Laura Lucille Belanger Pemberton

Our dear and beloved Nana passed away this morning. We are so, so sad, but are rejoicing in the fact that she is no longer in pain and that she is with her heavenly Father.

(Isaac, Isaac's mom Lynn, and Nana at our wedding rehearsal, September 19, 2008)

She battled breast cancer about 30 or more years ago, and more recently colon cancer. She was diagnosed shortly before our wedding in 2008, but didn't tell us till after our honeymoon so she would not burden us. And truly that is who is was: a person who always put others above herself, and always looked for opportunities to be God's hands and feet in this world.

Nana was born in Worchester, MA. (incidentally also the home of Holy Cross, my dad's alma mater). She served in the Navy as a dental technician during World War II, and that is how she met Isaac's grandfather. They married and had 3 children together, along with another child from Isaac's grandfather's first marriage (his wife died of cancer at a very young age). Nana spent a good amount of time raising Isaac's mom and siblings by herself while his grandfather was on various deployments. They eventually moved back to Tennessee and finished raising their family there.

Nana has taught me so much about love, acceptance, and patience. She was so wise about so many things. Any time I would talk to her about a struggle I was having, she would listen intently and tell me I had plenty of time to make decisions or to find my path and not to worry. God wasn't in a hurry and neither should I be. I can't tell you what a profound impact that made on me. I'm used to wanting to decide, act, and move on NOW (often with not very good results). And she encouraged me to trust the process and listen to how God might be leading me. But above all, there was no hurry.

We are heading to TN in the next few days for her funeral. It will be a bittersweet time, but we will all especially be thankful this Thanksgiving for this amazing woman. Grandparents are seriously one of life's most important gifts. And I am even luckier that I got to call her Nana, even though I just met her a little over 3 years ago.

Mark's 4 Month Visit

I took Mark in for his 4 month visit today. He is 4 months and a week old. I can hardly believe it! He continues to be such a sweet baby, and I am so incredibly thankful for this gift. Mark's stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 11 1/2 ozs. 80th percentile--he's gained 9 lbs since birth!
Length: 27 inches, 96th percentile--he's grown 6 inches since birth!

Mark also got 2 injections--4 vaccines in all, and 1 oral vaccine. He did so well, he didn't even cry during the first shot. The next one was a bit more difficult, but I calmed him down in about a minute. What an amazing baby! My mom came up to visit this afternoon since Isaac is on a business trip this week. She enjoyed holding him although he was definitely a little "off." I finally took off his outfit to check him out, and his poor little left thigh was all red and angry. No wonder he was out of sorts! We gave him some tylenol, and I fed him... and soon he was back to his normal, sweet self. He's snoozing on the couch next to me right now.

Mark has to be one of the greatest joys of my entire life. He is smiling and laughing so much now, and I enjoy being with him so much. He getting really good at holding small toys, and he's practicing getting them into his mouth. It's amazing to see the connections he is making and how much he is developing. He is growing so quickly, I can hardly believe he is the same tiny baby I brought home from the hospital 4 months ago.

We are so grateful to God for giving us this precious child. So I'll leave you with a picture we took a couple weeks ago in his bumbo chair. This outfit doesn't even fit him anymore, but it's a cute one my SIL Cathy gave us.


Have a great week all.

Day off

Hi all. It's Veteran's Day, and I have a day off! One of the luxuries of working for a bank. Mark's daycare is open, but he's at home with me... at least for now. I may take him in for a few hours later so I can get some errands done. We'll see. It's really nice just to have him home with me! : )

I've had a tough week mentally and emotionally. Every so often I go through these "crises" of thought... feeling like I'm not doing what I should be doing and that I need a career change. Seriously, I will spend hours agonizing, praying, hoping, thinking, weighing what I need to do with my life. And then it will pass a bit--either over fear, or exhaustion, or just busyness--and then I wonder what I got myself so worked up about.

We had a great speaker at church on Sunday, a youth pastor from Nashville, TN. He was talking about how the church can serve as our extended family... and how we can fill in the gaps in each others' lives. It was very inspiring. Mark DeVries has a heart for helping people bridge the generational gap. One of the things I love about my church is that there are people of every age. The church probably skews a little older, but many people my age and joining as well, and that's been so encouraging. The church has truly been Isaac and my extended family. Case in point: our pastor and his wife--also my sister's next door neighbor--baby sat for us on Saturday while we went out to dinner with some friends. I know how busy they must be. And it was such a blessing to know they would take time out of their lives to serve us.

Anyway... it all makes me want to spend more of my time and energy reaching out and loving other people. I spent a little time this morning writing some notes to people I love and am thinking about. While the internet is a wonderful thing, I don't think it replaces the art of a hand written note! : ) I'm sure I'll keep going round and round about "career" crises, but the good news is that I have plenty of time.

Well, it's time to feed the baby bird. Will write more later.

Isaac's First Marathon

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. It's been a little crazy around the Johnson household. But we've had a good start to fall.

Isaac ran his first marathon on Halloween. He completed the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC in under 5 hours with a very bad cold. In fact, I wasn't even sure he was going to run on Sunday till he woke up that morning and put on his running shoes! He did so well, and my niece Haley and I really enjoyed chasing him around the city to see him at different points in the race. Here he is at mile 17. At this point in the race, he was running along the National Mall. We were almost beside the National Monument here.


My sister Kathleen was generous enough to keep Mark for me while I went into DC to cheer Isaac on. With all the traffic we had on Saturday, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the stroller on the metro. Saturday was the rally with John Stewart and Stephen Colbert and the metro was completely packed! We waited in line for 30 minutes just to purchase a metro ticket. Oh well. We enjoyed seeing all the signs people made. It turned out the metro was just fine on Sunday. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

Haley and I probably walked 6 miles on Sunday following Isaac around the course. We saw him at mile 17, mile 20, and then again at the finish. The marathon ends in Arlington National Cemetery at the Iwo Jima monument. The finish is on a very steep hill, and it was absolutely unbelievable to see all the people finishing. I ran this marathon in 2006 but honestly can't remember much about the finish except that I was REALLY REALLY glad to be done. : )

I am so proud of Isaac's accomplishment! He got a really nice race shirt and medal. Here is a picture of Isaac at the finish line. We were separated by a huge fence to keep the racers separate from the crowd.


And here is a picture of Haley, Isaac, and me after we linked up after the race.

Haley will turn 12 years old in January! I can hardly believe it! It was so nice to spend time with Haley this past weekend. She came with us into the city on Saturday to pick up Isaac's race packet too. So we got to spend some really good time together. She is such a sweet girl, and is training for a 5k race with Girls on the Run in December. How awesome is that!?

I want to post more pictures from the weekend, but for now I'll leave you with a very sweet picture of Mark with Isaac. This was taken at Kathleen's house in Burke, Va. I LOVE this picture!!!

Hard to find time

Hi all. Sorry my posts have been so sporadic. I'm still trying to get the hang of working full time and juggling a sweet little baby, marriage, and other things. But I wanted to document a couple things, so I'll do it bullet style:

• Mark continues to grow like a weed. He's laughing and smiling so much! I LOVE it. And he's started to grab for things. You can tell his little brain is working really hard to get a toy from his hand to his mouth. We're not there quite yet. But, it is so neat to see him learn and develop.
• Isaac is 2 weeks away from the Marine Corps Marathon. He has been training so hard for the last 6 months and I am so proud of him. Can't wait to head to DC to spend time with Kathleen and her family, and cheer Isaac on. I did the MCM in 2006, so it will be neat to be there as a spectator.
• Not much running going on here, or exercise of any kind. I will try to revisit in a couple weeks. But for now, I'm just trying to get through our days and spend time with Isaac and Mark. I'm signed up for a 5 mile race on Thanksgiving day, so we'll see how that goes. I guess I can always walk! (It's a hilly course.)

That's all the time for now. Have a good day!

Smiling!

Mark has been smiling since about 6 weeks of age. But we've struggled to capture these smiles on camera. It's like every time we get the camera out, he gets all serious. : ) But we finally captured a couple smiles over the weekend. Here are a couple for your viewing pleasure. The first was taken at our church on Friday night. Our Sunday school class served dinner to several homeless families that spent the week at the church. Mark loved all the people.


The next picture was taken last night. Mark isn't sitting up yet, but we propped him up on the couch next to the boppy pillow. His aunt Anna gave him this t shirt, "Swimming with friends." (Sorry for the diaper in the picture... we wanted to capture the smile before he got serious on us again!)

I LOVE his smiles... truly they make our day. I know I'm biased, but goodness, this is one cute baby!

Have a great week!

Mark is 3 Months Old!

How time flies! I can hardly believe that Mark is already 3 months old. We don't have a dr's appt this month, so I don't know his length and weight... although I'm guessing he's well over 15 lbs at this point. He's also really long. We'll go back to the dr. in mid November, so I'll update you with official stats then.

I've been back at work a little over a week. I have today off for Columbus day, so I'm thrilled to have a day at home with Mark. Unfortunately, Isaac has to work, so he's missing out on the fun. : ( Working and juggling home has been really challenging. I hope it gets easier over time. Last week was really, really hard. I feel like I'm running and going non-stop from about 6:30 am to 8:00 pm each day. Pumping, making bottles, packing Mark's things for daycare, packing lunches, dropping off at daycare, worrying about him while he's at daycare, dealing with the stress of being back at work (still really struggling to deal with my job), etc. It's exhausting! I know tons of people do this every day. But honestly, I can't see myself doing this forever.

Maybe if I liked my job more this wouldn't be quite as challenging? I have been so surprised, though, that work has been so hard, so quickly. I am still struggling to feel like I am valued and liked. I know that may sound crazy to some of you that know me personally. And so you can imagine how difficult this is for me. I applied for a couple jobs within my company before I went on maternity leave. And it's definitely created ill-will with my managers, etc. They've pretty much told me that I have to rebuild their confidence and trust... and that feels so, so yucky to me. If I was happier in my job, I wouldn't have felt the need to apply for other jobs. And now I'm being punished for doing so. UGH.

I've recently started looking into licensing requirements for my counseling degree. Things have changed a bit, but it may help me in the long run. I am toying with the idea of taking the licensing exam in April (it's only given twice a year). I am definitely going to have to dust off my notes since it's been 5 years since I've studied this stuff on a regular basis. But, I'm guessing I can pass the exam if I try.

So, stay tuned for updates on the job front. I really, really need your prayers for wisdom, peace, and courage.