Fun with Family

During my time off, I was able to go to nortern Illinois to visit my brother and his family. I don't get to see them often, so I was amazed by how much my niece and nephew have grown. We had such a fun time. Even though my time with them was short and I don't see them nearly often enough, I'm thankful for the time I did have. I'm very blessed with a wonderful family.

Here we are baking some brownies. They are great baking assistants!

Here I am with my favorite big brother.

Yep, he's a goofball...but you gotta love him.

And here is my gorgeous mother. My dad doesn't seem to be around when I have the camera out.

My time off has been very restful. Lots of naps, lots of time with my family and time with my Savior, which is the most important.

Fun with Friends

I bought the Dancing with the Stars workout DVD a while ago. There are two reasons. Reason number one is that I secretly would love to learn to dance. Reason number two is that I thought it would be a fun way to get exercise. Let's just say it's not Dancing for Dummies.

I really stink at it. Not just kidding you a little bit. Yep, I'm terrible at even a dancing workout.

So it's now become a fun thing to do with friends. Because I don't want to be the only one that stinks at it and I'm very glad to say that all my friends are pretty terrible at dancing as well. So I thought I'd share a few pictures of my friends looking silly. Notice there are none of me. Yes, I'm an evil friend. I did promise them the pictures would not end up on Facebook, but would make no such promise about my blog. (Insert evil laugh here.)


I think Lynn and Keri are trying to Cha-Cha-Cha.

Ooo. They're getting into it now!

I think this is when they decided they were good and we needed to start "Dancing with the Camp Stars." I don't think that's going to fly. (By the way, please ignore the bag of trash by the front door. What can I say? I'm human.)

Leavin' on a Jet Plane...

Okay, I'm not leaving on a plane, but in my Jeep. I'm taking off tomorrow morning for 2 1/2 weeks. I'm headed to my parents' for some much needed rest and relaxation. This isn't really vacation time, but a time to find some refreshment physically and spiritually.

To put it simply, I'm drained. I need to rest my body and feed my soul. Please pray for me as I take this time away. I want my heart to be in tune with God's.

I may or may not blog during this time. We'll have to see how it goes. Not that I've been great at keeping up anyway. Maybe some refreshment will give me creative ideas again.

Thanks for your prayers.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

No, it's not Christmas. It's time for Jr. Girls' Class to start up again!

Tonight was our Joy Club kick off. Our numbers were a little down in class tonight, but we hope to see them grow. It's so wonderful to be teaching these girls the truths in God's Word again. It brings such great joy to see them understand something and put it into practice.

I took just two pictures tonight, but thought I'd share them with you.

Stacey and I have been partners in crime for the last three years. I'm excited to begin the fourth year teaching with her. Carrie is joining our team this year and we are excited to have her as part of our class.

Growing Up

My sister-in-law emailed me these pictures tonight. I can't believe my niece started her first day of Kindergarten! But I guess I have to since there are pictures to prove it. My nephew was in pre-school last year at the their church, but this year he is going to the same school as Autumn. This school happens to be where my brother started off his school years. My mom also went to school there from K-12 and my grandma taught 4th grade for lots and lots of years. I guess there's a little bit of history there.

Seeing these pictures made me think of my first day of school. I remember it quite well because my dad got me to the bus stop late and had to take me in himself. Yes, I was late for my very first day of school. It has scarred me for life. Maybe that's why I still hate being late and have to be early everywhere. Hmmm. Don't worry...I forgive you, Dad.