Its been a while...!

Well it seems the weeks have flown by and we are in SPRING....thankfully. With spring comes the joys of pollen and allergies but also beauty. The trees are green and the flowers are blooming and its starting to warm up. As in every season in North Carolina, we have been bipolar...some days are warm and in the high 70s low 80s and then the last week of March we woke up to heavy sleet and snow.

Along with this spring, like the last few springs in our lives came change...we moved into our new house and we absolutely love it. We are finally organized to a certain degree (don'tlookintheloftorguestbedroom...) and it is feeling like home. We have enjoyed adjusting to our new surroundings and for me especially the extra space in our kitchen and all over the place.

We had a wonderful uneventful move thankfully, with the help of many hard working friends and family. We also had fun and funny couple bonding time with the late night packing, the washer and dryer that sound like the second floor of the house is going to fly off every time we run the spin cycle or a combination of the two, the delivery and installation of the washer and dryer and some other roll on the floor laughing moments.

We have been blessed by our new home and hope that all of you will take the time to come by and visit us very soon! If you are ever in Greensboro, Winston Salem or the great state of NC we'd love to see you and now we have the space for you to sleep!

I just like this picture and it makes me think that summer is just around the corner and maybe I will take up trying to learn how to play golf this summer!

The house and other mussings!

Well as I promised, I wanted to tell more about my experience in New Orleans. Yes I wast there for work and I learned a lot there but really I learned so much more. As I walked down Bourbon Street at night to see what it was all about and as I experience New Orleans for the first time, my heart broke. I have heard of God breaking your heart for what breaks His and this happened. As I watched a city in ruin, a girl standing outside a bar in lingerie trying to make the wages she needed to live and as I saw the destruction within so many, my heart broke. As the last few days have gone by in a frenzy of two back to back trips, landing Wednesday night, back to work for two days to prep for round two, laundry, spending time with Chris and heading back out, this image has not left me. I am committing to praying for the city of New Orleans but more importantly I am praying, "Lord break my heart for what breaks yours." I have no idea what this means but I want to experience my God more and more every day and want those around me to see these things too!

Also to add to the excitement of being back in NC for the next few weeks, we went to our house on Saturday. What a treat to walk in to our first house as a couple. I got giddy as I thought about decorating and getting it all Johnson-fied, having family and friend over and all the adventures that are to come in the months to come. The first adventure will be getting our apartment packed, cleaned and moved again. I also think staying in a house for a while sounds like a great plan! So here they are pictures of our next home!

Welcome to Johnson Home 3.0!

This is a view from the back of the house towards the kitchen/dinning room.

This is from the kitchen towards the back of the living room.

I am a little excited about the kitchen. Lots of space and cabinets and room for all my kitchen endeavors!

UpstairsGuest Bedroom.

Loft

Guest room bathroomGo Tar Heels!

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom.

We hope you enjoyed the tour and come see us after the first week of April!

The Johnson's in 2011...

It seems like 2011 just started and somehow we are now facing the end of February. This year has flown by. I am not doing to well on my promise for more pictures but we are buying a point and shoot camera and will start with that.
So far we have seen God work in so many ways in 2011. We started the year celebrating Chris' birthday and enjoyed some wonderful snow days (thankfully not as many as last year). At the end of January we came to another decision point. Should we stay in our apartment another year or move into a rented townhouse. We had been looking and found a wonderful 2 bedroom townhouse right down from where we live. We signed our lease to move there and will be moving again in a couple weeks. We were blessed that the landlord is allowing us to sign a lease and wait to move for 5 weeks. We are excited for the additional space and living in a house again.
February has been a whirlwind and will continue this way until the end of the month. We signed a lease the first weekend, followed by time spent with friends. The second weekend Kristen helped with the father-daughter dance at church. What a treat. It was precious to see dad's invest in their daughters lives by showing them what a real date should look like. For some reason for one night my desire for all boys was gone as I watched these precious loved girls blossom in the love of their father both here and in heaven.
This weekend I came to New Orleans for a work show. I am going to have to write a whole other post for that. My heart is broken by this city. I will be back in Greensboro on Wednesday and then will fly to beautiful warm staying at a hotel at the beach, San Diego for another work show. And then it is March. We have lots to look forward to: Chris is taking vacation to spend time with Wes, my cousin Michelle is coming to visit, we are going to Virginia to see Peter, Betsy, Sam and Marina and we are moving. So somewhere in the month of March we will be packing up and getting rid and cleaning out our apartment and moving into our first house. Some pictures of the house are below. Its the front of the house....proof that we have a house and the kitchen. I will finally have room for all my fun baking endeavors!!!

Bread Machine

Chris got me a wonderful gift for Christmas, a bread machine. I am pretty sure he was just as excited about it as I was. We kept it pushed to the side of our living room for the first week of life and then on New Years eve we made our first loaf of bread. It was Cinnamon Raisin Bread from here http://www.bread-maker.net/Bread-maker-recipes/Whole-Wheat-Cinnamon-Raisin-Bread.htm and delicious for a first attempt. We then made a wheat honey oat bread. It was a little crumbly.

Halfway through the week me made a buttermilk and honey wheat bread from http://www.bread-machine-recipes.com/recipes/buttermilk_and_honey_wheat_bread.html. It was a huge hit.

This weekend we made our favorite yet. It was an apple oatmeal bread with raisins. it is soft and delicious and oh so good. We followed it with another new recipe with a multi-grain loaf. I am rather fond of my bread maker and the delicious treats we are creating with it.

I have one question for anyone who uses a bread machine: why do so many loaves seem to sink after rising and end up half the size they originally were?

Also if you are in the mood to help us eat one of creations or have a suggestion for a good recipe please share. I am going to try to take pictures of some of my creations to share!