A Great Experiment! Results Just In.

Since becoming part of the great mass of unemployed, I decided it was time to conduct an experiment. Never again will I be able to do this.

For a lifetime I have suffered from dirty hair. I had to wash it every day or it would look like a grease pit. So, I determined to re-train my physiology by simply refusing to wash my hair at all. How far could it go. After one month, I'm proud to say, my hair follicles have ceased producing the grime that forced me to wash it daily. I now have the freedom to go days without a wash, and I pass for a stylish, "hair product" kind of guy. I beat my own body.Ha!

It's a Boy! Lincoln Joseph Johnson

Lincoln Joseph Johnson

7 lbs. 13 oz.

Matt has three boys....

Baby Alert

Now THIS is why I created the blog.

Matt told me last week that whenever Mary goes in for her checkup around her due date it has always induced labor. In other words, he pretty much told me she'd have the baby today, the day of her next appointment.

And sure enough, my mom just emailed me to say she's on her way to the hospital right now, cause the baby's coming.

Details at 11.

D

Go figure...this guy made the dean's list again...

At U of I Engineering School--4th ranked in the nation. And with no clout payments (for those of you who keep up on the news). Hard to believe this guy stays in school let alone makes good grades. But we're accepting parents and are proud of him regardless of his lifestyle. I just hope he shows up to class with his camo hat on.

Actually he's a hard worker and has overcome a lot to achieve. He's doing research work in nanotechnology now and recently hit me up that he wants to do grad school in nano. I have no idea why he's interested in a career developing iPod's nano but, again, we're accepting parents. And yes, he will take donations as I am about tapped.

Seriously proud of Nathan. Seriously.

Miscellaneous

Sepporah Signing her name at her graduation.

Painting a picture of her favoriate thing....pop.

We are so proud of her.

Video of Sepporahs Graduation.

After winning a medal for gymnastics.

New Room For the Boys

After a lot of hard work, trial & error, learning and help from so many friends...we have finished the boys new room in our upstairs. Below are pictures of the process from framing/insulation on. I can't find the first pictures but there was nothing up there at all. Just the beams. We had to put everything up there.

Sorry about the tons of pictures but I thought you all might like to see.

The picture below has two of my favorite things...Mary and Sonic Slushes...

Titus had to be in the first pictures.

That's a bench to sit on and also two toy chest for the boy's stuff.

The doors on the left go to storage. The dressers are hand made to go into the wall to save space.

The closets are portable and hand made too.

Steps going up to the room...

Beautiful Car, Beautiful Marriage

I really enjoyed writing this piece, out today in this month's Hour Detroit. They asked me to write a profile about a classic car, but I ended up hearing a really sweet story of a happy marriage.

Teenage Mornings

She may be six, but she's 13 every morning when it comes time to wake her up.

This was recorded during my second attempt to rise her.

Key moment:

Me: Claire, we have to get ready for school.

Claire: [without opening her eyes] It's summer camp.

What my employees do to me...

I get teased a lot because a client once told me I looked like Brad Pitt. Frankly I don't see any resemblance although I am flattered they patronize me with such. I do get the comment fairly often--must be the Thompson forehead and the fact I have a lame goatee as does he. Once when in the hospital I had a gathering of about 7-8 nurses looking at me debating it. How odd is that? Funniest part is, when I went home and told Karen what that client said, she said, "No, you don't look anything like Brad Pitt." She always keeps me humble, bless her heart. : ) BTW--I demoted the artist for making my ears look so weird.

Chicago Y'all...

Karen and I entertained our friends from Michigan this past weekend. We visited the art museum, Millineum Park, Exchequer (famous pizza), Billy Goats (cheezeborger, no fries...chips), the Architectural riverboat tour, and finally Buddy Guy's (blues). A fun packed and busy 2 days. I literally laid down around 7 Sunday to watch the Cubs on TV and woke up the next morning at 7. I was bushed. But we had a blast. Chicago is a great city on a nice day. BTW--at Buddy Guy's we were watching a band and in walks Buddy Guy himself. He's on an 8 day break from his world tour. He was gracious--signed a few autographs and let me have my pic taken with him. Pretty cool treat. Anyway, a few pics. The building behind me is where I work. The paintings are my favorites.

Hey

Game ball!

Daniel, Claire and I went down to Sepporah's little league game the other night -- she was great! So great, in fact, she was one of two players to get the game ball! We were very impressed and had a great time.

Here are a few shots of the girls during and after the game.

Here Claire was pouting about the prospect of not being able to go to the nearby playground before leaving. Notice the game ball in Sepporah's hand.

Sepporah got pumped up for her turn as catcher by practicing dancing. Now that's a real ball player.

Claire is taking photos on her new disposable camera for the new scrapbook she's planning. Can't wait to see it!

Monkeys

Sepporah needed a little help to finish the monkey bars.

This is Sepporah and her teammate, Anthony, who got the other team ball. It was very clear to all of us that he thinks really highly of Sepporah and likes her a great deal. Maybe a little too much. We have to keep our eyes on this one...

A Note From Your Editor in Chief

Haaay everybody! (said in a Harry Caray voice)

Haaaaay!

I just noticed something. The Thompson Madness blog had a birthday a few weeks ago. I guess we were all having too much fun to notice.

So far it's working pretty much exactly like I hoped it would - even better, really. For a while I was handling most of the content. And then I think I got really busy one week, or went on vacation or something, and some of you had withdrawal and I was getting worried emails from people concerned for Grandma's well-being if the blog went dormant... And so others started chipping in. First Matt, then Chris. Kirsten. Then Grandma and Grandpa. The uncles. There were mind-blowing pictures of bull-dogs, tattoos, motorcycles, vacation photos, old photographs, birthdays, graduations, weddings and dire warnings about nose picking.

If I could just get my mom and Trish involved in posting I could rest easy. Oh, and Sarah. Sarah never took the Thompson Madness quiz. Don't think I forgot, Sarah. I didn't. And I'm not singing at your wedding until you do.

So yeah, it's exceeded my wishes and I can tell everybody's having fun with it.

I would ask if there's anything anybody would change about the blog if they could, but it seems to be working really well as a low-key, fun and lighthearted "hello" between us all. Still, I'm up for suggestions...

Here are the two things I want to see happen at some point in the near future of the blog:

1. A redesign of the masthead and/or overall look of the blog from Stephen.

2. Contributions or interviews from/with Karen, Mark and all of Uncle Scott's exes.

Daniel

Great Advice From My Super Smart Uncle

I got this email out of the blue from Uncle Scott. I assume it's because I posted on Facebook that I had a sinus infection last week. No matter the reason, it's still great advice.

Matthew,

I'm going to give you the best advice I ever got. DON'T PICK YOUR NOSE. That's right. When you pick your nose, you insert germs and bacteria from your fingers onto the most sensitive capillaries of your nose. A cold can develop in minutes.

So if you have to pick, blow immediately afterwords.

This sounds crazy, but I have not had a cold in over three years!

Scott

From Betty's vault. Is this style or what?

I am wondering what was in my mind the day I bought this pantsuit?

My little girl growing up.

Kristen turned 25 last Thursday, July 2. Hard to believe. Seemed just like a few years ago that we were at a Milwaukee Brewers game--her in her little Brewers outfit. Kristen has always loved going to events so this time she requested a Daddy-Daughter baseball game. I flew back from LA in the morning and she picked me up and we spent the day in the Loop, St. Louis. We then headed to the game--dressed in our red. We had a wonderful time. She is still my little girl. I'm honored that she'd want to spend her b-day with her old man dad. But I was thrilled she did.

Big Hair Assembly of God style!