Leading Questions

*Due to a recent acceleration of my pace of life, i have been unable to find the time to update my blog. At this particular time, i have found just a moment where i can breath and reflect on these past few weeks and really try to work out a plan to create balance and consistancy in my life. Yeah...I'll let you know how that goes...*

This morning i had a staff meeting and one thing i love doing is Icebreakers. I never want to be that person who just makes someone sit for an hour and listen to me babble on about things they can and cannot do. So i start each meeting with a game or activity to make everyone feel engaged and included in our discussion. So for my meeting today i had everyone pick a piece of paper out of a basket. On this paper was a statement starter. For example "the worst haircut i ever had was..." Everyone had a differnt sentance that they had to complete. I thought I would share them all with you and give you my answers. but the fun doesn't stop there!!! I would like you all to pick three starters and finish them yourselves! So fun huh... :) (hey, at least i'm not posting another quiz people)

are you ready?

ok

Here they are:



The best job I ever had was… O'Dea's SnowTubbing

The worst project I ever worked on was… stripping the wallpaper in one of our old apartments...nightmare...

The riskiest thing I ever did was… pull a senior prank. i most definatly broke the law...real risky. Life lesson i learned...never return to the scene of the crime.

The thing I like the most about this job is… when a student hugs me goodbye and tells me that they love being in my class. Makes all the hard days pale in comparison.

The one time I felt the most stress because I didn’t have enough time was… one time... how about from Jan-present day.

My one regret in life is… not visiting my brother more often when he was in the hospital

If I could go back in time and change one thing about history it would be… the day the music died...just kidding... the day my brother was hurt.

One thing I want to do before I die is… have a baby boy

If I could have a superpower, it would be… the ability to make myself invisible

My most embarrassing moment is… when i was singing at church and i was singing the song "I am free." When it was over, Denis started the intro to "sing to the King" and when it was time to start singing, i started singing the words to "I am free" again...so embarassing...

My dream job would be… Working at The Father's House full time

If I could change one thing about myself it would be… my lack of time managment...or my nose...

My greatest strength is… i work well under pressure

My greatest weakness is… i have no back bone so i never stand up for myself.

The thing I like most about myself is… Jesus in me

If I could spend the day with one person, living or dead, it would be… My Grandpa


ok gang, now it is your turn. Pick three of the statement starters and tell us all your answers! no stealing my answers either :)

ta ta for now

looking forward

Have you ever had a defining moment? A moment when you know that from that point on everything will be different. I have had several of those moments in my life:

my first day of school
the day my brother was hurt
the day we moved out of the only house i had ever known
my first day of college
my wedding day
rachel's wedding day
the day Harmony was born
and there are more...

Those moments are part of my DNA. They can never be taken away and they are specific only to me. They are imbedded in the finger print of Rebecca Johnson.

These past two years have been packed with these moments for me. These moments can be as small as a conversation, as hard as an argument, as sappy as a good cry, or even found in the excitement of hearing good news. I reflect often on these moments. But i fear that it has been TOO often lately.

so last night...i had another moment. I was standing in the kitchen doing dishes (i know...that is a profound thing in it's self...) and i had my ipod playing in the background and a song that i hadn't taken the time to really listen to came on. It is a song by Ricardo. The lyrics went like this

"I'll stop looking back. I'm moving ahead. The past is over"

later that night i was editing pictures and listening to music again and this song came on by the Rascal Flatts that said:

"I'm going to stop looking back and start moving on, learn how to face my fears. Love with all of my heart, make my mark, i want to leave something here. Go out on a ledge, without any net. That's what i want to be about. I want to be running when the sand runs out."

very next song...another Rascal Flats song... (love them...)

"I'm moving on, at last i can see life has been patiently waiting for me. And i know there's no guarentee's, but i'm not alone."

My moment is wrapped up in those two songs. I'm going to begin looking forward more than i look back. I want to set goals for my life. I want to try to see the big picture. I don't want to miss out on my todays...

Does that mean i am going to forget the past. Of course not. That would be stripping me of who i am today. But i need to stop letting those moments dictate my present or else my future could suffer. I am determined to live the best life possible. Have the best marriage possible. Be the best mom possible (no, i'm not pregnant). Be the best teacher possible. Be the best worshipper possible. I want to leave a legacy. Have no regrets.

The past is just that....the past...

Vacation '08

And we are back :) well we have been for a few days now but this is my first opportunity to finish this post. i have been slowly adding to it for the last few days. i just never have enough time these days to sit and do it all at once. Warning: this is a bit long. :)

Denis and I were in DESPERATE need of a vacation. So a few months ago (yes, a few MONTHS ago we needed of time away) we chose what week we were going to take off then we began searching for places to go that "fit the budget" (that's the new catch phrase in the Johnson household) Around that time one of my close friends, Kristen, moved back to her home in Canada...long story... but i knew i couldn't go long without seeing her. So we decided that part of our vacation would be spent visiting her in her beautiful home in Madoc, Ontario. We also really wanted to see our friends Christopher and Jennifer Hopper. They moved to watertown three years ago and build a beautiful house and we had YET to see it. It had also been at over a year that we had just hung out with them. So we called them to see if they would be around and to make a long story short, our vacation was planned!

We had an INCREDIBLE time...so relaxing. Here are a few pictures from our trip

Watertown with the Hoppers:


Me and the love of my life


luik!!!!!! look at those eyes...


Eva. She is so special to me. One morning i was out pushing her on her swing and she turned around and said "becca...i love you at my house"


Luik again. He knows just what to do for the camera!


Could she be any prettier?


trying to be tough. not buyin it...


Now this lady...she's one of my favorites...


Eva singing her heart out. her song said "i will not be afraid anymore!" love her...


Madoc with Kristen

The dock of the lake at Kristen's grandparents house.


I'm a professional folks. That's my story and i'm stickin to it.


The real pro...


Kindred Spirits


the Mac Man.

It was so hard to come back and join the real world again. I have a week and a half of summer camp left before we jump right back into the school year....ready or not...

Outta Here

I am officially ON VACATION!!!!!! As soon as church ending today, i turned to Denis and said lets get outta here, we are going on vacation! I have been looking forward to this for WEEKS! we are leaving today and heading to watertown to stay with christopher and jenny hopper and then tuesday night we are driving up into canada (home sweet home...kinda) to visit our friend kristen and her family for the rest of the week. i will have lots of pictures to share and stories to tell. until then....

High-Low

So i am back from my blogging vacation! :) so...i really didn't go anywhere, i just haven't found the time or the energy to write recently. I am also really frustrated with Blogger right now because it won't upload my pictures from my laptop, and you know me, i don't blog without pictures very often. I have a TON that i would love to share with the cyberworld, but unfortunatly, i am not sure when that is going to happen again. we shall see i guess.
I recently spoke at a womens event at our church and for an opening "icebreaker" everyone had a different color sticker on their coffee cup, and based on what color your sticker was, you had to share a certain thing. My sticker was green so i had to share about what i did for a job. real exciting. :) but the person who had a yellow sticker shared their High point of their day as well as their Low point. (this was a game that we used to play in college all the time at the end of the day, i loved it!) i was bummed that i didn't get to share mine, cause i had some good ones. So since i didn't get to share them at our womens event, here are the highs and lows of the last month that i have let pass by without blogging.

Highs: ( in no particular order)
-My sister surprising me by showing up at church. i about freaked out, but i had was kinda in the middle of singing, so i did my best to compose myself. this was the best surprise i have had in a long long time...i love that lady...
-I have seen Harmony TWICE this month!!!!!
-Girls night at Splatters (aka: therapy session with Heather, Amy, Mattie and leandra)
-Going to the cottage with the Keller's, Moore's and the George's...who won boxers or briefs again...oh wait...it was me! how silly of me to forget :)
-Spending time with my parents before they left for California. (i got more time than we even planned! YEAH!!!)
-We took a Financial Course at church and we learned SOOOO much. we on track to being debt free!
-Baby Riley Janet Passer was born and denis and i were able to be there to see her just minutes after she came into this world. she is precious and healthy and looks like her momma.
-Watching Denis preach at church. i am so proud of my baby. i love being his wife.
-Going to Pittsburg for a few days over July 4th. I loved getting away and spending so much time with Rachel. Rachel hooked me up... right rach? :)
-Being around my God kids...they keep us laughing all day long. they are so precious to me.
-Seeing Jaime! still jealous of her trip, but really thankful i was able to sneak in a few visits with her.
-Going out to eat with Christy and Ben THREE sunday's in a row. i love that...
-Having CB in town
-Looking down the row in church two weekends ago and seeing the 4 girls i love to sing with more than anyone. VOM what?!
-Shooting a wedding with my sister-in-law. she is one good photographer. i look forward to working with her again.
-seeing my brother in law last weekend :)

Lows:
-Driving back from Pittsburg. i hated leaving.
-My computer almost crashed at the wedding and i almost lost pictures i had already deleted from my memory card. that would have been SOOOOO very very bad.
-After our finance class was over, i was on information overload and all i dreamed about was money.
-Summer camp last week KICKED MY BUTT. i questioned my calling in child care everyday.
-losing to the George's in Baggo. So close... next time meg and matt...next time
-having to leave the cottage early
-making our bed at the cottage..right amy...big low of the day :)
-Being lectured by John and Rachel because i didn't know who Brett Farve was...does that really make me a bad person?!?!?!
-dropping my parents off at the airport. i ALWAYS have such a hard time saying goodbye to them.
-Not being in california to see my brother graduate.... but i am so proud of the kid.
-lately i have felt like i haven't had much of a social life...i miss my friends.

There you have it. i could add so much more, but i won't bore you with all the details. pray i can load pictures soon!!!!

until next time...

More red dirt?

My mom and daddy came up this past weekend for a much needed visit. It was so good to be able to sit and relax with them on friday night since we had the house to ourselves. I woke up saturday morning to find my mom out in our yard pulling weeds. I have no where near a green thumb but my mom's is a green as you can get. So the three of us spent the morning pulling weeds and trying our best to get rid of the "jungle" that was creeping up on my house. I didn't realize what a job it was going to be. We broke for lunch and then my mom and i ran to home depot to pick up mulch. I wanted to red ceder mulch to brighten up our yard a bit. My mom had brought three bags, so we went and picked up 10 more. we thought that would be plenty. My dad told us to get more than that, we called him silly and left him there with the kids. Lexi took right to him. My mom and i were back in no time with mulch, hanging baskets, flowers and soil. It looked like the rain was on it's way in so we worked quickly only to realize that we didn't have enough mulch. Little Robbie was outside helping us lay the "red dirt" (as he likes to call it) and quickly pointed out that we needed more. I couldn't believe it. I had to run back to home depot and pick up SIX more bags of that stuff! thank goodness the rain held off and we were able to finish up everything. I never ever thought i would be as sore as i am from all that work. I have been moving slow ever since. I have been doing my best to remember to water the new plants everyday. But they don't look to happy to be in my yard. I think they are scared i might kill them. I am going to do my best not to :)

thanks mom and daddy! love you both so much. come visit again soon. The kids are asking for you. Dad, i think Lexi just wants you for your fries :)

here is a picture of our yard.

Mac vs. PC Parody

there are a few different video's, but this is my personal favorite

My "new" baby

denis and i are crazy about mac's. he has several times at church compared mac's and PC's to christianty. a "PC" christian is the kind of person that does just enough to "cut it." follows the rules and does just enough to feel good about themselves. But a "Mac" christian is the kind of person that goes above and beyond the call of duty in their walk with christ. we have even played videos like the one above that spoof of the pc/mac commercial. so special... i always point out that the only computer i have had is a PC, and he has had a Mac for almost three years...until now. denis just recently received another mac laptop through his job this week, so that means that i now have his old computer!!! i am so excited. i love using his for my picture and what not, but it is not very often at all that i do. i am really excited about it. here is a picture of it.




i would like to say that now that i have my own laptop that i will blog more often, but lets not get to carried away! :)

Heather and Tony

i am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my heather is now Mrs. D'Imperio...so wild. Here are a few pictures from her beautiful day. I love you both so much! Thank you so much for letting me be a part of it! Congrats you crazy kids!

New York, New York

It was a whirlwind of a weekend... lets just say i am in no rush to go back to the fast pace life of a new yorker... But we did have a wonderful time wandering the big city and seeing the sights. We screamed "tourist" by the way we walked around, map in tow and camera's draped around our necks taking pictures at every exciting corner. The main reason for our trip was so that Denis and Andrea could go to the Met to see the opera. Matt and I had no desire to PAY to sit through 3 hours of singing in another launguage. So Matt and i walked around Central Park and some of the sights near it while they enjoyed their opera.
Here is a list of some of the things we saw on our 2-day mini vacation
Empire State Building
Times Square
Library
Cathedrial (can't remember which one...)
Tiffany's
Rockefeller Center
Central Park
Bloomigdales
AFO Schwarts
Little Italy
Canal Street
Lincoln Center
Metropolitan Opera House
Julliard
Ground Zero
the inside of a cab :)
Broadway

I am sure i have missed a few...but you get the picture :)

Here are a few pictures of our trip...well actually..there is alot...

I......

I am: clumsy and at times forgetful...denis says i need medication because i forget things alot...good thing rachel gave me the gift of time management for our birthday!
I think: that The Office should be the only show on TV.
I know: who i am :)
I want: Rachel to move to Rochester! SO BADLY!!!!!!!!!!
I wish: there were more hours in the day
I hate: when I am in the "almost asleep" stage and I dream that I fall or trip and then my body reacts to it and I jolt awake...it makes me so mad.
I miss: dorm life. it may sound silly but i miss the unpredictability, the late night chats with my roommates and craziness that came with it all.
I fear: failure.
I feel: things deeply. Even the smallest of things i feel deep. right now i feel like this is a weakness of mine, but maybe someday i will learn to use it to make me stronger.
I hear: children out in the hallway
I smell: nothing...i am very stuffed up.
I crave: Mountain dew...on a daily basis. I think i am addicted, but admitting that is the first step, right?
I search: for the meaning in everything. sometimes that gets me into trouble because i am searching for things that aren't really there
I regret: never taking piano lessons
I love: my husband. with every fiber of my being
I ache: when i see someone eating alone. i just want to sit and talk with them.
I care: alot :)
I always: hit my snooze alarm. sometimes just once, other times i will hit it for an hour. no lie
I am not: what you would call a tall person
I believe: Jesus paid it all, so all to him i owe
I sing: everyday. every single day. it's part of my DNA
I cry: every time denis and i argue. He says it's an unfair advantage, he can't argue with a crying woman.
I fight: the urge to eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I write: as often as i can in my journal. It's one of my favorite things to do.
I win: whenever i play checkers with Rachel :)
I lose: whenever i play laser tag because i laugh every time i get tagged.
I never: exaggerate...ever...never ever :)
I confuse: people when my sister walks around our church 5 months pregnant. not happy times for me...
I listen: for God's voice
I can usually be found: at church :)
I need: to go and visit my parents SOON!
I am happy about: being a part of my godchildren's lives.
I hope: that someday i can be as great of a mom and mine is.

i would like to see Rachel and Amy fill this out :)

My Best Friends Shower

In just a few weeks, my best friend will join the married club! YEAH!!!! I am so excited for her and her big day. Kelly (a fellow bridesmaid) and I worked ALMOST through the night to throw a bridal shower for heather a few weeks back. (i can't seem to keep up with this blog these days...) It was a wonderful day, not to mention extreemly hot out. We had a great turn out of people. We played some of my favorite bridal games which included:
*20 questions (questions all about the bride) the funniest part of the whole game was when heather's mom got the question "What town did the bride grow up in" wrong. poor thing. she really took some heat for that.
*fun facts (a game where everyone writes a fun fact about themselves on a card and then heather has to figure out whose fact it is) She actually did really well.
*purse game (we had a list of 12 items, who ever had the most items in their purse won)
*bridal bingo
*keepsake cards- everyone recieved a card and envolope, on the outside of each envolope it said something like FIRST CHRISTMAS, or FIRST BABY, or ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY. there where a few other milestone events on them as well. Then you wrote a note on the card for them to open on that day. We put them all in a keepsake box for heather to read on those days. she better wait!!!

We laughed and ate and had a great time. Heather got alot of great gifts for her new home.

here are a few pictures.









I love you Heather! can't wait for the big day!!!!!!!!!