joy in January

selfie with Annie

I went to the barn yesterday for a make up lesson.  Since it's winter there is a unpredictability to our riding dates.  If it's too icy it's too dangerous.  No one wants a 1500lb horse slipping and landing on them.  Today my regular lesson is rained out so I am happy I went yesterday.  We had a group lesson where I learned that my poor riding is actually remarkably poor.  Really I love to go and groom her and get all ready and then I am just as happy to plod along a trail at a walk.  Annie's an old lady like me, she likes the plodding as well. But we must do more and learn more.  I have really bad balance and because I have done such a stellar job taking care of my temple I am out of shape and weak.  I am working on it though.

Rob and I got fit bits, I got mine for Christmas, he got his a little before.  It's very interesting.  You wear a braclet on your wrist, it tracks you, how far you walked that day, how many flights of stairs you went up, how long you slept, if you had active minutes. You can also input your food and it counts calories burned and will tell you how much to eat depending on your inputed height and weight and goals.  Anyway, I had not worn it to a lesson yet and I was really curious what it would say.  I know it's a work out because I get hot and sweaty and feel like it is.   So to put it in perspective sometimes I walk the dogs and it will say I walked 1.5- 3.0 miles depending on the path we choose, but there might only be 5 active minutes in that time.  The most active minutes I've gotten on any day previous is 31. My goal is 30 a day but I have rarely made it.  One evening I was about 800 steps shy of my step goal & 5 active minutes shy so I stood in front of the TV and jogged in place.  I thought 5 minutes would catch me up.  Nope.  I jogged around for 15 minutes before I got 5 active minutes recorded.  I don't know what qualifies as an active minute.  So yesterday I checked my wrist before mounting.  When I got off an hour later I had 45 active minutes logged.  It's a lot of work up there :) But the time goes fast and I love it, when I am not scared.  

After school Grace and I went cookie selling.  She is now half way to her goal.  Yay! They aren't hard to sell because lots of people want them, but you still have to go knock doors.

Last night was Relief Society.  It was a nice meting. The theme was Joy in January!  Everyone brought a $5 or less item that brings them joy.  We had a basket with everyone's name in it.  So someone stood up and shared their item, then they drew a name and gifted the item to them.  That person then stood up and told about theirs and so on and so forth.  Alecia brought Frizzante from Wegmans, and I received it.  Yay, the children are very excited to try it.  I am excited to go to Wegman's some day. I brought bath and body hand soap, warm vanilla cream flavor or something like that.  Alissa got it.  It was fun to see what everyone brought.  Then we had a panel of "experts", which I question the term since I was on it.  Luckily we opened it up to group discussion.  People wrote down questions and we and the group answered them.  It was very nice, I always love to hear peoples perspectives and tips for living life and finding joy. 

Whenever I hear joy as a topic it always reminds me of my friend Marcia.  I was thinking about her last night and the different friends I have around the country, and the different wonderful women I have known and have been my friends and have learned from and loved.  It's been a wonderful gift in my life to have the association of the Relief Society.

packages

the prize

Last year the children started trading names with one another for Christmas.  This year Dani had Hannah and Greg had Ethan.  A couple of weeks before Christmas D told me she was going to mail the package, I suggested (stupidly it turns out) that since we were leaving for Ohio several days before Christmas she should mail it there.  So she did.  Then the mail suffered a terrible seizure or something and packages around the world began to travel at a snails pace.  Our package arrived the day after we left Ohio.  Which was a good two weeks after she sent it.
As fortune would have it, or true to form, which ever perspective you prefer, we forgot a few items when we packed to leave.  Nana took Dani's package and our forgotten items and put them in the mail and two short weeks later…in the middle of the night, it arrived at our doorstep.  Are those drones delivering mail already?  It seriously was the strangest thing.  Rob and the kids came home last night from scouts/YW after 9pm, no package.  I walked out the door to turn on the car at 5:50am for seminary and there was a package.  Midnight delivery?

Anyway Grace and I opened the big box and got our stuff out and put away and then placed the gift on the table.  Grace went to school.  I went upstairs to shower/etc. I heard a lot of paper rustling and wondered what the dogs could possibly be into.  Being unable to immediately investigate it was probably 15 minutes before I got down stairs and found this mess.  What? on earth.  This little puppy sniffed out a treat through a cute wrapping, two boxes and a plastic bag. And she opened it.  She could not get the plastic all off though.

the perp

Happy News!

new sushi place

It is freezing cold today, a low of 9 I think, a high of 20's. Brrr!  The kids had a two hour delay to the start of school, which is always oh so welcome.  We love to have the extra time in the morning.  The pipes at the high school broke and so they couldn't go today at all.

Jodie and Aubrey and Hannah and I went to a new sushi place to celebrate!  It was yumm-O!

Before that Han and I got to Skype with Penny and Dani.  and…wait for it, this is great! They are coming to visit!!! Next week!!! Can.Not.Wait!!

Skype this morning

nice start to the week

brrrr

It's been a nice day.  I got a lot of loads of laundry done, which is satisfying.  I drove the seminary car pool this morning, and the rest of the week, which gets us up and going early early.  Good for the chore doing:)

Yesterday was my good friend Colleen's birthday.  We had a lunch for her at Panera Bread, we had 12 moms and a couple of toddlers and one baby.  It was lots of fun.

In the afternoon Grace and I headed out to the barn.  Proper gear makes all the difference.  I wore my giant white snowman coat and my new warm winter boots and it was awesome!  Grace said she wasn't cold until she got off.  It's a lot of work up there and I usually work up a sweat so I am not surprised that she stayed warm.  Plus she has some good gear too.

Now we are doing homework watching Narnia, fixing dinner  okay, really waiting for the pizza to arrive, and then we'll have FHE.

saying hi to Hobbit

weekend recap

Saturday: Dad went to work. Ethan played with John. Grace played with Arden. I went grocery shopping. Hannah watched Dr. Who.  Not all those things at the same moment of course.

Saturday night: Hannah and I went to the stake dance.  She to dance, me to chaperone.  I forgot to take any pictures but she looked very pretty.  I googled church dance images however nothing looked remotely like what a stake dance looks like so….  Jodi and I drove a car full of kids up, on the way home we stopped at McDonalds because everyone was starving.  The YM were in charge of the food and for some reason decided that a hot chocolate bar was enough. (shoulder shrug).  Anyway we got home late late and we were tired.  Everyone had a good time though and the wards who decorated did such a nice job! It looked very winter wonderlandish! Loved it!!

Today, being the first Sunday of the year, we got our new church time and the kids met their new teachers.  I love the 1pm.  We were very well rested when we got to church and it didn't even matter that we were out late.  Or that we had quite the interesting night.  Z woke us up in the middle of the night to take her out, which is very unusual.  We thought she didn't feel well.  I took her out and sat on the porch step in my winter wear watching her pick her way through the snow looking for a good spot. R, in the mean time was searching out a fire alarm beep that started at the same time.  Neither of the two actives were ones we wanted to be doing at 3 am.  We went back to bed and some time later I woke up to the sound of throwing up.  It was Z and it was all over my pillow.  I was not happy.
We got that cleaned up and got back to sleep and then next time we woke up it was much later in the morning than we normally sleep, the house was quiet except for Lu in her room making bracelets and watching Disney.

Fast and Testimony meeting was very nice.  The children were happy with their new teachers and we came home to have a yummy dinner together and to watch Star Trek.

bonus day

So we did have a snow day after all!  It snowed a couple of inches, not much but enough to close school in Southern Maryland.  The kids played outside in the morning.  They did some sledding and some snow ball throwing.  Ziva enjoyed the snow too.  She's in the above picture but it's hard to see because only her black ears really show against the snow.

In the afternoon we loaded up in the car and drove to Dover Saddlery, where R bought me some amazing winter riding boots, and Lu some chaps so we would be warm during the coming months.  Spoiled girls :)  We went to Red Robin for linner  (something between lunch and dinner eaten at 2pm in this case) then drove home in time for Ethan's first indoor game of the season.

The team played well and the score was 13-0 at the end.

Now we are home and the boys are gathering snacks for the Ohio State game.

snowing

it's 11:45 pm.  Snow was predicted but all we had was rain all evening so I wasn't hopeful.  I was reading my book, the kind you can't put down.  Rob was sleeping next to me when he sat up and asked me to turn off the light because then they wouldn't see me jump out of the helicopter, whatever.  He has the weirdest dreams.  I did turn off the light though and went to sit on the side of the bathtub to finish.  When I finished and closed the book, happy for a happy ending I thought "I wonder..." and peeked out the window.  Snow! I couldn't believe it.  Maybe no school tomorrow.  Maybe another day home with my kidlets, we might see a movie, we might make pancakes.  Then I was too happy to go to sleep so I tiptoed to Hannah's room expecting to find her snoozing...nope, she was awake.
"Hannah, it's snowing!" I whispered!
"What!!" then we both did a happy dance.  "Do you think there will be school tomorrow?" she asked. Ever the responsible one I said I don't know...but I really I think not.
"Why are you awake?"
"I can't sleep, you haven't updated your blog in a couple of days and it's annoying, I like to read about what I've been doing."

So, like a good mom, sitting on my daughters bed, past midnight on a school night, we are whispering and giggling and she is drawing and I am blogging.  The picture, fyi, is a random one from her hard drive.

It's like a little snow present!

Speaking of presents today, or yesterday I guess, is was Clayton's birthday.  I am slowly accumulating sons.  For a long time I had one, Bub.  Then I got Greg, and now Clayton.  It's a happy mother who has a bunch of boys to love.
Clayton is an awesome young man (said granny).  I am ever grateful for the happiness he brings to Jenna and the love they share.  She is really happy.
I'm not sure I know 25 things about Clayton but I'll try:
1. He is tall and blond and athletic.
2. He loves the Lord.
3. I remember meeting him for the first time in Utah and thinking how funny and kind he was, easy to be around and open.
4. He proposed to Jenna in the most romantic proposal story EVER.  The Mrs Bennett in me loves to tell the story :)
5. When he came to our house for Christmas, when he and Jenna were engaged he was so helpful and fun.
6. He did the dishes.
7.  He stood on a ladder holding a very heavy homemade chandelier on his head balancing precariously while his soon to be FIL screwed it into the ceiling.
8.  We went to hear the Lyons girls perform, and he fell asleep.  I still liked him though.
9.  He played marshmallow gun wars with Ethan.
10. He is a good student and almost done with school.
11. We are so proud of him and that he has a job secured already.  I know he will be great.
12. He is not shy.
13. I love that he tells the truth no matter how hard it is to say.
14. Sometimes he emails interesting things to me, which I enjoy.
15. He likes burgers, for the record that is also Papa's favorite food, and you can't go wrong being like Papa.
16. He has a awesome family.
17. It was super fun to meet them at the wedding and to see the love they have for each other.  It makes me happy to know that Jenna is part of that new family now.
18.  He is loud.
19. He is an eagle scout.
20. and a return missionary.
21. I remember one time talking with him and Jenna on Skype and I was telling them about a funny question I had to answer during a would you rather game.  He answered opposite from me, and J revealed something that could have been embarrassing...it would have been to me anyway, but he just laughed.  I love that he is confident and easy to joke with and doesn't get upset.
22. Those will be invaluable qualities as they live their lives together and raise a family.
23. I am happy my future grandchildren will have him as their dad.
24. He is knows the scriptures and reads them every day.
25. Happy Birthday Clayton!

Today the kids went to school.  Tomorrow who knows?
Yesterday,  Wednesday, we putzed around the house and made some brownies.

Now I am caught up.
Good night :)