Just Sittin'

Spent the last week and a half just sittin'. We've been at my parent's place in Tennessee so its been the good kind of sittin'.

We've actually done a lot more than just sit around, but I'll share that later. First I wanted to share a few of my favorite places to sit around when I'm at my mom and dad's place.

Number one favorite place to sit at my parent's is, without a doubt, the back porch. I spent HOURS sitting in the swing as teenager reading book after book after book. I'd wager 75% of my summers were spent here. I think I made a good choice! Not a big porch person, or just want to get out in the sun....this is a great place to do it! My sister and I spent quite a bit of time sittin' here while she was down for the weekend from Nashville.

Another fun place to relax is the barn. I like to just putter around and find all the new projects Mom is busy with. Or sit and watch her chickens.

I don't usually sit here...its a little too warm inside. But I like to stand and look at Mom's greenhouse. If I ever have one, I'd love to have a green house like this one! Daddy built it for her our of old windows and an old door. I love it!

And if one wanted to, there is room to sit inside.

From the greenhouse, I always find myself wondering into the garden.

Lots of fun things to discover in here... ...including a scarecrow. He used to wear my papaws old overalls, but I think those probably fell apart many summers ago.

Mamma's beans...

...and the fountain is the centerpiece.

Its like a fairy tale garden.

There are always surprises, like this lily. Of all her lilies, I think this one was my favorite.

And there are lots of friends to be found too. Mom suspects a deer has been nibbling off her violets at night. I didn't get to see him or her, but there were other's lurking around.

From the garden, I seem to always find my way to the pond, where there is a concrete bench to sit on and enjoy the songs of frogs, crickets, and other critters. The splash of fish, occasionally a heron stalking the shallows, turtles sunning themselves, etc.

Or you can face the other direction on the bench and enjoy the view of my childhood home.

I enjoyed all the sittin' this week, but the girls have been staying busy busy busy!
With all their activity, they have stayed thirsty too, and Ella discovered Mom's water fountain out front. She's the only one who figured out how handy it could be.

Carlie Jean did lots of running...as usual!

And Paris enjoyed lots of snooping...from the comfort of the concrete. She's never been much of a grass girl. Its too prickly for her taste.

I like to chill on the front porch as well. This is where Mom and I spent many hours watching storms and birds and nature. Its a great place to relax as long as the bugs leave you alone!

But on this day, Carlie Jean and I soon decided that at 98 degrees, it was a little warm, not to mention humid, to be sittin' around outside. So soon after these pictures were taken, we retired to the living room inside....

...where I am now.

We're hitting the road again in the morning. Its been nice just sittin', but all good things must come to an end. Its time to head back to work. We'll be leaving after lunch and heading to Mississippi. Hope you all had a great July 4th! I'm looking forward to catching up with your blogs!

Eight Years Ago Today...

...Malcolm and I were married. It's so hard to realize that it has really been eight whole years. Sometimes that sounds like such a short amount of time, but most days eight years sounds like forever, while it feels like we've only been together a hand full of years.

Our wedding was very special and I still flip through pictures and remember the joy and happiness of the day. We had decided early on that we wanted a small wedding with only family and close friends there to share the moment, and we also wanted a little country church somewhere. It took a number of weeks, but we finally found the perfect one, a little white Methodist church set on a knoll with trees and pastures around it. Sadly, I don't have a picture of the church with me. So you'll miss seeing the actual structure, but the pictures below might convey to you some of the joy of the day.


My family (sister Meagan, Dad, me, brother Ken, Mom, and sister-in-law Sarah) were all there with us to celebrate and help out. There is nothing like having your family encircling you with their love on such an important day in your life!

Malcolm's family (sister Rachelle, Malcolm, Mom, sister Justine, and Dad) had to travel all the way from Montana in the middle of haying season, so their presence was very meaningful to us.

One of the important people at a wedding is the minister and we were blessed to be married by my this man. For many years he was my youth minister at church, a support, counselor, and friend. When Malcolm moved to Tennessee, Jimmy did some work at the farm Maclolm was managing and the two of them became fast friends as well. So there was little debate as to who would perform the ceremony. Our wedding party was composed of our nearest and dearest. The best man was Malcolm's cousin, Michael Paul, a close friend to both of us, and one of the people responsible for our meeting. And the other groomsman was my brother, Ken.

My maid of honor was my sister Meagan, and the other bridesmaids were my sister-in-law and Malcolm's two sisters. More girls than guys, but we weren't concerned with keeping numbers even or symmetry. It was about people we love, not appearances.Our photographer had a lot of really fun ideas for shots. The one below is one I requested though. In my parents wedding album, I've always loved the picture of Mom standing in front of a window looking at her wedding ring and so I wanted one like it.Our wedding pictures are precious to us as treasures from the day. But some of them have also become treasured for other reasons, such as the next two. The first is Malcolm, his father, and both his grandfathers. Three generations of Johnson men and they all traveled to be there for us on our day. And I love this one. Three generations of women in my family. My grandmother, mother, sister, and I.

Despite it being July, we wanted to have our reception outside, even though the church had a small fellowship hall. I was apprehensive about asking everyone to sit outside on a July afternoon in their "Sunday clothes," but really just wanted an outdoor reception, because I wanted our wedding to reflect some of who we were. We decided to go ahead and chance everyone being miserably uncomfortable, but God came through for me. After a rather stuffy summer, July 6, 2002 was unbelievably comfortable with low humidity, slightly cooler than the usual, and just the right amount of breeze. Everyone was quite comfortable, had a marvelous time visiting, and I got the outside reception I had hoped for.

I hear so many brides say they remember little about their wedding day. Not me! I remember everything, and treasure each memory. And it is such a gift that to this day, I still have family and friends telling me how much they enjoyed our wedding and it is still their favorite one of all they've attended. Not because I'm seeking the fame, but because I truly wanted our wedding to be something everyone could enjoy and not just endure for our sakes. I think we accomplished that.

It was a special day filled with love, and eight years later, despite the bumps and potholes you hit on any marriage road, our life together is still filled with love for each other. I'm looking forward to the adventures of spending the next eight years together and hopefully many many more past that!

America The Beautiful

words by Katharine Lee Bates

Oh beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesty,

Above the fruited plain!

America!

America!

God shed His grace on thee,

photograph by Meagan Stiner

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea...

...to shining sea!

Of all the songs and poems written about our great country, America The Beautiful is probably my favorite. I've always loved our great country, but after almost 4 years of truck driving and seeing nearly the entire country (all but Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine), I am truly in awe of its grandeur, beauty, and how blessed I am to live here!

We may not always like the choices our government makes, but what an honor to be allowed to express that displeasure without fear of persecution. We tend to grumble about the economy and how bad things are, and yet we still live in one of the most blessed countries in the world. We have things SO good compared to so many others. I gripe and complain, roll my eyes at the news, get so incredibly disgusted with how things are being done, and then July 4th rolls around, and every time it does, I am struck by how fortunate I am, and wonder what on earth I have to complain about really.

I sincerely hope you all have a wonderful and inspiring 4th of July.

Through the Hills, Across the Plains, and Over the River We Go

In the past 7 day these things have broken or malfunctioned:

1. the laptop
2. the XM radio
3. the arm rest on the driver's seat
4. the exhaust system on the truck

The last one had us broke down in Oklahoma City last night. There for a while it didn't look very promising. In the Bible, God has many names. I don't remember "Master Mechanic" being one of them, but perhaps we should add it. We were actually 40 miles east of the city and had to limp back to OKC where the Kenworth guys said they'd look at it in the morning. We were about 13 miles away from the shop when the problem suddenly fixed itself, and it wasn't as if it was a minor problem, so it was quite shocking when the alarm suddenly stopped dinging at us! We were pretty much going to be there for the weekend it was looking like! So praises and thanks to God for His help!

The truck is still going to the "doctor" as soon as we can get to Chattanooga. Whatever is causing last nights problem isn't gone, just giving us a break. We're praying, and please join us, that whatever the problem is, they can find it, and when they do, hopefully it will be considered an engine component, as those parts are still under warranty. Anything else will be out of pocket.

Enough complaining and woes though. I feel like for the past couple weeks its been nothing on here but problems, and for the handful of new people reading my blog, I worry that they are going to regret joining us! Its just been a flood of issues lately it seems, and its been overwhelming, but I'm expecting July to be a new beginning, a run of good luck if you believe in such things. We could use it!

That said, the rest of this post will be positive. I have a few nifty things to share. First, some of you are familiar with this magazine -

I'm not a subscriber, but on occasion if the cover catches my interest, I'll pick up a copy, which I did last week on our way to deliver in Spokane, WA. I got it out Tuesday morning after we had delivered and were on our way to Palouse to load barley. I was flipping through it, which I'm prone to do with magazines, flip through looking at pictures and not really reading much, when I noticed an article with a large picture of an old mill. It was eye catching and since Malcolm is also interested in old buildings, I showed it to him. There was some brief discussion of it and then I went back to flipping through the rest of the pages, while he drove with the radio on. A short way down the road and around a few curves, and I heard Malcolm say "Um, isn't that the mill you were just showing me?" Sure enough. There sat the mill that was featured in the magazine. We parked on the shoulder and I flipped back to the article just to make sure, and it was. We confirmed it for sure when we saw the sign with the town name, and the mill sits there, one of maybe a dozen structures. It was truly a work of art, being in as good a shape as it is for its age. Anyway, what are the chances of something like that happening? It was kind of strange! So I took a picture to share with you.

From Palouse, we went to San Francisco, then to Bakersfield where the computer catastrophe took place, but you already know all about that! Once we finally got to Hermiston, OR we turned around and went back south to Lakeview, CA which is not that close to LA, but the Los Angeles area is so huge, I just say "we're going to LA" when we're going to be within 100 miles of that city. Lakeview is near Riverside, CA. It was a long drive after a tiring week, but we had the weekend to do it in, so that helped.

At the lower end of the San Joaquin valley, before you get to LA, you have to cross these mountains. I always think they are pretty with all the ripples. This portion of I-5 is generally referred to as "grapevine." I've never really looked into why. Does anyone know? I can tell you its not indicative of the vegetation. There are definatly no vineyards in them thar hills! Its D.R.Y!
My assumption has always been that its called that because the north and south bound sides of I-5 twist and turn and go over and under each other a number of times before finally reaching the other side.They are steep hills and at times the roadway clings to the hills with the help of extra supports. Believe it or not, as desert as it looks, they get snow here in the hills in the winter at times, even enough so to shut down the road. I doesn't seem to happen extremely often, not like say Donner's Pass in the Sierra Nevadas, but enough that we've heard about it, though never experienced it.
Finally reaching the other side, it was near enough to dusk that my photography session had to end. And that was OK. We stayed on I-210, one of the "bypass" of LA that stays farthest to the north. So we never came within view of the actual Los Angelas anyway. But its near presence was undeniable.
For the record, that is not evening fog! But its name does rhyme with fog!
Ahh....fresh city air! This is the life! Truly, I know many people thrive in this type environment, but it is definatly not for me.

From there we went further south to Brawley, where it was 115 degrees, and loaded meat and bone meal for a chicken feed mill in central California. And then loaded salmon meal near the delivery location which is going to Alabama. We have 160 miles left.

Yesterday morning, while I was sleeping, my husband, the same one who swears he doesn't care a whit about sight seeing while he drives, noticed the beauty of the Arizona sunrise and thought I'd enjoy a picture of it. As is the case with all sunrises and sunsets, the picture did not capture its true depth of beauty, or so he tells me. Its still quite lovely though.

And then yesterday in Texas just outside Amarillo, this truck passed us, and Malcolm noticed the sign on its side... ....and its cargo...

Its kind of hard to tell in these photos. I was hurrying to get the picture. But it was apparently hauling movie props, two vehicles. And from the looks of the tail gate on the pickup, one of the Transformers is on the loose in Texas, heading east! At least I think that's the Transformers logo, isn't it?

Just crossed the mighty Mississippi river a bit ago and are cutting the corner in TN over to Mississippi. Baring disaster with the truck we'll get this delivered and be in Chattanooga in time for dinner with the family! I'll be online this weekend sometime to wish you all a great 4th of July!