Behold the goodness!

I think I may have found the one food that makes everything better (for me anyway). GOAT CHEESE!

I have been a fan of goat cheese since I was introduced to it by Veronica (whose blog you can check out here) in Austin three years ago. It is, in fact, the one food I get the most grief over from the Missus. We had been married for about two weeks when I received a package from New Mexico. Marital bliss having no room for secrets, she asked me what it was because I was obviously bursting with excitement. Sheepishly I informed her "Ummm...I ordered goat cheese."

The look I got was one of bemused astonishment.

"You ordered goat cheese?"
"Yeah, I love it! You should try some."
(Crickets chirping)
"From NEW MEXICO?!"

"Umm...yeah, it's organic and the goats are free-range goats!"

Thankfully, the vows had been exchanged at this point because knowing that her future husband was willing to order goat cheese from New Mexico might have been enough to keep that "future" tag on there indefinitely.

Anyway, after throwing some goat cheese on week-old pasta leftovers for lunch today and warming it up so it was a gooey, cheesy, mess, I can tell you with certainty that goat cheese made these leftovers not only palatable but DELICIOUS! And, you can put them on just about any type of cuisine...Tex-Mex, Italian, American, Indian...whatever. I'm pretty sure goat cheese will make it better.

Life-changing this stuff is...

Update on 101 in 1001

So here is an update on how things are going on completing my list:

19. Give the dogs frontline and interceptor on time every month (2/34)

I did this yesterday, and so I continue to stay on track!!

22. Apply to a show on HGTV

I actually did some research on this and you have to live in LA to apply to the shows they are taking applications for. But I have a couple of months, so maybe a new one will come out and they'll let people in Wichita Falls apply.

39. Read the first Harry Potter book

I only have 3 chapters left to read. I like it, but I'm not sure I love it enough to continue reading the series.

50. Do a “Wayback Wednesday” post each week.

So, this is officially the first item I will be unable to complete. It was a lofty goal, I suppose, and I dropped the ball this week. $10 to a charity.

81. Get the Johnson calendar up and look at once a week

I love our calendar. It's so awesome! I love writing on it, and it's been a big help in scheduling.

82. Buy dishwasher

We did some research on getting one and I'm just unsure it's going to fit in our old house cabinets. And, the money we were saving to purchase one now has to go toward paying for school. Oh well...

86. Have a garage sale

As of right now, plans for the garage sale have been tentatively made for Saturday, September 12th.

91. Take 10 road trips more than hour away (1/10)

• Visited Lumberton, Tx July 24-27, 2009
• SPIM (Summer Party in Mansfield) August 15-16, 2009

We spent last weekend in Plano/Mansfield and it was so fun. We were introduced to the game Quelf, and we actually just purchased it for our own game collection. We went and saw Time Traveler's Wife, and just had a really great time! Shout out to the GFED!

94. Dress appropriately for work for an entire week 4 times (1/4)

So, this entire week, I dressed appropriately. Tomorrow is my FAVORITE DAY! JEANS AND T-SHIRT Day!

So, that's all I got. I am still completely swamped at work, but good news is that the new youth minister has hired an assistant and it is awesome!! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

What I think about while cleaning my bathroom...

Before beginning the actual post, I know it's been a while since I blogged. I have been SWAMPED at work. We hired a new youth minister (AWESOME) but right now I'm his assistant too, so I'm essentially administratively assisting FOUR ministries, and it's a little overwhelming at times. Praying for a new assistant for him soon...

Jim gets really mad when I complain about my house. REALLY mad. But, I'm really working on being more content. And as part of that, trying to make every room my own and make it as functional as possible. So, I got to cleaning, and scrubbed and entire wall by hand and a beasty, hard to reach corner. And instead of looking at things as things I hate about my house, I'm going to begin looking at them as things that I will look for in my next house, good and bad.

So, in cleaning the bathroom, here are few of my ideas:

-Charm is a must, and I definitely have plenty of that in this old house. Our shower is nestled inside a little cove that has an arched wall and I love it!

-I think I might prefer NOT having a plastic tub surround. I guess perfect world, it would be a claw foot, but tile is definitely preferred. The plastic is so NOT charming.

-Storage space is a must. We have a weird towel closet that is WAY deep and not very wide, so it can be tricky.

-We have a very updated vanity, which I love.

-We have a window in our bathroom which would be even MORE awesome if it looked outside and not into another room. Maybe next time...

-I am indifferent with the floor- I don't love it, but I don't hate it. It's a linoleum tile, so as long as it is easily scrubbable, I'm happy.

-No weird hard to reach corners for cleaning that are also unused space are a no go for me.

So, I hope Jim is happy that I'm trying to be more content...

Play by Play on my Morning Off

7:30- Finally get out of bed and put on my glasses, wad my hair up, and leave to take my car to the shop.

7:57- Leaving the Toyota Dealership and heading to take Jimbo to work. His grandmother was nice enough to let us borrow her car while ours is being fixed. What's being fixed on it? Well, a few things: first, the oil needing changing, second, the dome light inside only wor

ked when you pushed on it really hard against the ceiling, third, the stripping on the front passenger door was flapping in the wind, and last, there was belt under the hood that was making this shrilling, embarrassing noise. So, hopefully they can get it done quick and it won't be expensive.

8:15- Drop Jim off at work. We were listening to the Kidd Kraddick show and it was really funny! Kenzie had called into J.C.

8:28- I arrive back home, let the dogs back inside and get on the list of things I wanted to do this morning. Cleaning the sunroom is first on the list!

9:00- I get finished with the sunroom and take a break, next on the list- laundry switch and guest bedroom.

10:16- I finished cleaning the guest bedroom, folded and put away about 5 loads of laundry that had piled up on the bed in there, and put the last load of laundry in the dryer. The dealership also called to let me know that the belt and tensioner had gone out and would need to be replaced, but that the belt wasn't covered under warranty: $33. The dome light was going to be completely replaced, and covered under warranty- but couldn't be done until Tuesday. The big surprise was the stripping on the side- $160 and not covered under warranty. The oil change was $30 and I had a $50 deductible. So the stripping on the side of the door gets the hold- everything else will hopefully be done today. Now, time for a break- coconut cream pie and a coke!

10:30- Time to take a shower, since I haven't done that since

Wednesday morning.

10:46- So I got caught up on the computer reading blogs, checking email, and facebook- now I'm really getting in the shower.

11:17- Done with showering and have my hair dried- I get so hot blowdrying my hair, even with a fan blowing on the highest speed possible. It's the reason I don't straighten my hair often. It takes so long and I get so hot that it takes hours to cool back down.

11:25- The dealership called and the car is ready! WAHOO!

11:44- Hair is straightened and make up is on and I'm ready to go!!

Wayback Wednesday

So, here's a side of me you probably didn't know, or for some who might only know some about me, expect: I used to be a cheerleader. In fact, from the time I was in 1st grade until I was going into 8th grade, I did cheerleading! I was a cheerleader for the Jefferson Elementary Colts. I loved cheerleading, but I loved dancing more, and soccer even more than that, so when I had to make the choice of dropping one of 3 sports entering into 8th grade, cheerleading was the one to go. So for all who think I'm strictly a tom boy, I do have a girly side, somewhere.

Sarah on Getting Frustrated

Today was a frustrating day for me. And there isn't really one thing that I can look back and point to that was the reason for the frustrating day, it just was kind of one of those days that starts our aggravating and snowballs to frustrating.

So what did I do to get over it? I cried. Yes, that's right. BOO HOO!

There is only so much that I can take before something just clicks for me. I overreact to everything negative. It's a flaw I have- I know, you didn't think I have any, but I do. And although I can work my way out of a problem, I first have to get all the emotions out by way of tears, and then I'm good. It doesn't even have to be a long one- just a few tears, choking up, and give me a kleenex and I'm back at it.

So that's what I did today with my dear friend Amber. And she listened, and then we moved on. What do you do when you get frustrated?

Over the weekend...

Because I have wasted so much time and have some stuff I need to get done, here are the Johnson weekend happenings, bullet style, as seen by Sarah:

• Friday evening, pedicure and school supply shopping with my mom (which was ridiculous considering she was doing it for 5 kids!)
• Saturday morning- drive to Possum Kingdom Lake, feeling a bit uneasy. Started feeling better and actually got in the water.
• Lunch at the Grille made me very sick.
• Got back in the boat, but it was taking on more water than we were comfortable with
• Waiting in line to load up the boat, I get incredibly sick and needed a bathroom immediately
• An hour later, I'm still in pain, more embarrassed, and can't make myself go to the bathroom to save my life
• Finally was able to go to the bathroom (sorry if it's TMI- such is life with IBS) at a gas station where I took some pepto and bought a roll of toilet paper should any unfortunate stops be required.
• Get into the truck to come home and pray that I fall asleep so as not to think about the pain
• Wake up about 20 minutes from home
• Jim's birthday party with his parents and mine
• Jim's birthday breakfast at the Diner
• Church
• Lunch at Jim's parents
• Washer broke, but my Dad saved the day
• Castaway Cove Waterpark Fun Day with our church
• Home for cleaning/laundrying
• SLEEP!

The end...

Seven Quick Takes (Vol. 1)

I'm not doing ANYTHING at work- like, there isn't even any more jobs to make up for myself to do. I've reorganzied my files, cleaned the office, finished the to do list- nothing to do. So, of course I jump on Google Reader to check out the latest blog posts. My friend Chelsea had written on her blog, and it was a new thing- and so, I'm totally stealing her idea. She is an awesome blogger, and I have a hard enough time coming up with stuff to write, so any help I find is awesome. So without further adu, (and I have NO idea how to spell that) here it is, Volume 1. Seven things that have nothing to do with each other, but that I want to tell you (whether you want to hear/read them or not).

- -> 1 < - -

Sunday is Jim's birthday, and I still haven't finished shopping. We're just having a little family get together tomorrow evening. He's so hard (or maybe I make it hard) to buy for. I've already gotten him 2 things, have an idea for 1 other, and still have $35 bucks to spend.

- -> 2 < - -

I definitely chose sleeping in this morning over getting up and taking a shower. So, my hair is wadded up in a messy bun, pinned back; I didn't do anything besides work and lay in my bed yesterday, so it was completely justifiable in my head.

- -> 3 < - -

I started reading the first Harry Potter book last night. It's on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days; so far, I'm indifferent. Not bored, but not at a point where I can't stop reading. We'll see....

- -> 4< - -

One of the jobs I have to do as an administrative assistant here at church is rotate with the other secretaries on mail duty. I love it (except for when it gets in the way of me taking the day off) because you get to run the mail through this machine that postmarks it, then you have to sort it, and it' just fun to me; I don't know why.

- -> 5 < - -

I'm on the search right now to find a really great facial cleanser that's not expensive and that I don't have to order because I always forget to order, then run out. Right now, I'm using an Aveeno foaming cleanser. I'm not too impressed so far...

- -> 6 < - -

AT&T still hasn't come to pick up our phone line, that I wrote about here. They called to confirm an appointment today that says they'll be coming tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.

- -> 7 < - -

I made an 82 on my final that I took yesterday for my Summer Class. This gets me a B, assuming I did well on the other things, so I'm happy. Taking a class in 6 weeks while working full time was hard. I'm never doing that again. Hopefully, I won't have to, because I'm set to graduate in May. Praise the Lord...

Timbeerrr....

This past Friday, Jim and I stayed up a little later than normal. I had just gone to bed about 12:30, and Jim was up playing a game on the computer. I must have been in that state where you are dreaming, but not really completely asleep because real world happenings can still effect you- you know where something happens and you can't remember if you dreamed it or it really happened? Well, I thought I had dreamed it, but Jim came into the room and asked if I had heard something. I said, "Oh, maybe I did? I don't know. Go look out back!" And it turns out a tree branch had fallen and taken out a line. Here are the pictures from the next morning.

That window is (well was! I moved my bedroom around Sunday) where our headboard was; like my head literally would have just been on the other side of that window.

And here is the gigantic tree branch that fell. Unfortunately, no damage was done to Topanga, which has been parked since July 5th, so no free insurance money.

Once Jim realized what had happened that night, we called Oncor to come out and check the lines. We didn't know what kind of lines they were, if they were hot, or what. The guy got there about 1:45 and told us it was our telephone/cable line and that we would need to call our phone company. Well, it wasn't our cable line because our internet and cable were still working. Since we don't have landline phone service, it's basically just a useless phoneline. So we called our phone company...wait, we don't have a phone company?

I spend about an hour trying to figure out who to call. I finally resorted to calling 611 on my AT&T cell phone and asked them to transfer me to the landline department. There was NO WHERE on their website (not even under contact me) just a regular customer service number. They made you enter a word to describe your issue (IE Bill) and when I put in phone, they wanted a phone number (which we don't have). I finally spoke with someone who said they would come take care of it the next day, Sunday, to make sure and leave the gate unlocked.

Sunday morning while at church, we got a call saying they were going to come take care of it. It's now Thursday, and the phone line still lays draped across our property.

I do give HUGE compliments to my Jimbo who got out there with an ax and hand chopped that enormous branch apart and hauled it all away. Now, if they would come get the dumb wire...

Wayback Wednesday

I know that it's 10:30 p.m. and I didn't actually get this post up before normal people would read it, but it's still Wednesday, so it still counts towards the 101 in 1001 list. Check this picture out...

Can you pick out which one is me? You can't? Oh, maybe it's because I look like a boy in a dress. I'm the girl with the chili bowl hair cut in front of my little brother in his tux and my cousin Kaleigh, the cute little blonde. That's my Aunt Joy, the beautiful bride who is the aunt we went to visit last week (she now lives in Lumberton!) I remember when we first met Joy, and how cool we thought she was! We were so excited to get to be a part of her big day!

Now, she is an amazing photographer, so if you want to check her stuff out, just visit her site!

Update on Sarah's 101 in 1001

I'm officially on day 24 of my 101 in 1001 project. Here's what's going on with the list:

1. Finish paying of the Toyota Corolla- - ->Now that Jim’s school loans are paid off, we are able to now start putting extra money toward to the principle of my car to pay it off sooner!

19. Give the dog’s frontline and interceptor on time every month - - -> July was on time! Only 33 more months left...

46. Get A’s in 3 of my remaining 6 classes - - -> As of today, I have changed my degree program from a Degree in Sociology (which would have been pretty worthless without a masters) to a Bachelor Degree in Applied Arts and Sciences (which is probably the easiest bachelor degree I can attain at this point). A positive to this is that I now only have 4 classes left and will (crossing my fingers) graduate in May 2010. Yay!

49. Update my blog once each month on 101 in 1001 - - -> Here is my first blog update within the first 30 days of beginning! Again, only 33 more months to go...

50. Do a “My Day in 6 Words” post each week - - -> I'm not as good at this as I thought I was going to be (it's hard to be creative with six words), so it's being changed. I will be doing a Wayback Wednesday post each week instead, becaue those are more interesting! So, check back tomorrow for it!

54. Visit grandparents once a month - - -> I went over to Jim's grandparents last Wednesday to hang out while the Pastor from our church came to visit/meet them. It was a lot of fun! Next month, I'm going to visit my grandfather!

71. Babysit 10 times for my Mom for free - - -> I went and stayed with my brother and sister while my Mom ran some errands on Saturday, August 1st!'

81. Get the Johnson calendar up and look at once a week - - -> I need to take a picture really to prove this one, but it's been up and updated each week!

Take 10 road trips more than hour away - - -> As blogged about previously, we went to Lumberton, Tx July 24 through 27th to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins!

94. Dress appropriately for work for an entire week 4 times - - -> I'm on a streak, so hopefully I can finish it! And, just to clarify, it's not that I ever dress inappropriately for work, I just prefer to wear jeans and a t-shirt, and not business like clothes. No one has ever said I couldn't wear a t-shirt, but, I'm an adult, and should dress like an adult, so I'm working on it.
Monday August 3
Tuesday August 4

So there you have it, lots going on!

On Being (Er, trying to be) Creative

My friend Melissa is a very creative person! She and her husband just bought a house and so, she thought she could be creative and save some money. I wanted to hang out with her, so we decided to take on the project together. Here is what we started with:

Yes; Ugly! I know, and we thought we could make it pretty. It's marbled cardboard. So, we thought about decoupaging. So we got to it. And, here's what came out:

I think we can call this a creative FAIL! BUT, I give us A for effort, and we still got to hang out and have a great time, so although it was a waste of time, our time wasn't wasted. Oh well, better luck next time.