End of the Expe

On Monday afternoon Aaron's car decided that it could go no further. For over ten years the poor Expedition tirelessly drove nearly 200,000 miles. The past two years that sweet ol' hunk a love groaned and lurched everywhere it went, but it never failed to get us to our destination. But on Monday it decided that enough was enough.

We've known that the Expe was on its last legs for a long time now, but we kept hoping that it would make it to September. Now that I think about it, I have no idea why we chose September...it just sounded like a good month for Aaron to find a new car. But, alas July will be new car month for the Johnson family. Now some of you may be thinking, "Wait, didn't Rachael just get a new car back in January?" And the answer is yes...I did. We are leasing my sweet little Acura and its wonderful.

For the last 4 days Aaron and I have been sharing her and it hasn't been working out too well. See our house is way out in the boonies on one end of Waco, our church is out in the boonies on the other end, and my work is in a random church sorta near Hillcrest Hospital. For Aaron to drop me off at work and then head out to church it takes him nearly an hour. And with Chris having baseball practice every night things have been way to hectic. So my crazy husband is about to get a new (used) car. And what does he want......

Yeah baby - A 2003 Cadillac CTS. Now I'm still not a huge fan of these cars. I'd really like for my man to drive a truck, but Aaron is dead set on his CTS. He's been driving all over Waco, scouring the Internet, and checking out car magazines like crazy. He's found a couple within our price range with low miles, so come Monday we might be proud owners of a new caddy!

Rollin wit tha homies...REJ

Vienna Teng

Yeah... check her out. Its all quite phenomenal!

http://viennateng.com/listen/

I was listening to my daily dose of Yahoo Music and all the sudden a whimsical little fairy voice filled my computer speakers. I immidiately googled her and now I'm obessed. She's coming to Austin in February, so now all I've gotta do is convince Aaron that we have to go hear her.

MELTING

Ughhhhhh Its So Hot!



The air conditioner in my office broke yesterday afternoon. I currently have two oscillating fans blowing on me, but even they can't compete with the 100 degree temperature. I can't believe my boss is makeing us stay here...maybe he'll let us go home after lunch (I've got my fingers crossed). I'm tempted to claim that I'm having some sort of medical emergency, so that I can go relax in the cool AC of my wonderous little house.

I just found out that we get to go home at 2:00!!!!! Hooray!!!



In other news...I've only got 6 more days of full time work at my job. Then I move to working only 3 days a week for 3 hours a day - YES!!!! Who's excited about lots of time to lay by the pool, workout, and veg on the couch...I am!



We went to dinner last night at Logans Roadhouse with our best Waco friends, Chris and Robin Richardson. They just got back from Denver and it was so fun listening to the stories from their roadtrip.



Well its time for my lunch, so I'm going to go to Barnes and Noble to escape the unbearable heat. We are heading to Rockwall after Chris' baseball practice tonight, so hopefully I'll have tons of great boating pics when I get back on Monday.



Peace,

Rach E. J.

One quirky thing about me is that throughout high school and college I would date the most random people...and I mean WAY random. Here are a four that might make you smile:

Braids - Yes, this is what we called him on my Senior Trip to Cancun. I saw him from the top deck of the booze cruise (don't worry, I didn't drink a drop). He was waiting to get on the boat and he had these glorious braids with little beads at the end...you know the kind that little girls get in their hair when they go on vacation. He and I hung out non-stop that week and he even came to visit me one weekend in Rockwall. My parents were not impressed and I decided that he was not my type when he convinced me and my best friend Amelia to skip the amazing 4th of July Christian Concert and go to some screamo heavy metal one instead.

RESNET - My senior year of high school some girlfriends and I roadtripped up to Baylor for a Dixie Chicks concert. We stayed with one of my friend's brothers who was a senior Phi Chi. We had a blast at the concert, but the most memorable part of the trip was when us 4 crazy senior girls wore our cutest outfits (I wore red pleather pants and a belly shirt - yikes) and headed over to the Phi Chi house on 9th street. We somehow ended up "modeling" on top of the fireplace. The Phi Chi guys probably laughed at us after we left, but for that one night we thought we were so cool. I ended up meeting a sweetie Phi Chi that came to Rockwall for Valentines Day. We didn't date seriously or anything...but when I got to Baylor I remember being a little embarrassed because he was the Collins Resnet guy and that is not the best title to have at good ol' BU.

Rock Climber - My freshman year at Baylor I was really into rock climbing. After track practice, I'd head over to the rock and hang out there for hours. I ended up meeting lots of people, but one stood out from the rest. He rarely wore shoes, almost never showered, and had the frizziest curly hair I've ever seen, but he was really nice and a great rock climber. He and I didn't have much in common, but hey...I was a freshman.

The Nose Brother - Yep...I dated a Nose Brother and I think thats pretty dang cool. Even though Nose Brothers are just regular guys, they do have a zany mystique that I've always found so captivating. My first date with this Nose Brother was to an actual Nose Brother Party. They were all in their masks and I had no idea who my date actually was...he'd just called me up and asked me to meet him at the party - so I did. I asked him tons of questions throughout the night trying to get my date to reveal himself, but nothing worked. Christmas break rolled around and I still had no idea who "my" Nose Bro was. Finally, right at the end of the break, I realized who my date had been. I came back to Baylor triumphant and became really good friends with this guy. He ended up graduating later that year (He was a senior and I was a freshman). We did end up dating later on when I was a junior in college and even though our relationship didn't last...our friendship did and thats what counts!

PS...Camille, I've always felt like Adam was a Nose Brother. Am I right?

LYLAS,
Rachael

Hey guess what?

CHRIS MADE THE ALL-STAR BASEBALL TEAM!!!

I love the word "All-Star" because it brings up two great memories...

Were Converse All-Stars cool when ya'll were in 6th grade? Cause at Utley Middle School they were the bomb.com. The second picture is the CD cover for the band "Smash Mouth." You remember the song...

Hey Now

You're an all-star

Get your game on

Go play....

Just Another Monday

Here's a couple things about me that I feel like sharing...

1. I really like to drink my soda pop out of 32 oz Styrofoam cups. I know this is terrible for the environment, but it just tastes so good. I'm a big fan of Diet Coke with a splash of regular Coke on top.

2. I have a new favorite gas station - Valero (they're all over Waco these days)

3. I hate hate hate Coldplay and Radiohead. Ok, I actually like a couple Coldplay songs, but I don't get everyone's fascination with these bands. I'll take some old school OAR, Dave Matthews, or Matchbox 20 any day thank you very much!

4. I hate fractions, decimals, and subtracting - yep, pretty much all math. But I do really like multiplying and geometry. Weird huh?

5. I just started reading two new books and I really like them both so far: "The Last Summer (of you and me)" and "Three Cups of Tea."

6. We found a puppy the other day when we were exploring a creek by our house. He's a gold pitbull mix and he's so sweet. He's probably about a year old and gets along great with all our animals...even our fiesty cat Potter. We've named him River and he needs a home, so let me know if you want him.

7. Chris and I got in an argument last night and I was super rude to him...yeah, how uncool of me. But thankfully I have a wonderful husband that talked me through my anger and after some prayer I was able to apologize to my son. And good ol' Chris...he forgave me and even gave me a hug. Just another reason why I love this verse,

"He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces finds mercy."
Proverbs 28:13

8. We had a Father's Day Extravaganza at our house yesterday. After church we went to Pei Wei because its one of Aaron's favorite restaurants, then we went to Circuit City and bought a video camera, then we went bowling for a couple hours, then we went and saw The HULK. Yep, it was a pretty good 1st Father's Day.

9. We are hopefully heading to Rockwall this coming weekend to hangout with my family. I'm super excited and I can't wait to teach Chris to waterski!!!!

10. TFL went to the pool in West on Saturday...it was pretty cool, but maybe not worth $25 bucks in admission. It did have some cool stuff like a high dive, low dive, slide, and a zip line that set it apart from other pools around Waco. We probably won't be regulars there, but it was fun just for something new to do.

love love love love love love love love love love love love loved it

I saw the movie on Tuesday night with Robin and Natalie and I have been obsessed with it ever since. See, I never saw an episode while it was actually on tv... All I'd ever seen was a handful of re-runs and I'd only been able to see those because I'd fight for the remote in order to keep Aaron from changing the channel.

In fact the first time I ever really even heard about Sex in the City was when I was living in Italy. My crazy roomate Bethy ripped out SITC magazine pages and hung them up on the walls of our apartment for decoration. So I would stare at Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte and I had no idea who they were. In fact...I was even proud of the fact that I didn't watch that kind of "trash."

But now I am a new woman...a new woman who understands the trials and plight of four friends who are just trying to make it in this world. I've decided that Sex in the City is what real life is like if you don't know Jesus. I mean..real life if your are upper middle class / crazily wealthy, beautiful, and live in New York.

If you are a woman and you have not seen this movie yet....Grab your best friend and head over to the nearest movie theatre ASAP. You will laugh, cry, and decide that being best friends is the greatest thing in the world. (Just watch out for the sex scenes - wowsers!)