Summertime

What a busy summer this has been so far! Six days after school was out, I took off for Europe. This year's itinerary (People to People) was England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland...which was my absolute favorite.

Scoul, Switzerland

Ftan, Switzerland

Ftan, Switzerland

Karen, me, and Gwen enjoying our Belgium waffles in Brugge, Belgium (I cannot...CAN NOT...get rid of this photo! I was moving it around to add at the bottom...but for some reason, it's being stubborn. This was not taken in Europe....nope...it's in Texas...so there MUST be some stubborn reason it's not budging???)

Standing in wooden shoes in Kinderdijk, Netherlands

Steve and I after our bike ride through Kinderdijk, Netherlands

This guy, can't remember his name, owns the wooden shoe factory and the shop were they make gouda cheese...

Gwen(Texas), Steve, Jeanette (our Austrian delegation manager), Karen, and me in Amsterdam

This year, I traveled with 42 high school students...30 that I met with during the year...and 12 we teamed with out of Texas. I love traveling with high school students...they're great!

We landed at SFO on July 7th... Lindsey, Donnie, and Benjamin picked me up and we went to Gabe, Emily, and Emerson's for the night...July 8th, Lindsey and Benjamin came home with me... 15 minutes after we got home, Joshua, Erica, and Thalia drove in from southern California. I was a bit sluggish at first from European travel...but I loved having everyone home with me. For the weekend, Gabe, Emily, and Emerson came up. All my kids at home...that makes me happy.

Wednesday morning, Joshua & family took off at 3 a.m. to head home...and in the afternoon,( after DELL computer sent someone out to replace my motherboard, processor, and memory modules on my DELL...which helped, but it's still too sluggish. I'm working on my netbook right now) Lindsey, Benjamin and I took off to take Linz home. I spent the night there, getting up and leaving at 6 a.m. to drive to Joshua's. Friday morning, Joshua, Erica, Thalia, and I took off and drove 18 hours to Amarillo Texas...and then today, drove on to my Mom's!

Whew...

We drove in...and started on projects...starting with removing her backyard pation cover...so we can replace it...it's in desperate need of a new top!

Joshua, THE project man!Joshua and UJ...after the demolitionJoshua is the mastermind behind this project...behind most projects. He orchestrated the demolition...with UJ and myself (a little) being his assistant.

Now, these photos are actually in the opposite order they should be in...but since I'm doing this on my netbook sitting in Saddie's living room, they'll just stay in reverse order. The netbook, as much as I love it, doesn't allow me to move the photos around like usual....UJ was a bit dirty after working...

At the end of the day, as I was taking photos of Joshua and John David, I was instructed to get in the photo since I had worked on the project too....they decided to take the picture like this!

My brother just told me that the JohnstonChronicles had been abandoned...so I'm remedying that situation right here!

I have lots to blog...

Pinch me...

These first two photos are the view out my hotel window...

The delegates are having their home stay in Germany right now...usually, the leaders have a home stay...but for some reason, this year, we don't. We're in hotels. Two of us are in this town: Bad Wildbad, Germany... and the other two are in a different town. The students are also divided between these two towns.

This place is heavenly...it's beautiful...known for it's luxurious baths (which we visited today for several hours)...

We rode this tram to the top of the mountain today...hiking through the Black Forest... getting lost, and hiking 15 miles...for 5 hours, ending up on the opposite side of town as the tram!

I set the timer at one point on our hike...here I am with Bjorn (our great bus driver), Steve, and Jeanette, our delegation manager. She's from Austria and Bjorn is from Holland.

Before we got completely lost...we found this little cabin where you could enjoy a German beverage...or some food...

Pinch me, as I said...I love this place!

A sweet job

I'm in London now...just finishing a day of traveling...and a little sightseeing...and a good visit at Hampton Court Palace. Prior to my departure, my sweet job Thursday night was keeping my little Emerson King! What fun that was!

These fotos are actually from Friday morning...with his new little basketball suit on...while his mama was getting ready to go see her friend, Kristy. I dressed him...and took him outside to run around.

He practiced stepping over the water hose, oh, about 38 times... Biscuit told him she was proud of him..

He trotted around outside...and I snapped away, all the while thinking how adorable he is...how much I love this little guy!What a sweet job it is to keep you, Emerson!

Signs of summer

It's another beautiful day here on the north coast. I'm going golfing…2 p.m. tee time! But first, I went outside to take some photos of flowers…and another sign of summer. Granted, summer here just means it's June, July, and August. There's not a lot of difference in the temperature.

Aren't these beautiful? They're in a pot on the patio…the patio where I like to sit and drink a cup of coffee… Red roses…we (I use the word "we" rather loosely…since my gardening is about nil) haven't had great luck with roses, but right now, there's probably at least half a dozen in bloom! Blueberries…this is a sure sign that July is close. We have a bunch of blueberry plants…usually we harvest 6-7 gallons. Aren't they pretty with all the different shades?
This is a new flower my guy planted this year. It's HUGE…and has just opened it's first bloom. It's some sort of a poppy, I think.
This is another kind of poppy, I think it's called an Icelandic poppy…another new one this year. I have a picture that belonged to Mimi of Icelandic poppies!

Last, but not least, is sun tea…brewing on the patio as I write…it'll be perfect to sip on when I get back from golfing!

Definitely the signs of summer are here!

Netbooks

I'm getting ready for my annual summer People to People adventure. This year, I'm taking 30 high school students to England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland for 3 weeks! We fly out Friday!

Loving to blog doesn't end with the Johnston Chronicles…nope, I blog the People to People adventures, too. I've always been at the mercy of having computers at hotels…until this year. I heard about netbooks…wasn't too sure what they were…so I looked into it. Then a friend emailed me to say she had a netbook…and would I like to borrow it. I declined, not liking to borrow something like that, but then became more intrigued. I heard a negative comment about them…being too slow…but I asked around more and heard more favorable responses…

Enter Costco… with their 90 day return policy. So here I am, with my new ACER Netbook, checking out how to blog through it…doing it a little different way than I normally do. I'm going to install SKYPE on here too…and that will have me set. All I'll need is Wi-Fi, which when I looked at the hotels online, I think most, if not everyone of them had.

I'll let you know how I like – or dislike – a netbook!

By the way, here's a link to the blog: http://p2ptravelers-europeanheritage.blogspot.com

Sami visits the Pacific Ocean

Sami came to visit this summer...first time in 14 years! I had no idea it had been that long since she'd been here.

I guess I should feel bad...that we aren't loved up here in northern California...we're only good for a visit every 14 years or so??? (just kidding)
We drove north and went to the little town of Trinidad. It's about as picturesque as they come... The Trinidad Lighthouse overlooks Trinidad Bay...and it's beautiful!
Sami leaped out of the car in the beautiful drizzle...
She checked out the bay and all the boats...
We headed down to the beach...Sami was unsure about walking the beach because, well, it wasn't your typical beach weather...
It was probably about 50 -55 degrees...and a bit damp... drizzly...it had actually been raining, but the droplets lightened up and I called it a drizzle... My mom, who was resting warm and comfortably in the car, called it rain.
"Come on, Sami," I told her. A little drizzle never hurt anyone. Sami bundled up and we headed down on the beach.
Sami was curious about the sand. (Actually, she was looking for shells...)
While she looked, I took a little stroll over by that huge rock...I was looking to see if the tide was low enough to see any critters...like sea stars, sea anemones, etc...but no luck, the tide was too high... Sami kept checking out the sand...
She thought about going for a swim, but I outlawed it. (I use the word "outlaw" because of the post previous to this one...)
"Sami! Don't go in that water!!! It's cold..." I screamed. (Not really)
Oh geez...she was tempting fate...
"Aunt Judy! My feet got wet!"

I ignored her...
Sami just rolled up her pants legs and got away from the water. She decided to leave her mark on the beach.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that no one would probably see her mark...
because the tide was coming in...and it would cover it up...erase it...
So I took photographs of her marks...her name carved in the sand...in the sand on a beach in northern California...in the picturesque little haven of Trinidad...
It was fun, Sami!

Hopefully you'll come back before another 14 years has passed!

Inlaws and Outlaws.... and Happy Birthday to Donnie!

My guy and my sweet sister in law, Becky, termed themselves "Outlaws" ...hopefully as a joke. I'm not sure how it came about, but I think it's pretty witty...

Their common denominator? Becky's married to my brother...and, of course, my guy is married to me!

"Outlaws," I would guess, would be Inlaws that didn't get along??? That's not the case with us...and I'm SO thankful for that! Now that our own kids are grown and married... they have Inlaws... but then again, I now have a son-in-law...and two daughter-in-laws... that I absolutely adore!Donnie was our first and only son-in-law...Emily was our first daughter-in-law...Erica was our 2nd daughter-in-law...

I've always gotten along ... dearly loved... my inlaws. My guy always has gotten along so well with my side of the family - his inlaws... I never took these relationships for granted, but as my kids started getting married, I realized that they might just assume Inlaws always got along great and never became "Outlaws"... so I would talk to them... and tell them to nurture those relationships, to work at them... that they couldn't just take for granted that everyone would get along as great as my family and my guys family did...

So now our family is growing...which makes me think of all these things even more... plus, one of my in-laws, my only son-in-law, just had his birthday....on Tuesday...That's what made me think about writing this post...because I was thinking about Donnie...about how I knew the first time I met him that he was the kind of guy I'd love for Lindsey to marry, how he just fit in with our family from the very beginning, about how he loves my baby girl, about how thrilled he was when Lindsey was pregnant with their little man, about how he's just had his 2nd birthday as a father...a Daddy to our little man, Benjamin...how much we love having him in our family!So....Happy Birthday, Donnie!

from one of your inlaws...hopefully not an outlaw!

We've come a long way

My buddy, Bob, the sender of some great emails...sent me these old ads a couple of days ago. Oh my! I can't remember the dates ... but I remember a lot of these. Can you even believe how times have changed!
I remember when it was said that smoking was good for you! How could anyone have ever thought that?Coke to babies? Oh my...

Look at this caption! "Blow in her face..."
What did women think? I don't remember this, but I can't believe I would ever have thought this was a positive statement about women.
Even Santa Claus used to smoke!

As I said in the title of this (my 508th post here on the JohnstonChronicles)... We've come a long way!