Graduation

As I watched graduation this year and they started to play the class chosen song,
"Time of Your Life, by Green Day" I thought back to my own.



Our song that long ago Sunday in 1987 was "Time to Remember, by Billy Joel". I remember all those words still.


This is the time to remember
Cause it will not last forever
These are the days
To hold on to
Cause we won't
Although we want to
This is the time
But time is gonna change
I know we've got to move somehow
But I don't want to lose you know

Sometimes it's so easy
To let a day
Slip on by
Without even seeing each other at all
But this is the time you'll turn back and so will I
And those will be the days you can never recall

And so we embrace again
Behind the dunes
This beach is cold
On winter afternoons
But holding you close is like holding the summer sun
I'm warm from the memory of days to come

This is the time to remember
Cause it will not last forever
These are the days
To hold on to
But we won't
Although we'll want to
This is the time
But time is gonna change
You've given me the best of you
But now I need the rest of you

Seems like so long ago: all those Friday night football games, the dates, the heartbreaks. Graduation, weddings, babies, jobs and soon the big 40! I'm not sure I'm ready!

Teamwork

The Gators end the season 7-1!



My youngest has played with this team since pre-k and are now in 3rd grade. This was taken this weekend after a great 1-0 win over an older 4th grade team. We were hot, we were tired and we were happy!

Good Times!

Happy 14!

My daughter has turned 14! I wonder if her father and I will be able to survive the next 4 years of drama, boys, high school, drama, proms, drama, did I mention we are worried about the DRAMA. Yikes and know she wants to learn to drive!

I tell myself not to worry, she's an honor roll student with great friends. But, look at her! She looks so grown up, and before I know it she will be!

Love this photo!

My mother gave me a box of photos of my dad that she had in storage.

He past away over 10 years ago after a long illness. I love this photo. I hadn't seen these before. This was taken at the Zebra Club in post WWII Japan. My dad was stationed there for several years in Yokohma. He worked in the officers club.
Love the smile, he looks so young. But, I guess he was according to the date stamp on the back he was only 19 years old.

I'd love to have been able to go through this box with him, to hear the stories behind them.

It's May already?

I can not believe it is May already. The last couple of months have just flown by.

I started a new job, change is always hard! I don't like being the "new person" I am the type of person who just dives head first into whatever I'm doing. It has taken a few weeks to feel like I can start to relax. The new job was a good fit and the timing was good.

The kids are counting the days till summer break. Only a few weeks left!

Long gone, the disney posters.

I miss the days when the bedroom walls were decorated with disney & butterflys. The oldest two girls in our house are in middle school and expressing there own style.
No cute boy band pictures (they are lame,they say) But rock bands cover the walls and original art work from my daughter.

I remember when I put up a Kiss poster in my bedroom, my mother about had a fit! I like to think I am much cooler than she was.

Winter

I had to look twice when I drove by this local fountain. It is so cool, it is hard to see in the photo but it is this light almost fluorescent blue. Water is still bubbling out of the top.

You'd think that would be hiking up some business or the cities water bill! Most fountains are turned off in the winter.

Cool picture though.

Something to Think About

I debated today about if someone can be President without a lot of "experience". Okay, Cheney and Rumsfeld had PLENTY of experience and they have helped Bush (an experienced Govenor) totally screw this country up!

A president needs to inspire and to have good judgement. I think that Obama has proven himself on those counts. I think this blog sums up why I am liking him the more I listen. Blog was by Adam Hanft.

You don't need me to tell you that Senator Obama is a compelling political figure. He is a rock star. But his rock star status is completely at odds with the quiet depth and thoughtfulness that he emanates. When asked a question, he would actually reflect for a moment and answer it directly and frontally, rather than shift into campaign response mode and morph the question into a platform for a parade of platitudes. He was multiple-level refreshing.

What we've re-learned in the last six years -- in the most brutally direct way possible - is the importance of intellectual curiosity, the ability to synthesize, and a high level of bubble immunity in a president. I believe that Obama is in full and dramatic possession of these attributes. And while there are those who maintain that he isn't experienced enough, I would argue that these qualities will not grow deeper after another four years in the Senate. Listening to Obama, I was reminded of the comment that Oliver Wendell Holmes made after meeting Franklin Roosevelt; he said that FDR had a first class temperament and second-class intellect. Obama has both.

This is the first time in fifty odd years that there hasn't been a sitting president of vice-present running for office. The wide-open nature of this race gives it an anything-can-happen quality, a spirit of shared possibility and invention that is creating a genuine national movement on behalf of Obama's candidacy.

One of the subjects Obama talked about was about his vision of a transformative change in the American political landscape. Normally, that would make my skin crawl. But when he talked about this, about moving beyond what has become a resistant structure of calcified grudges and frozen positions, he didn't sound like a politician or business guru spouting New Age claptrap. When he said that one of the statistics that gives him the most gratification is that he has a 55% approval rating among Evangelicals in Illinois, you begin to believe that transformation isn't an abused term but a real possibility.

Despite the comparisons, though, Obama didn't sound like Bobby Kennedy, who had been breathing presidential air his entire life, and who, in the 1968 campaign, would often frame the issues on both a visceral and a metaphysical level. He didn't have Kennedy's coiled, keyed-up, on-the-emotional-edge intensity that frightened as many people as it attracted.

Obama is a decent, brilliant guy who through a series of political accidents now has a clear path to the presidency ahead of him, and is thinking profoundly about what this moment can mean. His meteoric rise makes him, indisputably, a creation of the media. He knows this. But as mediagenic as he is, you never feel that he is cheap enough to cultivate the camera's love of him. He is aware that history is close to being made, but rightly, he doesn't challenge us to step forward and make history with him. Modest, that's a good old Victorian word that came to mind on Saturday.

We are a culture that's shown its willingness to vote for American Idol contestants, to throw videos up on YouTube, to contribute its photos to Flickr, to blog incessantly. This is a kinetic emotional energy waiting to attach itself to a presidential candidate, and as much as the experts are projecting a powerful grass-roots explosion for Obama, I believe that there isn't anyone who won't be absolutely blown away by the tectonic nature of the response.

I am writing this post on a flight from New York to Dallas, and it turns out that my colleague who is sitting next to me went to high school in Hawaii with Obama, knew him very well, and has stayed in touch over the years. He was the only black guy in the school, she reminisced, and he walked around with his Afro and his philosophy books and everyone loved him. "He is so good," she said to me. "What you think he is, is what he is. I'm just worried about what this campaign will do to him."

And that's the question. The hope is that he will do more to the campaign, than the campaign will do to him. We'll see if that's too audacious.

New Music & Book Finds

I love to find new authors and new music groups and my favorite new find in music
is Augustana You may have heard their sound Boston it has had some radio time this year.


I also loved the book The Thirteenth Tale, I was hooked after I read the first few pages while sitting in the Barnes & Noble coffee shop. It was the author, Diane Setterfields first novel, so I was even more impressed.
Below is a review:

From Our Booksellers

It's not often that I would even dare to compare a book to Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, but The Thirteenth Tale is one that I will. This book is absolutely wonderful. It's a classic gothic tale, with ghosts and a grand house, good and evil and a secret that will have you guessing until the very end. --Sessalee Hensley

The Race is On

Every day someone new is throwing their hat into the 2008 Presidential Election.
I'm sure it is going to be very interesting.

I'm watching these two myself

http://www.barackobama.com

http://blog.johnedwards.com

Winter Break

I find that I still love to read all my favorite blogs and comment there but that I dread having to write my own. It was fun before the shock of the creep that had "thoughts" about my posts that had photos of my daughters. It just hasn't been the same since then.

So, I think that I will just keep my user name & just enjoy the rest of you fine writers thru short comments on your posts.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

The Phone Call

It is a very quiet post Thanksgiving Day and we are all watching a movie. The phone rings...

My husband: "Hello"
Caller: In funny fake French Accent. "May I speak to the fair Sydney?"
My husband: "And who is this?"
Caller: Tell her she is my Amore! click
My husband turns to my daughter and says, you're grounded until you turn 18.
My daughter: WHAT.....Who was it.....What did they say???

He recounts the phone call and we all die laughing. And of corse my daughter has NO IDEA who the caller might have been.

The boy was smart enough to block the caller id to "private".

First Kiss

The topic today at work (while we were trying EXTRA hard NOT to work)I mean what was the point it was the day before Thanksgiving Break started and everyone was watching for the bell to ring. Anyway the topic was First Kiss/First Love.

I hadn't thought of that moment for a really long time. It was fun to hear everyones, if we had been talking over happy hour the stories would have been better!

Let's see. His name was Allen. He was a senior in a really small town about 30 miles from mine and I had known him for a few years. He was quite cute, a rancher's son (boots, horses & 4H). I studied up all the areas that he competed in and of course watched them all. He was very nice and although I was sure he was just humoring the silly little Freshman that was following him around he really seemed to like my company. He ask me to ride the Ferris Wheel with him and causally slipped the arm around and gave me a kiss at the top. It was just getting dark & the fair lights were on, I almost passed out. Lucky for me he was the type that would walk you to your door and call your dad "Sir". He dated me that whole year. He'd write me a letter once a week and the greeting was always "Hey, Sweets!" isn't that cute? We went to the movies alot (I went to his Prom at the end of that year and I remember asking "Why in the world did you EVER ask me out?" He said, "All the other girls just flirted & teased me and you were always so sweet & polite, offering to help me or asking me serious questions." I guess you just grew on me :)

Such a good year, one of the best of my life!

Take Me Home Please!

Petfinders.com anywhere in the U.S. The best place to find a new addition to the family. If you or someone you know needs a special gift, maybe for Christmas? Please check it out.

My kids and I go once a month to play with the dogs up for adoption and help them get set up to show them. We used pet finder to find our Andy the kids like to talk about how they "saved" him, but he has given us more laughs, kisses & love then we ever thought possible.


Here are a few of the KC area Johnston family pics! Check them out or look for ones near you.

Bullseye is a spanielmix


Jesse a Scottish Terrier



Labrador Retriever,Golden Retriever Target

Weeken Fun

Sydney finally let me take her picture.


Sydney the "dark fairy"




We had soccer games, 2 slumber party invites and a Halloween party ALL happening on Saturday.

Sunday we took time out to have some fun raking a big leaf pile & hanging out. It was gorgeous outside today!

What a busy weekend.

Now, if I could just get my middle child to take her hair out of the ponytail once in awhile!

It's COMING!

OMG! How can this be possible? Link here

Now, divide that by number of paydays.

Good Day for a Picture

This Just In Inspired me to get my camera out and take Kate out for some pictures.

We had a good time!

Don't Forget to Vote!

Novermber 7th is coming! Make sure you vote for what direction you want your city, county and country to take. From voting for parks & recreation to voting in a new senator for your state. The stakes have never been higher!

I love that I can mail my vote in from my house and not worry about all the traffic and lines on election day!

I voted this morning :)

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I watched on t.v. this week.

1. Lost (it is so confusing this season!)
2. Grey's Anatomy (very steamy)
3. The Daily Show (I love Jon Stewart)
4. Studio 30 on the Sunset Strip
5. NBC Evening News
6. Men in Trees (very cute)
7. Gilmore Girls (have watched every season)
8. CSI (I have to tape due to MUST SEE GREY's ANATOMY)
9. Heroes (REALLY good)
10. Desperate Housewives
11. Brothers & Sisters
12. 15 min of Today before I leave for work each morning.
13. KC Chiefs Football (even though it was an ASS-Kicking by the Steelers)

300 million Americans!

The nation's population officially hit 300 million at 7:46 a.m. EDT Tuesday, when the Census Bureau's population clock rolled over to the big number.

The Bush Administration held no party or took time for a photo-op like President Johnson did in 1967 when we hit the 200 million mark.

According to the census bureau there is a death every 13 seconds, a birth every 7 seconds and every 13 seconds there is a new immigrant.

I think it would have been nice to have something positive celebrated about this, instead I hear a lot of complaining about illegal immigration again.

Happy 300 millionth American, to somebody …..somewhere, Welcome!
Whoever you are, I hope that you make the most of all this country has to offer.