Scooped Again

By now I suspect most of you have heard that President Hinckley passed away tonight. I just IM'ed the news to the Arvada clan and learned I had been scooped by Amy. We will miss him.

Moreover, on one other related note, we went to desnews.com to "read all about it" only to get...nothing. So we had to turn to the SL Trib and its article prominently reporting how he promised when the 2002 Olympics came that "everyone could get a drink here."

Can you pass along my frustration that the website was down, Keith? Or am I going to have to write to the editor?

Viva Mexico!!

It's official...I'm going to Mexico next month with the charity that I am going to do the book drive for. They take trips down there every month or so to do work for the orphanages that they support and spend time with the kids. I found out officially last night that I need to raise money to go, so I'm starting with you...my favorite people in the world! :) Now, please keep in mind that I will also be coming to you when I start doing the book drive, so don't put all of your charitable eggs into one basket! If any of you are willing/able to donate some money for my trip, I would be ever so grateful! I'm supposed to raise $100, but also have to pay a $100 registration fee, so I'm shooting higher than $100. I'll take whatever you can give me...$5.00, $10.00, whatever! And if donating money for my trip to Mexico isn't in your budget right now, I totally understand, and hope you'll just pray that I survive camping on the beach (not exactly my cup of tea!). Gracias in advance! :D

Keep Christmas with You

Reunion News

From Karen:
I'm using my "blogging buddy" to help me post a message again because when Amy was home for Christmas, she tried to figure out what our problem is and she said that we're still not "authorized contributors" on the blog.

It looks like Glacier National Park is a GO for the 2009 Reunion! It sound like there's a lot to do there, no one has been there before, and it's a reasonable distance for everyone to travel...except Scott and Margie, but they're willing to make the trip. We'll go ahead and use the payment plan that Scott suggested. It will probably be better to have one person in charge of the money because I'm sure we'll have to make a deposit at some point...Dad will be the banker. (I hope we can trust him with his sweater fettish!) So, the first installment will be due by Jan. 31st!!

Amy's co-worker, Patrick, saw our calendar from the last reunion and said that he wants to be a Johnson. We are so lucky to have such a close-knit, loving family.

We love you all!
Karen

Tractor Sledding

Two videos and a few pictures of Riley and her cousins sledding at Great Grandma Madsen's Farm. Riley thought this was the coolest thing, ever!

1st Ever JFRF

I think you're definitely onto something with the JFRF, Grandma. And although I hate to admit it, because your math works to my own family's advantage, I don't know that the exact solution you proposed is completely fair yet.

Seems like a fairer solution would be to have the base rate be maybe more like $16.00 for each of the people you mentioned, with an additional $4.50 for each member of the boys' families (the ones with kids).

This particularly strikes me as more equitable considering that the solution you propose will result in a situation where some of the individual contributors will be sharing rooms or even beds with one or more "roommates" (possibly loud snorers at that!), despite having paid just as much as the families, who'll be eating more food and presumably getting at least their own room (or more than one split rooms, albeit with some of their own loud snorers, too).

I think a "middle-ground" solution that shares the burden but also does take into account family size and still gets us to the same total amount would be a good compromise. The split I have proposed above is only one possible way to split the load...the split could be designed to require either more or less money from the families with kids, depending on the group's perceptions of fairness.

Below follows the math I did. I based my calculation on my best understanding of how Grandma and Grandpa arrived at their original JFRF proposal. The main place where I made an assumption was that I understood from Grandma’s note (and my attempt to re-create Grandma and Grandpa's math seemed to support this conclusion) that Grandma and Grandpa would be contributing a double payment. If I misunderstood, I can easily change my spreadsheet to adjust for any inaccuracies in my assumptions.

Thanks for the good idea, Grandma. What does everyone think of it? The Pittsburgh Johnson are on board as long as everyone agrees and we can find a solution that's just.

Scott