Wacky Wednesday- Rachelle Johnson

Rachelle JohnsonTitle: Girls Youth Coordinator (7-12 yrs)Email: rachelle@hopecenterforkids.orgExtension: 1010
Rachelle Johnson was raised in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where she went to high school and became involved in HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America). She then went to the University of the Nations in Kona, Hawaii, where she studied medical missions. During college, she teamed up with YWAM and helped serve and study in Japan and the Philippines. Other international mission trips include: China, Taiwan, Jamaica, Fiji, Mexico and Israel. After graduation, Rachelle came back to Council Bluffs where she worked in nursing and performed in-home health care for 3 1/2 years. After hearing a sermon by Pastor Ty, Rachelle felt led to work with the youth at the Hope Center for Kids. She began as Volunteer Coordinator, and now works as Youth Coordinator for girls ages 7-12. Rachelle also helps lead the Hope Center's Mission Squad.

Too Many Hats

Mother, friend, spouse, employee, manager, chef, taxi driver, counselor, maid, partner, sister, daughter, mediator. These are just a few of the hats that women have to wear and it makes me wonder how they do it. Is it possible to wear these hats and to actually fit in all of them or do we attempt to put them on, only to have them slide down over our eyes, making it impossible to move forward? This is somewhat a rhetorical question because I don't think anyone truly has the answer. We attempt to wear multiple hats at the same time but often find it impossible or at least feel that one hat is bigger than all the others therefore becoming our dominant guide for the moment. No matter how hard we try to fill each of these roles, I can't help but feel that there are too many which leads us to perform a half-assed job. As females, I think we look around at other women and assume that they are doing a great job at filling their hats which leads us to compare and unfortunately not meet up to our internal standards. Do other people place these hats on our heads and do they judge us on our ability to perform the expected duties? Again, a rhetorical question. Maybe nobody sees these hats but us. Other people may just look at us and see a woman. Sometimes I feel like taking all these hats, throwing them into the air, screaming like a banshee and running to hills before anyone can catch me. Unfortunately I think if it wasn't hats we were trying to fill, it would be shoes.

Flashback Friday - Tubing

So I had this crazy experience the other day. We have had some random disposable cameras lying around the house that I decided to take in and get developed. We had no idea what we would find because nobody could remember even using a disposable camera in the past several years. Well it obviously had been quite awhile since these pictures were taken. About two winters ago we took the kids tubing at Soldier Hollow, which is a total blast and these pictures are a complete blast from the past. Brett and I look exactly the same but it was a shock how much the kids have changed.

Monika is so short in this picture. I swear she's grown over 6 inches since this was taken.

Spencer looks so young and sweet. It's amazing what 2 years can do and how much somebody can grow up. He looks like a little boy, not the young man he's turned into.

I love this picture of the kids. They look so happy and they even look like they enjoy each other's company a little. Ahh, the good ol' days.

A darling photo of Monika looking so young and innocent. Two years and raging hormones later she is still darling but it is much harder to catch her looking so happy and excited to be doing something with her family.

The Valentines Box

So many of you may remember the importance of the "Valentine's Box" in Elementary school. Every year students are asked to make a box and home and bring it to school to collect all their goodies and love letters. Well this year Brett and Monika worked together to make her box. It is always nice to see the two of them working together to complete a project. They cut pictures and words from magazines and pasted them on a box that Monika had covered in tinfoil. Monika created a design for each side of the box and then Brett pased them onto her box.

As you can see it turned out quite cute and creative; if I do say so myself. I think they were both very proud of their work and I was just content to take pictures of two of my favorite people working together.
Last but not least I have to show you the beautiful flowers that Brett surprised me with. They were delivered to my office while I was out on a visit. I wasn't even going to go back to the office but at the last minute decided to run back in there and make sure I didn't have any urgent phone calls to return. As you can imagine, I was completely thrilled to find a beautiful bouqet of purple flowers (Brett's favorite color) waiting for me on my desk. What can I say, I love that man!

My Purse Has Been Tagged

Ok, so I'm really embarrassed!! I woke up this morning and thought that I would read some blogs. I like to see if anybody has updates. Well I start to read Natalie's blog and my first thought was "Oh dear, I should really clean out my purse because I could be next". Well unfortunately I continued to read the whole thing and found out that I had already been tagged. So the contents of my purse are very random and somewhat odd but here goes. My wallet of course which is so full (of reciets not money) that it can barely close, my work cell phone, and my keys. Those are the items that are pretty normal and I would expect to find in anybodys purse but the rest is where you have to wonder what is going on inside my head, let alone my purse. I had two prescription bottles for prescriptions that I haven't taken in months, a tampon belonging to Shannon, two business cards for local cab companies, a nail file, flower drops, one hard candy (this of course was thrown away), two AA batteries (I don't know if they work), my fishing license reciept, a lighter, a small bottle of lotion, presciption cream for Monika's skin, a travel salt and pepper shaker, 7 (yes 7) lipgloss, and about $3 in change at the very bottom. Of course last but not least the darling picture of my kids taken about 10 years ago that Brett happened to throw in there yesterday. So now that I've laid it all out for you, don't spend too much time analyzing what it might mean. Since I know I'm not the only crazy one, I am going to tag Jessica, Carmen, Tiffany and Shannon.