An update on why I haven't written, what's to come, and something extra.

ALRIGHT. I know all 2 of my blog readers have been waiting for the next post, the world series really set me behind. BUT a lot has happened and I plan on reporting it all! So TOMORROW I will publish a blog post with 2 weeks worth of material (since it's almost Sunday already) and then, if all goes right, I will be back on track, on the Sunday afternoon schedule November 10th. kapeesh? so tomorrow, has the past 2 weeks, and then next Sunday, November 10th will be the usual, and hopefully I can stay on track from there.  Until tomorrow's post, enjoy this video of me taken by my girl, (Brother's girlfriend and basically like a sister already), Melissa Feel free to share, as this video makes me incredibly happy and I wouldn't mind if Ellen Degeneres stumbled upon it and brought me on to dance like this on her show. Dream big right?

Our typical Family weekends are not so typical

BEAUTIFUL week to go outside, I love living in New England this time of year. Since I go to school a mere 3 minutes down the road, and have long breaks between classes I like to take some Me time by the ocean and what better place than Fort Williams/Portland Headlight.

Amazing how beautiful Maine looks a month or 2 before the s*it show of snow

As some of you know I cracked my brand new iPhone 5c in a devastating work accident 

$200 later, my insurance covered new phone came in the mail. They give you the package slip so you can send your broken one back and such and as I get to the bottom of the box, I find a pamphlet, full of all the cases that AT&T sells. fantastic marketing technique guys! 

Also Shout out to the guy at AT&T when I bought my new case: "Do you want me to put the case on for you in case you drop it in the parking lot?" 

har har. 

Spent a lot of much needed family time the past couple days. FILLED with sports and laughs.
An unexpected turn cut my shift at work short and so yesterday afternoon I came home to my parents, oldest brother Travis, his girlfriend Catrina, my nephew Cameron, and the usual suspects, Annika and Chandler. With the Red Sox chance to clinch their trip to the world series, we were planning an eventful night together (despite the fact that I am a Yankees fan, I LOVE baseball, especially dramatic postseason baseball so it worked out) I don't get the Golf Channel at my house so I can't watch my Yankee boys, and I get court TV but I can't stand Alex Rodriquez's face.

U mad A-snob?

And if you read my last blog, you know that I was pulling for the Dodgers this year. well. As stated before, I don't get the Golf Channel.....

And so we start our night with some family Football in the backyard. 1/2 tackle, 1/2 2 hand touch....it's a little complicated but hey it works. for us

With Travis and Annika having a 3 foot advantage towering over the rest of us, things are a little uneven. Despite his height, Travis felt the need to scream like a girl to distract the defense...And then earned a 15 yard penalty for unnecessary roughness after the play, but Chandler took it like a man. 

We had a nice dinner together, All the siblings and extras and such and then it was game time. Most families watch TV in the living room or designated family room. If the Johnstons were normal, I wouldn't be writing a blog about us now would I? So we allllll pile into the kitchen to watch the baseball game.  Hey it works, you're right next to  (some of) the  food. However we keep our drinks in the garage...soo yeah we watch TV in the kitchen and our food and drinks are in the garage. what of it. Dad even got one of the lawn chairs and plopped it in the kitchen, and made himself comfy 

The best part of the WHOLE game came when the big boy, Prince Fielder attempted a dive back to third. Our house erupted with laughs. 

So the sox are down 2-1 and the bases are loaded. Shane victorino comes up. respectable player, but in his failure to get a bunt down earlier in the game, dad rolled his eyes and said please just get hit by the pitch so you have a chance to get on base.... Dad has not been too impressed with #18 for the red sox, and then this happened... 

And then the red sox closed it out in the 9th. The funny part:

We in this house cannot stand listening to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver and so we turned on the radio which is a couple seconds ahead of the TV So Dad and Travis's celebration started while the pitcher was still waiting to deliver his pitch. 

...unfortunately this video will not upload so just picture it and laugh. If you're having trouble laughing, just relive prince fielder's belly flop again.

So the red sox are going to the world series to face he Cardinals. I really don't care much for either team but my hatred for the sox naturally leans me towards the cardinals. in any event, may the odds be ever in your favor. 

In other Sports news, I'd rather not talk about what happened in the Patriots game. 

Annika and Chandler are on their way to a halloween party and here are their costumes! A hot air balloon and a lego. 

And now to go study for my first nursing class final tomorrow. Basically if I don't get a B, then I have to retake the class and so I'm now locking myself up and studying forever. If you read last week's blog, you know what that means: 

PS: Please please please check out Johnston #2's progress in her SEVA Amazon work, Every little bit helps I will be posting her stuff on here to get the word out. Read about it, think about it, and do something about it. Be a part of something incredible my sister has worked very hard on

https://otmseva.fundraise.com/allison-johnston

Facing the Hills

**I highly encourage you press play on the first link for background music while you read!**



Hey kids!
I usually like to write in this thing by Sunday afternoon but I had a lot of hours at work this week, and it also happens to be "hell week" at school and by that I mean I have 3 midterms and a final all in consecutive days....That being said, today's post isn't really about 1 specific event but more about me finding some comic relief in all of my stressors.
I was driving to school this morning thinking that I should write in the blog, but really wondering what I should write...nothing exciting has happened and in fact I've just had stress headaches all week and I was all like I don't want to depress people with my blob...-I'm leaving that typo there because it makes me laugh...this is officially going to be called. "the blob" like the water trampoline at fat camp! (if you don't know what I'm referring to, reevaluate your childhood). ANYWAYS. I'm going to try this, whole comic relief thing. The inspiration came when I was really bumming because I ran out of data on my phone for the month so no internet, meaning no pandora. so I dug out my old cd case and put in a random thing, and this is the first song that came on:

I started laughing out loud, and then full on jamming out. It reminded me to always remember that although I'm stressed, people have my back. It also reminded me that maybe I should revisit some old music. (Smelly cat was also in the mix) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7jlGRq8xZ4

THIS WEEK IN SPORTS: THOSE PATRIOTS I had to work but oh my god that catch. It's no surprise to you that I hate the Red Sox and really have never liked David Ortiz, but the memes of his homerun are epic:

I'm pulling for the Dodgers myself, taking the world series in 6 games. you can quote me on that.
Hockey is back but I've had a hard time keeping up between MLB postseason and football in full swing. I'm still a little upset about their loss last season but I've been informed that they've already had some good fights this year.

As far as family news, which is what this blog is about Chandler said 'boob' for the first time. we were having dinner and he pointed at a doll, explaining that it had to be a girl because it had "booooooobs."
My mother, while talking about money and why my sister chose TD bank for her bank account. Dad said it worked best for European exchanges (Savannah went on a trip to Europe last year) and Mom responded with "but what about EuroPOOPen exchanges?"
More recently tonight, I was explaining to my parents what I was learning in Anatomy which is blood. and what types can donate to who, and Mom and I found out we were both O positive. I asked Dad what type he was..his response?   "The red type.."
This morning most of you were able to see this post:

Knowing I'm usually up by 6, Chandler, thankfully came and woke me up...at 7:15...now that I was running late, without even asking he even made me a sandwich for lunch before he went to catch the bus...my brother is cuter than your brother. End of story.


Time to go study for my microbio midterm which I'm sure will go well considering this is how it was explained to us: (and yes, I've been watching the hills too much)


My professor explains what's on the test, and all of us are like:

And he's all like But we will have a review session the day of your midterm... 

"like..that's not an apology.."

And he tells us we will have a lap quiz the same day because we weren't paying attention...

And he's just like "There will be essay questions"

And so now, here I am on the eve of my midterm lookin like

And to top off my whole week:

............

The Hangover part 4. Johnston Edition.

So a stay at home mom of 7, a recently returned from long business trip dad, an 11 year old, a 17 year old that's been clinically diagnosed with senioritis, a hungover middle child, a 6 year old, and a 12 year old that's taller than all of them walk into a bar.... Or an apple orchard (choose your own adventure). With my head feeling like a ton of bricks fell on it, we all piled into the mini van rocking the stick figure stickers on the back window for a Sunday afternoon of family bonding. My 6 year old nephew, little brother and sister in the back, and the hungover middle child and hormonal teenager in the middle seats. the kids were getting rambunctious behind me which, if you've ever had a hangover is not the best cure. instead of being a normal person and asking them to quiet down, I began singing soft kitty (credit to Sheldon Cooper) and surprisingly it worked, and they were calm the rest of the ride.

There may or may not have been some old school Britney Spears kareoke between here and the orchard, but that's a story for a different time. 

So we take a tractor ride out...and I mean OUT. As in, I thought our long haired dred locked stoner looking dirty flannel wearing driver was taking us far out to axe murder us but I think we scared him enough with our craziness and so a 200 mile tractor ride later, he dumped us off at a nice picking spot. 

With all of us, it took no time to pick 2 bushels. When the Johnston's go apple picking, the real process it the traditional picture taking. 2 pictures need to be taken...One of the kids, one of the rents. However, it always manages to turn into this 20 minute fiasco that only the Johnstons can create, get through, and still come out with 2 decent pictures in a set of about 50 attempts. 

This, as you may guess, is one of our failed attempts. However, I like it. Mom says it looks like an Album cover. I name the band Angry Orchard. (I swear I'm not an alcoholic). These are the faces you get when you try to teach your parents how to use the camera on an iPhone. Mom and Dad are soo incredibly talented in the parenting department, but hand them an iPhone and they're as confused and lost as the United States congress running  country. But, in the end we finally got one 

Success! (same cannot be said for the US congress). And the 2 that handle the madness, 

At this point, Savannah was going through the picture Dad tried taking on her iPod, when she discovered that all the pictures he got, she was either cut out, or blocked by the tree branch. I wish I had access to the many many many attempts to get a good picture of us on her iPod. There was a lot of "Can everyone just smile please?!"   "No, look at the camera..."  "Oops, I blinked."  "Sorry, I was trying to smile like daddy does.."   "Steve...get out of the kids picture"       

But hey, we finally got it done. 

So we got our apples, and our pictures but apparently the tractor only goes one way..So far far away from our family van with 2 heavy bags of apples, we began our trek through the wet grass. Without going into detail about why I'm asking this question, Why do pre-teen boys (actually....all boys) find so much joy in peeing outside? Like, is it the thrill of finding the right bush? the suspense of hoping no one sees you? WHAT IS IT?! anyways, Chandler disappears for a couple minutes....again, (choose your own adventure). So we're almost to the car, but it can't be that easy...can it? did we make it back? oh wait...nope...after hearing some excitement behind me, dad and I turn around to see about a half bushel of apples scattered on the ground by Savannah's and Chandler's feet....Quick pause to put them back in the bag. Now we start heading forward again. And finally, as promised, we got through the chaos and piled back into the van, and headed home. 

The one-liner of the trip: We're in line to buy our bags for the apples and there is a young mom with her toddler in a stroller. She gave the toddler one of those little gourds they sell in the fall and my dad without skipping a beat, "Is his name Gourd-on (Gordon)?"   -Steve Johnston