Did you know earwax was hereditary?
I’ll get back to that in a little bit.
It’s my annual Year in Review and as I spent time thinking about 2011 and trying to find highlights from the past 365 days I started to realize that 2011 may just have been the calm before the storm.
Calling it a ‘storm’ makes 2012 sound bad though and I’m hoping that it won’t be bad, so maybe I should say the “rebound” relationship that leads you to the love of your life.
That makes it sound like work, the Relay for Life and church are the loves of my life and, well you all know I do love me some Johnson 5.
Let’s just say that I think 2011 may have been the warm-up to what I hope is a fun, exciting and successful year!
Why do I say that?
Well without giving away my 2012 goals (I’ll do that in the next day or so), I’ll give you a couple of examples that makes me think there is hope for 2012.
There were some disappointments in 2011, but I believe that those disappointments have changed a bit in the last few months and will lead us into a better 2012.
For instance, we had family issues that we dealt with for 11 months of the year. However, certain things changed around the Christmas season, including my Grandparents moving back from California, and it leads me to believe that things are getting better for the core of Johnsonville. Did I just beat around the bush or what?
Team Force was a dud this year and we threatened to walk away from doing the Relay for Life all together. Stephanie put in a lot of hard work in the Karaoke for Cancer fundraiser she does and only a handful of our friends and family showed up to support her and the cause. It was frustrating and in the days leading up to the actual event, I wondered if I wanted to do it. Instead, I made a complete U-turn and have decided to be the 2012 & 2013 Event Chair along with my buddy the Big Dog. You can read more about this in my next entry.
I applied for numerous jobs and had six interviews, three within the insurance industry and three without. I got accepted at one, my old office actually, put in my two-week notice and then was told by my current employer that they wanted to give me more money and a day to work from home if I stayed. I stayed. But still … I’m not giving anything else away.
One of my 2011 goals was to get more involved with church. Well I waited until September to kick it into high gear and now I’m the Event Coordinator, a Sunday school teacher for the teenagers and a Youth Group dude. All this leads me into a new year and more time … we’ll tackle this soon.
Finally, my favorite football team, the Indianapolis Colts, lost their first 13 games of the season. Usually it’s the other way around. Now they’ll end up with the first pick in the 2012 draft. Which is kinda cool because I told my buddy Josh that if the Seahawks drafted Andrew Luck then I may jump on their bandwagon, turns out the Colts will have that chance and I’m already on that bandwagon. The future looks bright but my heart may feel torn as they deal with what to do with free agents Reggie Wayne, Robert Mathis, Jeff Saturday and most importantly, my Man-Crush Peyton Manning.
But let’s not jump ahead too much, after all this is a 2011 Year in Review…or is it Year End Review?
For the Johnson 5, 2011 wasn’t that eventful, but in honor of us becoming five I’ll put together five highlights compared to last year’s 10.5.
I know, I know, we did have one major life-changing and eventful event that turned four into five but overall we had a bunch of mini-things that filled our 2011 highlight reel.
Our relationship with Erik and Stephanie continued to grow. We spent almost every Tuesday night and plenty of weekends hanging out with them. Erik built a tree hut for the kids in the backyard and they bought the kids a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge for their birthdays, which was a fun getaway for the seven of us.
Like last year, we got addicted to a TV show. Last year it was “Lost” this year it was “Friday Night Lights”. It was the only time I was able to get Lis to sit down and watch football. “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!”
Three other “highlights” you’ll read about in my next entry have to do with the time we spent with our church family, the interesting year I had at work and my decision to become the Event Chair for our Relay for Life. Oh, wait…I did win my fantasy football league for the third time in 11 years and finished third in my other pay league! That’s pretty sweet!
No. 5 – Lukas at the Bat
The outlook was brilliant for the River Bandits that day;
The score wasn’t even being counted, but the kids were ready to play;
And when the coach had put together his outfield and it wasn’t the same;
A sickly silence fell upon the parents at the game.
There was ease in Lukas’s manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Lukas’s bearing for the coach had put him at third base;
And when responding to the coach, “Lukas focus! Put on your hat!”
Lukas smiled, put his head up and looked at the kid that was at bat.
Ten eyes were on him as he began to play with the dirt;
Five tongues shouted back at him, “Wipe it off on your shirt!”
With runners at first and second there was only one spot to get him out;
So when the ball was hit to Lukas, everyone began to shout.
“Touch third Lukas!” came the roar from the air;
And Lukas touched the base and three outs was there.
OK … I really didn’t want that to go on for that long and the original “Casey at the Bat” was much longer so I don’t think I’ll rewrite the entire poem inserting Lukas and his T-ball skills so …
Lukas played T-ball for Little League and did a nice job hitting and fielding the ball. We just have some work to do with helping him catch it, but his baseball career looks promising.
One of the highlights from this season was watching him record three straight outs while playing third base (what I was trying to accomplish with the above poem). It boosted his confidence, boosted his coaches’ confidence in Lukas and lit up Lukas’s face.
When the team had its final two games batting from the pitching machine I watched as five of the first six batters were able to get a hit off the machine. As a Dad I didn’t want my son to be that kid that wasn’t able to get his bat off his shoulder. Instead, on his second swing he made contact for a solid hit, a total confidence booster for all parties involved.
No. 4 – Third Nipple Out!
I just wrote about this so you can click the link on top of this post that reads, “Third Nipple Out!” or click the link attached to “Third Nipple Out!” I’m really not trying to see how many times I can get away with writing the word nipple, I promise! And NO it’s not the same kind of nubbin’ that Chandler had on “Friends”.
Anyway, Lis removed her port this past week and we “celebrated” it as a sort of closure to her battle with cancer. She now has a nice 3 x 3 bruise on her left bicep.
No. 3 – Twenty Years of Boyz II Men
Okay, it sounds a bit cheesy throwing my Boyz onto the Top 3 ahead of my church family, my regular family, MC-ing the Monroe Fair Days Parade with the Big Dog, and a wacky year of work but there was something about that concert that made me feel so good.
We had invited my brothers, their spouses and Wes to join Lis and I at the concert but due to family drama (see: family disappointment) some of them wanted to go, some didn’t want to go and Lis and I decided we’re not going to worry about them and we’re just going to go. I’m glad we did.
Lis and I had a great date night and I felt that the weeks after the concert we were closer or more “in love” than we had been before then. I guess sappy 90’s love songs will do that to you.
The concert was a blast. I stood up during the Boyz’s entire set. I sang aloud. I danced. I had a wonderful time and the memory of it was good enough to put it No. 3 on my 2011 highlight list.
Oh and if you want to take a look at why I love me some Boyz II Men check out my Twenty Year Tribute.
No. 2 – Y-M-C-A!
A repeat offender! This topic was No. 10 on my top 10 highlights from 2010. Since 2011 was a down-year for highlights then it made it all the way to No. 2 on the list.
In 2010, we did the Y-M-C-A lip sync at the Relay for Life. In 2011, we entered into the Monroe Lip Sync competition, entertained a couple hundred folks with our costumes, dance moves and fake-singing skills and we won first place in the Adult Division. We also won $10 each!
Wes got us entered into a competition at a bar. We fought through some Diva Drama (see: family disappointment), found a replacement for Randy by the name of Scuba, and won $100. Thanks Scuba!
Since we took first place at the Lip Sync competition, we were invited to perform at the Evergreen State Fair. This time there was no drama, but Randy wasn’t able to attend because he was working across the state. Scuba was in school across the state. We couldn’t find any other replacements so I called on my six-year-old son, Lukas, and asked him if he wanted to step in. He pretty much had the moves down from watching us. Wes, Erik and I practiced with him one night. I felt comfortable enough to give him a shot. He was nervous leading up to the performance stating, “Dad, I really have to pee!” I told him that was normal and pointed to Erik and Wes who were both darting over to the porta-potty to do the same thing.
He surprised us all with his performance only getting confused once and only because I interrupted his rhythm by asking him to step over a bit. We were all in shock that he performed so well. I was proud of him for stepping in and knew that I had a future lip-syncer in my hands!
No. 1 – Big Baby!
Now to that earwax thing!
We officially became the Johnson 5 (thanks Billie for the name!) on March 27, 2011 when Levi Edward Johnson was born.
It was a stressful and entertaining 1-1/2 days of birth stuff and you can recap all of that in one of my favorite blog posts this year - and really EVER – my Diary of a Delivery (Parts I & II).
Levi has been a complete blessing. I love having three kids and am glad that Lis and I waited too long for me to get snipped. He’s the chillest little baby that I’ve been around. Though he looks like me (or Uncle Erik), he has his Avo’s (Lis’s Dad) demeanor and has my daily dose of earwax. Seriously, Lis asked the pediatrician about his consistent earwax. The pediatrician said it was hereditary. Lis nodded and thought, “Oh…that explains things.” I can’t help it! Every morning it looks like … nevermind, TMI.
Back to Levi.
He’s this big Gringo with the chill Brazilian attitude. He does nothing but smile, unless he’s not so sure about you – Big Dog. He falls asleep on his own (a first for a Johnson baby). He falls asleep fast and through the night and if his wild sister bops him on the head he gives a confused look, shrugs it off and moves on with his life. And I’ll throw this in there for my parent’s (and because Lukas reminded me), Koby loves him and they share toys together.
And he’s big! At his 9-month checkup he was 31-inches at the 99-percentile for his age. The average is 28.5 inches long and only 5-percent of boys at that age are over 30-inches. I wouldn’t think anything of it but every time a nurse or doctor looks at him they say, “He’s huge!” He hasn’t dropped below 95-percentile. As a sports-loving Dad I’m kinda excited for my future lineman, power forward and/or first baseman (probably a soccer defender). Now that I wrote all that I’ve probably jinxed him and he’ll be 5-foot-3.
I look forward to watching him grow and I look forward to watching our family grow in 2012.
The other two continue to do well. Lukas is mastering the first grade and spells every word that he can out. So fun deciphering the code: “I W-A-N-T T-O L-O-O-K A-T T-O-Y-S”!
Lia continues to be a different species than anything I’ve ever dealt with. She’s stubborn, she’s hilarious, she’s girlie and she’s tough. She’s a lethal combination of Lis and her too-tough-to-be-girls sisters mixed with the complete wackiness of the Johnsons. Oh…she’s got an interesting future ahead of her.
Lis and I continue to truck along. Like I said, there are plenty of new and exciting adventures awaiting us in 2012 and I look forward to what they will hopefully bring.
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