Our friend Mara is a fellow “The Office” addict, not to mention a Jim Halpert addict. Two Wednesdays ago I asked her what her plans were for the weekend. She said, “I’m thinking about going to see Leatherheads. I said, “No, wait for us and we will go with you!” She said, “Okay.”

Jared and I went to Athens that weekend to spend time with my parents. Saturday night mom and dad wanted us to go square dancing with them. We kindly declined and all went to see Leatherheads instead. Now, I know that I am the one who asked Mara to wait and see it, but I can’t turn down a good movie. I told Jared that we would just go see it again with her when we got back to Mansfield. But I thought to myself, I am not going to say anything to Mara about going to see the movie.

Monday I had to drop something off at the church, and since Mara is the youth pastor at CNC, I ran into her. The first words out of her mouth were, “Hey, when are we going to go see Leatherheads?” Now, any normal person would have confessed that they had already seen it and they were sorry, but I am not normal. So I said, “When is good for you?” It was decided that Saturday would work for both of us.

I love Jim Halpert, therefore I thought I would love Leatherheads. I did not. I’ve seen a few movies in the theaters twice, i.e. Titanic, a few of the Harry Potter’s, Star Wars maybe, but I was not excited to see Leatherheads again.

We went to Pizza Hut with pleasant dinner conversation and bought our tickets, again, for the movie. There were about eight other people there in the theater so we picked our choice seats and settled in for a repeat of a not so wonderful movie.

Cue Jared to the rescue. He leans over me and says to Mara, “Now that we have already paid for the movie, we can tell you that we have already seen this.” Mara laughed and said, “So did I.” We laughed until we cried. We both felt so bad about seeing it without the other that we thought the best thing to do was say nothing. Thank goodness Jared spoke up, ‘cus neither me nor Mara were about to.

And then we left the theater and settled in to watch 21.

Which neither of us had seen yet.

Frost. We had frost last night and I think we will probably be getting it again tonight. The saying is that 3 frosts in a row = spring. I have been taking pictures of the flowers in the front yard peeking out. I will post pictures once I get a good succession going.

In the meantime, here are some flowers from last spring …

And some shots of Alyssa. I can’t wait ’til it’s nice out again and I can do outside shots.

This summer I have 5 weddings scheduled. In anticipation of wedding season, here are some of my favorite wedding shots from summer/fall weddings.

When I was sixteen, my cousin Vanessa was born. Two days shy of a year later, her brother Zachary was born, the summer I turned seventeen. My sister and I babysat them quite frequently and were around for a large portion of their “tot” lives. When Zach was two, I went away to college. Samm, my sister, graduated two years after me and spent more time with them. While I was in Mansfield going to college, I missed out on a lot of their lives. Four years ago this June, Vanessa and Zach were in my wedding. This is the Zach that I remember…

It was emotional for me knowing that I would now be living in Mansfield all the time and not getting to see them over the summer when I wanted to or on frequent weekend trips “home”.

To my surprise, about a month ago, my aunt called me and said Zach would like to come and stay with us some weekend and watch Star Wars with you guys. On Friday night, Jared and I met them in Troy and brought Zach back with us. The agenda called for all six Star Wars movies.

I didn’t know what to expect from this kid, who is now 10, but in my mind stays at about 5 permanently. There are times when I am talking to Vanessa or Zach and I catch myself treating them like the little babies I remember leaving so long ago. We had so much fun this weekend. Jared is still trying to recuperate from the flu, so we laid low. Friday night we watched the first two of the middle trilogy, made popcorn, and played video games.

Zach showed me some of his artwork, freehand I might add …

Saturday brought the other 4 movies, a “hike”, and cookies.

We took him back to Troy this morning to meet his parents. He wanted to stay longer and I was so touched that I get to have a relationship back with this “baby” that I once held so near and dear to my heart. I was painfully aware of the years that have passed since I last took real time to sit down and talk with Zach or make time in my “busy” life to stop and see him and Vanessa. Hopefully this weekend will pave the way for many more to come.

Jared hasn’t been feeling well since Saturday. While we were at my parents we stayed in our pj’s practically all weekend. Monday morning Jared woke up and said that he wasn’t going into work. Jared is very particular about his job and missing work. He has an amazing work ethic and for him to miss work is a HUGE deal. When I came home to check on him at lunch on Monday he was still sleeping. He slept until 3 that afternoon. Today he didn’t go to work either, so I took him to the doctor’s this afternoon. The prognosis is the flu. I took this shot of him Friday night when it was first starting to hit him.

So keep him in your prayers. He has orders from the doctor to stay off work till next week.

I said in my earlier post that we visited with my brother. Here is a shot Jared snapped of us.

And one final shot of my aunt and uncle’s puppy, Mowzer.

Last night I scanned and uploaded some pictures of me from way back when. I cannot believe that it is March 3rd of 2008 already. Time flies so fast, too fast really.

Derek, Samantha, and me at Gramma Geiger’s.

Drama queen Danielle on the left and Samantha on the right. I was upset because I couldn’t sit in the chair. Dad and newborn giant Derek. He was over 11 pounds and 23 1/2 inches long.

My first birthday party. Oh dad, those shorts …

This weekend we went to Montoursville to spend time with our friends Jess and Bryan. Jess and Jared have been friends since their freshman year of college. Jess and I became friends our sophomore year of college and not through any connection of Jared. She was in our wedding and I in hers. We are the type of friends who don’t talk every day or every week for that matter. I am a horrible phone person. Give me email or even real mail over talking on the phone. But when we do get together it’s like we are leaving off on a conversation that just ended. Bryan and Jess are the type of friends who are there for you at a moment’s notice. When Jared and I had to move out of our apt. almost 3 yrs. ago, Bryan and Jess came up that weekend and helped us move, without us even mentioning any help. We love them dearly. On the way home, Jared and I talked about how God has blessed us with wonderful friends. Here is a picture of Jess and I from college.

Last night Jared and I “babysat” while our friends went out for the hour. Now, as many of you know, Jared and I do not have children nor do we see them in the IMMEDIATE future. And by immediate I mean 6 months. ;). I love going down to Amy’s from time to time to watch Ella and “the twins”. Last night was one of those nights. Jared doesn’t usually go with me so the twins haven’t really warmed up to him all that much yet. I want to have children. I do. But sometimes Jared and I drop from exhaustion at the end of a week and look at each other and say .. how do we do this with kids ??? With a 3 1/2 yr. old and 1 1/2 yr. old twins, life can get crazy. Amy and Jim deal amazingly with it and give us the answer that everyone gives us. You just do it.

Here I am in the midst of the craziness.

She eventually warmed up to Jared, wait … maybe just the Sierra Mist.

They are pretty much my favorite kids.

Jared and I went shopping with our dear friends Matt and Johna last night to get some things for our bathroom project. Matt is remodeling our bathroom completely so we bought a toilet, sink, faucets, and light fixtures. We still need a tub and the top portion of our sink along with some little odds and ends. We are so excited about this project and can’t wait for it to get underway. Here is a quick picture we took before we left last night.

After dinner.

Here are the before shots of the bathroom.

After pictures to follow soon.

We have a new addition to the Barden family.

2008 Jeep Patriot Sport. Black.

We will be accepting shower gifts.

Currency is preferred.