More Joys!

I have to admit it's hard to think of 3 joys a day when not much is happening in my life these days. (I guess I could count that as a joy, since you should see my calendar for November and December. Can you say BUSY?)

It was nice to have a day off on Monday to celebrate getting back to a normal schedule again. I slept in, got some things picked up around the house, watched some TV, played on the computer, mostly just took a day for myself. It helped that it snowed like crazy, and the roads were awful, that I was able to stay home as long as possible. I did have to take Tyler to an ortho appointment in the afternoon. It took me 45 minutes to go 3 miles in the car. (If I was walking that would be about right, probably slightly faster!) Tyler even commented that he could have gotten there quicker if he walked, but it was oh so cold...BRRRR...

On Tuesday I was able to go to lunch in Bountiful with a couple of good friends I met on a yahoo group a few years ago. We get together once in a while to catch up. It was still snowing and I was afraid the roads would be terrible but once I got out of my neighborhood it wasn't too bad.
This is me, Sheri and Bridgette. They are sisters. I met Sheri first and then found out that Bridgette lives closer to me so I end up seeing Bridgette more often. They are scrapbooking junkies and have all the cool toys. They've been to my overnight retreats, too.


These kids belong to Bridgette and Sheri. Kyle is the baby in the carseat (he's about 4 months old and Bridgette's baby), Owen is Sheri's (he was our photographer. He did a pretty good job, I must say!), Sadie is also Sheri's and then there's Katrina who belongs to Bridgette. (This little girl is a spitfire. She is so cute, those cheeks...I could just eat her! But...she was running around the restaurant and out of our sight most of the time. As soon as she was corralled near us she would take off again. With a face like that who could get mad! Oh...she is trouble!) I was so glad I was not the mom and could just laugh at her antics!!! Hee hee!

When I got home from lunch I went downstairs to my scraproom. (It's been a while since I've been down there to work on a project! I ended up scanning and uploading our most recent family pictures to the computer. Here they are...
The Barnes Family. We had a big one printed to hang over our fireplace.

Group Hug! This one would have been perfect if we could see Tyler's face better. I love Jared's expression in this one!

Eric and Carolyn Can you believe we've been married over 19 years? Unbelievable!

The kiddos!

I am so happy with the way these turned out. The photographer did a great job. I'll post the ones we had done of the kids, maybe tomorrow.

I also made some cute "Thank You" cards for my 3-Day Walk donors. (I'm slow getting these out because I was so crazy busy during the holidays.) It was so fun to get creative again. I count that as one of my joys in life. Here's a picture...


Today I had the joy of going back to work! It really is a joy! I taught a 3rd grade class and it went pretty well. We had a conversation in the teacher's lounge at lunch that all the kids seem to be wound up, which is a surprise because that was all supposed to be over after Christmas. There were times today that my kids were a little out of control but not too bad. I will teach them again tomorrow so I hope everything goes well. The school had a pretty cool assembly in the afternoon with a magician who encouraged/reminded the kids to keep reading for the school-wide goal to read over 2 million minutes this school year. I think they are about 1/2 way there. Zach was called up to the stage to be a helper. They did a trick with toilet paper (of all things), so Zachary can proudly say he ate toilet paper!!!

Well, that about catches me up to today. I'm sure I'll be back with some more, hopefully tomorrow...