As promised a while back, here are some photos of the new place we call home. It's a petite thing, but it is very bright and airy which helps make it feel a bit bigger than it actually is.


Kitty Johnson is getting awkwardly cuddly as she matures. She was, amazingly, sound asleep at the time this photo was taken.

We found this book at a bookstore in Santa Rosa a couple of weekends ago. It's Winnie the Pooh translated into Latin. We also picked up Min Forste Ordbook by Richard Scarry - a Norwegian/English wordbook for children. They are both so cool. Sometimes I think about how horrible it would be if our house caught fire and we lost all of our books. But then again, we'd have a good excuse to go out and try to replace them, which would be fun.

We also just received a FREE Credenda Agenda audio cd in the mail on Friday and listened to it in its entirety today. I recommend everyone should get one before they run out. Just go here: http://www.canonpress.org/shop/item.asp?itemid=1196 and this, too, could be yours. If they have run out though, you could just go here http://www.credenda.org/ and read it for free online.

Right now Paul is playing and singing that song See What a Morning. I think that's what it's called anyway. He has been asked to lead singing at the school chapels which happen twice a month and he really enjoys it. Actually, he was also asked to consider whether or not he'd like to lead music at church on Sunday mornings too. We'll see...



So, there you have it. A brief update on our lives. Hope all is well for everyone that we don't see so often. We miss everyone very, very much. And for now, we really must go to the grocery store.

Erica

Discipulus

So I am sitting here at the computer and our kitten, Kitty, decides that it is fun to jump up on the bookcase and kick-it behind my books. Really, I wouldn't care that she was back there but she also seems to think that it is fun to kick the books on the floor. Scratching and biting the books is also a fun bookcase sitting activity. You see I like to keep my books as tooth-and-claw-mark free as humanly possible. So I squirt the cat with a water bottle indicating that she should remove herself quickly. This "squirt" tactic usually works. She jumps away and cleans off the water. The problem is that she jumps on the shelf again, and remains there for so long sometimes to endure nearly fifteen squirts.
Why does this game of squirt the cat strangely remind me of teaching? Sometimes it seems like no matter how much you might try to convince or prod some people they will jump back to the shelf from which you just removed them. Don't get me wrong I am not saying that students are only as intelligent as cats, they are mostly very bright. The problem seems to be a lack of a desire to think.
Funny though that I sitting here contemplating cats, kids, and discipline when I should be reading.
so bye.

Here are a few pictures taken at school:



Mr. Johnson's seventh grade grammar class in action.


Mr. Johnson's students participating in class.


Mrs. Johnson sitting at her desk.

School has officially begun. And Mr. Johnson has taken the school by storm. First graders and sixth graders alike flock to him, hoping that he'll even glance in their direction. A group of first grade boys interrogated him one day asking "if he was from the future" (to which he responded, "yes", much to their excitement) and "if he liked girls" (to which he also responded, "yes," much to their disappointment). One particular fifth grader, when asked by his mom why he thought Mr. Johnson was so cool, candidly responded, "He has such cool glasses and a faux hawk!" Duh.

Life is good for Mr. Johnson.

Kitty Johnson has turned out to be one ferocious feline. (Actually, she has the habit of blinking every time the camera flashes.) Can you spot Kitty in the picture on the top right? She's very fond of hanging out with Paul.

My blissfully carefree summer vacation officially ended last week. (By the way, I'm helping Paul figure out his grammar curriculum for this year, so I can't help but analyze every sentence I write - pronoun, adverb, adj., adj., noun, adverb, verb, adj., noun - that's all that's going on in my head as I type.) On Monday, Paul convinced me to go with him down to the school to see if he could set up his classroom and while there I got suckered into starting my job as the school receptionist/secretary at 8:00 am the following day. Whoopee. Actually, it's a good thing because it means we'll receive a paycheck a few weeks earlier than we expected and it gives me a chance to get settled into my job a bit before school begins. But still, it's funny - it always seems like once you really begin to relish something (in my case, not waking up to an alarm clock, taking long walks around the neighborhood every morning, eating breakfast and lunch at a leisurely pace, reading for hours on end), it's quickly gone. Which somehow reminds me that I should get off the computer and go mop the hardwood floor.

Last Saturday Erin came to visit! We went to this great restaurant called Dempsey's which is located right next to the river in Downtown Petaluma. We had delicious food, great scenery, and a really fun time hanging out with Erin!

After church today Paul and I decided to go to the Sonoma County fair. We got really lucky too, because as we were walking toward the entrance these two older ladies were walking out and asked it we wanted two free tickets. We accepted their generous offer and saved fourteen bucks! The fair was pretty fun - we saw a sheep shearing contest, lots of pretty flowers, and some huuuuge Holsteins. We also saw a goat named Sonya (that's for you, mom). =)

Yesterday we drove to Dillon beach which is located about a half an hour from our house. It was so windy that it almost wasn't enjoyable, but it was pretty and we enjoyed seeing our proximity to the coast. (Now we understand why we get so much fog.)

Right now Paul is at a place called Finbar Devine's with some guys from our church. Everyone at church has been very welcoming to us - inviting us to dinner, softball games, Bible studies, etc. It's been great. We have so much to be thankful for.