J My little boy will be 1, I cannot believe it!!!

Time to slow down

Well I am officially ready for things to slow down a bit. Although I am not sure they ever will, I think my entire family is in desperate need for some relaxation. I am late in posting this week or early for the current week however, you want to say it for a few reasons. The Tuesday after Labor Day, September 7, Tim and I went back to work. We had had a nice long weekend, and we were ready to get back into the groove of work and normalcy. Tim got a call around lunchtime from his sister. His dad had passed in his sleep over night. To make a long story short, we were out of town in Ohio the rest of the week for arrangements and funeral services. Stephanie, Andrew and his girlfriend joined us on Friday for the services. We got back home late on Friday night and had a busy weekend, no rest for the weary. Back to work Monday. Tuesday I was sick so I had to miss another day of work. UGH. I am just ready to be back to normal and here I go getting sick! Today, I am back to work, thankfully. It has been a very rough month for The Johnson Five and I am hoping it slows down. Tim is coping with everything very well; I am heartbroken for him and the kids.
Good news time: Stephanie’s birthday is in 2 days! She’ll be the big *2*1*!! I am super excited for her! I hope that she enjoys this birthday and has a great time with her friends as she enjoys ordering her first alcoholic beverage! =) The family is going to dinner to celebrate her big day tomorrow night. Then she and her friends and others will be joining her at Dave & Buster’s for festivities Saturday night. Oh the joys of being young!
Andrew seems to be keeping up with all of the homework he’s been assigned so far at school – he’s been coming home on the weekends since he’s moved in and spending time with his girlfriend Sami. We hope that he will stay some weekends at IU soon so that he can get immersed in the culture that is college life on a big campus. I think he has been getting involved in a few sporting activities while at school, at least playing basketball with his friends, and that is great! Weekends at IU were always fun for me; I hope he enjoys them too!
Cooper – well that boy, he is such a delight! I just cannot get enough of him! In the last week, he has decided that he is no longer going to eat baby food from a jar. The boy is now only eating table food. We have discovered that he LOVES shepherds’ pie (recipe here: http://picky-palate.com/2010/09/07/homemade-shepherds-pie/) and chili. Not usually foods that we would necessarily think of feeding a baby, that is for sure, but he sure does love them. He has been saying more words lately, Nana, Mama, Dada, Doggy, Thank You, and his baby sitter said he said Mamaw too. Since he does not have any Mamaw’s, that will not come in handy, but he has been repeating what the other kiddos are saying.
Today Tim and I are heading to Noblesville to visit the Indy Kids Consignment Sale (http://www.ikcsale.com/). We have had great success with the past two sales for stocking up on all kinds of baby clothes for Cooper. The last two sales, I had been fortunate enough to obtain the pre-sale pass, but this time, I did not register quickly enough, so we are taking a long lunch and heading up there to shop during the daytime. I hope to get plenty of fall/winter clothes for Coop and new socks, perhaps even a winter coat. If we find a few toys that look good, we’ll grab those too.
Seems like there is always something going on for The Johnson Five, life sure does not slow down, so I guess we must not either! Have a great weekend everyone!

What a week!

Is it terrible that I cannot even remember all that has happened since I last posted? I THINK SO! :) Here I go as I try to remember.

Last weekend..... Friday night. I visited a couple of friends with Cooper. First was Marriann, I have worked with Marriann at a couple of places, Kohl's and Sallie Mae. She had been in the hospital on and off the last couple of weeks and I wanted to visit her. She has now been back to work for a couple of half days, she's recovering and I'm so glad! Our second visit was to my good friend Shannon. Joni also visited so it was pizza for dinner, YUM! Then we visited and let Jackson (Shannon's son, who is 4 months older than Coop) and Cooper play together. They had a good time. Tim went to the Pike Football game and had a good time. That night I went over my caloric intake by about 200 calories (BOO). But, the night was planned befoe we even started the diet, so I wasn't about to change my plans.

Saturday, my mom and her husband, my brother and his family visited and we ate and went swimming! It was a great time. We overloaded on food, we considered that meal our guilt free meal for the week. My mom made her wonderful chocolate chip cookies, we had bbq sandwhiches, Tim's homemade french fries, corn on the cob, coleslaw and other stuff that I cannot remember right now. Anywho, it was DELISH! Larissa loved swimming in the pool, Layne was a bit hesitant, but he finally got used to it and I think had a bit of fun. It was a good time, and we ALL went swimming. Casey held Layne and we passed Cooper all over the place. Craig was a goof as usual and Mom got splashed a lot by Coop. (being splashed is not her favorite thing.....) I loved having them up and hope we can do it more next year.

Sunday, we hung around the house most of the day. I did go over to Shannon's house again for her 31 gifts open house. I ordered a bag, and I cannot wait to get it. I'm excited about it. Cooper decided he would take his first step last Sunday night. It was so cute, he is growing up so fast!

The rest of the week flew by too. We have been following our diets really well, and I am so proud of us. We are getting more creative with our foods, and eating a lot of fruit and veggies. It's amazing how much food we can eat, it's just the types of foods that we are eating that is so different. Not many carbohydrates in our diets these days. When we eat bread, we're eating the Arnolds sandwhich thins. They are super yummy and only 100 calories - they work well as hamburger buns and also for sandwhiches. We've found that the light Progresso soups are wonderful and filling.

What else..... Cooper says 'THANK YOU'! He's been saying it a lot this week. He's saying it in the right context and everything. He turned 11 months old this week. I just cannot believe that he's 11 months old.

Andrew has been back and forth from IU, and this weekend he's been home and to Ball State to visit his girlfriend Sami.

Stephanie has been going to classes and working and spending time with her boyfriend Ryan. Tonight she's on a date with Ryan. They went to PF Changs and to a movie. FUN!

This weekend, we're not doing much. The only plans we have are for dinner tomorrow night with Erica, Mel, and Joni. We're having Taco Salads. I LOVE tacos and haven't had them since this diet started so I'm looking forward to that too.

I'm planning on writing a post on typical meals on our diet so that you can see what you can do.
Because Tim and I both have iPhones, we are using an app on there to help track our calories. We use Calorie Count.com (http://www.caloriecount.com/) It's a great tool. You can even enter your own recipes in and it will calculate how many calories it has, so that you can see if your own creations work with your diet.

Happy Labor Day Everyone!