Joyce's First Dress and Emilie

We put Joyce in her first dress in honor of Easter. Her first dress also happened to be one her mama wore almost 29 years ago. Emilie pointed out that in the picture on the left, Joyce looks like she has an almost adult-like expression on her face. She also looks like she could be my ventriloquist puppet.

But onto the wonderful visit with Emilie. John picked her up from the airport on Thursday night while Joyce and I were in class. We had the most wonderful few days with her - Joyce really loved her and would look up at her and respond to her in such beautiful ways. It was really lovely to go around campus with Emilie and show her our favorite laundry mat and buy her 20 cent popcorn. I feel so grateful for family who will come from so far away to see our daughter. I think one of the most beautiful and unexpected things about Joyce in our life is how she transforms our relationships withe people we love. To watch my sister or my mom or my dad or my brother hold this little girl with so much love makes me feel so happy. I am posting just a few pictures of Joyce and Emilie together.

A Conversation with Joyce

These are some pictures I took this afternoon while talking to Joyce. We had a lovely talk.

Also we had some visitors:




Joyce pretty much loved her Uncle Stephen and cousin Jill and requests other visits from any relatives who may be even remotely interested in meeting her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHENA/MELANIE/ANDREW/SAM

Birthday month chez les Johnsons!

JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE...

To Mels, Andrew, and Shannon (and Marc very soon...).

Here are some pictures to celebrate. (The first one is exactly what I would want on my birthday...something to do with dogs).

Hey Everyone!

Hey everyone,
It is finals this week for Paul and I at greenriver. I just got done with one of my finals where we had to do a circle time presentation infront of our Music and movement class, with at least one prop- for mine I did: Big Mouth Frog with flannel pieces, Everything grows and Rainbow song, where I taught them sign lanuguage, I did with a very horse voice, becasue I am sick, anyways I am so glad it is done I did really well. Now I am giong to my other final, we had to do a portfilo for practicum 2, and that one I am finshed, it will not be hard at all. I can't belive winter quater is over. We start March 31, 2008 for spring quater, I don;t start tell Thurs. April 3, 08- on your birthday Marc! becasue my classes are only on thurs. for spring quater.
I got Tuffy for my birthday. she is doing awosme, and I love being able to ride her when ever I wnat to, she loves attention, seh is ten years old, paint that aint and she is chestnut color witrh a star, blaze on her face and she has one sock on her hind foot. Thanks, Mom and dad, it means so much to me, and it is so fun to spend time with Tuffy, kay adn sammy. Kay is doing awsome, she is going strong. Sammy loves to play, it is amazing how much engery he has, becasue he will climb with mom, dad, whoever else goes adn then when he gets home he still wants to play ball for hours. I am still working at Kids base, adn grcc as a sub, volenteer at: Camp Berachah/Mrs. Bucks. playing soccer, flute, sign language. going to school adn doing really well, take caer of Tuffy, kay adn sammy, I got for my birthday little presents gave me. anyways I have to go now to prac. 2 do my final.
I am so happy that we are family forever, and Joyce/Marguritte look so cute, I can't wait to see you all soon, and sorry I can't go to Navoo becasue I have school. Good luck everyone,a nd I can't wiat to see you all, and to meet Joyce adn Margurite. I miss you all,
Love you all so much,
don't worry I will get better!
love always adn forever,
Mels
Love you all a lot. Families are forever!
Thank you to everyone for calling me on my birthday, it ment so much to me!

A Sunday Drive

This goose with a home-made red apron may look like a unique yard item - something you would see only once in a rare while. But on John, Joyce and I's most recent drive through southern Indiana we saw not just one, but twenty-nine such geese in people's yards. Yes twenty-nine. Our drive by countings happened in rural areas - this is not a highly populated place full of houses and yards to decorate with geese. Even in this rural hilly place we were able to count such high numbers of geese trappings in people's yards. If anyone has any hypothesis about why and where people get such geese we'd love to hear your thoughts.

On our drive we also encountered another Indiana phenomenon - the West Baden Springs Hotel. This hotel is near French Lick (the birthplace of Larry Bird). Let me emphasize these towns are very small - so to have such a grandiose hotel seems a little extreme. And let me tell you it was grandiose - the huge dome that at one time was the largest free standing dome in the country, to the ornate fireplace complete with a gnome perched in the corner, to the exercise room with state of the art equipment, to the billards room with two flat screen TVs inside - this hotel has it all. I am posting a few pictures of it below.


I am also putting up a few pictures of Joyce - in one she is wearing the yellow pajamas mom brought that I wore when I was an infant. I'm also posting a picture of Joyce and I - I realized that we only had one picture of her and I together so John took some more. I think her face in this one is so funny and cute. Mainly I like all the pictures below because they show the many faces of Joyce.

Uncle Andrew's Hat

Joyce's Uncle Andrew made these great hats! So we wanted to know what Joyce thought about them. Here's what she told us...

Thanks Andrew!

Karaoke Revolution

I do not mean to diminish the incredible posts starring the newest member of our family, but this story is too good to go untold.

Made famous by a video of Mom rocking out to U2 on Stephen's cellphone, I'm sure we are all aware of the recent phenomena of theses somewhat musical video games like Mom's favorite Guitar Hero II, or our dear cousin Jill's Guitar Hero III. Recently a new game, Karaoke Revolution, came out. As opposed to playing instruments, the object of the game is to follow the pitch by moving your voice along a neon line moving like a treadmill. At the end of each song, you are rated by America's favorite judges, Simon Paula and Randy, the judges on American Idol. I'll admit that I have now spent more than a few hours chasing my ambition of becoming a Guitar Hero 'HERO,' but I must draw the line at Karaoke Revolution. It's the same thing as Karaoke, nothing needed to be revolted against or revolutionized in any way.

That rant was somewhat irrelevant to the story that really needs telling. My work consists of two types of people. There are the college age kids working absurd hours to pay their tuition (unless they're me (thanks Dad)), and there are the 40 and up adults making some money on a relatively easy, quite, peaceful second job where most of the time can be spent reading a best seller. The day shifts are mostly composed of the college kids, and the night shifts create about a 50/50 balance of the two types. Andres is a college kid who works nights. At a recent company party, Andres won a portable DVD player. Sweet. He gets to watch Batman while he works (mostly the cartoon, and the making of the cartoon in the special features). In other recent news, Andres bought a portable Play Station II. Even more recently, he bought Karaoke Revolution. Andres was in choir in high school, but it's quite obvious he's never received any formal training. He knows how to hit those high notes, just not very well. Anyways, all of these recent events have lead to a truly revolutionized work place, where in our corner of seemingly endless cubicles, one can witness and more importantly hear a truly disturbing event - A two minute whistling solo for one of Bon Jovi's hits while every college age kid is trying hard not to urinate on company property from suppressed laughter while the 40+s are banging their heads against the carpeted/supposedly sound canceling dividers.

Along with my ambition to becoming a Guitar Hero HERO, i have another confession to make. I have indulged in a few episodes of American Idol. I don't think there is a person out there (excluding the group I am about to illuminate) who wouldn't agree that the fascinating thing about A I is not the talent it draws, but the LACK of talent. It's the completely disturbing auditions that everyone remembers (for example William Hung), no one really cares about yet another pop or country star (no offense Paul and Rebekah). I cannot help but hypothesize that this recent video game is only the producer's and writer's best way of recruiting those incredibly lack-of-talented people to believe they can sing. Take Andres for example. You know that one song which goes something like "I've kissed the rains down in Africa?" It used to be not that bad of a song. In fact, I believe this is one of the few songs written after the 70's and not produced by MOTAB that Dad will listen to. With the added "Personal Solos (la la la's)" and "humming riffs," Karaoke Revolution/Andres have turned this Delila favorite into a seven minute torture session. The government was recently sued by Rage Against the Machine (a hard rock band) for using their music as torture (playing it over and over again for hours and hours to detainees(a somewhat ironic move, because a lot of the band's songs are clearly anti-war/government...)). The Government could go through a lot less of a hassle if they only would exploit what our pop culture is exploiting-ourselves.

Again, I have strayed way of topic. The point is, Trina (48 and balding) quit because Andres wasn't fired.

A Walk In the Woods

Today John, Joyce and I went for a walk in the woods. It was in the 60's today and the sun was out and even the wind felt warm. The woods are thawing out and our feet were thick with mud while we walked. The walk we went on today actually felt a little like a hike as we twisted down and up ravines. Joyce rode with her dad - in our very long piece of fabric that can carry a child many different ways.
I am including a picture of John with Joyce and then the three of us on our walk.


I'm also including a few more pictures of Joyce - it feels like she is getting so big - and I think she's probably 7 lbs by now. We saw the tiniest little sickly baby at the laundry mat on Saturday. He was 10 days old and looked like a translucent frog. He was only 5 lbs when he was born and maybe he'd dropped some weight since then. He made Joyce look real hefty. She is starting to sleep a little bit longer through the night and that is a relief. Other good news - Joyce smiled at us. We'll try to catch it on camera and post one soon.