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!

The Johnson's Top 10 of 2010!

10. Spending New Years and a week after that in warm tropical Costa Rica at the beach with all of the Rices.

9. Going to California in February to see Grandpa and Grandma Wuerth and for Chris to meet my wonderful Grandparents.

8. Summer 2010: Memorial Day at Figure 8 Island with the Johnson's, our anniversary in Charleston, Fourth of July with the playgroup, an August trip to Virginia and Labor day at Figure 8.

7. Celebrating with friends and family near and far. We welcome Rachel Anne Atkins, praised God for Grandpa Wuerth's 90th birthday, partied hard on June 11 when Stefan and Amanda got engaged, celebrated with Rob and Mary Catherine at their wedding in June, enjoyed the addition of Kirby to the Vanderlinden household, celebrated with Stefan and Amanda at their wedding on December 11, 2010, rejoiced when Jed and Carol got engaged December 16th and praised God for the addition of Rosie to the Rice Family on December 28th.

6. Marina Alling Rice joining our family on October 13, 2010 and the wonderful visit we had with all the Rices over Thanksgiving in Virginia!


5. Our first ever entire family Christmas with all of the Johnson's and the wonderful food that we all pitched in to make.

4. Our one year anniversary. We went out for a nice dinner in Greensboro and went to Charleston, South Carolina for a weekend for some sweet couple time.




3. A financial make over courtesy of Dave Ramsey. We started the class in January and have been blessed by all the insight it has given us into our finances and....

2. WE ARE DEBT FREE...a year and a week after graduation we paid off Elon and a couple months later my car! We thank God for the abundant blessings we could do this. Thank you for the extra push Dave Ramsey

1. Our top praise for 2010 was a new job for Kristen. We prayed, we trusted, we prayed, we kept trusting and new that God would provide. In July God challenged me through Psalms and then within a couple days of being debt free God went big and provided a new job. Our year is divided by before the new job at SR Max and after the new job at SR max. It has been an amazing change to be at a job I love and enjoy every day and home life is much happier when Kristen is happy.

We are so thankful for an amazing 2010 and we look forward to what God has in store for us in 2011 and how He will work through us! We hope you and your family have a blessed 2011!

And a goal for 2011: take more pictures!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! We hope and pray that this season is full of wonderful family time, adventures and fun as we reflect on the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Coming up next week...my 2010 sum up!

Oh its a wonderful time of year!

10 days till CHRISTmas and we are so excited.

Two weekends ago we went out after it snowed and bought our Christmas tree. This year we have nicknamed it leaning tower of tree. We have it leaning against our back sliding door to avoid having it fall when we are at work. We put up our decorations and we are looking mighty festive around here.

This past weekend was a highlight of December for me. Chris and I went to Cleveland, Ohio to celebrate with my best friend Amanda and her husband (now) Stefan. I was thrilled to serve Amanda as her Matron of Honor (that makes me sound old).

It was an amazing weekend, with lots of memories. I'll sum it up with a couple little highlights:
1. seeing my best friend after 3 months...shortest length in a while.
2. watching as Stefan saw his bride and wife walk down the isle toward him and tears welling up in his eyes.
3. bachelorette party fun!
4. watching Amanda put on her wedding dress and almost crying because I was so excited and it was such a sweet moment.
5. being able to tell Amanda just how much of a blessing she is. If you would like to see my toast look below I have copied it onto here.
Lots of love to Mr. and Mrs. Stefan Schaefer!

Good Evening. My name is Kristen Johnson and I have the absolute joy of being a part of this day for Amanda and Stefan. I remember the day Amanda and I met in my freshmen statistics class at Elon. She was sitting next to me and struck up a conversation which led to lunch and to an amazing friendship. I also remember the first time I saw Stefan. I had gone to Inter Varsity at Elon and he was up there eating worms for a skit. I found out after that night that my friend from statistics class had just started dating the guy that ate worms and later gold fish.

As our friendship has deepened I have watched Amanda and Stefan grow as a couple, encourage each other, love each other and most importantly deepen their love for Christ as a couple. I have many fond memories of time spent with Amanda. From Bible Study freshmen year to pulling off several pranks mostly on Stefan, baking endeavors, meal runs, target sanity runs and after she left to come back to Cleveland, long conversations, trips up here to introduce me to the real meaning of snow and be a part of her family traditions and so many more. I have been blessed with a true one of a kind friend in Amanda. She is a beautiful person inside and out, she is honest and encouraging. Every step of the way she has looked out for my best interest, she has cheered me on in my crazy endeavors, she has cried with me when I needed someone to cry with, she has celebrated joys and successes with me and she has been a constant encouragement to me. Stefan, you have a wonderful person to stand by your side in the adventure of life.

I have one quick story that reflects Amanda, her love for others and her spirit. My freshmen year of college was an adjustment period. I struggled with the newness of everything and being so far from my family. That year my birthday fell on the same weekend as parent’s weekend at Elon and I was next to miserable. I was culture shocked, cold, sick, tired, counting down till I could go home and the invasion of parents coming to see their student was not helping. Amanda found out it was my birthday and took it upon herself to make it one to remember. She picked me up at work and informed me that we were going to her house. When we got there she had invited several friends and made a cookie cake. In an effort to decorate it she had melted chocolate and formed balls to write happy birthday. It was a great attempt but looked a little weird. We pulled the balls off stuck them in a bag, labeled it and stuck them on Stefan’s porch. This was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. That night without even knowing it she gave me a gift no amount of money could have purchased. Amanda gave me the friendship and love I needed at that moment. Everyone in this room that knows Amanda knows this is just one example of many stories that could be told about her going above and beyond in relationships and life.

Stefan and Amanda your marriage is going to be amazing. I have known since day one and through many conversations that you both love and respect each other deeply. Stay centered on Christ, He must be at the center of every decision, conversation and prayer. He has great plans for you and I cannot wait to see and experience with you everything He will do through you as a couple. You will be in our constant prayers as you move forward. I love you all and am thrilled that I get to witness this and be a part of this with you. Take a moment a look around for a second….you are married!! YAY!

Stefan and Amanda, congratulations, enjoy the rest of the evening, your honeymoon and setting up your home and marriage. Here’s to Stefan and Amanda.

Thanksgiving and Christmas!

I am a little late on my December post and have thought of ways to get better at blogging but haven't come up with a solution yet.

Last weekend was amazing, wonderful awesome and just great. We left Wednesday afternoon to make the trek to Northern Virginia to see my family for Thanksgiving. We were hoping and praying for clear roads and no traffic. We did the trip in 5 hours exact with two stops and a couple missed turns to my amazing ability to drive by the exit and say that's where I should be.....whoops. We walked in to everyone still awake, including Sam and Marina, waiting for our arrival. We caught up for a minute and I held Marina and she spit up on me to welcome me and then we went to bed.

Thursday we enjoyed Thanksgiving and Christmas a la Rice. We cooked, we played trains, we ran, we joked, we laughed, and we ate and ate and ate a lot. I was so thankful that we got to spend this time with everyone for the first time since January, we are healthy, I have a new job, our church is a blessing, we have amazing friends and so many other blessings.

Friday we went to the museums instead of shopping to see the dinosaurs, nemo and dory and airplanes at the natural history museum.

Saturday we played outside and inside and just hung out. It was a relaxing day. Sunday we went to church and then headed back to Peter and Betsy's for lunch before Karen left. It was sad to see her go but hopefully we/I will see her soon.

Monday we had to make the trek home after playing in the park with everyone. It was hard to go for me but I know we will see everyone soon. I promise to share pictures soon as I forgot my camera so we have none of our own.

PLANS FOR DECEMBER:
1. This weekend shopping, decorating, catching up, getting ready for.....
2. Next weekend. We are on our way to Cleveland Ohio to be a part of my best friend's wedding. Cannot wait to see Amanda and celebrate her and Stefan's wedding.
3. cookie making, couple time, friend time, work and lots of fun.
4. Christmas with the Johnson's.
5. Most importantly celebrating in the birth of our Lord and Savior and remembering that through every cookie, party, service, decoration and conversation.