I have found it daunting to write about this month for some reason. There was a lot to report on, to be sure, but something tells me the upcoming months are going to hold even more. It's just a very busy season of life, with such things as . . .
Taking . . . advantage of the snow that was here for all of two hours. Silas got immediately suited up, and good thing because it rapidly melted.
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Trying . . . out a new restaurant. A Lebanese restaurant recently opened near our house. It's where an Italian restaurant used to be, and they decided to keep the very Italian-sounding name, Verona Cafe, so they didn't have to get a new sign. It is owned by a husband and wife who are the warmest, most welcoming people. When we exclaimed, "This is delicious!" the owner responded, "No, you are delicious! Thank you for coming." And it was delicious, especially the shish tawooq, the salad, and the orange gateau.
Participating . . . in a variety of egg hunts: we had our neighborhood hunt (in a new location this time with lots of space and hiding places, which made it even more fun), a Johnson dinner followed by egg hunt (where Clark found a $20 egg), and an easy little hunt with my brother's boys and Silas (who came to our house for Easter dinner).
Enjoying . . . a lovely, quiet Easter. My favorite song from my Easter playlist this year was called "Flowers" by Samantha Ebert. Easter Sunday fell on General Conference weekend this year, which meant cinnamon rolls and Easter baskets for breakfast. We went with a retro theme for the baskets this year, complete with a View-master, Speak and Spell, Tetris, and cassette tapes and walkman. Aaron, Mike and I went to the Sunday afternoon session of conference. And as already mentioned, we had dinner with Mike's family on Saturday and dinner with my brother and his family on Sunday. The weather, which had been quite chilly during the week, was absolutely gorgeous and perfect on Sunday. This felt somewhat symbolic to me.
Taking . . . the older boys to San Francisco for spring break. Mike went to San Francisco with Aaron, Max, Bradley, and Clark, along with Sonja, Rob, and Laura. I stayed home with Ian and Silas. Since I wasn't there, the details will be limited, but here are some of the highlights/things they did:
Food: King Katsu Land, Boudin's, Avatars, Taco Bell Cantina Cantina, Bob's Donuts, Tony's Pizza, and Ghirardelli Square, and El Farolito (clearly, food was a big priority for them).
Alcatraz
Waymo ride (this was a first for all of them, and they actually called me from the car so I could be impressed)
Giants game at Oracle Park
Muir Woods
Golden Gate Bridge
Coit Tower
Chinatown and Fortune Cookie Factory
Cable car ride and cable car museum
Oakland temple
Relaxing . . . on spring break. Meanwhile, Silas, Ian, and I stayed close to home, and we had the nicest time. I had a little bit of fomo with San Francisco, but mostly just relished the quiet mornings and evenings and having a totally open schedule. We went to Slick City (a slide park that recently opened up by us), the zoo with Kirsten and Anna and kids, a movie (Hoppers), the park, my parents', and lots of walks. We went out to McDonald's and Crumbl one night, and they loved it just as much as any of the gourmet places in San Francisco (me? not so much, haha). I was so sad when the break ended and we had to go back to all of our normal responsibilities. It was truly a restorative spring break for me.
Learning . . . to go down the fire pole. Ian taught Silas how to leap and wrap his legs around the pole and then do a controlled slide down. Silas has been on the lookout for fire poles at every park we go to ever since.
Watching . . . old movies. When the boys were in San Fran, my evening routine consisted of putting Ian and Silas to bed and then settling down with my knitting and an old classic movie. I watched: Easter Parade, Royal Wedding, State Fair, I Love Melvin, and In the Good Old Summertime. I remembered just how much I love movies from the 40's and 50's, in part because I love the dancing and the costuming.
Finishing . . . English. Aaron had a surprise for me when he got home from SF. He had left with his online English class at 31%, and he returned with it at 100%. I couldn't believe it. I had low hopes that he would be productive while he was gone, and then he totally locked in and finished! He was done well in advance of the deadline, so we could both breathe a sigh of relief that an online English class wouldn't keep him from graduating.
Opening . . . his mission call. Aaron texted me while I was at a park with Silas: "I JUST GOT MY CALL." It had been less than two weeks since he submitted his papers (with General Conference in the middle of it), so I wasn't even thinking it was a possibility yet, and suddenly there it was. Aaron opened it as soon as he got home from school. I was with him (Mike was on FaceTime, but he muted us so he could see our reactions but not hear where Aaron was actually going until that evening). Aaron's hands and his voice were shaking as he held his phone and started reading the words. Finally he got to the part we were anticipating: He was assigned to labor in the Argentina Tucumán Mission! We gave ecstatic cries and hugs and then we both looked at each other and said, "Now wait . . . which Argentina mission is Truman in?" We looked it up, and then we really started screaming and cheering and jumping around because Aaron's cousin is currently serving in that exact same mission! We couldn't believe it. We then started madly prepping to have a large crowd of people over at our house in a few hours. I say "madly prepping," but really, I was walking around in a daze because my boy just got his mission call! To Argentina! That evening, friends and family gathered to make their guesses and watch him open his call with the sword of truth (a Johnson family tradition). Our house was bursting with people who were there to love and support Aaron. It was the happiest night. (Oh, one funny thing: we have always joked that Aaron would probably go to a country that eats a lot of rice and beans because he detests rice and beans. But then, he got called to the one Latin American country that actually doesn't eat a lot of rice and beans but is instead the beef capitol of the world. Aaron said, "God knows me.")
Celebrating . . . all the April birthdays: Mike (I made him a cake and challenged him to bake a lot of bread (see below)); Ian (he had his best buddy over for dinner, cake, and the new Mario movie; Mike decided not to make the cake this year and purchased very expensive cupcakes instead; Ian got a much-hoped for stuffed cat, which completed his trio of Scotty, Sally, and Simon); and BMT (it's been five years since Aaron's second transplant; we got Mrs. Backer's pastries per tradition and Aaron had his annual appointment, including a three-hour neuropsych evaluation).
Making . . . 15 loaves of zopf for a ward activity. I was on the committee for a recent ward activity, which included a dinner and was a celebration of our ancestors. The menu consisted of food from some of the ward members' family histories. I volunteered Mike to make zopf , which is a Swiss bread that his Grandma Johnson frequently made. All of the baking for the activity needed to happen on the day before, which happened to be Mike's birthday, so I told him I was giving him a baking challenge for his birthday, haha. He rose to the challenge, and the ward dinner was a very nice event.
Battling . . . persistent and debilitating headaches. At the beginning of the month, Max started getting daily headaches that were so bad he usually had to come home from school in the middle of the day and go to sleep in the dark basement. At first, we thought it was just an illness, but day after day, it was the same story: wake up, go to school, come home a few hours later in unbearable pain. We took him to the doctor, who prescribed him a migraine medication (which actually seemed to do nothing to touch the pain). We tested our house for mold, had Max sleep on a different mattress, considered the foods he was eating, made sure he was getting plenty to drink, prioritized sleep, etc. And then finally (and this probably should have been the first thing we considered), we thought they might be caused by the accutane he was on for his acne. He stopped taking it, and within days, the headaches were completely gone and have not come back.
Taking . . . Annie to prom. Aaron and Annie made such a cute couple at prom . . . and not just at prom, but every day, if you get my meaning. Prom activities included: Top Golf, photos at the capitol, dinner at Gurka's, the dance at the U, and decorating socks and hanging out afterwards. It was Aaron's final high school dance, and it was a good one.
Feeling . . . hopeful for the future. As I already alluded to above, Aaron has a girlfriend. This is not the place for me to share my opinions about the pros and cons of having a girlfriend in high school, but I will say that we have encouraged Aaron to spend time with Annie at our house and hang out with all of us, which they both have been happy to do. We all played barnyard rummy one night, and it was so much fun. Sometimes I get sad about the future and all of my boys leaving, so it has actually been so encouraging for me to see Aaron in this relationship and get a little glimpse of the way things could be in the future, and it's actually a pretty happy and hopeful glimpse.
Teaching . . . my last Stripe Hype class. The Stripe Hype Sweater class wrapped up at Handwork with its fourth and final installment, and there were some finished or nearly finished sweaters by the end of it, so I'd say it was a success! Three of the students missed the last class, but I got a photo with the four who were there. It was such a fun class to teach, and I was glad to finally get to finish my own sweater, which I wore four times in one week, haha. Other creative endeavors this month included: cutting out a couple of patterns, sewing the Lucien Henley, and making really good progress on my First Tee and Sunday blanket. I also started a Sophie Shawl in preparation for teaching another class, this one with some of my friends.
Attending . . . the Great Basin Arts Fiber Festival. I had to go on Saturday instead of Friday this year, which meant that I missed hanging out with most of my knitting friends. However, I still had a lovely time browsing slowly through all the booths before carefully making my selections, chatting with some of the vendors, and spending extra time at Deborah's (Candy Shoppe Yarns) booth. I came away with a bunch of mini skeins (for my Sunday blanket that is supposed to be made with stash yarn, oops), some fat quarters, and even some earrings.
Becoming . . . Harry Houdini. Ian's class put on a wax museum, and he learned all about Harry Houdini. He wrote and memorized a little speech all about Houdini. Mike, Silas, and I went to his class and enjoyed walking around to see all the different famous people and then pushing each button to make them come to life and talk about themselves. It was fun to also think back on all the wax museums of the past: Aaron (Mozart); Maxwell (Benedict Arnold); Bradley (Jim Henson); Clark (Mister Rogers).
Spending . . . the loveliest anniversary weekend with Mike. We celebrated 21 years this month. What a gift! We decided to book a room at the Anniversary Inn in Logan, just for something different. The day before, they called to tell us that the room needed maintenance and wouldn't be available. (We were going to stay in the 1950's Drive In Room, but apparently the tires on the pickup truck bed needed to be replaced. Not sure how tires wear out on a stationary bed . . . ) So we switched to the Old Rock Church bed and breakfast. It was the quietest place we've ever stayed at. I don't think there was another soul there.
On the way to Logan, we stopped at the Brigham City temple to do sealings. Then we met up at Maddox for dinner with Mike's parents. When we got to Logan, we went on a walk while we waited for keys to our room. We watched The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which I'd never seen, and I liked it so much more than the book). The next day, we went out for breakfast at Herm's (where Mike claims he had the best breakfast potatoes of his life). Then I did a little fabric shopping at Tangle and Twill, which is sadly going out of business. After that, we drove up to the cabin where the Blodgetts were staying. We hung out and chatted with them for a bit before driving home. We stopped at Dakine Grindz, a Hawaiin Filipino restaurant, in Ogden for a late lunch. Truthfully, I still wasn't very hungry after our big breakfast but I also didn't want our fun trip to end, so I powered through (and it was really yummy). We both said we wouldn't have changed a thing about this quick little getaway.
Enjoying . . . lots of lovely park weather as well as some much needed rain.
Whew, I think I made it to the end of this very full month. Grateful for all the good things!
