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I really have lots of stuff to post like Sydney’s birthday party, her baptism day, etc. Lots of pictures to come when I have some time.

Peter was called and sustained as the ward executive secretary on Sunday.

Stay tuned… I am hoping to update – I promise mom.

We are waiting to see if Tropical Storm Hanna decides to come up against the Florida coast and if she will gain strength over the ocean and once again be classified as a hurricane. If she comes, then maybe we’ll go to Tampa and stay in a hotel and go to Bush Gardens (an amusement park).

We’ll keep you posted (as long as I have internet access). Not really worried about it, but if it is a hurricane then we may be evacuated because we are on an island and would have to get across a causeway before getting trapped in.

And about my poll question “Do you read any blogs that are authored by people you don’t know?” I have to answer yes, although I do not do the “blog stalking” thing. I read one blog written by someone I don’t know that is authored by a mother of 11 children (some of them adopted) who lives in California. Check it out at smilesandtrials.blogspot.com.

According to Isaac:

• The wheels on the bus go swish swish swish
• The babies on the bus go oink oink oink
• The people on the bus go crazy crazy crazy

According to Isaac:

• Something told him to throw mulch at Mackenzie while at the playground
• His tummy told him to hit Ruby with his backpack

According to Isaac:

• The black beans in the dinner tonight are tomatoes

This is only the list of stuff I could remember. He is so wilful that when he makes a statement (even when he knows it is wrong) he will stick to it like glue and get so mad at me if I try to correct him. Help?!

“I’m cute and I know it.”

Sydney and Isaac playing with Roger

Isaac loves to jog/walk on the treadmill. Actually, he loves taking his shirt off and this is the only time he is allowed to do it in the house.

“I don’t want my picture taken.”

“Fine, take my picture. I’ll even pretend I’m happy about it.”

Just for the record, I don’t like this picture of myself. Do not comment on it.

Here is our week and a half in a bullet list:

• Isaac LOVES preschool. He really loves the fact that there are other boys to play with. In his primary class he is the only boy most of the time.
• Sydney LOVES third grade. I like her new teacher!
• I LOVES the three hours of quiet while Isaac is at preschool.
• Somehow I feel that I am cheating or something when both kids are at school. It’s weird to explain, but somehow it feels unnatural doing laundry and going grocery shopping by myself, but don’t worry, I’m sure I will adjust well.
• Peter is in New Mexico this week.
• We got a new dog (see the post just below this one to read about Roger).
• My left eye has been twitching now for five days.
• I really did not know that there was voting going on in our area yesterday. I hate to say it, but I did not vote because of ignorance.
• Sydney’s new teacher has already put me to work on some folders that I can make at home.
• After a few years of just dabbling in yoga I am ready to take it a step further. I find that I can really let go of all my stress while stretching and focusing on holding poses correctly. I just need to convince the dog to let me have my space…

That’s all folks…

We drove out to Tampa this last Saturday to pick up our new dog, Roger. I have to say I had a hard time believing that there was a dog out there who does not bark, but I have been proven wrong!

He looks so much like our last dog, Lola, that I catch myself almost calling him by that name much of the time. Roger is very sweet tempered; he does not jump up on people, but his tail can whip pretty hard when he is excited; I have not heard one bark come out of him yet; he stays back when I open the front door and does not try to escape, and he is pretty content to just hang out on the floor.

Being a very out of shape dog, we are going to slowly acclimate him to an exercise routine. First I am working on helping him learn to walk on a leash; when he’s good at that we’ll start a walk/jog routine and work up to a full jog. After taking a pretty easy stroll around the block he is out of breath so we will work slowly with him. He also has a difficult time making it up and down the stairs – almost falling down the last few stairs every time down. I pretty much run up and down them so I started going slowly to help pace him and that seems to have helped.

Now every dog has some bad traits so I will discuss them here. He likes to chew on his bone and his stuffed duck which is fine, but the kid’s stuffed animals and toys look tempting. After chewing the leg off of Batman, the kids have been warned to keep their toys put away (this may turn out to be a good thing…). He likes to sit under the grand piano and so I am VERY QUICKLY working on breaking him of this habit – every time he tried to sit near or under the piano I directed him to another spot of floor and praised him.

So Tropical Storm Fay ended up causing a lot more flooding in our area than I originally thought. We have been sitting in our new home in our newly designed neighborhood with excellent water drainage ditches and retention ponds. Our little lake the back yard was nothing. Apparently for the small coastline area we live, Fay created the worst flooding in 50 years (the tropical storm just hovered over our area for two days pouring rain on us).

And though the rain and wind are gone and the tropical storm has moved north, much of our area (especially the mainland area where they got 26 inches of rain in two days) is under water. No one from church that we know of has personally experienced their home being flooded, but there are plenty of homes and buildings in the area that have not been as fortunate. Super Wal-mart and Super Target both ended up with a foot of water covering the entire floor.

Here are a couple of links you can check out to see some of the flooding in our area:

Beachside Flooding in Satellite Beach
(this family lives in our neighborhood so you can see how close to us the flooding got)

The Mainland Side (Melbourne, FL)

So school is out again (school in our county has been out Tuesday – Friday the first week of school) while the water continues to recede.

Tropical Storm Fay has been working her way around Florida for a few days now. The eye went over us about four or five hours ago and so far we have received about 8-12 inches of rain (with plenty more still to come). The storm is expected to strengthen over the Atlantic Ocean overnight before turning back and coming inland again. Howling winds and pelting rain kept me up all night – my beauty sleep was cut short and I have not been a pretty sight.

The conditions have been bad enough that school has been cancelled three out of five days so far this week (the first week of school)! The kids are going crazy – they don’t want to be at home and Peter has been at home from work, causing some wee tid-bits of marital strife ;o) The Johnson family is going stir crazy!!!

Two of our windows are leaking (one has a garbage can with two inches of water in the bottom of it). There are downed power lines on a major highway next to our neighborhood. And multiple buildings on Patrick Air Force Base have been considerably damaged.

One of the great lakes has been relocated to our backyard and the Colorado River is now running down the ditch along the front of our street.

Lake Superior, Florida
The Colorado River runneth over… (it’s not horribly obvious but the parking strip is about two feet deep and is full of water).

But mom, we’re not going to die.

Everyone once in a while I am able to snap an adorable picture of my two children. I love this picture! The night before school the kids both picked out what to wear:

Sydney picked out a cute dress to wear.

“Say Cheese!”

This is what I normally get when I ask Isaac to smile:

Here he sort of gave in and did a grin.

Two cheesy kids.

Sydney sitting at her desk in Mrs. Smith’s classroom. She already knows most of the kids in her class!

Here is Isaac with his friend Dayton (who broke his leg right after swim lessons were over) waiting for preschool to start. Isaac was bummed because he and Dayton are not in the same class (they have two classes).

Isaac hanging up his backpack. After going into the preschool he didn’t look back…

And just ’cause I love this picture, you get to see it again.

And again (just for grandma)!And this is my favorite:

Here is our week in a bullet list:

• The kids had their first day of school today. Isaac was so tired after preschool that he sacked out on the couch after lunch. I DID NOT have a problem keeping busy while they were gone.
• I gave Sydney a haircut last week – it turned out pretty well.
• Isaac is in need of a haircut.
• I am also in need of a haircut.
• Peter made Naan bread yesterday and posted his recipe here.
• The kids really enjoyed the first day of school, but it looks like day number two will be cancelled. We are having a tropical storm warning in our area – we plan on getting dumped on tonight while we are sleeping. Even though we already have lots of water and food storage, I still went to the Commissary this morning to buy more bottled water and some fresh fruit. We went around the yard and took all of our yard decorations/chairs, etc… into the garage. Also, Patrick Air Force Base is closed tomorrow so Peter gets a day off of work!
• We will be going to see a Golden Retriever this Saturday – he sounds like a very pleasant dog. He does not jump up on people, he rarely barks, he likes to please, and he likes car rides and running. Being two years old he is still a bit of a puppy but he’ll grow out of that. We have to drive all the way to Tampa (about 2 1/2 hours away) to see him. Here’s a picture of him (he looks a lot like our last dog, Lola, but he weighs 70 pounds as opposed to 25 pounds). Golden Retrievers are big!

Wow – September 6th is going to be busy…