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Nooooo, this isn't what you think it is!!






Ok, actually it was! That is of course, if you saw the ultrasound picture & thought - Breanne's pregnant! We are really happy & excited & Taya loves to talk about being a big sister & the baby in HER tummy.  They will be almost exactly 3 years apart (I'm pretty happy with that age span at this point :)  )  


We'll find out the gender in a month more or less, so we'll keep you posted!

Can't wait to get to know another little Johnson! 

5 Years

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted.  Wow, have I been busier than all of you, that's for sure!  I mean, that's the only good explanation right?   gaggedy gag gag...  

 (I can't decide: is that kind of joke even funny, or just annoyingly funny, or just plain annoying?)

Hmmm, I'm feeling a little delirious right now, but I just had to post for the sake of posting ...

So the real topic is that it's our 5 year anniversary tomorrow!  

We're doing an exciting get-away - at home.  

No seriously though, exciting.  Seriously!   You keep thinking I'm being sarcastic.  (told you I'm delirious) But the fact is we're having Taya babysat for 24 hours and staying at home, making a fancy dinner together; we've been working on a little facelift to our master bedroom that gets poorly neglected out of all the bedroom kiddos in the house - always whining to us about its poor neglect too.  Anyway, it's still a work in progress, but hopefully it will feel nice enough tomorrow to become the Fancy Pants of our home.  Fancy if you call modern mixed with ecclectic mixed with half of the projects to our facelift plan are still yet to be...

We're even treating Saturday as if we're out of town and spending the day together too - kinda fun!

So happy 5 years to us!

(And finally, happy blog post to me too - two months!  I must be really, really busy.  I mean really.)  ; )

Glad to know she knows!

After just finishing one fruit leather, Taya just pulled two more out and asked for them a few times in a row ...

'You just had one Taya, so we're all done with those for today, but maybe tomorrow'

(Repeat the begging and this response 3 times)

Finally Taya said:

Noooo.  Not tomorrow!  ..Me Special!!

Glad to see the message I've been telling her for many, many, many nights has gotten through - one way or another!

Small Miracle

Yesterday Taya woke up with her Arthritis inflamed again, so much so that she initially couldn't walk, let alone even stand.  I called into work to take a little extra time to care for her, giving her a bath, medicine & massage.  She was still limping badly by the time I dropped her off at Annie's house.  Around that time, I texted family and a couple of friends, informing them that her condition had returned in full force & requesting thoughts & prayers.  I had beautiful response letting me know that those prayers were said and those thoughts were nurtured.  Those were a comfort.  

The small (or even big to me) miracle that occurred was that today Taya had hardly a trace of the inflammation.  Pretty much zip, zero inflammation/limping.  We're taking it day by day, but I particularly wanted that load lightened if possible at this moment, and it is just a good reminder that prayer works.  And when you need it from others, it is humbling to ask, but gratifying and comforting to receive the answer from the Lord - in this case, the answer was immediate recovery.  (I would not have expected that at all since she limped straight from the beginning of March '09 to Aug. 7th when she received her steroid shots).

I'm thankful for prayer.  I'm thankful for those dear times when Heavenly Father delivers simply and clearly - which feels like a gift that nurtures me and reminds me He is always there and loves me.  

So thank you to any of you who prayed for Taya yesterday.  It worked :)

Now she's back to dancing, attempting to ride her tricycle & jumping on our mini-trampoline again.  

Happy Girl She is.

And grateful Mom am I.

Downpour of Goodness

So I believe I mentioned in the last post that I had more big news to share ....

Paul & I both just started full time jobs.  Yes, full.time.jobs.  

Can you believe it?  At first, I think we didn't, and that is why I'm not sharing this until after we've already started in full swing.  After pretty much accepting a different job offer from a firm that he was previously unfamiliar with, Paul was contacted by an architecture firm called Smithgroup, a firm that he has been networking with all year long and that has been his top choice. They asked his status, brought him in for an extra interview, offered him a job on the spot and asked him to start the next day!  After discussing it with me, he happily (and giddily I suspect) accepted, and then went in person to turn down the other job offer he had just recently accepted.  ... A bit tricky, but they understood and the choice to work for this great firm, Smithgroup, was very obvious.  Now Paul is already working full time and spending time on a crime lab design in Denver, CO -pretty interesting already.

I am doing a type of social work in my job, going back to my psychology major roots, and am really enjoying it so far.  I am in training as an in-home educator to families that are at risk for child abuse and neglect; essentially I will be building caring and trusting relationships with parents (many moms especially) in which I can support them in developing healthy family relationships (with their children specifically) and in becoming self-sufficient and hopefully goal oriented.  

We both found out about our initial offers within a day or so of each other, and on top of that, found a great and trustworthy babysitting set-up for Taya (our friend, Annie, for those of you who know her - so Taya and Annie's 3 year old son, Daniel, get lots of time together).  It all came together quite smoothly and we're truly grateful for this time to recover from the past 11 months of unemployment.  Receiving these blessings all at once makes it feel like an unbelievable fragile gift - like we could only accept it honorably if we accompany it with a plan of positive action and gratitude, and one that includes 'paying it forward'.  It is very helpful for both of us to have full time jobs right now in order to help us with a little bit of recovery from this past year.  Also, with my job relating to healthy parent-child relationships, it is a good chance for me to thoroughly examine my parenting and relationship to Taya.  I have already been soaking up these last couple of weeks of training, just giving closer attention to how secure I can help Taya feel in our relationship.  The order in which different events have taken place for us this past month, and even the last several months makes this downpour of blessings seem very purposeful.  We constantly prayed for guidance in our priorities over the last year; whether to prioritize occasional temporary jobs that would help us with the next month's mortgage, but take away from the ongoing job hunt, whether to prioritize time, energy and even cost into projects like the one mentioned in the previous post, Urban Polkadot, as well as an architecture competition that Paul won, or whether to always prioritize job hunting 100+% ... it seemed there was a balance of different priorities at different times, but that as long as we prayed and continued working hard, we would be guided with peace, sometimes clear peace and sometimes peace that was a little bit harder to distinguish, but we were continually guided by our Heavenly Father.  And even though we knew we were praying for this guidance and strength, sometimes it was hard to see its apparency.  I wish my faith did not falter and slightly wonder about the apparency of Heavenly Father's guidance in those times, but I think the most important thing out of this is that whether or not we see the guidance, peace or blessings as clear and apparent in that moment, we can know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us and that He will help foster our growth and path of learning in this life.  

I never responded with a follow-up post to my recent post about trials, when so many of you left such kind comments.  But what I've wanted to say then and at so many other times during this past year is how much all of your prayers, kindness, concern for our well-being, occasional excuse to give us your 'leftover' food, load of strawberries, or caring phone conversations have meant to us.  It actually means a great deal to hear 'you're in my prayers/thoughts' ... to think that someone else is spending a moment at night on his/her knees or over the dinner table thinking of or asking for help in honor of my family was really comforting and humbling.  It makes me want to spend more time in my prayers at night mentioning more specific names of who I am pleading for.  I always think of my Grandma Harris on her feeble knees pleading for one soul after another night after night.  There is so much purity and strength in this.  So thank you for your prayers & thoughts - whether they were once or twice or very frequent.  We are grateful to you.  With some people's trials, you can feel so helpless to assist them, and I suppose some of our experiences this year could have left family or friends feeling this way, but as I said, just hearing people tell us that we were in their prayers added additional peace and strength to our lives.  

One thing I've thought about so many times since the last post that I talked about trials in is that there are so many people around us with invisible trials.  ... Trials that are so private that these individuals may not have a single friend, family member or comfortable/available counselor to talk to.  My heart goes out to these people.  I mean I almost feel like I am thinking of one or two people in particular without knowing who they are, praying for them anonymously, especially with a heart's prayer.  Do you know what I mean?  Do you ever think about people and their heartache without even knowing who you're thinking about?  Many of our trials this past year have been more visible, therefore resulting in more caring and action from friends/family members.  I sorrow for those around me with invisible trials, but perhaps they have an opportunity to draw even nearer unto our Savior - in a way that is hard to find without feeling entirely alone.  That is the most sacred and important factor out of all of this.  We may have God-sent loved ones or even strangers who lighten our days, but when we don't, and even when we do, we have our Savior to cleave to.  We have His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and therefore, His understanding, and we have His unconditional love.  

In this single way, no matter what our trials are, or aren't, we are all threaded together by our Savior's Atonement.  

Paul & I are so grateful for our jobs and the opportunities they both provide, for our peace of mind of Taya's wonderful care (Thank you Annie), and although our unemployment phase lasted nearly a year (some unemployment phases are longer, some are shorter), we are amazed at how we have ended up lasting through it, as far as staying in our home, and remaining provided for all year long.  It's kind of shocking actually.  There have been so many lessons to learn through it all and we feel like we're better off as individuals from these lessons; of course there will be more, and we even still have more stresses to keep working through right now, but it's refreshing to see the outcome of some of these lessons and blessings after a year of 'interesting experiences'.  

I always hope I don't offend anyone in a post with thoughts like these, but these are my beliefs and I am grateful for my beliefs,

therefore I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ & for my Heavenly Father, for the Atonement, and for this plan called life.  

I sometimes wonder if my deep thoughts are too much to handle or too intense for a random read... but well, they are mine.  And I share them whatever they are.  

Urban Polkadot!!

Holy Guacamole, have we been up to a lot! Hmmm, that was cheesy, let me try again ...
Gee Wizzz you outa see what we've been up to!
Hmmm... still cheesy?
Eee gatz!! Do I have a lot to tell you Pumpkins!!

Okay, okay, enough.

So here is the story ... last winter, a month or two after Paul was laid off from Circle West Architects, I was telling him how I thought he could start selling something online with his artistic abilities; graphic design, woodworking, rendering, etc. ... so we kept our minds open to ideas. A little later, we noticed one night that Taya pulled one of our kitchen chairs up to the tv and plopped herself comfortably there to watch (tv, yikes, I know). We both thought it would be a fun project for Paul to make a wooden toddler chair for her. He came up with this endearing design very quickly; we immediately saw it as an opportunity to sell multiples. Shortly, Paul designed a table to go along with it, we picked out colors, chose company & product names, Urban Polkadot & Taya's Table & Chair set, and one idea turned into another!
 


We eventually decided to take our design on the road while on a family trip in California back in July. We showed our products to several boutiques in Southern & Northern California & received great feedback! Shortly after, we decided to attend The ABC Exo (All Baby & Child tradeshow), a juvenile products show that is the largest of its kind. And we had A LOT to do to get ready! ...Brochures, press kits, designing & building a booth, paperwork, website creation, manufacturing/business/price point research, producing more table & chair sets, etc. etc. - all on a short deadline - we worked our hineys off - especially Paul! 
We attended the Expo in Las Vegas last month and it went great! The ABC Expo includes vendors such as Fisher Price, Graco, Maclaren, and more, including new or small companies like ourselves, and attendees such as online retailers to lots of boutiques to mass chain stores. 
We were received with a lot of enthusiasm by attendees (retailers) and have significant interest from many of them, including some retailers with key design appeal. We also had great interest from some different media sources. This design blog included us in their display of ABC Show products too! 
So things are looking good!! We have a lot to do and are looking to have our table & chair sets on store shelves by Spring 2010. In the meantime, we plan on selling them online for the Christmas season (I'll make sure to let you know when that happens).
So go check it out!! www.urbanpolkadot.com
(And tell your friends! Or if you know of someone who would be interested in a small investment project, let us know & we'll be happy to share more about Urban Polkadot with you -- and them :) )

Wondering why it's taken me so long to write this post?  Well, I don't know what was going on but I must have written and rewritten this post in different versions at least four times before blogger lost it and would not save it, or my computer would just shut off, etc.  Craziness.  Every time.  So between being very busy lately (with other updates to tell about) and not wanting my work lost again, this is what we get!  But just pretend the Expo happened last week - it'll make you feel better :)

Key Words:  Urban Polkadot, Kids Furniture, Toddler Furniture, Table & Chair Sets, Toddler Chair, modern nursery furniture, rocking horse, toddler rocker

Somethin' Better

AwesomeRossom. We've been staring at that roach picture for far too long now, and the post before that was basically my sob story (with slightly positive aspirations right?) I just had to post something new to look at instead of that lovely roach picture; so here is a sneak peak of something I'm LONG overdue in posting about ...


Love Jana's photography as usual :)

Oh, did you think I was going to tell you about the long overdue topic? Naahh, this is just a teaser ...

Roaching Drama

Apparently, the sight of one of these on my bed is deserving of instantly yelping/tossing our laptop off my lap and onto the floor & finding hideaway by scurrying to the floor, crouched down in fetal position ... (okay, not quite fetal position, but, well -- almost)

WHY IS IT ON MY BED??!! I promise we're at least clean enough to let cockroaches know they are not welcome.
And the truth is, I spotted him an hour earlier on a pillow on the floor (before he disappeared under my bathrobe) and sat on Paul's side of the bed just to avoid him ... but he of course plotted against me and tickled my arm ... that filthy roach.  

(A roach with which I'm color coordinating)

(A cricket?.. I could handle - unfortunately those are practically living with us so much they should be paying rent! But a roach - somehow it's just psychologically disturbing)