It's kind of a funny story...

Cause if you can't see the humor (which I am trying REALLY hard to) then life is just miserable.

Got a call from my wonderful sister this morning. She is having some MAJOR struggles and my heart breaks often for her. So she calls to tell me her hubby was pulled over this morning and sited for having tags on an unregistered vehicle. Turns out Jiffy Lube did not do the paperwork right but charged her right. According to the DMV, she committed a felony for putting tags on an unregistered vehicle. Luckily she has receipts and credit card statements showing she did pay and it was Jiffy Lubes fault; however, she still has to deal with it all.

As we were talking she was like "well if I don't find the humor in all this I guess I will just die cause this could be the straw that breaks the camels back if I can't laugh".

I NEED that! Oh how I need that! I need to laugh at life because honestly life is not easy and I don't think it ever truly is!

So here are my laughing stories:

A little bit ago we found a good weather day (surprise surprise...I had started to think we lived in Washington State not Utah with all this rain). We have been DYING to get out and hike a bit so that is what we did...we went for a hike! It was a WONDERFUL hike up Bell's canyon to the little reservoir at the top. Bart and Debbie came along with us and it really was fun. I LOVE the mountains, I love hiking. I am soooo grateful that season is coming back because I NEED it!

Anyway, so as we were hiking back down we did a side track to do a little geo caching (which this one was REALLY fun to try and find). Once we found the geo cache, we had the short switchback to hike back down. Lyse started running fast down the trail. I yelled at her to be careful and slow down and she yelled back, "The mountain is pushing me and my bones won't stop moving".

I laughed and giggled at that perfect little analogy of what it feels like when hiking DOWN a steep trail. She later said, "Stop it Bones, I don't want to run right now!" Oh how love that kid and the joy, happiness and laughter she brings into my life! After the hiking trip was over, I was FULLY spent. It wiped me out COMPLETELY. Even the next day I slept more than I wanted, my body was just fully wiped out. Although it took more time to recover and everything, I still feel JOY from that little excursion. I feel JOY from those moments. The weakness and extreme tired eventually recovered and the memories of that day become even brighter. I was able to laugh and giggle at life.

I am so grateful for my children. I know I have not been the most patient mom. I know I am hard on Katy and Lyse about their homework and being responsible. I have lots of mom guilt ALL. THE. TIME.

I am so grateful that I get to experience joy because of my children. We are currently reading "The Witches" by Roald Dahl and I love how my girls get so into it. Lyse even remembered that they have blue spit and Katy can tell you how to spot a witch from a block away. I love that we have that imagination together as a family in the book.

I am grateful we have scripture time in which Lyse can express - "This is REALLY BOOOOORING" while reading about the Olive Tree in Jacob. To which Ben can laugh and reply, "Nope not to easy to read that is for sure" but then he goes on to try and explain on their level so that it won't be so BOOOOOORING ;)

My Katy bug. Oh my wonderful, happy, shining Bug. She brings a smile wherever she goes. She is the best friend anyone could ask for. She always steps up to help and does a great job at not shirking her responsibilities. My heart breaks as I have seen this last year and how hard it has been on her personally. Breaks my heart to see her "grow up" and so much of her simple happiness is gone. However, then she snuggles into my arms and says, "I love you momma" and I know she is still in there because she has never called me mom or mommy...I am her momma!

Joy is not given it is found in the small moments all around us. Laughter and Joy is what I want more of in our home and in my life!