Bad Week

I was having a particularly bad week.  I don't mean to paint a "poor me"  picture, but I was feeling like I was all alone on this journey and that there was nobody that really cared.  After I finished showering one morning, I glanced down at the sink before wiping it out.  Imagine my surprise when this is what I found.  * Note - this photo has NOT been altered *

Absolutely amazing!  It made me realize and remember that someone was looking out for me.

But that's not all.....

Travis and I were watching TV one Friday night.  Around 10:00 p.m., the doorbell rang.  When I went to answer the door, this is what was waiting for me......

I babysat one of my friend's daughters for a few months while she tried her hand at working outside the home.  I did not want to accept payment.  I believe that there are certain times that you do things to help others out and this was one of those times.  She hung up her career after 4 months and took up creating furniture.  I loved this particular bench and she thought this would be a good way to pay me back.  Thanks, Darcie, you're the best :)

One more.  Travis home teaches the sweetest little lady, Sister Genereaux.  She ties the most beautiful quilts I have ever seen.  She is the one that made Kate her favorite blanket that she just can't get enough of.  He came home from visiting her one Sunday and handed me a quilt she had made for me with the following note attatched:

Dear Sister Barnes,

     I admire you so much.  You are so patient and kind and you are such a great example to me.

     When I saw this material I knew exactly who I should make it for.  Please accept this with all the love and warmth that is in my heart for you.

Sister Genereaux.

Talk about an emotional couple of days.  I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven and those that choose to listen and serve others.  I hope that if I ever get feeling unloved and alone again, I will be able to look back on this post and realize that someone out there has my best interest at heart.

Mixed Up

I am going on a blogging marathon during the next couple of days.  Things are definitely out of order, due to some computer problems.  I love to take pictures.  I had so many pictures on my computer that I had NO memory left.  I was frantically trying to back up my pictures when the computer crashed :(  Luckily we were able to have the pictures restored and saved to an external hard drive.  Lesson learned.  So here it goes.......

How old ARE you?

So much to catch up on, but I had to blog this today before I forgot.

I was volunteering in Emily's class yesterday.  I took Kate with me and she was being a bit stubborn.  It had been a long week for her.  The kids had early week all week long and she hadn't had a chance to take a nap.  I'm sure she was exhausted.  Anyway, she ran to the corner by the door, about 30 yards away from me.  I was watching her like a hawk, making sure she didn't try to escape out the door.  A nice lady walked in and spotted Kate in the corner.  I heard her say, "let's go find your mom", sure she was just going to bring her back to me, not really sure why she cared if she was in the corner or sitting right next to me.  She tried to hold Kate's hand and Kate refused, so she picked her up.  She started walking towards me and said, "Oh, does she belong to you?"  I quickly claimed my daughter and this woman said, "You look way too young to have children.  In fact, I thought you were a student here."

For real? 

This reminded me of a couple other incidents.

When Travis and I were newly married, we went to one of his little brother's high school football game.  When paying admission, he noticed that they only charged him for one ticket.  He told them he needed to pay for two tickets and the gentleman replied, "Junior High students get in for free."

Hmmmm.

One more..... when we were living in Roy, I had a salesman knock on my door.  When I opened the door, he said, "Hi.  Is your mother here?"  I just stood there, speechless, sure that he was trying to be charming before he made his sales pitch.  After a moment of silence, I responded, "Nope.  My mom is not here." And shut the door.

More of Gavin......

Gavin was on a roll yesterday. Here are two of my favorite conversations with my favorite 5 year old.

Travis is travelling this week in California. I was explaining to Gavin that he wouldn't see his dad for a couple of days. Here's his reply:

Gavin: "Mom, do you think they have cows in California?"

Mom: "I'm sure they do. Why do you ask?"

Gavin: "I'm just wondering if that's why they call it Cowlifornia."

:)

When Travis is out of town, I let the kids sleep in my bed with me. I fell asleep in my clothes and woke up in the middle of the night, super uncomfortable. I stumbled to the closet and grabbed the first thing I could find. It happened to be one of Trav's t-shirts. I put it on and went back to sleep. When I woke up, I saw Gavin just staring at my shirt.

Gavin: "Wow! I wish I had a shirt like that one."

Mom: "You do? Why?"

Gavin: "It has a pocket on the front. I would love a shirt with a pocket."

Mom: "Hmmm. Why?"

Gavin: "I could put all kinds of stuff in that pocket."

Mom: "Oh really? What would you put in your pocket?"

Gavin: "Oh, like a whole bunch of dice and stuff like that."

:)

Foul Mouth?

Gavin is fascinated with rhyming words. However, whatever word you ask him to rhyme for you, he always chooses a word that starts with the letter B. For example, if you ask him what rhymes with toy, he will answer boy. If you choose a word that starts with B, such as ball, he chooses a word that starts with H, as in hall. He was sharing his knowledge with us at the dinner table tonight. After several different rhyming words, he blurted out, "I know what rhymes with witch.... b%*@!#." I just about spit out my mashed potatoes. He had no idea that that was a naughty word. We all started giggling and the poor little boy started to cry. I really shouldn't think it's funny. But I do ;)

Breaking Up

I was talking to my mom on her cell phone while she was driving up to Park City on Saturday. She started losing coverage and I said, "Oh, mom, you're breaking up." The line went dead and I hung the phone up to wait for her to call me back. I glanced over at Gavin and he had the saddest looking little face I have ever seen before. When I asked him what was wrong, he asked, "Grandma and Grandpa are breaking up?"

He is so sweet! And he was very relieved when I explained that Grandma and Grandpa were sticking together :)

The Dirty Dash

I organized a team to participate in the Dirty Dash and the long awaited day finally arrived! 16 of my friends ended up running. My friend, Windy, dropped out at the last minute, so Dustin took her place. At the first of the race, there was a contest. The first one to run to a certain point up a muddy hill, back down again and slide home-run style was the winner. Guess who won? (Hint: Not me!)

Joe came up with our team name, Skid Marks, and we had some awesome shirts printed.

Here's a before shot:

Front row: Amy Gunn, Kevin Spraker, Steffanie Barnes, Kim Knudsen, Amber Barton

Back row: Maggie Arave, Dustin Barnes, Jennifer Barron, Anne Ringle, Kaylene Spraker, Jamie Moline, Shaylin Cunningham, Brittany Christensen, Gary Bowers, Joe Christensen, Shantel VanWagoner

Our race time was 9:20 a.m. We had to leave at 6:45 on Saturday morning. When we first got there it was pretty cold. When I saw this...

it made me a little bit nervous. I didn't know exactly what to expect. I definitely didn't expect to have the most fun I have EVER had!

The first obstacle was a HUGE mud hill that we had to climb up. There were tons of hay bales to jump over, walls to scale, tunnels filled with mud to crawl through, swamps to wade through, balance beams to cross (but it was more fun to crawl through the mud below), cargo net walls (this one was a little scary), rope swings. I had two equally favorite obstacles. On the first one, they had a series of blue tubes that most of the people were straddling and flopping over. My team decided to go underneath them. It was so unlike me to do something so crazy, but it was super fun! The other one was a huge blow up slide. Before going down, they squirted you with dish soap. I ran, slid on my stomach and zipped down the slide so fast. It was a blast!

Here's our group approaching the finish line. This is the same puddle of water as above. I was wishing at this point that we could have done the 10k. I was having so much fun, and I didn't want it to be over.

I absolutely LOVE this picture. We look like a bunch of sea creatures emerging from the swamp. So much fun :)

Post race portrait!

Shantel, Kim and Amber

Shay, Joe, Brittany and Jamie

Shay and Jamie

Kaylene

This is a race that encourages costumes. There were lots of crazy, creative and just plain weird ideas. I could have sat there all day long and just watched. These guys were definitely my favorites. Probably not the best costumes I saw, but they were the most fun! I was tempted to give them a big muddy hug.....

I love this picture of Jamie after her shower. Showers were available after the race, but they were ICE COLD!!! I washed myself off the best I could, but the cold water made my head hurt SO BAD! I still had mud all over my face, but there was NO WAY that I was putting my face in that water.

I had so much fun with this race. I am so grateful for such a fun group of friends. I cannot wait until next year!!!