Full of Joy

The sickie ickies have taken over my body.  Chuck and I went on a 4 day, very loooooooooong and exhausting teen retreat over a week ago, and I haven't been the same since.  The cool news is, I went skiing for the very first time! A few of the girls and I took a lesson together and really had an awesome experience.  For those of you familiar with good 'ol NEPA, we went to Elk Mountain.  Elk is particularly special in my heart because that's where I'd go with family and friends for years, but only during the Fall.  We'd go to a Fall festival there and then ride the ski lift to the top to take in the gorgeous view.   Since NEPA is where I grew up, it was very weird having my worlds collide.  Especially when we took 4 buses of teens to Clarks Summit to eat dinner.  My parents joined in with us at Taco Bell and it was absolutely surreal.  I told as many teens as I could, "This is my home town!  This is where I grew up!"  Truly...

Chuck is the best at making me feel super special on my birthday.  He wraps gifts so beautifully!  Almost makes me not want to open them.  Almost.  This picture was taken the morning of my birthday, right before we left for church.  I loved that he picked out this wrapping paper with the coordinating gift bag.  The pattern was just adorable.  Plus, it matched the coat he got me for Christmas.  =) Having a birthday on a Sunday is interesting, especially when Sundays are usually pretty busy days for us.  On this day, Chuck made me breakfast and then took me to Starbucks before we went to AM Gap (our teen group).  What could be better than starting the day with a Starbucks Green Tea Soy Latte?!  Later in the morning, as I sat with some girls at a table in our youth room Chuck gave the announcements.  When he was done he asked the teens to guess who the person on the next slide was: One of the teens yelled out, "Your wife!" ...