Saturday

The packing continues....
Well, I didn't do any packing today! :-) Russ worked his shift at the Cracker Barrel and I was going from appointment to appointment. It was fun though! I met with Jeremiah, my team member's class and ended the day at Liquid Planet with Beth! For those of you who don't know what Liquid Planet is, it's a great coffee shop in down town Missoula. (You'll see why I said that later.) While we were visiting, there were three elderly men sitting at the table next to us drinking coffee. One of them came over and starting talking to us. Don't worry, he was not creepy at all, he just wanted our opinion of the establishment. He asked us if Liquid Planet was a good place to go. He also mentioned how his daughter thinks he is not up to date. (I don't remember what he said exactly.) He couldn't remember the name of the coffee shop, and when Beth told him that it was Liquid Planet, he said, "Is that what it's really called?" It was quite entertaining. 


The weather was so incredibly nice today! After the Liquid Planet meeting. I when to JoAnne's and actually found laminating paper. I was hoping for contact paper, but that was the closest thing they had. I cut several die cuts from my Cricut that I will use on my bulletin boards in Nashua. I wanted to laminate them to make them last longer. It wasn't enough to cover everything, so I will just wait until I find a roll of contact paper. I did my laminating out side and it was fun! I went to the park across the street from our apartment. I picked a picnic table and set everything up to get the job done. I will miss having a park that close to where we live. It has been really nice. 

Now we are at home and winding down for the day. We're watching The Golden Girls on the Hallmark channel. Tomorrow at church is our last connections group and we still have to read two chapters. We always procrastinate on reading the material for connections group, it's bad! :P Well, off to reading and calling it a night! 
Good night!! 


R&J

Sunday

Hey All,
Russ is now done with student teaching! Yay!! So incredibly happy for him! He just has to pass the WPA and he will be set to go. The last day of school for me June 1st. I'm excited, but I know I am going to have a hard time saying good bye to my kiddos. I have told my 5th graders, but I haven't told my 1st and 4th graders. However...........

I GOT THE JOB IN NASHUA!!! You are now looking at the music teacher for Nashua High School. It will be interesting working with my former teachers, as it will be for them. I am really looking forward to my first day on the job and starting the new school year. I will have my own room, and I get to call the shots for the program. I am SO excited. Russ is waiting for letters of recommendation and then he will apply to Glasgow and Lustre. Very exciting news in the lives of the Johnsons. :)

We will be moving to Nashua this summer. I will be moving on June 18th to get things settled into our new apartment. Russ will move on July 5th when our lease is up for our apartment. We would move out early together, but if we do we lose our security deposit. My family is going to help us move and that was the best date the worked out for them. We will be living in the teacherage, which is in walking distance from the school.

So.... yes, big changes, and emotions. We are excited to move, but we are going to miss Missoula so much. It will be weird not being here, but a good change. Sometimes change is for the better... for everyone. We will be sending out change of address cards with our information. In the mean time, we will enjoy our time here in Missoula with our friends and family. God Bless and have a great Sunday, and a happy Mothers day to you wonderful Moms out there!!

Mr. & Mrs. J

Books!

Hi Friends! 
My blog posts are few and far between now a days. Russ is keeping busy with student teaching and I am keeping busy with teaching and my Mary Kay business. We have been busy in an exciting way. We both had a nice 3 day week end together. We spent time with friends today and had an amazing Country Italian dinner. We've been on a book splurge lately with cook books... Christian fiction... and a wonderful Joyce Meyer book. She is a wonderful woman of God, and I feel like she is a lot like me just from reading one little paragraph. God is using Ken Davis and Joyce Meyer... well, and among many other people who have been telling me this for a couple years now to.... LIGHTEN UP! We are not meant to have guilt in our lives and it seems like that is normal... you're not normal if you don't have the guilt... NOT TRUE!!! I read a chapter of her book and then I indulged in a novel (the whole time reading I was drinking sweet tea, while Russ worked on his Sudoko...) Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. The prologue is 44 pages long... longest prologue I've ever heard of! 
The best thing about this was it was the first time since... well.... the first time that we just sat down in our living room with no tv... no distracting sounds... other than our oblivious-to-their-noise-level-neighbors and read or worked on a puzzle. Our apartment has become quite the little home. We got a hold of a couch that was about to go on the curb, from a friend who moved out of his apartment. We put a slip cover on it, added a couple pillows and it fits nicely in our living room. 
It is approaching 12:30... I should go to bed... yeah... 
Just thought I would post a little something. Not very exciting... but it's something. Hopefully I will have more insightful words later. 

God Bless, 
R&J

Happy Belated New Year

Hi Friends... or who ever reads this blog... :-)
Just thought I would fill in the gaps from my last post over a month ago. Football for the Griz is over by a long shot. We, like everyone is Missoula, wanted them to go to the championship game. However, it is so cool that NDSU won the championship game!! We had a lot of fun watching the game at the Montana club with friends and other Griz fans. Russ passed his piano test and is now free to student teach!! PRAISE JESUS!! He starts in Victor on January 23rd. I am so excited for him! One more semester and he will have his Music Education degree!! So proud of you, my amazing hubby!! 
We made it to Nashua for New Years and my brothers birthday. It was so much fun! Thanks to my Dad my Ford Focus got it's oil changed, and is still going strong, despite it's external injuries. We cleaned it and got it ready for the soon to be daily commute to school. Russ has been taking me to school in his car, but when he is commuting to Victor then the trips will be daily. I'm going to miss having him take me to school everyday, but I have enjoyed our morning trips together. I panic about being late, but he gets me to school right on time. The school holiday program with great! It was very smooth and not as hectic as I thought it would be. 
We spent Christmas with the Johnsons and it was a lovely day! Christmas Eve service at MAC was so great! To see the entire sanctuary lit up by over 100 candles was a breath taking sight to see. It reminded me of the candle light services at Grain. So, my first Christmas in Missoula was a good one for sure. :)
I returned to work on the 3rd and started the year off with a four day week. A four day week... not too bad right? Wrong. Most craziest week ever! I hate it when four day week feel like an eight day week. 

Today Russ helped his folks put up their new microwave and I scrapbooked our weeding album. I thought that my Mary Kay conference was this week, but that was just the registration dead line, with the actual conference being next week. So, since I was up I drove over to Scrapbook Hideaway and stayed until about 3. Didn't eat lunch... not that I meant to, but I just kept working on the album and before I knew it half of the afternoon went by. I ran out of photos to scrapbook and page protectors. I was missing some photos to make the last couple of pages that I needed. We had lunch at Wendy's with Richard and went shopping at TJ Max, Ross and Shop Ko. We only bought socks for Russ, but we got some great ideas to spruce up our bland white walls in our apartment. Thanks to Pinterest (not only another addiction, but a pretty cool way to keep track of ideas and such on the web) I have found some great ways to make stunning wall hangings out of recycled materials. 

We hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 
Love, 

R&J