Wasting Time...

Hello,

I found myself with some rare, uninterrupted, alone time today and decided to play around with my scrapbooking. I didn't get a lot of good pictures this year. For some reason most of them were fuzzy looking, or the kids were making funny faces, or it was too dark (lack of electricity might have contributed there). Anyways, here are some of my results.

This one is of Frank teaching Mackendra how to ski at Mt. Baker.
Here is one of my favorite pictures of Aislinn when she was a baby. She had the most amazing eyes!


Here is one of Mackendra and her eyes. She's pretty cute too.



Here's another one of my girls. Just fooling around with some color.


And a final one that is mostly a photo save. The picture was all fuzzy and dark and kinda ugly. I'm not sure what I think about the final product. Oh well.

Anyways, that is all I have completed today. I still find myself alone as the kids are over playing at the neighbours and Frank is at work. I might try some more, but my butt is getting numb.

By the way, if anyone know my sister, Ting...tell her to call me.

Love Tanya

Holly Jolly Christmas

Hi Guys,

So, what a Christmas. It didn't go as planned, but it turned out just fine. The Konig family stayed home this year. No travelling, (thank goodness...did you guys see the airport lineups and those poor people stranded in bus depots for days?) And only my youngest brother and his girlfriend were over for Christmas dinner. It was relaxing, stress free, quiet, and quite enjoyable. The only glitch came on Christmas eve day. We had a power failure for 4 hours. But even that wasn't too bad. Luckily, I had started cooking at noon that day and by the time the power went out, my food was pretty much done.

Here is how our Christmas went.

We had a lot of snow for Vancouver. People were saying that it was the most snow since, like 1968 or something crazy like that. All I know is that I was pretty excited about it. I like snow, and as long as I don't have to shovel too much of it, I don't mind if it snows and snows and snows. The kids and our dog, Tuck, had a blast. Their friends from next door decided to not use their driveway and they built a "snow-wall" at the bottom of their driveway so the kids spent hours upon hours sliding down that hill and building forts, having snowball fights and creating snowmen. Here is what our front yard looked like on Christmas eve day.


It snowed most of the day. We cleaned off that little orange car twice that day and shovelled at least 4 times.

Darren and Auria were planning to come in on Christmas day for Frank's famous Christmas breakfast brunch, but after looking at the weather report they asked if Frank could come out in our SUV and pick them up a day earlier.

I was planning on making a lamb roast or our little family that night, but added a pork roast to the slow cooker so we would have more food. And because Auria doesn't eat red meat, she started a whole chicken at her place to bring in and finish cooking at our place. The roasts went in a noon and I started the potatoes soon after. I was going for a Greek theme. The lamb, the lemon roasted potatoes and a Greek salad. Just after Frank left to pick up the family, the lights went out. We were out of power from 4:30 to 8:30 that night. But it was ok, because my meat was cooked enough and the potatoes were done and we only had the salad to make. We finished cooking Auria's chicken on the BBQ and everything was delicious. We also invited the neighbours over as their original plan of going to relatives for dinner was canceled due to the weather and they hadn't started cooking before the power went. So, this is us eating our delicious meal by candlelight.


When the lights came on at 8:30 pm we rushed around shutting off all the lights and continued our meal by candlelight. We all agreed that this was better.

The evening ended with some movies, some yummy Christmas chocolates and "special" eggnog. We readied everything for Santa's visit that night and went to sleep.

In the morning, the kids were so excited to see the presents and stockings.


Santa was good to us this year!


Those stockings were certainly stuffed with some choice gifts.


And here it is...that look that we as parents are all looking for:


A little girl and her brand new barbie doll. Could anything be better?

As soon as all the presents were opened and the wrapping paper was taken care of, Frank went into overdrive. He had his famous Christmas breakfast buffet to prepare. The menu included Eggs Benedict (Frank even made Hollandaise sauce from scratch, for the first time ever, 4 times! The eggs curdled and we ran out of butter and it still tasted wonderful), homemade crepes with berries and whipped cream, European cheeses, sausages, cakes, and cookies, buns, coffee, and champagne mimosas. Yummy!!! We had so much food that we had to invite our friends over to help us eat it all.


After we ate ourselves into a coma, people drifted away to do their own things. Naps were high on that priority list. Finally, around 2pm, Auria and I shook off our food induced high and started making more food. The turkey was stuffed and placed in the oven and the vegetables were prepared. By 8:00 the night, a not so hungry crowd (Frank's famous Christmas breakfast buffet [I'm gonna trademark that saying] gets left out all day and nibbled on) sat down at our groaning table and began to tuck into yet more food. I forgot to take any pictures through my "mashed potatoes and turkey with gravy" haze.

All in all, it was a lovely day. One that we will be recovering from for the next week I'm sure.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!!

Hi Guys,

Just a quick post about our snowfall we had yesterday. I don't know what the official depth is, but Frank had to go and shovel 4 times in the last 24 hours!

I'll try to post more later.

Love Tanya

Yippee! Good Times, Good Company

Hi Friends,

So, we went skiing today. It was wonderful. Cold, but wonderful. We headed down to Mt. Baker in Washington state and were treated to the deepest snow in a 100 mile radius. My brother Darren has been dying to try out his new snowboarding gear and has been calling us since it started snowing last week. His beautiful girlfriend, Auria would be hitting the slopes for the very first time in her life.

The morning started at 6. The snooze button was hit several times and we finally rolled out of bed at 6:50. A hearty breakfast of fried eggs, toast and coffee set us up for the hour and a half drive down across the border to the mountain. The drive up was spectacular. We were a little apprehensive about how windy it was, but Mt. Baker was protected from that chilly wind and we just had to deal with the -12 degrees celsius weather. The only mishap happened as we pulled up to the lodge. Mackendra was feeling a little nauseous from the windy drive up the mountain and proceeded to puke out the window. Yuck. At least I only had to help her wash up her face and mouth, Frank and Darren had to take care of the mess freezing on the side of the car door. Mackendra rebounded just fine from the nausea and we proceeded to get her set up with rental equipment.

Frank and Mackendra hit the bunny slopes.


Oops! This must have been early in the lessons with Dad.

Darren and Auria signed up for snowboard lessons.

Aislinn and I jumped on the closest lift up the hill.



Whee! What a view! And the snow! It was awesome. The powder was just over my knees and there was hardly anyone on the slopes. I guess that is how it is on a weekday.

Aislinn and I were a little rusty but we quickly got back in the grove. Check her out.



We caught up with Mackendra and Frank and I was stunned to see Mackendra skiing on her own. She has taken lesson up at Whistler a couple times but she had never skied like this before. The next thing I knew, I looked up and Mackendra was on the lifts!


I was so proud of that little girl. She handled it like a pro. Frank was having so much fun with her. He said that she was so optimistic, she never quit, she didn't want help and he couldn't keep up with her. By the middle of the day she was skiing down the easy, green runs all by herself. Frank even reported that she took a jump, and got air! after she watched Frank take the jump just ahead of her. She was so mature and her concentration was amazing. I took over for Frank, so he could go do a couple runs with Aislinn later in the day. It was such a hoot riding up the lift with Mackendra. She tells the bests stories.

Darren and Auria caught up with us and we got a picture taken of all of us. Auria was rockin' the slopes! Good job.


It was cold up there. Frank, Aislinn and I are going to have to get some warmer gloves. Too bad since these ones have only been worn twice now.

We even brought Tuck up with us and he was great. He spent most of the time in the back of the SUV but when he was let out he pounced through the snowdrifts with wild abandoned.

We had a wonderful time. All us girls fell asleep on the drive back down.

We finished off with a super awesome meal at "The Old Spaghetti Factory". Then crawled into bed for a couple hours of rest and warming up.

Frank was so right when he whispered in my ear: "This is one of the best days in my life. I love you."

Fa la la la la....Christmas Preparations

Hello Friends!

Have you got that Holly Jolly Christmas spirit yet? I'm almost there. We finally got some snow today, and it was a pretty good dump. For those who grew up in the North and are used to measuring snow by the feet, a few measly centimeters make us chuckle. Watching drivers in the Lower Mainland try to navigate slush-covered hills is almost a sport here to us wily, (smug?) snow-experienced drivers from colder climes. Don't they realize that "flooring it!" will not get them up that hill? And seriously, you can't stop like you usually do. You need to give yourself at least a 100 feet to that stop sign. But, I'm not complaining. I have a 4WD and I love the snow! Here is Aislinn cleaning off that 4WD this morning so we could go to school.


And Frank, although he grumbles a little, I know he secretly loves shoveling the driveway. In his fancy, schmancy dress shoes too!

He had to shovel two more times today. Cool! I of course took these pictures from our front window, where it was warm and dry. I love snow, but I'm not stupid.

We also put up our Christmas tree last weekend. It went very smoothly. I think back to those warm and wonderful childhood memories when my Dad would take all us kids out to some forgotten corner of the farm and we trudged through four feet of snow looking for that perfect tree. Actually, it was usually 3 trees. One big one for our living room, one little one for the kids' room, and one medium sized tree for Grandma's house. Everything started off great. But after 2 hours of dragging freezing feet through 4 feet of snow and realizing that the "perfect" tree was quite hard to find, someone always started crying. But we prevailed and we brought home 3 perfect trees. Then the fun really started. Because I was the oldest, I was expected to hold the tree straight for my Dad while he set up the tree stand. It never stayed straight. There was some yelling and some cussing, but eventually, the tree, with some strings tied to nails in the ceiling or the wall, stood proud, and tall and straight (that was the most important part). But wait! More fun was on the horizon. We pulled out the box of Christmas ornaments and with trepidation, we started in on that huge, rat's nest, Gordian Knot, known as "the Christmas lights". That was an hour long practice of frustration, and more cussing. Finally, Mom, while yelling at the kids to "leave the ornaments alone!!! If you touch that one more time, you won't be allowed to help decorate the tree!!! I mean it!!! Stop touching those! No, you can't eat the candy canes!", was able to untangle the mess (always swearing that this year she would put the lights away so this would never happen again). It was torture waiting for those lights to get untangled. And we still had to wait while Dad put the lights on the tree. And then....we were allowed to decorate. And decorate we did. Our ornaments were an odd assortment of kitsch that we had collected over the years. I always looked at other peoples' matching, beautiful, designer, heirloom decorated trees and thought our mishmash of half-broken ornaments were much more beautiful. So many memories were attached to those ornaments.

Anyways, as I was saying, our tree decorating process seemed to go very easily. The tree went up straight, first try. The lights were not tangled and Frank and Aislinn had the honour of stringing them up, and our ornaments were handled very calmly (without fighting!!!) by Mackendra and Aislinn and after about an hour, we were done. There was no cussing, no tangled web of Christmas lights, no tears. It was weird. Not very Christmas-y. But it was beautiful.


And Makendra was giving the honour placing the star on top of the tree.



Another Christmas-y event that has helped me get into the mood. School Christmas concerts. This year, the school decided to have two casts who would preform on two different nights. Of course, my two kids were on those two different nights. They had two performances each. That's 4 concerts people. I made it to two of them and Frank was roped into going to the final one tonight. It wasn't too painful. The kids sang beautifully and the program was short and sweet. Here are a couple of pictures.

The Glenayre School Choir.

Aislinn won the part of "window painter" for the play that ran throughout the concert. That's her in the middle in the red sweater. She did a great job.

Here is Aislinn singing her solo. I didn't know she had such a sweet voice! I am a proud Mama.


And here is Mackendra, in her new Christmas dress (thank you Pau Pau). She told me that she had the "twirliest dress ever!" She was so proud of herself and she was so sweet singing her french "Fa la la la la" song.



So sweet!

So, now we are looking at just 1 week to Christmas and we have crossed off decorating the tree, Christmas concerts and snow off the list. Now I just have to finish the shopping, wrapping, baking, cooking, and cleaning. And that's just for Christmas morning. You all know what I'm talking about. Let me know how your Christmas preparations are going.

Happy Holidays.

Saint Nicholas Day and Other Thoughts...

Hi Guys,

So, tomorrow is Saint Nicholas day. Dec 6th. I never celebrated this as a child. My Mom is Chinese, and they are officially Communists which means there is no God, only Mao, or something like that. I think it has changed since the Cultural Revolution, but the Chinese still aren't nice to religious folks. Look at what they did to those poor Tibetan monks. You should ask my Mom and Dad about that. They were in China last year and had first hand experience with the Chinese intolerance of free...well...free anything, speech, thought... being. Anyways...my Mom isn't a communist. She grew up in Hong Kong which is so far from communism that it is on the totally opposite side of the political scale. So, my Mom attended a very prestigious Catholic school there. Now, I'm really not religious and I find it kinda weird that my Mom was taught in a Catholic school because she is not religious either. She has told me all sorts of funny tales of the nuns in that school, and how she was a rebel that skipped her baptism and various other ceremonies and how she always got into trouble for saying that God was a polygamist because he married all the nuns. It really is funny to think of your parents as anything other than your parents. They didn't have lives before you were born. Of course not! Mind you, I pine for my pre-kids days. Those were glorious days! So maybe my Mom was a different person before she had all 5 of us kids...hmmmmm....





Anyways, Saint Nicholas day. It's a European thing and they stole all the ideas from our North American Christmas thing. Really! The guy's name is "Sinterklaas " or "St. Nicholas". He goes around and checks to see if the children have been good that year. Sound familiar? And he uses a sleigh, but he uses horses, not reindeer. That's silly, cause horses can't fly. Rudolf makes much more sense. And he comes down the chimney with a little, dirty sidekick called "Zwarte Piet" or "Black Peter". The children are instructed to place an empty shoe beside the fireplace on the eve of Dec. 5th and in the morning, if the child has been good, they would receive chocolate and coins and taii taii, a yummy gingerbread cookie, and various other little presents. If the child had been bad that year, a lump of coal or rocks would be left in the shoe instead. Sounds pretty hinky to me. I think Santa Claus should sue for trademark infringements.


I've looked up Saint Nicholas day on Wikipedia and I did find some other practices that I think we as a family should start to implement as a annual tradition. You know, just to keep the brats in check. Apparently, in central Europe, round 'bout the Middle Ages, Saint Nikolaas was accompanied by an especially nasty sidekick called "Knecht Ruprecht" who would threaten to beat the children if they had been bad that year. No wimpy lumps of coals for those Medieval Germans. Some stories said that he would even EAT the really bad children. Whoa! That's venturing into Hansel and Gretel territory. That's a German thing huh? Eating children? Reminds me of Jonathan Swift and his "Modest Proposal". He was English, not German, but I think he must have had a German nanny or something. Mind you, might be a way to get through this time of economic troubles. Anybody have a good recipe for baby back ribs?

Have I gone too far? Sorry.

I love my kids and I love the idea of giving them presents for Medieval reasons I don't really understand. Frank is the German in our family. Actually, technically he's part Dutch and the other part is Austrian. Same thing I figure. Those Western European tribes have some pretty yummy food that they serve on holidays. Lucky friends and family have experienced a traditional Dutch/Austrian breakfast buffet that Frank lays out on groaning tables on Christmas morning. I love all the delicious pastries and smelly cheeses. Last year I even tried a little of the smoked horse meat. Sorry Ting. I know you think it is an abomination to eat horse meat, but it was kinda good, if a little salty.

Anyways, Frank directed me to a local Dutch deli and I went this morning after dropping the kids off at school. It was so cool. So many packages with funny writing on them. The umlauts abounded in that store! And the licorice. The awful, double salted, hard, icky black as tar licorice that stains your teeth, tongue and makes my mouth pucker and eyes water. Frank love them. He's German! What a contrary race!

So, we are celebrating Saint Nicholas Day tomorrow and the kids will be receiving some yummy treats (they've been pretty good this year). As a bonus, their friends from next door will be staying the night. Yah me! Last time we had a sleep over, Frank and I fell asleep at around 1 pm and the girls were still giggling. I think we are going to have to be tougher this time. Maybe remind them that "Knecht Ruprecht" could still make a visit.


Look at that guy! Kinda freaky huh? I wonder what he charges per hour. I'm looking for a babysitter.

A Typical Weekend

Hello everyone,

Well, we had a pretty typical weekend. Friday night and Saturday morning were spent at basketball games with Aislinn.


She is not in this picture. I gave my camera to a parent to take pictures for me and they stayed in the stands the entire time so all her pictures are from very far away, very dark and mostly of her kid. Oh well. I'll have to conscript Frank into being our photog next time. But I'm in the picture! I'm talking to the kids and at least two of them are feigning attention, the other couldn't be bothered it seems. Aislinn has been doing pretty good lately. She has been high scorer in 2 of the last 3 games. I know I keep talking about how good she is, but she really is. I introduced a new offense to the kids last week and she was the only one who totally got it, right off the bat! I think she is going to be my retirement plan. I just hope they start paying WNBA players better. LOL.

Right after basketball on Saturday, we went to a friend's son's birthday party. It was nice to catch up with old friends. After that it was an evening of movies. We watched "Transformers" with Mackendra (Aislinn was next door with the neighbours). What a great show. I watched it before, but totally enjoyed it again. Mackendra was a little confused by the show, and I guess the idea of "autonomous robots from an extinct planet" that can transform into vehicles is odd. Boy did that bring back some memories. I totally remember when Darren (my little brother) got Optimus Prime as a present. He was so stoked.


Well, keeping with the good ole days theme, I started bringing up old TV theme songs from the 80's and early 90's and quizzing Frank. He did really well. Try YouTubing these shows: Jem, Fraggle Rock, AirWolf, Knight Rider (can't wait for that movie to come out), The A Team, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Hockey Night in Canada, The Smurfs, He-Man and She-Ra, MacGuyver, Mission Impossible, Murder She Wrote, National Geographic's Animal Kingdom, The Magical World of Disney, Dungeon and Dragons, The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, TJ Hooker, Charlie's Angels, The Littlest Hobo, Little House on the Prairie, Sesame Street, The Friendly Giant, All American Hero, The Hulk, Wonder Woman. What a hoot!

Sunday was clean up day. We had the neighbour kids over for a bit. They are over here almost every day. Aislinn and Willow made some really cute figurines out of Play Doh.


Mackendra and I took some pictures of each other.

I look tired.


Mackendra looks so serious. Sorry, not a very flattering picture. She usually looks much cuter than this.

I also gave Tuck a grooming, a shave and a bath. He was getting so stinky! Now he is looking like he belongs to a family that cares for him.


I came across my kids being nice to each other. I'm sure every parent feels the same thing as I do when I see them playing nice and not tattle-taleing on each other or throwing things or actively bugging each other. You just have to document it, cause it isn't going to last long and when Family Services or the Police comes knocking you can prove that your family wasn't disfunctional all the time. I snuck up on them and got this on the camera.

Awwwww! This is awesome! This way Aislinn practices her reading and Mackendra gets stories read to her and I don't have to do anything! That last part is the best, the part about me not having to do anything. I didn't even need to bribe Aislinn to do this. She was just being a good big sister. And Mackendra really appreciated it.


Let's see, what else did we do. I went to pottery for a bit. Can't wait to get my stuff back. I will take pictures and upload them on this blog. By the way, most of you are going to get some pottery for Christmas (if you are lucky and I want to part with my masterpieces). I know you are waiting with baited breath. I also did a little scrapping. Here is what I came up with, more for my France book:


AAARRRGGGHHH! WTF! Why are the colors so weird? Ting???? What did I do wrong? Lets try another one.


Hmmmm... this one worked. I tried uploading the other one again, same thing. I hate it when electronics don't work the way they are supposed to. Soooooooo aggravating! Ok, I'm going to upload one more.


Yah! Hahaha. This picture cracks me up. When this platter came out, all our faces looked like her's. I love sushi, but OMG! We got this in this tiny fishing village somewhere along the Meditterranean coast in France.

Anyways, looking back at our weekend, I must say...we are a pretty boring family. Well, its only 4:37 pm on a Sunday night. Maybe I can get into a little trouble before the weekend is over. Wish me luck.

I Do's What I Do's

So, dear friends, my children have been in top form the last couple days. They continually come up with the funniest comments and I've always said that I should write them down. I never did...until now! Now I have this blog. Oh, I love this blogging thing.


Mackendra has always had a little bit of a edge to her. She is one independent little girl and is not afraid to say what's what. Often times, that gets her into trouble with her elders, but at the same time, it sometimes gets her off the hook. She will say something that you just can't help but laugh at, and her mischievous looks that accompany her sassiness makes us hard pressed to stay angry at her. She has a great sense of humour and her spirit is a joy. Most of you have heard the one nugget of pure gold that issued forth from Mackendra back when she was only 4. It is the title of this post. If you haven't, here it is:

Mackendra was colouring one day, something that she does very often. (I have thrown away more "artwork just for you, Mommy" than is decent). I asked her to clean up her papers and crayons as I was planning to vacuum. She didn't move. "Mackendra! Clean up you stuff right now." I stated a little more firmly. "In a bit, Mom." I received an answer this time, but not the one I was looking for. "No...right now!" My voice was reaching a higher decibel, she definitely couldn't ignore me now.

And here it comes...wait for it...


"Mom (sigh)..." she was rolling her eyes at me! "I do's what I do's", and she went back to colouring, believing that she had handled the situation.
I was stunned! I was taken aback, flabbergasted, struck mute, and in shock. I regained my senses after a moment or two and gave her back this zinger: "Oh yah? Mackendra...you do's what you do's when I tell you to do's it! Got it? Now get moving before you lose your crayons!"

Can you believe it? "I do's what I do's." That is priceless. Frank couldn't stand it. He busted up and before you knew it, the two of us were rolling around on the couch, wiping tears away. Mackendra? She was confused, thinking her parents were crazy, but she cleaned up her crayons.

Mackendra also has come up with some funny sayings regarding her thumb-sucking. We have been trying for quite awhile to stop her from doing this and she is getting increasingly creative with her excuses. "Mom, my thumb is very sneaky. He sneaks into my mouth when I am sleeping and I don't even know it! I tell him "No!" all the time, but he doesn't listen to me." And this one came last Sunday morning. "Dad, my mouth is cold." "And that is why you have to suck your thumb?" asked Frank. "Yup, he keeps it warm." Pause...."No, just kidding." I think she knew that wouldn't fly with us. What killed us was her little giggle as she confessed. She just had to be cuddled after that one.



Aislinn also comes up with some doozies. Frank and I went to a meeting with Aislinn's teacher this morning and during our discussion she reminded us about something that went down with my daughter. At the beginning of the year, Aislinn's teacher sent home a letter asking parents if they would like to be notified if their child didn't complete their assigned homework. I said, sure, that would be a good thing to know. Well, about a month into the new school year, Aislinn brought home a letter stating that she had failed to complete an assignment. I had to sign the paper and Aislinn had to bring it back to class. In order for me to make an impression on Aislinn, and hopefully teach her that I wouldn't tolerate this, as I was signing it, I made a very stern face and said, "Aislinn...I am very disappointed with you (kids hate to be disappointments), I don't want to see these letters from your teacher any more, do you understand?" Lots of nodding and sad looks followed with promises of doing better. It was taken care of. Well, about 2 weeks later, Aislinn forgot her Math text book at school and again failed to complete another assignment. I was waiting for the letter from her teacher, but it didn't come. I asked Aislinn about it and she looked at me in confusion and said, "I told Mme Di Fruscia that you didn't want to get the letters anymore." I guess I did say that. But it is not what I meant. Damn kid!


You definitely need to be on your toes with kids. They are smart little boogers. Smarter than we give them credit for.

I read a little tidbit that I want to pass on. Apparently, it was proven in some sort of scientific study, that children will ask for something an average of 9 times before giving up. So, if you can resist and not give in to their incessant whining and begging for an average of 9 times, you should be in the clear. I gave it a try the other day. Only I gave it a little twist. I picked Mackendra up after kindergarten and on the ride back home, she wouldn't stop talking. Finally she became fixated on one thing. "Mom, can we go to "Terry the Book Fairy" ?" (That is the name I made up so she could remember the name of the guy who runs the used book store near us). I was so worn out from answering her previous questions that I just remained silent. I remembered that scientific study. Well... she only asked 6 more times. I silently counted. They were right! Give it a try.

Next Generation

As many of you know, I played basketball when I was younger. In fact, my entire family played basketball. The Johnson family is probably the most successful basketball family in Canada. I played Div II down in the States, Ting, Rachel and Erika made it to Div I and Darren made it to CIS in Canada. Yes, it is mainly due to the fact that there were 5 of us, but it was also due to the fact that we all loved to play the game and worked hard at it. Our Dad started us at a young age, and in fact, he is still playing at a ripe ole age of 60+. He is preparing to play in his third World Masters Games in Sydney, Australia next Fall. How cool is that? My Dad taught us everything he knew. I have pictures of him playing somewhere, I just can't find them at the moment. I will upload them when and if I ever find them. Anyways, back to the Johnson 5. We spent our high schools years playing as much as possible, we went to every camp our parents could afford to put us into. Mom and Dad spent every weekend travelling to games all around the province to watch us play. We were a basketball family. Sure we played soccer and volleyball and ran track and field. But our hearts belonged to basketball. It still does. We have all found ourselves coaching the sport at one time or another. I ran my own camp in Grade 11 and 12 out in Merritt, BC. We tried to give back as much as possible. In fact I am still coaching to this day. Only this time, I have the pleasure of coaching the next generation of Johnsons. My oldest daughter, Aislinn, although her last name is Konig, is the next generation of Johnsons to play basketball. With all that basketball blood running through her, I was hoping and praying that she would not only play, but play well. You know what? She did and she does. I put Aislinn in her first basketball league last year and she dominated. Here is my very first layout I did. It was about Aislinn playing.


Aislinn is in her second year of playing now. She is only 11 years old but she made a select U13 team. I am helping coach her, and she is doing great. Everyone that sees her play says that she has great court sense. This is not something you can teach, this is something that you either have or don't have. It is in the blood. Johnson blood. I took some pictures of her during her game this past weekend.

A year older.


A new uniform.


A new team.


Another chance for me (that's me with the "plumber's butt" in front) to teach my child everything I know. Yup, we are well on our way to creating the next dynasty of Johnson basketball. The entire clan is hoping that she doesn't stop growing, that she grows into those size 8 1/2 woman's shoes and becomes our first post player. Keep your fingers crossed siblings.

Now we just have to work on Mackendra...


Oops...well...we're working on learning to swim first.