I’m already slacking on my goals!

I’ve already had a couple of blown ups with Lukas. I haven’t started to drop any weight, though I’ve been playing basketball on Saturday and Sunday and walked during my lunch break yesterday. And I haven’t written anything in this blog - minus the complaining about the weather!

My creative juices have not been flowing. I can tell because I had no motivation to work on the ACS Relay for Life slideshow despite volunteering my services. People told me it turned out good; I wasn’t impressed by it. You can view it for yourself below:

Note: If the video is not here then I’m in the process of downloading it onto YouTube.

When the creative juices are not flowing then I don’t feel like sitting down and taking the time to write. I’ve got ideas…my Top Five crushes (both woman and man), my Top Five female TV/Movie characters, a list of the top 10 road trip movies of all-time and much, much more! But I don’t feel like it or haven’t been in the mood at the right time.

The RFL Kickoff was last night. I showed up late because of traffic issues. I stumbled through my dialogue. I’m supposed to help recruit teams so I spent part of my workday writing the wrong script. I didn’t find this out until two minutes before I got on stage. By then I was all flustered. And for some reason when I step on stage I’m suddenly nervous and can’t say the right things. That bothers me.

I have lofty goals for the 2009 version of Team Force. For the past two years we’ve been the Team Spirit champions. That just means on the day of the event we bring the fun. We participate in all the activities and we have a good time and bring a lot of energy. However, what Team Force has been lacking is the strength in raising money.

Don’t get me wrong we always do a swell job at it. We raised over $5000 last year, which was more than double what we had raised in prior years (actually the prior three years combined). Now I’m getting greedy for a good cause.

I don’t want to be known as the fun team. I want to be known as the team that not only brings it on the day of the Relay but also in fundraising.

This year the RFL theme is Back to the Future. So, much like we did with our hugely popular 80’s party, I’m throwing an Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. Thanks to Carrie at the Antheia Ballroom for giving us a place to party.

I also want to have a Back to the Future movie night with Back to the Future trivia, costume contest, popcorn and more. I’m going to look at doing it at my church.

Then we have our car wash and bake sale, plus we’re looking at a dinner night at a local restaurant and some party nights at local pubs or bars. Oh yah, we’re going big.

All that means is that I’m going to need lots of help. Help in getting things organized and help in raising money. Oh, so glad you asked…you can help by donating here:

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/kdaddy

In the meantime I will keep you posted by trying to post more things here. Also, if anyone has a question, comment or an idea for anything then please let me know!

We’ve had one of our worst winters for snow that I can remember. In our backyard we had about 15-17 inches of snow. Then came the wind that blew the snow into snow dunes. We didn’t see our sidewalks for over three weeks.

Then came the rain and warmer weather.

And if you’re not familiar with Mother Nature, if it pours down rain and heats up after a ton of snow then the snow melts and becomes more water which rushes into the rivers and causes the rivers to rise which causes the water to cover roadways which causes the Department of Transportation and State Patrol to close roads which causes frustrations to those of us that live in Floodville, USA.

Check out the following for how fun the flooding has been:

http://www.heraldnet.com/

http://www.king5.com/ - one of the guys that I had breakfast with was interviewed, though he didn't make the final clip. The back of me did. You can find me midway through the clip on their homepage. 

My drive time usually takes about 55 minutes. Here is what they looked like the last couple of days:

Wednesday AM – 1 hour, 20 minutes

Wednesday PM – 1 hour, 35 minutes

Thursday AM (left early) – 1 hour, 35 minutes

Thursday PM (had to drive to a boys basketball game in Snohomish about 20 miles away and usually a ½ hour drive) – 1 hour, 48 minutes

Friday AM (went to breakfast in Snohomish, normally 20 minutes to Snohomish) – 35 minutes, plus another hour to get to work, total drive time – 1 hour, 35 minutes.

At least tonight I have to sit around for 2-1/2 hours until I work my second job so I don’t have to worry about fighting traffic. I am off work at 6pm and have to be at work at 8:30pm. Just enough time in between jobs where it’s not really worth it to make the trek home because then I would have to turn around and go back to work. As you can see it’s kind of frustrating. That’s why I’m planning to do what I wrote in my Five Goals for 2009.

That’s it for now. Be on the look out for my Top Five Crushes entry coming soon!

Now that I got my Year in Review out of the way it’s time for my Five Goals for 2009.

In 2007 I went a remarkable 4-for-5 on my goals, nailing everything but the loss of weight.

In 2008 I went 1-for-5 nailing only my wife, accomplishing the goal of knocking her up.

Much like rollover minutes are carried over to your next month, most of those four goals that are still outstanding will be carried over to 2009.

Let’s review my 2008 Goals shall we?

Having Another Rugrat – Check! I had accomplished this goal even before I wrote my goal but not knowing that I had accomplished the goal. Follow me? Anyway, in September Princess Lia was born and I had accomplished Goal No. 1.

Practicing the Two P’s - I wanted to practice Patience and being Positive. Last year was not a good year to try to accomplish those goals as I struggled for months with both of my jobs and the growing annoyance and independence of one Lukas Johnson.

Take a Vacation – Okay, make it 2-for-5. Lis, Lukas and I did take a drive down to California where we spent a few days hanging out with my brother, visiting with my buddy Dennis and his family and then going to Disneyland. It was a road trip, it was enjoyable, but it didn’t feel like a vacation. When I returned I took the next couple of days off to hang out. Still we took a break from work.

Settling On One Job – Let’s see, as I write this I’m sitting at the Herald waiting for the phone to ring. It’s 8:50pm and I got off of my day job about 3 hours ago. I’d say – NO!

Lose Weight – When I weighed in last year I was at 220-pounds. When I weigh in this year I tip the scale at 225. NO!

You can carry over the Two P’s, Settling on One Job and Lose Weight goals to 2009 because those are three things I need to accomplish. Here are my Five Goals for 2009:

Positive Patience – I failed badly at this in ‘08. I had moments of greatness but would follow them up with a breakdown. Not since before I was married have I had a year of temper tantrums like I did in 2008. I thank, as mentioned above, the growing independence of Lukas and his willingness to NOT listen to a word we say along with the great amount of stress and pressure I was feeling from work. This year I need to realize that I have a 4-year-old turning 5 and that he doesn’t quite comprehend things as much as I should. I need to realize that maybe it’s time to get some help for my temper issues now that they’ve resurfaced thanks to my mini-me. I’m hoping this job and accomplishing Goal No. 2 will aid in all this as I think the more I’m away from the house the bigger toll it takes on mine and Lukas’s relationship. That’s not good - family or a hobby job that pays $100 a week?

It’s Time to Call it Quits – It’s been five-plus years. I’ve moved up from $9.06 to $9.80-something. More importantly I’ve accomplished a lifelong goal of writing about sports. I’ve even gone farther than I imagined when I started this job in late-2003. I get my name in the paper on a weekly basis (go to www.heraldnet.com and type in ‘Kevin Johnson’ in the search field). I’ve written feature stories. I wrote a story that landed on the front page of the paper. Not the sports section the entire paper. I’ve done everything I can, except working full-time or designing papers, which was never on my must-do list. I’ve made good friendships. I’ve learned a lot about my writing and the profession without even taking more than three classes post-high school. But now my passion and the time it takes for me to do my hobby have taken a toll on my family life. Lis and I have determined that the extra cash is not worth the stress and toll it takes on me and my family. There were days in November that I didn’t even see my family. I was so busy it didn’t matter if they were home or not. Lis plans on going to Brazil in February for six weeks, when the high school basketball postseason heats up. My goal is to finish up the winter sports season, put in my two weeks notice then head to Brazil for two weeks of vacation. It will be hard. I will miss the people I work with. I’m now the longest tenured part-timer on the staff. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing.

Drop some Pounds – As you can see I moved up a weight class this year. Most of that has been poured on in the past month where I gave a “I Don’t Give A Darn” attitude and just ate my way to five more pounds. The weather is cold, I get home late, I like to snack, so! So…that needs to end fast. So far the first three goals all have to deal with Goal No. 2. If I am not away from home as much I have more time to exercise or at least walk to the park with Lukas and start him on his jump shot. I need to work on watching what I eat and need to work on getting some exercise or it isn’t going to matter how much time I have off work if my health isn’t good enough to keep me around a long time. My goal is to drop close to 30 pounds and to hover around 200. My Body Mass Index thingy says I should weight 185. Ha! Let’s just try to get to 200 first!

Work Hard – I went from feeling underpaid to feeling overpaid. I got a raise when I changed jobs. I got benefits. The bosses let me leave early. The bosses gave me a bonus. It’s time to earn their trust and money by working hard. That means writing policies. That means working harder. Again, Goal No. 2 can help with this. The less I’m working two jobs, the more sleep I can get.

Write Something – I tried to think of a goal that would be fun to accomplish but also challenging. For years and years and years I’ve wanted to write a script. Randy and I have come up with ideas for movies and I started then stopped writing them down. If I get rid of the second job I’d have a bit more time for that. I have also thought about putting this journal into a book format and telling our story that way. Though these goals are a long shot I think it’d be fun to at least get halfway through a book. We’ll aim for that goal.

Of course there are other goals…continue to love my life, my wife and my family. I want to continue to raise more money for the ACS Relay for Life. I want to become more involved, which I have becoming a Committee member. I’d like to look into going back to school but again I don’t want the timeframe to screw us up. I’d like to write more in my blog. I have a few entry ideas that I would like to write (all-time crushes, top road trip movies) and look forward to continuing to do that. I look forward to starting up basketball again and I look forward to another fun year with the church family. Here’s looking towards 2009! 

It’s that annual cliché, “Wow the year has just flown by!” And honestly this year has.

I spent the majority of the year stressed from being underpaid and overworked at one of my jobs. So when it came time to write my annual 2008 Year in Review the first thing – after the obvious pick of my daughter being born in September – that popped into my mind was how I was stressed and frustrated for most of the year.

It’s always fun doing these little reviews because it lets me remember the things that I did the past 365 days. Unfortunately I’ve written less and less in this blog and will have to use my memory more to remember the highlights and lowlights of 2008. Other than the highlight of my daughter being born I think I’ll be finding out that there weren't many highlights and/or lowlights of the past year. That leaves 2009 with a lot of promise.

By the way, 2009 has started off well. They just announced the 2008 NFL MVP and the winner is one Peyton Manning. Atta boy!

Oh, and if you want to read my previous Years in Review here they are:

2007 Year in Review: Year of Friendships

2006 Year in Review: Three Weddings and a Funeral

2005 Year in Review: Goodbye 2005! Hello ’06!

Unlike last season when I named my top 10 highlights I'll just be doing my top 5. Before I begin with the countdown let’s start with moments that didn’t quite crack the Top 5.

First, I’m sorry to say that Randy and Nayheli’s news of a baby did not crack the top 5. It was No. 6 but since I couldn’t come up with 10 I ended at No. 5 and moved them to honorable mention. It’s an odd situation that immediately followed some great news (No. 3 on my list). It came as a total shock. They are not married. They moved up here three weeks ago and don’t seem comfortable. Plus, the baby isn’t born and she hasn’t started showing so it doesn’t quite feel “real” yet. I am happy for them. My brother sounds excited to have a kid and he seems to be trying hard to figure out what he needs to do. Next year I’m sure the baby will crack the Top 5.

Also not making the Top 5 was the great time we had with our church family this year. We spent our entire summer doing things with our church. We flew kites, we camped out, we played volleyball, we went to small group, we had a great time and it was definitely a highlight to remember for 2008.

Other miscellanous moments of 2008:

We’ll start with sports…

We had our annual Super Bowl party. Alexandre and Lis, the two people that know the least about the sport, won our party pool and this remarkable play occurred. Almost a year later and I still can’t believe it happened.

Michael Phelps dominated the Olympics and caused Lis, me and the rest of the world to become more interested in the sport of swimming. I don’t know which race was more intense the 4x100 come-from-behind relay win or the 100-fly, but I’ll pick the relay.

I jumped on the Tampa Bay Rays bandwagon and they went to the World Series! I also digged that the Celtics won the title, but didn’t dig that they defeated LeBron and the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Finally, Tiger Woods is amazing. He won the US Open in “overtime” with a fractured tibula and a torn knee. Amazing!

Koby went to Westminster and my parents tagged along with him checking out New York City for the first time in their lives!

The family and I made two trips to California. One for fun, the second for my Great Aunt and Uncle’s 50^th Anniversary party.

In not-so-fun news, I spent the entire year complaining about work. I was underpaid, overworked, threatened by the boss that he was going to close the office and worried about money. Every month he told us he may close the office. Every month he changed the way I was paid. Salary? Hourly? Commission? The stress made me sick six out of the first eight months of the year. Work was causing me to hurt my family and my relationships. If you want you can read three of the negative entries here, here and here. I finally made a change (See below: No. 4) and it allowed me to enjoy the end of the year.

All that stressed also stopped me from blogging. I wrote one entry in May, June, July and November and in January the only entries I wrote were my Year in Review and my Goals. I hope to stop that trend this year!

I’m also sad to say that though last year was the Year of Friendships, this year our friendships seemed to dwindle. Our friends Alexandre and Jackie were there for us through everything and hopefully they’ll calm their talk of moving to California by sticking around.

That same stress may have caused a horrible basketball season in which our team sucked and I ended up yelling at a couple of my teammates. Thus playing a part in the dwindling friendships – I think.

We closed the year learning about the death of Uncle Frank. He had been in and out of the hospital multiple times throughout the year. We were sorry to hear about his death.

And now to the Top 5:

No. 5 – Goal! Goal!

Knowing Lukas needed some outside companionship with other kids, we signed him up for soccer with the YMCA. Knowing I didn’t need to take on anything else, I foolishly agreed to coach his soccer team. The season was frustrating at times but my No. 5 highlight came a day after my birthday when Lukas gave me a present of his own. 

We’ll quote my October 6 entry since it’s easier for me to copy and paste rather than re-type:

“The weather played havoc for a bit, lots of rain, lots of wind and a bunch of wet 3- and 4-year-olds. The field was muddy, I was dreading the game when midway through the first half Lukas showed me that he truly is half-Brazilian by getting the ball midfield then dribbling up an open field and shooting the ball into the net for his first real goal of his career. I say real  because he scored one in the first game but it was kind of an “oops the ball is at the end of my foot and right in front of the net so I guess I'll punch it in” type of goal.

Saturday's goal was nothing of the sort. It was a “run after the ball, get the ball in the open field continue dribbling it then shooting it hard into the netting” type of goal. One that makes his coach and Dad very proud! He stepped up as not just his parents were watching. No! Both of his uncles (and their women), his Grandparents (the first time Papi had been to a game) and his great-uncle were all watching!

The goal also boosted his confidence as Lukas, usually one to want to take a break, fussed when he actually was told to take a break. He'd comeback later in the half by getting a pass from a teammate, which is a rarity at this age but will be noted at practice, and taking another solid shot at the goal. Again, his coach/Dad and family was proud.

It got better later in the game when Lukas, who was being pushed down and bullied constantly by another kid, did not back down, protecting his female teammate, who was pushed down by said-opponent, by pushing the bully down after his teammate had fallen. The two went toe-to-toe later in the game and I had to break it up, though it was kind of a funny confrontation. I was again proud that Lukas was not afraid of this bigger kid.

After the game my weekend was made! I had doubted coaching these kids and had a rough first few weeks but after this game I felt good. The kids - the six that remained from the 10 that opened the season - were looking like a team. They were playing together, they were having fun together, they were becoming pals and it was a joy to watch. I even was complimented by a grandma of a teammate.”

No. 4 – A New Beginning!

As mentioned above I dreaded my first eight months of the year. I was stressed at work and it was taking a toll on my family. I decided to move on and put out resumes all over the place. The lowly-economy didn’t help as I was turned down twice and not replied to about 20 more times. I finally got a call from an insurance office in North Seattle. The drive to work would be an hour but the pay was considerably higher, they offered benefits and cushy hours. After thinking about it hard we decided it was for the best if I moved on. I did and I’ve been happy since. I got a $50 gift card for Thanksgiving and a bonus for Christmas. The owners are flexible with scheduling and my co-workers have been great thus far! It’s a nice change and a positive change. Lis and I couldn’t be happier. It’s nice that we don’t have to fret over money. Sure we’re not rolling in the dough but we also don’t have to worry about not being able to pay our mortgage or if my paycheck is going to be lower this month than last.

No. 3 – I Hear Wedding Bells!

Erik had been extremely unsuccessful when it came to long-term relationships and just decent relationships at that. I don’t believe it was Erik but the type of girls he chose. So when he showed up to our 80’s party flashing his new girlfriend in her small, tight green shorts I immediately thought, “Here we go again.”

Thankfully my thoughts changed as we grew to know Stephanie or Snef’nie as Lukas calls her. She enjoys the family. She gets along with the family and seems to fit – if you’ve seen our videos and read my stories you know that’s not easy and the more and more I see that I begin to realize that I really hit the jackpot with Lis.

The biggest thing is she loves and adores my brother. I hate to rag on the past but Erik was engaged for about 10 days in 2007. It was, and I’m sure he’ll agree, one of the dumbest thoughts of his life. The girl was foul-mouthed. The girl didn’t enjoy being with the family. The girl was like his other girlfriends. But not this one. Stephanie doesn’t take Erik for granted. She calls him cute and sexy and all those adjectives you don’t want to hear your brother called. Gross! Lukas loves her too, which is important to me!

When Erik says he was going to propose to his girlfriend my only complaint was that I had to work late that night and wouldn’t be there when they walked into the club after announcing their engagement (the first “engagement” I had too many complaints to name). I was proud of my brother, happy for the two of them and excited to watch their relationship blossom. Like the birth of Randy’s child, I’m sure Erik and Snef’nie’s wedding will be one of my highlights for 2009.

No. 2 – Can I Get a What! What!

Officially my new favorite day of the year – the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life of Monroe. For the fourth straight year we participated in the Relay. For the fourth straight year I had more fun than I had in previous years. Team Force dominated the Team Spirit competition! We became the team that everyone wanted to hang out by and be on. Seriously I’m getting requests to join our team because we know how to “kick it”. Randy and Michelle rocked karaoke. Alexandre and Jackie rocked the talent contest. Randy was the usual star in Mr. Relay and Dennis, Wes, Erik, Randy and I rocked the house as the Backstreet Boys. Though we all lost to little kids (you’ll always lose to kids or dogs) we all performed well and had a great time. You can see all of the Team Force 2008 videos here. The Backstreet video is below.

Not only did we repeat as Team Spirit champions, we also rocked in donations. I think we finished sixth in donations raising a Team Force record $4749.56. Dennis, a first-time team member and cancer survivor, raised an amazing $1285. We threw a very rad 80’s party. Had a successful car wash and another money-making bake sale.

I’ve joined the Committee this year and am helping with Team Recruitment and Entertainment. Already people have mentioned how the Big Dog and myself really add to the excitement of the Relay. That makes me feel good and I enjoy participating and hanging out with my Relay Family. Seriously, great event to be a part of!

No. 1 – An Angel is Born

Though I battled with putting the Relay No. 1 I had to go with the birth of my daughter. Hehe! What did you expect to be No. 1?!

When we first found out Lis was pregnant we had mixed-emotions. We wanted to have another kid but also didn’t know if we wanted to because we were struggling with Lukas. Plus that whole cancer thing loomed over us. Five months after Lukas was born Lis was diagnosed with leukemia. Though we didn’t straight out say it, the thought of the pregnancy triggering the cancer again loomed in the back of our minds.

That, plus dealing with the stress of work, didn’t give me the same effect on this pregnancy as it did for Lukas’s. The pregnancy flew by and with a month remaining it hit me. I was going to have a baby girl any day now.

I wasn’t sure how I felt until the minute Lis went into labor. The labor was harder than Lukas’s. I joke that because of Lis’s new blood (all the transfusions) she’s a different person and know longer tough. She snaps back, “You wouldn’t even make it the first minute of labor.” Okay, she’s right.

She wasn't able to have Lukas naturally so Lis was going to try this time around to have Lia naturally. And I was going to try to make it through it.

I did better than I expected. I watched the head slowly come out. I pulled Lis’s knee back (though she doesn’t remember me there) and grabbed her shoulder as she pushed. I watched as the doctor gave Lia a mohawk while she was crowning (thus giving me the team name of Crowning Mohawks for my fantasy basketball season). I watched as he squeezed her through … well you know where. I clipped the cord. I shed more tears than I had when Lukas was born. I was amazed at how healthy both Lis and Lia were.

Three months later I’m still amazed at how strong Lia is. Though it’s been tough with Lukas, he’s still dealing with jealousy and attention issues, it’s nice having a full family. And there is no better sight in the world than watching her face light up when she watches big brother. Not only is that my favorite moment of 2008 but of ever.

Happy New Year!