Breaking in the Jacuzzi

My little score keeper

Sepporah is the new official score keeper of the Troy Colts.
Chris Johnson

Pray for Grandma

My mom just emailed me asking for all of us to pray for Grandma Thompson. Something is wrong with her blood and they are doing a bone marrow test tomorrow at 9:00 and she is REALLY scared.

She has prayed for all of us all these years...she needs us to pray for her.  

Weekend in Photos

I got home from work and there were notes all over the door saying various things, but all of them essentially said: BOYS NOT ALLOWED, SORRY DADDY. (I was, in the end, allowed to sequester myself in my studio.)


This was the gang. The girl on the left is Claire's friend Iris.

Look how Claire's crossing her legs here.



Sepporah is playing "Spa."




I did the annual shaving of the cats Saturday. This is Tobias pre-shave, drugged silly.

Post shave.

At a friend's art showing later that night.

And the New Children's Director for LCC is...

Phyllis Johnson!!!!

Our Elders met last night to decide on the hiring of the position of Children's Director. We decided that Phyllis (that's what I will have to call her now at work because I will be her boss) was by far the best candidate and the obvious choice.

She will begin ASAP and she will do a great job. I have never known someone as dynamic and hard working in ministry like her. I can wait to see what she does.

The Great Escape

Titus has been fighting going to sleep lately and so he cries until Mary rocks him to sleep. Because he has been sick, Mary has agreed to his terms. Tonight though, it was time for him to go to sleep on his own.

We placed him in his crib and he acted like he was going to go along with the plan but then he started crying and screaming. I eventually went and got Cole so he could come to our room to hang out because it drives him crazy when Titus just cries and screams.

Cole came to our room and I put on a video on my laptop on my bed. About two minutes later Titus got quiet for a minute. We thought it was working until we hurt a faint bump.

Mary looked at me and said, "Did he get out of his crib?" I said, "No way. If he fell it would have been much louder and the only way it could have been that quiet is if..." At that moment, we heard the little pidder padder of little steps coming down the hallway. Our door was flung open and Titus shot me the evil eye, grunted as he climbed into bed over Mary and he sat next to Cole to watch the movie.

Here's the picture.


To put it in perspective, here's a picture of when we put Titus back in the crib. The bar is pretty high. He is strong, great coordination, and fearless. He not only got out, but lowered himself so that the drop was minimal. The is the same kid that I saw do one arm pull-ups to get candy.


Right after this picture, Mary took him out and rocked him. They are in the room as I type. He won.

The Champ

In this corner, weighing in at 27 pounds...Titus Samuel Johnson.

Recent photos

Mary, Cole and Titus stopped by yesterday on their Blonde Ambition tour. If it doesn't look like Cole is enjoying being turned upside down it's because he didn't. Not at all. Come to think of it, my back didn't really like it either.

The devastation that it is the construction site next to our house finally turned into something good. When Cole got out of the van his mind was BLOWN. We spent most of the night watching the dirt get moved from one pile to another. When it was late enough and most of the workers were gone, I let Cole get up in one of the machines.



Titus ran out of batteries and stayed frozen like this until someone could make a run to the drugstore.

Cole asked me to read him an Amelia Bedelia story. I couldn't understand what he got out of it since the whole thing was about literal vs. figurative use of words. But whenever I would try to stop he would force me to go on.

The second Titus saw a camera he started hamming it up. Maybe he'll take after Mary's actor uncle.


This is a shot of Claire before school a few days ago.

Matthew Gets Featured in the Paper

Matt's city paper did an article recently titled “Young Professionals Take Active Role in Piecing Together Our Future…A look at Fairfield County’s next batch of leaders.” They chose Matt as the up-and-coming religious leader.

The piece is noteworthy if, for nothing else, the fact that it's the first time Matt has ever been photographed with a real smile.

Here is a look at the story:

First page

Second page

The apple doesnt fall far from the tree

I always thought Cole looked like Matthew from the moment he was born. And then yesterday at my game, Cole informed me that he wanted to punch me in my eye and nose. It was the cutest thing. It was as if Matt was sitting next to me. I love that little guy. But, I still took the threat as real and pounded Cole into the ground. 

How It Was Supposed to Be

Claire's creative and mental levels are going through the roof. It's like living with Akira or something. Her newest thing is giving Kirsten and I homework assignments. She'll just appear behind one of us and hand us a piece of paper over our shoulder. "What's this," I'll say. "It's your homework. Draw a picture of a squirrel." And then she's gone before you can argue.

At some point she started throwing the element of competition into the mix, matching Kirst's work against mine and issuing grades. (Cruelly, there are no prizes for winning.)

Last night's work was a poetry contest. I thought, I've got this in the bag, and delivered what I was sure were a couple of fine couplets, one of which even rhymed "happy" and "sappy" for contrasting effect.

When the moment of truth was upon us Kirsten received her usual A (teacher's pet). Her poem had turned out better than I expected and, I'm not going to lie, I was sweating my results. Little did I know I was about to receive one of the coolest compliments of my lifetime. In Claire scratch:

CRASE BUT A

That is, Crazy, but A.

Crazy... but A.

It was an emotional moment. A milestone. Kind of like winning the lifetime achievement award, getting closure with an ex and being told your cancer diagnoses was a mixup at the lab, all in one. I basked in the new light of acceptance and affirmation my child had just shone on me, wishing things could have gone more like this in grade school and liking the way I felt in this new context.

Crazy=Daniel, you're strange.

But A=And strange is GOOD. Congratulations!

I just like the sound of it. Crazy, but A.

Crazy.

But A.

The boys are back in town!

Cole and Titus are in Michigan for the week and I couldn't wait to see them. Titus actually let me play with him in between him rubbing Mary's stomach. I'm hoping Cole can come to my game on Thursday and sit on the bench with me for a few innings.
Chris Johnson

Easter goofballs.

Here's a little Easter goodness from our neck of the woods!

700 Club

I recently joined the 700 club. No...not Jim Baker and Tammy Faye...the triglyceride club. The doctor told me that my triglycerides are 764. On the chart, 500 is very high. The crazy thing is they also said that my cholesterol number was 130. I really don't get it. Any help?

Also, they want to put me on a medicine called Triaplex (I am not sure if that is spelled correct). Uncle Scott, do you know anything about this?

Easter Sunday

Sepporah had a bunny with the same dress on as her today at Church. She looked so cute and I am glad we were able to go to the same service. Our church KCC had like 30 services to choose from.
Chris Johnson

Tigers Opening Day

My seats on opening day courtesy of my friend Mike Bologna and ESPN.
Chris Johnson

Easter

Tonight we went to Sepporahs school to walk the journey of the cross. Its an interactive worship service to celebrate the death and resurection of Jesus. In the picture Sepporah is writing down prayer requests to nail to the cross at the end. She took this very seriously and really wanted to go to it tonight. I am very proud of her and am happy she is taking more of an interest in Jesus death than the easter bunny.
Chris Johnson

Steve?

I don't know if any of you will agree with me, but there is this Christian recording artist named Steve Fee that has always reminded me of Uncle Steve (That's Uncle Stephen!). When I saw the older picture of Uncle Steve, I really thought they looked alike.

What do you guys think?

Le Artist

I bought Sepporah a bunch of painting supplies for Christmas this year and she loves to paint! Her mom is a good artist and I recently discovered I have some ability too, so who knows. Sepporah is gifted in so many ways.
Chris Johnson

Prepare Yourself for the Cutest Thing in the World

Cole was swaying in the rocking chair and Titus climbed up to sit next to him. Mary went into the other room and a few minutes later Cole called for her to come in the room. This is what she found.

Cole wanted to stay that way until I got home from church so I could see it but that could have been a while...so later he tried to recreate it. Here is picture 2:

Titus wasn't going along with it and Cole was bummed.

Wii

Sepporah playing wii boxing with some high school kids.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Dodgeball

I am leading a small group for high school boy athletes at my church Kensington. The high school program is called The Edge. Jessica is also helping lead a group of girls so tonight we had a big dodge ball tournement. Sepporah came and she was a big help setting up. She loves church and loves to help out.

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Titus' Words

Titus going through his words. Things to notice:

1. When he says, "Cole" he always makes the cutest face.

2. When he says, "Baby" he always goes for Mary's stomach.

Young Guns in Metro Politics

I have a story out today for Metromode.com about young politicians in the region. The experience writing this was similar to a piece I did last year on female head Chefs in that the angle I was assigned to write turned out to be bogus. In the case of the Chef story, I was asked to explore why a male-dominated kitchen has kept chicks out of head positions, and then learned that, actually, none of the women I spoke to felt held-down at all and that they were avoiding leadership positions by choice, for a variety of reasons.

For this new piece, I went at it trying to get a sense of what it was like to be a young, progressive politician coming up against the frustrating stagnation or even corruption of the old guard. On the contrary, what I heard from everybody I spoke to was that things were humming along, they loved their older colleagues, and metro Detroit has some amazing and positive things happening behind the scenes.

It made me happy, I'm telling you. I can't even listen to the news anymore because the tone is so funereal. I am proud to be telling a positive story, and to have come by that story honestly.

"Young Guns in Metro Politics"

Keepin It Real...Chris Johnson Style

Yesterday Troy (team I coach) lost to Rochester 9-8. As much as I hate to lose, loses like this are good cause it shows us were we are week and need to work on. Anyways, after the game I gave my first interview for one of the major newspapers here in Michigan, the Oakland Press. Just a little tid-bit on me if you didnt know, is that I dont beat around the bush and I tell it how it is. They only used one of my quotes at the end of the article, but they told me that I gave one of the best interviews they ever took and said they would come to me more often. People always blast me cause I keep it real and speak what is on my mind. I guess the press doesnt hold every one elses opinion. Here is the excerpt from the paper:

Troy head coach Frank DiVito actually didn’t stick around for the last two innings, as he had to leave to attend to parent-teacher conferences. 

Regardless, assistant coach Chris Johnson spoke for DiVito and the rest of the Colts afterward, saying the early part of the season is just for getting out the kinks. 

“It’s good that games like these happen,” Johnson said. “It sucks that it happens in league play, but at the same time, we’re going for the state championship. That’s what we’re gearing up for. After going (to Battle Creek) last year, you get a taste for it.”

Cole Speaks the Truth and Mary Sings Confirmation

This morning, out of the blue, Cole said, "Remember at that hotel place Uncle Chris did that high five thing. He's a weird guy." (At that time, Mary began singing, "Amen, Amen,...." Then Cole followed up with, "Uncle Daniel is crazy." At that point, the family joined in with, "Amen, Amen, ..."

I will begin posting blogs using my blackberry...not because I want to,...but because I can. JK. Cause I want too.

Scott Abroad

Scott posts:

I went on a post-layoff trip to London. I had a blast. I saw the crown jewels for my sister Phyllis. They are amazing. I saw all the famous sites like London Tower, where countless queens and traitors were executed. Saw Westminster Abbey, Shakespeare's Globe. I made a few new friends. Spent my evenings at the local pub "chatting up" the locals who are very friendly.

What I enjoyed most was waking up and walking a few blocks to the British Museum every day, having a breakfast of stewed tomatoes and baked beans. The city is full of history and charm. Much of what we have here (laws, culture, social order) is based on their system, so it felt very familiar. I will definitely go back.