Just another day in my life...

Warning: This is not a toy!

Two days ago our dishwasher bit the dust. It has been giving me trouble off and on for about a year but I can usually slam it a couple times, hold my mouth just right and it will keep on kicking. But Tuesday night it was dead, dead for good this time. So, Wednesday Ashlyn and I ventured out to Lowe's and bought a new dishwasher. The good news it was in stock and it will be in my kitchen this evening. The bad news was I had to hand wash all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, ugh. I pulled out the bottom drawer on the dishwasher, wiped it off, and used it as a drying rack for the many many dishes I washed. After I emptied the clean dishes out of it Ashlyn started pushing it around the house, she was having the best time. All of a sudden I heard a scream, a scream that makes a Mommy's heart stop and gut turn. She tried to round the corner into the hallway at full speed and hit the wall making her fall into the prongs of the drawer. One of the prongs came extremely close to her eye and another gouged a hole in her cheek. I got her all washed up and distracted her with spaghetti, her favorite, and a promise of an ice cream cone for dessert. She calmed down but her cheek kept bleeding. After a hour I called our good friend, who is also the doctor I used to work for, to see what he thought. He was in a meeting at the hospital so his wife, Jennifer, told me to come over and she would look at it. Her poor kiddos have had stitches a couple times and thought she could give me an educated guess. She looked at it and also thought Lance might need to doctor it up, so we hung out at their house until he got home. And sure enough, it needed to be closed but thankfully he was only going to have to "glue" it back together and not have to put a stitch in it. Ashlyn did really well while Lance worked on her. She wasn't in much pain at all, just irritated that we were pinning her down and that Lance was messing with her face. She was most upset when we sat her up and her hair and back were all wet from the saline solution he used to clean out her wound. We are so thankful for Lance's willingness to patch her back up at 8 o'clock at night and save us a painful trip to the ER.


So, we will no longer be using dishwasher racks as go carts in the Johnson house for now on. Have you ever had one of those parenting moments where you thought "what was I thinking, that was really stupid of me"? I mean, why would an item on wheels with metal prongs sticking up be a safe toddler toy?

Father's Day and a fish named Dorothy

Saturday Ashlyn and I spent the day cleaning house and making things for Daddy for Fathers Day while Phillip flew home from his week long trip in Orlando. Ashlyn made a Father's Day card and a candy jar for his desk. We took a clear canister and lined it with Ashlyn's painting then applied scrapbook letters to the canister that said "I love you Dad". Ashlyn loves doing crafts and knowing she was making something special for Daddy thrilled her to death. She took such pride in her creations. She was so excited to give her gift to Daddy that as soon as we picked Phillip up from the airport she was asking to give Daddy his "surprise". She even had to take a piece of chocolate out and unwrap it for him so he could taste it.


We spent the day together Sunday just hanging out as a family. Then went out to eat for dinner. After dinner we went and looked at new flooring for our living room and hallway. We have been wanting to pull up the carpet and put down laminate flooring for a while but have never followed through. God recently blessed us with some unexpected cash so we decided we are finally going to follow through this time. Our carpet is 5 years old and is starting to show it's age. For some reason it seemed to do it quicker once Ashlyn came along. We figured now is the best time to do it before we add an extra member to the family and things get a touch busier. We found some that we really like. It looks a lot like real wood, but without the price tag. I have been a tad hesitant in the past to put it down because I didn't want flooring that screamed laminate flooring when you walked into the room, but they have come a long way.
After dinner today we went to Petco to get Ashlyn a surprise. She got a pet beta fish! While we were in the store she was not too interested in the fish, she kept wanting to look at the ferrets. Blah, there is no way I will let my daughters have a pet rodent! But once we got out of the store and she sloshed the poor fish in it's container all the way across the parking lot she forgot all about the yucky little critters. I asked her what the fish's name was and she said it didn't have a name yet (duh mom) so I rephrased the question and asked her what she wanted to name it. She named it Dorothy! For those of you non-toddler moms, that's the name of Elmo's goldfish on Sesame Street. She had the best time getting Dorothy's bowl all ready when we got home and was thrilled Dorothy gets to sleep in her room on her dresser.

Going Private

After much thought and consideration, I have decided to make my blog private. Since the majority of my posts are about my family and personal events I feel like this is something I should do, even though I am often very careful not to reveal locations or information that could jeopardize our safety. Please leave me a comment with your e-mail address so I can give you access to my blog, even if you are family or a close friend, I don't want to accidentally miss someone.

A visit from Pawpaw and Nana

We had a very fun week. My parents were here from Texas to visit Ashlyn, I'm sure they enjoyed seeing me and Phillip too! HaHa!
Saturday and Sunday we hung out at the house most of the time. My dad was feeling a little under the weather. Then Monday we went to the Gentry Safari Zoo. They have lots of animals you can pet. Ashlyn absolutely loves animals so she had a blast. The last time we went she had no fear and would walk straight up to the animals and start petting them, almost to the point of scaring me, but for some reason she was a little more reserved this time. Maybe she just has a healthy dose of fear now!


Tuesday we went to the Promenade and shopped around. That morning while Mom and I were getting ready Pawpaw and Ashlyn played play dough. She sat at the table over a hour playing, normally it is about a 20-30 minute activity!


Ashlyn went through a little growth spurt the past couple weeks and has started to outgrow some of her shoes. She loves flip flops this year, last year she wouldn't even try them on, so she got a new pair of flip flops that her toes don't hang over. She is very proud of them! After we ate lunch Nana took Ashlyn on her first ride on a Carousel. She had a blast and told us that it was a "fun ride" when she got off.

Wednesday we went to Tanyard Creek to walk on the Nature Trails. Ashlyn was pretty worn out from waking up early all week to play with Nana and Pawpaw and from all the activities of the week so she rode in her stroller, which limited the areas we were able to walk through. We walked around the paved area then sat and relaxed at the gazebo while Ashlyn played around a bit. After we felt like we were sweaty enough, we went to lunch at McDonald's, Nana and Pawpaw let Ashlyn choose! Phillip's parents were in town for an appointment so after nap time we met them for ice cream at Chick-fil-A, well the grown ups had ice cream while Ashlyn played. She ran around and showed off for everyone, when your two there's nothing better than showing off for all four of your Grandparents! She was pooped by the time we got in the car!
This afternoon I broke out my mumu, I mean my maternity swim suit, and Ashlyn and I went to the public pool. This was our first time to swim this summer and Ashlyn had a blast! Last year she was a bit intimidated but this year she surprised me. We played in the kiddie pool which is only a foot deep but was the perfect depth for her. She scooted around on her bottom and would push up with her arms and float her body in the water. We were there for about two hours and she was still very disappointed when it was time to go home!

It's the simple things

It's the simple things that make me happy! Like this thing right here...

About a year ago I bought a teflon oven liner for the bottom of my oven. I absolutely love it, I never have to scrub baked on drippings off my oven! This morning I made banana bread and some of the batter spilled over making a huge mess. All I had to do was pull the mat out of the oven and literally rub off the crusted mess with absolutely no effort at all. I love little things like this that make my life easier!