When someone calls and says they'll be over in 15 minutes, you run around the house collecting empty bottles.

It's not unusual to wake up with someone new in your bed and no recollection of how they got there.

All-nighters.

Cold pizza is a fine breakfast.

If you want to eat ice cream without sharing, you have to wait to till everyone else is asleep.

The only reason you bought a dog is so you wouldn't have to mop.

A little pee on the couch never fazed anyone.

You're the designated driver every single day, but your passengers can't even buckle themselves in.

The 'Freshman 15' (or 35).

Elizabeth Hopkins, Mother and Events Manager
www.johnstonmommies.com

One of the worst feelings, I think, we have as parents is helplessness.  The degree to which we feel this emotion changes through the years. From the first days when you couldn’t seem to figure out why the baby is crying, to watching her fall as she learns to walk, this helpless emotion goes on and on through the scraped knees from learning to skate, or tears when they fight with a friend.  The older the child gets, the worse that helpless feeling of ours becomes! We stand by while she suffers her first broken heart all the way through to the mistakes they will make as they choose their direction in life.  
We can guide our children to make sound decisions; we can relay our own bad decisions, and hope they learn from our mistakes. But in the end, you can't make their life choices.  You are helpless to do anything more than guide them as they make their way in life. 


In a world of instant gratification like ours, it is difficult to teach them that there are things worth the wait.  How does one teach a child that, in life, waiting can double the joy. That going slow and steady in fact does win the race. 


Young love seems to have an extra strong hold when they are at the edge of adulthood.  Any attempt to temper the raging hormones is met with suspicion and disdain. You, the parent, of course, are trying to ruin their lives and don't understand the depth of their feelings because you were never a teen in love.  Their love story will be the exception, and you're just trying to ruin their lives.  


It seems an impossible task to make your child see that all you wish is to save them heartache, pain and regret. That you want their lives to be better and richer than your own.  A parent’s dream is to see their child happy and to reach, every goal they set for themselves.


As parents, we all do what we think is best for our kids. We listen, guide and love. We can and will raise productive children who have lives better than we could dream for them, if we just keep working at it.


Heather Garcia, Promotions Manager
www.johnstonmommies.com 
miio.com @H

JohnstonMommies' fabulous Flower Power fundraiser is drawing to a close, so if you haven't placed your order yet, now is the time! It's never too early to plan to improve your curb appeal or beautify your backyard. From begonias to tiger lilies and everything in between, Flower Power is the place for quality flower bulbs with a 100 percent money guarantee.

This fundraiser runs until March 20, 2012, and your bulbs will arrive in April and May, just in time for beautiful summer blooms. Time is running out!

Save time, money, and gas by planning your perfect garden from the comfort of your computer. Spring over to http://www.flowerpowerfundraising.com/i/t/240208/POTYYo4de7O6, and check out the wide array of lovely lilies and pretty peonies, among other bulbs. As a bonus, if you spend $40 or more, Flower Power will send you a free bag of 10 Twilight gladiolus, a $10 value.

So what are you waiting for? Don't delay: Grow with us today!

Profits made through our fundraising link go toward our chapter's operating expenses.

Photo By:  Michelle Faircloth

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This was it.  Today was the day.  For some reason, I had this weird mommy intuition that I  needed to check it again.  So I did.  I peed in a cup.  I was nervous and excited as I waited 3 minutes for the line to appear.  It did, much to my amazement and surprise.  The morning
was December 23rd, and we were hours away from loading up the car and driving through the afternoon and night to visit my parents for Christmas.  I calmly walked into the living room, sat down by my husband, whispered 'Merry Christmas' and showed him the test.  'What
is it?'  'It's a pregnancy test.'  'I don't know what that means.'  He meant the lines in the         indicator window. 'Well, let's just say I wouldn't be showing you a negative test.' We           whispered in hushed tones because his mother had spent the night and we didn't want
anyone knowing yet.  I was just a few weeks along, and we wanted to
keep this secret between us.
So now came the waiting game.  I ticked off the weeks as the blob of cells became a larger blob of cells.  I fiddled around with due dates calendars, trying to see if this baby could be  born right between his birthday and mine.  At 8 weeks, I called my OB/GYN to set up an
appointment.  I would be 10 weeks along when I went in for my first check up.  We had told just a few people.  A friend, a boss, a few people who needed to know; even our 3-year oldhad managed to keep it under wraps.  I returned home with a video of the midwife finding    the heartbeat with her doppler.  I sent it immediately to my husband.  On our way home, I   asked my 3-year old if she wanted to tell Memaw about the baby.  Though she seemed      eager to, she entered the house yelling 'Memaw, I'm not going to tell you about the baby!'  After I explained, my mother-in-law was as proud as a grandmother can be.  With all my
family living 10 hours away, I knew I wouldn't be able to tell them in person so I wanted a     fun way to let them know.  I decided to send the heartbeat video to my mom first.

I typed up a short 'Congratulations, Grandma!' message and attached the video.  Hours      later, I got a response; 'I can't open the video.' What a let-down!  I asked her to get Dad to  get it when he got home.  The next morning, I sent a quick text; 'Did Dad get the video     open?  No, he hadn't felt well when he got home.  They'd get around to it later today.  Anothersigh on my end.  What could I do?  I didn't want to badger mom about the video or she'd start wondering why it was so important to me.  So I uploaded the video directly to the internet
and sent her a link.  Can't go wrong, could it?  Apparently it could, and did.

My link was sent to her spam box.  Hours later I was left wondering why she hadn't            watched the video yet.  So I sent her another link, directly from my email to hers.  Along     with a text message to her phone to check her email.  All my bases were covered.  
It worked; an hour later I got the phone call that I'd be anticipating for over 24 hours.  My    sister had been visiting when they watched the video, so I got to talk to my sister, dad, and mom all in one phone call and got our congratulations from them all.  I asked mom to          spread around the news to cousins and aunts that I don't talk to often.  I know how proud a grandmother she is and how eager everyone is to share good news of a baby.  I called my grandparents directly.  Even though they are great-grandparents many times over, their     excitement bubbled over as I told Grandma that the baby was due just days from her own
birthday.
Today I'm 12 weeks along.  I still tear up when I watch the video of the heartbeat.  I still       smile till my cheeks hurt when I think about how much I'm going to love this baby.  And I still laugh just a little bit when I think about how hard it was just to tell my mom some good
news!


Elizabeth Hopkins, Mother and Events Manager
www.johnstonmommies.com