Fiasco

The keys have been lost for 5 hours now... 5 LONG hours. At first it wasn't too bad, searching my parents house for the Navigator keys but now its to the point of exasperation. Aaron, Chris, Dalton and I were supposed to take my parents car back to Waco because we're going to drive to Amarillo tomorrow night (the heater in Aaron's car isn't working and its 30* in Amarillo). We were all ready to go at 4:00 when my dad realized that he couldn't find keys. We searched the house for OVER 2 hours and nothing turned up. My dad finally gave in and called a locksmith and guess how much its going to cost to get a replacement key made....$180. Yep, crazy huh? Especially considering that we don't even need the locksmith to unlock the car because the Navigator has one of those touch pads on the outside, all we need is a key to start the motor. The locksmith came over an hour ago and he's still outside working. We're loving getting to spend extra time with my family, but we need to get to Waco. I'm pretty sure that this is all part of some elaborate plan to get us to spend the night in Rockwall - My parents would just love that!

Oh and today we celebrated Christmas with my family. I got a lot of wonderful gifts, but my sweet husband gave me the best one.... A giraffe print purse that I've been eyeing forever!

REJ

Merry Christmas.... Love, The Johnsons

White Rock and White Christmas

Last weekend was a bast, but I think it left me feeling more tired than refreshed. Saturday was the WHITTLE FAMILY CHRISTMAS. Every year about 65 - 70 of my relatives got together at my parents house and we eat, play games, and exchange gifts. This year we did a white elephant gift exchange and I got the game "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" Its pretty fun...but honestly its a little too easy (not for me..I got most of the questions wrong, but all the other adults were doing great)

Then on Sunday morning I walked the White Rock 1/2 Marathon with two of my favorite people in Waco - Kim Scott and Jennifer Baker. We also used to be involved with the BU Spirit Squads and even though we don't do that together anymore, we've all stayed great friends. We woke up bright and eary on Sunday, donned our running gear, and headed out to Dallas. Unfortunately nobody told us that it was going to be 38* and drizzling - Ughhhh my hands went numb the second I stepped outside. I got so cold that I put on someone's discarded beenie just to keep my ears warm. Yeah, I know its sorta gross...I found the beenie laying beside the gutter on the streets of Dallas but I was seriously THAT COLD. We did have an awesome time just hanging out and talking for about 3 1/2 hours. And even though we walked 13.1 miles...I really felt like I could have kept going. I've already talked to my mom and I think she and I maywalk/jog one in the Spring. I did have to stop for a sandwhich half way through (that's how you know you're a little piggy - you stop for a sandwhich halfway through a marathon!) I mean, I was hungry..what can I say. There was a 7 Eleven and so I stopped and it sure was worth that extra 2 minutes it cost me.

Kim Scott's birthday was yesterday, so I want to give a little shout out to her. She is an amazing woman and I don't know if I would have made it through college without her guidance. I love her and I am so thankful for her friendship!

In other news...Aaron and I are hosting a Christmas Party at our house tomorrow night. And how many people are coming? Well, I'm glad you asked.... 70! Yeah, don't ask me what we're going to do - in fact, we don't even really have a plan. Our house will only hold about 20 and thats pushing it. It was supposed to be a Come and Go Church Christmas Party, but all of the sudden the entire church decided to carpool together and that means that they will ALL arrive here at exactly the same time (YIKES). We are just going to hope for cold weather, build a bonfire out back, and try to shoo people outside to sit around the bonfire.

I'll let you know how it goes....

Pace,
Rachael

13.1 Miles

I don't really have time for a post, but I wanted to let all of you know that the White Rock 1/2 Marathon went really well.... I even had time for a sandwich at Mile 7 : )

Christmas Questions

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Definitely wrapping paper - I think wrapping gifts makes Christmas more fun

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial, but I LOVE real ones too!

3. When do you put up the tree? This is our first year to have a tree and we put it up Thanksgiving weekend

4. When do you take the tree down? Hmmmm don't know yet

5. Do you like eggnog? Love Love Love it!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Go Kart

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yup

8. Hardest person to buy for? My brother in law Chris

9. Easiest person to buy for? Aaron (or myself - lol)

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? An ugly belt with sparkles all over it... I think I got it in 4th grade, but I remember loathing the very idea of wearing it

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Love Actually or the Holiday - I know these aren't classics, but they're SOO good

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I actually just bought the first of the presents Wednesday night. Next year I'm going to start shopping in October so I can hit up all of the good sales

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Egg Nog, Buckeyes (homemade chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter candies) and Summer Sausage

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Either

17. Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells, Oh Holy Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, Silent Night, We Three Kings, Little Drummer Boy... I love them ALL

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We ALWAYS travel... in fact I've only had Christmas at home ONE time in my entire life - weird huh?

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Hmmm... Rudolph, Dancer, Prancer, Comet, Vixen, Cupid, Dasher, Donner (How many are there)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Open one present on Christmas Eve (always pj's) and then the rest on Christmas morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Greed and Business

23. What I love most about Christmas? Getting to spend time with family and I love all of the holiday parties!!!!

Life's Funny Like That

Well we had an awkward / funny moment today....

Every month or so Chris is supposed to meet with his CASA worker. Now CASA workers are Court Appointed Special Advocates and their purpose is to check on foster children and then represent them in court as an outside, but very informed source. (Ex..If a foster parent abuses their foster child, the foster child can tell their CASA worker and then the CASA worker will be a witness for the child once it gets to court) Anyways, I got a call yesterday at work from Chris' CASA worker. He introduced himself and told me that his name was Eric and that he was coming to Waco on Saturday and wanted to know if we had time for him to come by and check in on Chris. I told him that it was fine and then started to give him directions to our house. He sort of stopped me in the middle of my directions and told me that he used to live in Waco and that he was sure that he could find our place just fine. So to make a long story short...We agreed to meet Saturday at 4:00 pm.

Okay fast forward to last night...we all went bowling in the SUB and as we were leaving we decided to head over to Common Grounds because one of my friends bands was playing (yea-Chris Pearson!) and I wanted Chris to get a little taste of Baylor life. While we were waiting in line we saw tons of flyers for the band Quiet Lovely that said they were playing a show the next day. Now, two of Aaron's really good friends (Jonathan - a really good friend & Eric - a friend through Jonathan) are in that band and Aaron got kind of ticked because his friends hadn't let him know that they were coming into town to play a show. So Aaron told Chris all about his friends that were in the band and how cool they were, all of their fun college adventures, and how Jonathan was in our wedding ect....

While we were sitting around drinking our frozen Milky Way's last night, Chris told us all about his CASA worker and how cool he was. He told us about how Eric would sometimes buy him video games, UT stuff, or other little presents. We talked for a while and became apparent that Chris really liked his CASA worker and it was kind of fun hearing about the bond they'd formed over the past couple years.

Okay now fast forward to 4:00 this afternoon... I'm looking at the clock thinking "the CASA worker should be here any second." All of the sudden we here a knock on the door and when Aaron goes to open it, I hear him say "Heeeyyy, what's up dude..." So I'm kind of upset with my husband for handling our first meeting with the CASA guy so unprofessionally (I mean we're supposed to act like parents - know what I mean?) So anyways, Aaron's going on and on about how great it is for this guy to stop by and how he's missed seeing him. And I'm still thinking that my husband is acting REALLY weird and all of the sudden Eric walked in and I realized that Eric isn't just some CASA guy, he's also Eric the guy that plays the drums for Quiet Lovely / Eric the guy who's bed I sleep in when we go to Austin and stay at his house. CRRRAAAZZZY!

Lets just say that it was hilariously funny and really awkward for about the next 5 minutes as we all tried to be friendly and business like at the same time. Finally we just gave up and just hung out like usual. So after that whole story...here's what it boils down to

1. Quiet Lovely had a show at CG's, so Eric thought that he might as well see Chris since he was in town.

2. Eric didn't realize that we are foster parents.... especially foster parents to one of "his" kids.

3. We didn't know that Eric worked for CASA

4. Aaron thought that Eric was just stopping by since he was in Waco for the Quiet Lovely concert...he had no idea that Eric was Chris' CASA worker

4. Chris didn't know that his CASA worker was in a punk rock band

5. I laughed for a good 5 minutes about the fact that I'd slept (several times) in Chris' CASA worker's bed. (It just seems weird)

I don' t know if I did a good job explaining everything - but how random right????