Thursday, July 31, 2008

Productive Day

Today was my Saturday because I'm off on Thursdays and Fridays every week, and today was a pretty productive day for me, even though I didn't get out of bed until 11:30! I know...crazy, but I've been really tired lately and Grace slept in so I took advantage of it. I was actually awake before Grace, and then when Colt got up shortly after I did I had him go ahead and wake her up. I think she may have already been awake, but either way we got plenty of beauty sleep last night!

After I finally got out of bed, Colt made us pancakes and we ate breakfast! Yummy! Both boys are awesome pancake makers and I'm terrible! I was good when we had a gas stove, but now we have electric and it's a little tricky. I don't mind that I"m not good at it though, because it's a switch for them to make me a meal instead of vice versa. He even made Grace little mini pancakes that she ate with peanut butter...just like her Mama!

After we ate, we sat down and tried watching Cloverfield, but just couldn't get into it. The camera work is very weird and it was making me dizzy so we turned it off and started cleaning house. The boys were not thrilled when the word clean came out of my mouth, but they're both good about helping so they cleaned upstairs while I cleaned downstairs.

I drive myself crazy cleaning because I'll start something in one room but then get distracted and start on another part of the house and I end up going back and forth and it's very aggravating! Anyone else have that problem? I did make a conscious effort today though not to do that and I did a fairly good job, I think I only did it once!

I love having a clean house, it makes everything more cozy and fresh! Grace is so funny too, after I swept and polished the hardwood floor and vacuumed our big area rug in the living room she ran around like crazy climbing up and down on the couch. She was a little skeptical of the vacuum the first couple of times I did it around her, but now she thinks it's a game. If I'm in our bedroom vacuuming, she'll peek around the door and run real fast past the bed to the other side before I get her. She's silly!

Anyway, I'm actually still working on a little bit of laundry and the dishwasher is running for the second time today with part of our dinner dishes but I'll just have to finish that in the morning.

Grace is in bed, Gene is asleep on the couch, and the boys are both up in their rooms on the phone so I'm enjoying some peace and quiet! I'm also watching The Holiday....great movie!! If you have never seen it, you must!

I think I've got writer's block, and I can't think of anything worth while really to write about. However, I do want to ask for prayer for my good friend, Allie Rhodes. I'm sure some of you are aware, but she is one of our officers and her boyfriend, Justin English, was the Springdale firefighter that was killed in Iraq on the 7th of this month. Allie and Justin had planned to get married as soon as he returned from his one year stint in Iraq, but now that dream will never come true for her and as you can imagine her heart is aching right now. I just ask that you pray for continued strength for her and Justin's family, and that she is able to see the light at the end of this horrible tunnel. I also ask that you pray for her friends, myself included, that we are given the words and understanding to be there for her. I thank you in advance for being prayer warriors for her!

All my love,
Taylor

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Memo and Baby


Let me start this post off by saying that it's almost one o'clock in the morning and I've had a really long day so I may have some spelling and grammatical errors in this but I have to tell you about my sweet child!


Grace has become a huge Finding Nemo fan and she has a stuffed Nemo that she carries around all the time and sleeps with sometimes, but she hasn't quite got down the "n" in Nemo so she calls him Memo. She also has a pitiful looking Barbie doll that was given to her by one of my mom's teacher friends. I had taken Grace up to visit Mom at her school one day and she was taking her around showing her off when they stopped in one of the classrooms and this Barbie was sitting on her desk. Grace immediately reached for it, and the teacher let her keep it. Anyways....Grace loves the Barbie because she has really long hair and she likes to play with it. The funny thing is that Grace calls her baby instead of barbie. Right now, all dolls of any sort are baby.


So...now that I've given some background on the characters in this story I'll get on with i!
After work I picked Grace up from Mom and Dad's and once we got home I gave her a bath and got her pjs on her. I could tell she was really sleepy and ready for night night so I gave her a paci and she played in the living room for a few minutes while I was putting her bath stuff away. When I got done and sat down in the recliner she crawled up in my lap with memo and baby .She was so funny because she kept squirming around trying to get comfortable with both of them plus trying to play with her hair (her "I'm sleepy" clue!). Finally she got nice and cozy with memo in her left arm and baby in her right arm. She fell asleep with her head resting on memo! It was the sweetest thing ever, and I didn't want to disturb her but the camera was close to me so I very quietly grabbed it and snapped a picture of her! She's such a sound sleeper she never even flinched with the flash and it was really dark in the living room. After I took the picture I turned her over and put her on my shoulder to take her upstairs and put her in bed, but she still had baby in her hand. I tried pulling her out of her grip because I didn't want her sleeping with something so hard but Grace wouldn't let go and once I finally did get her Grace lifted her head lazily and just whined "baby" then plopped her head back down and was snoring again! It was so funny! I wrapped her arm around memo and she was out like a light. I took her up and laid her down with memo beside her!!
I just love that she's at that age of wanting a "lovey" to carry around and sleep with because it's so innocent and precious. I thank God everyday for blessing our family with such a sweet and perfect little girl!!
I hope I didn't bore you with my story, but I had to share! I'm really tired though, so now I'm headed to bed.
Good Night!
Taylor

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Meet My Family

*****Updated - Ok, I've added pictures of my boys and one of Grace! These are a few pictures of my wonderful family! I have pictures of others but the computer is slowing down with all the downloads so I'll post more later.
My youngest stepson, Corey
My sweet girl, Grace
My oldest stepson, Colt
Grace and my dad, aka Papa
Grace and my brother, aka Uncle T
Granny and Grace


Grace and my mom, aka Nana




Momma and Grace



My handsome husband, Gene



Friday, July 25, 2008

James Patterson Fanatic


Anyone who knows me pretty well knows that I am a HUGE James Patterson fan!! My parents and I have all read at least 98% of his books. The only ones I haven't read are his very first ones cause to be honest they're just not as good as his later ones.

His latest book, The Dangerous Days of Daniel X, just came out this past Monday and my mom and I were in Wal-Mart today and of course I bought it!! I'm planning on starting it tonight before I go to bed. So excited!

He has several different series that have repeat characters and they're all really good. I don't know if anyone has ever seen Kiss The Girls or Along Came a Spider but they are both based on his novels. They're both definitely must-sees.

If you've never read any of his books....you must! They are amazing and so easy to read. If you're interested in starting them let me know, I own a ton of them!

Anywho, I just took a shower and I'm fixing to put my child to bed so I can snuggle up with my new book!!

Have a good night!!
Taylor

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Nice to meet you!

So, I'm not entirely sure who all is going to read this...if anyone is going to read this, but I think it's going to serve as a way for me to just my thoughts down and I'm excited that if you are reading this then you're interested in what's going on in my world!

I'll introduce myself. My name is Taylor Johnson and I live in Fayetteville, AR. I work as a dispatcher at the Springdale Police Dept and have been for about 3 1/2 years now. I really love what I do, even though it can be very stressful at times. We dispatch police, fire, and ambulance for the entire city of Springdale, rural fire departments in Lowell, Tontitown, Elm Springs, Johnson, and also some for Nob Hill/Sonora, and Hickory Creek/Pleasure Heights. Our ambulance also responds to all of the above areas. Yes, it's a lot!! Every dispatcher at Springdale has to be EMD (Emergency Medical Dispatch), EFD (Emergency Fire Dispatch), CPR, and ACIC (Arkansas Crime Information Center) certified. ACIC, EMD, and CPR are all 3 day courses that our department sends us to and CPR of course is just an 8 hour course. We are responsible for re-certifying in all of them every 2 years and also are responsible for so many CDE (Continued Dispatch Education) hours a year.

On top of all of the certifications we have to posess, we also have to be trained on call-taking, police dispatching, and fire dispatching which normally takes about 6 months. Each dispatcher starts with call-taking and switches to fire or police, whichever the supervisors decide. I am a trainer, and I have trained new hires on both call-taking and police training. Again, it's a lot but I honestly love what I do!

Ok, now that I've given you a somewhat lengthy overview of what I do I'll move past that! I met my husband at work not too long after I started there and we have been together ever since. His name is Gene Johnson and he is one of our K9 officers. Gene started at Springdale in 2001, and has been a K9 for the majority of the time that he's been an officer. Not to sound bias, but he really is our best officer!! Gene makes probably 97% of the drug arrests for our department, and is also on our drug interdiction team.

We got married on December 14, 2006, and we have a beautiful baby girl, Grace who is 17 months old! My husband was married once before and they had 2 boys, therefore I have 2 stepsons. Colt is almost 15 and Corey is 13, I know big kids..but I love them just like they were my own!! We have a rat terrier, Bear and has been a member of our family since he was a puppy. Grace loves Bear! We also have Aros (police dog) who is close to retirement. He's just getting to old.

After I found out I was pregnant Gene and I decided it was time to build a house so that we would have enough room for our family. Gene has worked in construction since the time he was old enough to work, so he and some good friends of ours built our house all on their own!! Gene did the majority of the work, but Eric would come out every opportunity he had to help with our new home. He started on it the end of October in 2006 and we moved in March of 2007 when Grace was about 5 weeks old!! He did such a good job on the house, and was able to get it done so quickly for us to get moved in. It's a two-story with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 2 living rooms. The kids have their own living room upstairs! It's just perfect for us. The boys got to pick what color they wanted and I decided on bright green for Grace's room! We also have a covered porch that spans both sides and the front of the house. We just planted grass this Spring so now we have a pretty lawn! Next year it's flower bed time!

The boys both go to Greenland High School, where Colt will be a sophomore this year and Corey will be in 8th grade. Colt plays piano, guitar, and also saxophone in the school band. At the end of the last school year Colt had the highest math grade in the whole high school. Corey plays basketball and is on student council! They both are very active and keep us busy! They love their little sister so much, and hate to be away from her.

Grace is a ring-tale tooter and keeps us all very busy. She just turned 17 months old and thinks she's 3 already! She says all kinds of words and tries to say everything you say. She loves playing chase, eating, climbing up the stairs, and swimming at her Nana and Papa's!!

I am quite the rambler, and if you've made it this far I'm sorry! HA! Bear with me, I'm enjoying talking about myself...I am my father's daughter!!

There's more to my story, but I'll end for now!

Taylor

New Blogger

Well, I guess I'm now part of the blogging world! I'm glad to be here. There are so many different blogs that I check on a daily basis, I decided it was time I had my own.

I look forward to meeting and getting to know new people through blog world!! I don't have much time to post right now, Grace and I are on our way out!!

Tonight I'll get back on and introduce myself more formally!

Talk to you soon!

Taylor