It took me a year to write this!

This better be good, right? Well it won't be. It took me FOREVER to create a google account and get into my blog again. What a pain! Well, I better post a picture to make this even worth looking at! I am pretty annoyed. Ok, I just tried to add pictures to this post and it didn't work! AHH! Nothing is going my way. I hate my blog! Have a nice day.

Really Exciting Untrue Story

I have not had much to write about lately...for many reasons, so I have not added any new posts (not having internet access for 2 months didn't help). But then I had a dream that this really awesome thing happened and I couldn't wait to write about it on my blog. Finally, something worth writing about! But then it turned out to be a dream! I was so disappointed. But, I have decided to write about it anyway.
One day I was at my mom's house in Ohio for some reason, and on the front porch there was a deer! Then the deer put on a helmet and got onto a motor bike and was doing pop-a-wheelies all over the yard. It was so awesome! I know there was more, but I forgot most of it because I didn't have internet access for so long.
The End.

Happy 1st Birthday, Ethan

Ethan,
Today is your first birthday. It wasn't exactly how I had planned to spend it, 12 months ago when you were born. I worried so needlessly about the fact that you were born on a holiday. I didn't want you to have to share your birthday with anything. I worried that you'd never get to have your birthday party on your actual birthday. Now we won't even have a party for you each year so I worried about that for nothing. I would give anything to have you here and have to celebrate your birthday on the 5th or the 6th, but that wasn't God's plan for you.
I am so proud of how you fought so hard while you were here and how you went through your last few weeks without complaining. I know it must not have been that comfortable for you. I can't wait until the day that I get to see you again and maybe hold you (who knows if you'll still be a baby or a grown up when I see you again). I hope you will remember me. If many years pass before I get to see you, please don't forget me, ok? I love you so much. You will always be my precious baby boy.
Love, Mommy

WARNING! For Women Only!

If you are a man I am telling you now not to read any further. If you do, you cannot blame me or think that I am inappropriate, because I TOLD YOU SO ahead of time. There. With that said, here is my little story.
I had been having severe cramps for three days and it is nowhere near time for my period to start (men...there is still time to back out). So, I made an appointment with my OB/GYN for Thursday. Then, before I left, Andrew's hem/onc doctor from the U of M called and said they need more blood drawn, so I needed to go to the lab. I was like, "That's good, because I'm on my way to the clinic right now!" Good timing. So, I took Andrew to my gynecologist appointment. I was concerned that it was endometriosis, because I read about it in a medical book and it sounded like what I had. My doctor did a pelvic exam and felt all around and said, "If that was endometriosis, you would be screaming right now. " So, I guess that's not what it was. I was still lying down when Andrew came over and lifted up my paper sheet thing and said, "Mommy, let me see your hole." I was mortified. The doctor looked at me like, "What?" I was like, "I don't know where he's coming up with this!" He must know that everyone has a "hole" for going to the bathroom. AHH! So anyway, we left and went to the lab and Andrew's lab order fax had not come in so we had to come back the next day. On Friday, I showed up at the registration desk and the girl there remembered us from the previous day. She said, "oh, you're back again?" And Andy went up to her and said, "Mommy have a hole." Thank you, Andy. I am now humiliated. I told her that he came to my gynecologist appoinment the day before and that he was NEVER going to one again.

More cute kid sayings

Emma (I just got another mosquito. Yes! Sorry)...anyway, Emma was admiring the new flowers that I bought for my planters in the front of the house. She liked the dark pink hanging basket and asked, "What kind of flowers are these?"
"Impatiens, " I said.
"I like those, " she said. "I wanted to get you those for Mother's Day. I wanted to buy you a bouquet of 'Be patient' flowers."
How cute.
At night we have been reading a Disney American Folk tales book. Andy likes to read "Paul Bunyan" every night. He calls it, "Bob Onion." Say it out loud. It sounds the same, sort of.

Ticks, Ticks, Ticks!

It's that time of year again in Minnesota...Tick season! We've been having lots of visitors from other parts of the world and they are so intrigued by those little bugs. Bart for some reason feels the need to take every first time guest all over our property, including through the woods and into the swamp (maybe not) and when they come back they are just crawling with ticks! Our new friend Ben, from jolly old England, was quite fascinated with them. He must have had 25 ticks on him when he came back from his tour of our property. And my Ohio relatives were equally impressed. Now they even know the difference between a wood tick and a deer tick. I was lucky enough to find a deer tick on Emma so I could show them the difference. Emma is lucky that I found it, too, and that I removed it!

Andy and Mommy on the Road

Yesterday Andy and I went to Minneapolis for another dose of antiviral medicine. On the way there he made me duck my head under every bridge, which got a little annoying on 35W because there are so many bridges!
When we were in the hospital, he was hungry for a hot dog. We were watching tv and I explained to him how to use the tv remote that is also a nurse call and light switch all in one. I said, "Don't push the red button." A little while later I heard the nurse come over the speaker on the remote. She said, "Can I help you?" I said, "Oh, I'm sorry, Andy must have pushed the button." Then he grabbed the remote and yelled, "Me need hotdog!" I thought he pushed the button on accident, but he knew exactly what he was doing. He was ordering lunch! It was so cute.

Andyisms

Now that Andy is talking up a storm again after healing from his breathing tube, he has been saying some pretty cute and funny stuff. I keep meaning to write it down so I don't forget it. Yesterday he had his face covered up with a mask from the hospital and we would ask, "Andy, where are you?" Then he would pull it down and we'd say, "There you are!" Then he covered up his face again and he asked, "Where me are?"
He always says, "That's ok," but when he says it it sounds like, "Dat do day."
When he does something he shouldn't and he gets in trouble, he'll get all said and say, "Daddy no me." That means Daddy said no to me (sometimes Mommy does, too).

Andy's original vocabulary: Age 3

Washcloth: wapbwop
Ketchup: deh dup
Mustard: muh mer
Monster: mommer
Pickle: bipple
Milk: mok
Ice cream: Ibweam

Starting Again

Well, here I am again in the Blog world. I have taken a little break from writing because I have been preoccupied with my Caring Bridge Website and taking care of Andy. I also didn't even know how to begin writing in this blog again, when so much of what I had written was about Ethan. It was too sad to start again without him. But, like everything else in life, I have to keep going. I believe strongly that Ethan is alive and well in Heaven and he is still a huge part of our lives and our family. We will see him again, but until then I have to take care of my other two children and my husband, since Ethan is very well taken care of right now. He is actually the only one I don't have to worry about. So, here is my transition back into "normal" life, or, life as I now know it...back to the grind of stay-at-home motherhood.

Bird Flu, of course!

Most of you know that I am a major worry wart. I can't help it...it runs in the family! So of course I am scared to death of this avian flu. I didn't even care about it until a few days ago and I'm not sure why. I never thought it would amount to anything but now I'm convinced that it is going to mutate into something that humans can pass to each other and my children are going to get it!!
I have decided that I am going to stay locked up in my house if it turns into some kind of pandemic or something. I am stockpiling groceries so that I won't have to go to the store or leave my house at all when it comes.
The same thing happened during Y2K. I was convinced that we should turn our savings account into gold bars because the value of US currency would go down the drain. Of course Y2K turned out to be nothing, but this is DIFFERENT! This has happened before in history and is due to happen again any time! This is not what I need right now!
If you need something to worry about, like I do, check out the CDC website, which I have linked above.

Is this Alaska?

No, it's Minn- esota, but it felt like Alaska today. We went on a dog sled at ICC, where Bart works. I went on with Emma and Andrew and Bart went on with them, too. We didn't bring Ethan. It was a steamy 6 degrees outside and it really felt nice on your face going around on the sled.

Out of the Mouth of Emma

Cute story: The other day we were making a cheesecake and Emma was helping me get the ingredients out of the cupboard. I was naming them as I took them out. I got out the vanilla. "Vanilla, " I said.
She said, "I'll put the vanilla over by the bowl."
I got out the allspice. "Allspice."
And she said, "I'll take the 'spice' and put it over there, too." She kept calling the allspice "spice."
Then she asked, "Mommy, why do we need to use 'ALL' the spice?"

Happy Valentine's Day

Sorry I have been gone for so long! Andrew and Ethan both had ear infections and neither one responded to their antibiotics so they each had to go on different ones. Andy had a high fever so he had another seizure. He hasn't had one in over a year so I thought we were done with those for good. Guess not. Ethan moved from an ear infection to RSV which he has had for like 2 weeks. It has been awful for him. He was so sick. Now I think we're doing ok. Andy got over one ear infection and then the other ear got infected but I am putting drops in his ear and he seems fine. AHHHH! Happy Valentine's Day indeed! Emma and I will be making cookies today and a craft. Bart is making dinner. That's all.

Excitement as we know it

Not much ever goes on here at the Johnson house, now that Robin is back in Ohio, that is. He adds excitement. I found the three missing sippy cups that I've been searching for for several days. I blamed Andrew for sticking them down his ductwork since we don't have vent covers on any of our vents yet. He got in trouble for that. Then yesteray I found them in a poster that was rolled up and standing on end. He stacked them up inside. I felt so bad. He took the blame for something he didn't even do!! He said, "So sorry," when I told him he shouldn't have done it. AHHH! Bad Mommy!!!!!
Ethan is pulling himself up to standing against stuff. He isn't even 7 months old! He will be on the 4th. He crawled at 6 months and then sat up a day later. He is getting his 3rd, 4th and 5th teeth. Each baby is getting more advanced. I must be fine tuning my uterus to produce the perfect baby. Hmmmm....if I just have a few more, I may have a real genius on my hands. We'll have to see.
Emma has a cough. That's all I can think of about her. She pretty much stays the same. She is twirling around the kitchen.
This was a really exciting entry, as I foretold it would be in the title.

Where am I?

This weekend my stepdad Robin came to visit us and bring a load of stuff up here (they are moving here). He slipped and fell on the ice because it is SOOOO icy here and he hit his head and couldn't remember how he got here. He didn't remember that my mom didn't come with him or what he drove or anything. It was like he had temporary amnesia. It was so scary. Bart took him to the ER to have him cat scanned. He's ok now. No, Mom, I'm not trying to make fun, either, it's just that this is all that I have to write about from the last few days. It's all I've thought about. Also, Jonathan Kent on Smallville died so I was pretty depressed about that, but now I'm happy again because my friend Laurann is pregnant with twins (she already has 3 kids) and I keep laughing so thanks, Laurann, for brightening my otherwise depressing week!

Cutest Baby in the World!

Recently I was looking at my friend's blog and she said she had pictures of the cutest baby in the world. I was like, "How did she get pictures of Ethan?" Then I saw that it wasn't Ethan at all, just some poser who shall remain nameless. So here is the real deal. The REAL cutest baby in the world. ETHAN ROBERT JOHNSON!!!!

Sleeping Through the Night

Ethan slept from 8:30 pm until 6:00 in the morning! Can you imagine how much sleep I should have gotten? But unfortunately he has programmed my body to wake up every few hours. I first woke up at 2:30 am and freaked out. "Ethan's not awake yet! He has suffocated in his blanket!" So I ran to his room to check on him. He was fine. This was just the first of many trips to is bedroom before he finally woke up at 6 am. Oh well. If he makes a habit of sleeping through the night, which I doubt, maybe I'll finally get used to it and start sleeping through the night myself!

What's up with Strawberry Shortcake?

I loved Strawberry Shortcake dolls when I was little, so I was excited to find out that they were making them again in 2001. I bought Emma a couple dolls, only to discover that they weren't making them anymore...well, they were, but they only made talking ones and mermaid ones. What? Strawberry Shortcake isn't a mermaid! Anyway, I had to buy the rest of the regular dolls on Ebay for her for Christmas. Then, I went to Target a few weeks ago and found out that they totally redid the S.S. dolls AGAIN! Now they are all modern looking and taller and they look NOTHING like the original ones. What is this world coming to? If girls want Bratz dolls they'll buy one. Don't ruin Strawberry Shortcake! Oh yeah, and Polly Pocket? Doesn't fit in your pocket so well anymore, just so you know.

Bugars

When Emma was little she called all food "Nummies." One day she was chewing on something and I asked, "What are you eating?" She said, "Nose nummies." Now Andrew, who is 2 and a half, is starting to discover the wonderful world inside his nose. The other day I said, "What's in your mouth?" He said, "Cheese Bugar."