Richmond Hill

When mom told me that they were planning on moving earlier this year I really did not know how I felt about it.  I moved to Richmond Hill when I was 9 and spent 11 years, there, most of which I became "established" and made the little community my home.  But the reality that they were moving really did not come until the house actually got sold and then I began to think about never going to the home that became my home and where I grew up.  There are so many memories there and I will miss it, even though I do not live at home anymore, but I am grateful that the house did sell and that mom gets to go back to her home, Atlanta =).
But I kind of just want to review before I forget all the memories about Savannah.  I met a lot of people there that I will miss, Coach Kollman, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Turner, Mrs. Kelsey, all the football players parents that always see me when I am home, Sister Bryson, Mr. Gary, the Walker's ect. Many others, and so leaving and knowing I will not see them even when I go "home" kind of makes me sad.  I will miss the house and Richmond Hill because of all the memories associated with it, both good and bad,  like the time I fell through the front porch roof from the attic trying to get wood to build bunny hutches and Lisa just running away from it, or the exact place of the exact field I first injured my knee, or when Lisa and I saw a freaky white angel thing on 144 driving home one night, or crabbing with dad on the Tivoli bridge or swimming off the long dock, ect..  So even though my little picture slide doesn't even begin to bring back all the memories (good thing for dads journal) they still make me smile just to have them up =).

 At this point we did not have a go cart, but we did have a box, the bottom of a chair, and a kite and a windy day, Volia! Go cart =)

 We spent our money that we had got for Christmas on boats, now Lisa and I were kind of against Katie at this point in our lives (sorry katie, We love you !) so we spent and extra $15 on another boat so we did not have to share the space in ours.

 We loved every time a hurricane blew threw because it meant a windy rainy storm to play in!

 The first bunnies!

 =)

 Peter walked into the house and suggest we all go outside and dig a hole, hours later we had a 6 foot hole in our back yard

 I remember everyone inside and I was outside doing something, and I saw this bird in our yard, so I run inside and I yell that there is a really big blue bird in our yard, after some convincinig and scoffing everyone came outside and sure enough we had a peacock in our yard and naturally spent the next hour trying to catch it

 Christie as my coach!

 Awwww...

 =)

 Peter's last meal as a preemie at home!

 I cried when I saw our fake tree, but eventually I warmed up to it =)

 Football of course

 The Savannah International Airport

Many many many games on this field by all 6 Barnes kids!

And the videos are just really funny =)

So even though these pictures are few and only depict a few memories they get the general idea across. I will miss Richmond Hill, and I will miss the people there.  I know that Savannah was a good place for us to go, because even though at times it was really hard to live there, there is of course a reason to everything. I know that there is/was a reason we were there and now there is a reason we are headed back to Atlanta, but Richmond Hill is my home and I am grateful for all the memories there, good and bad, because good makes me appreciate life and bad teaches me lessons and makes me appreciate the good memories that much more.  So here is my shout out to home =)

Valiant Valentine Effort

I have always been a really big fan of Valentine's Day, and I am not quite sure why, but I just find it really cute how people get little things from their special someone that expresses their devotion and admiration.  And this year was Zachary and I's first Valentine Day holiday together and it is definitely one to remember.  It started out early in the week where I ruined Zach's original plan, he was going to come down early on Thursday for the long weekend to surprise me, but I had found a ride on Monday and had told him, so for him to get me to stay in Provo he just told me his plan and now he had to think of something else.  So Plan B consisted of him arriving two hours earlier in Provo than I was thinking he was and picking me up at work.  So he gets dropped off where his sister works to pick up their car and after 30 minutes could not find the car and with me getting off work in 20 minutes he was strapped for time. So he goes to the restaurant Emilie works out and leaves his duffle bag and my gift in the lobby so he did not have to carry it through the restaurant   My gift he had made was a sweet note and a homemade Twizzlers bouquet, carefully twisting the Twizzlers into different flowers and lacing them with melted chocolate to hold them together, but when he came back from finding out where the car was my gift was stolen! He ran around the complex and still couldn't find it.  So he called his mom distraughtly and she told him there was nothing more he could do except just go and spend the rest of the day with me.  The poor guy, he did try just for the record,but some times things just do not work out.  He later took me out to eat and bought me a pair of really cute heels and three movies, "Footloose", "Dinosaur", and "Life as We Know It".  I sure do like him ! =)
Anyways the rest of the weekend we spent time together and with siblings enjoying everyone's company.  And it has been a a weekend full of "warmer" weather (40 degrees, which is "freezing" according to the native Savannahians) so on Sunday Emilie, Zach and I went on a lovely drive up the canyon to a lake over by Heber city, it was a lot colder in the canyon than we thought it would be.

 Emilie being goofy at the lake

Zach broke through the ice at the bank of the lake and tripped in the snow after trying to run out.

First BYU Game

Zachary got to come down again this weekend and I am so glad that he did! On Friday my boss, Mike P. was kind enough to let me have two free tickets to the basketball game on Saturday night and I cannot think of a better date than Zachary to go to it.  Unfortunately the BYU cougars lost in the last 5 minutes (they were up by 20 at half time, so not sure what happened) but it was a really fun time for Zachary and I who know very little about basketball.  It was also my first college basketball game so I was more excited for the experience than the actual game.  And from the kindness of my boss we got to sit in his normal seats which are only 7 rows from the court, so for a very first game I got pretty lucky and had a pretty good view of the game =)

(see how close!) =)

Happy Birthday Momma!

"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear momma!!!!....Happy Birthday to YOU!"  I do love you mom, and I wish more than anything that I could be home right now to spend it with you, but one day when we are neighbors again I will be able to do just that.  I miss you and I could not ask for a better mother than you.  Thank you so much for being patient with me throughout all the years, I know that I am probably responsible for a few grey hairs, but thank you for lettin me know that you constantly love me.  I love you, and I am so grateful for you every day.  I love you and miss you =)

Finals Finally Over

I know finals have been over since Friday, but I got a tad sick this Sunday and Monday and did not feel up to posting anything.  I got the flu from Christie's little kids again and on a positive note I do believe I have found a pretty reliable diet plan seeing how this is the second time I got the flu from them. (sorry Christie) =)
But back to finals week.  This has probably been the hardest finals that I have ever taken.  Maybe because it was BYU, maybe it was the classes, but they were so hard and I am so glad to be done with them.  Especially with Anatomy. For those who don't know this about me I do not handle bodily things all that well. I've passed out while getting an I.V. just from seeing the blood and I get queasy over other peoples cuts and scars.  It's what ruled out any medical field for me early on, but alas, the Health & Wellness major had it out to get me and a prereq. for this major is indeed Anatomy.  The first class period I had with the actual cadavers I ran out of the room within 20 minute sobbing and got sick. (Not my proudest moment) But as the semester continued I knew I had to do it, so I worked hard and finally....(this is about how I feel and how I feel how hard anatomy was)

Though I did not get stabbed by a Nazgul, or get chased by a giant spider or make friends with a multiple personality lizard-hobbit hybrid (Gollum) or have to climb the mountain of Mordor, I do feel like that when I walked out of that testing center after taking that 2.5 hr anatomy exam that I had accomplished something just as great as Frodo had done.
Now enough with finals and on to better news.  Zachary came down this weekend and we went up to Christie and it had snowed a ton that day so we decided to take the little infectious tykes sledding.  They did not find the snow as magical as we had expected.  Most of the time Maddie trudged behind making little snow balls as she went while Topher would walk about 5 feet and fall into the snow complaining of how he was physically inapt to go any further unless carried.  I refused to carry either one of them, but Zach, what a good guy, did the best he could and carried both of them to the hill to go sledding at.

Overall a good weekend, ended rough, but that's ok, it's always good when I get to be around Zachary.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Well it is finally December! And the countdown to Christmas has begun, well actually I'd say the countdown to school being over and finals being done with will be first, but then the Christmas countdown has begun! I love Christmas (who doesn't?) and this weekend i filled my time with tons of Christmas activities.  On Friday guess who came down and saw me...? YUP! Zachary did =) my favorite =) and we did lots of Christmas activities together.  On Saturday we drove to Sandy and went to the Festival of Trees, it was sooo pretty! There were so many trees of every different theme, from Mickey Mouse to the Griswold's Christmas to fishin, it was so pretty.  They also had the neatest Ginger bread houses, this one was my favorite depicting the Shire, so much talent!

After that we headed back to Provo to head to my ward Christmas party for the real dinner, and there was our own ginger bread house contest and wouldn't you know Zachary and I tied for first place =) With another teams ginger bread house (ours was better). No lie and no bias.  The other team (which had 7 people in it, we were only 4 but then the other 2 left so it ended up just being Zach and I) tried to make a tower and it ended up falling so then they just threw everything on the frosting and said it was "Hurricane Sandy" so we should have won, but oh well, tying for first is just as good =)

Well I cannot wait to see family, even though I have a countdown for finals to be over with, then for Christmas to come I have a countdown first to when I get to see Lisa, 17 days, and then Mom, Dad and Katie, 21 days.  =)

Thanksgiving

 On Tuesday Zachary and Emilie came down and after a quick meal and a game of bowling with Kaleb Jenkins I went to hang out with Zach and Em.  We just relaxed on Tuesday watching movies and eating snacks.  Then on Wednesday we met up after we all woke up and went to Rock Canyon park to enjoy the lovely weather Provo was having and just hung out that night as well.  On Thursday we headed to Saratoga Springs to enjoy the delicious meal Aunt Jan had prepared and went to see "Wreck-It Ralph" later that day.  We spent Thursday and Friday in Saratoga Springs enjoying good food and family time.  On Friday we went a big park with this huge jungle gym and cool swing and then later that night went to visit Christie (a mistake later on in the week because we caught the same flu bug they had had only a few days earlier) but while we were there we enjoy the company of the little squirts thoroughly.

 Zach is in the blue hoodie at the bottom, his sister is directly above him (being up that high is quite the accomplish for her) Then all the rest of the cousins are in the middle of the jungle gym.

Then on Saturday we went up to Salt Lake City to meet up with one Zachary's really good mission friends and his family to see the lovely Christmas lights.  Later that night we went back to Zach's friends house and his new wife then around midnight the three of us got the flu and spent the next 12 hours taking throwing up in this newly weds house as there first guests ever.  Were banking on the next visit to be much better one. But overall we had a really good trip and I always love spending time with Zachary of course.