Labor Day Weekend

This weekend was a great weekend and not just because it was a 3-day weekend, although that helped it's rating. Friday night, I knew that if I didn't dig in, I would be sitting here tonight...right about now, going...I don't wanna grade all those papers tonight so I just sat down with my fun pens, my water, a little HGTV in the background and got to work. I was able to grade all but one stack of large packets...tomorrow night's project. I need to record the scores but that's easy. That started my weekend off great! [You are probably thinking..."She's nuts...who wants to grade on Friday night?"] If I had been in your place, I might have said the same but feeling so productive and knowing it freed me up mentally and physically for the weekend was indescribable made it the best thing to do. I love my job and since grading is my least favorite part...I just gotta do it.

On Saturday, I was able to just sleep in and have a lazy day. I got to talk on the phone with a friend for about an hour and then went with a bunch of friends from my "old church" to see Lincoln Brewster lead worship at Willow Creek. It was a really fun night and I love getting to worship with thousands of people...just makes the hairs stand up on my arms! God does amazing things...ALL THE TIME! You just have to look for it. I had a friend comment on one of my FB posts and said, "Danielle, you just find joy in the little things, don't you?" Yes, I do. It's what life is made of. If we expect God to only do big things, we are going to be sorely disappointly because He works in the little things...and in the big things.

Sunday was a great time of leading worship with and for my FCCC peeps. After church I got to eat lunch on the go, in the car, with my one of my best friends...Katie and her two girls...sometimes easier to talk that way. Much needed girl time for sure! I used the afternoon to take a little snooze with the cool breeze blowing in the window. My brother, Austin, and I then met up and were able to take a long bike ride around Herrick Lake. I was able to shoot this amazing picture there with my new phone!

Then I went to my family's house and ate dinner then topped my day off with my sister sleeping over!

Today, I dragged my sister out of bed early...like 8:30am...which for me is now "late" and her it's still "early". I knew once I got her going, we'd be fine. We set out to Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve for a short walk/run. Well, that's where the short part ended. We decided to head out on the trail and once we got going, we'd gone so far, we decided to finish the 9.6 mile loop...which including our little detours took us to the 10 mile mark. We didn't run the whole thing but we sure did some serious walking/running. It was a great time where we both had our MP3 players and were enjoying the scenery. Next time, we probably won't do the whole trail but we know how it goes so we know what to expect and where to turn around! Then we grabbed Qdoba...last day for double points and came home. We were pooped to say the least. So this afternoon, I finally gave into another wonderful nap in the breeze. After I got up, my friend had posted that she had peaches and wanted some things to make with them...I had already had a craving for peach cobbler earlier in the week so I went ahead and found a recipe using ingredients I had on hand and made it...turned out quite yummy...you just have to ask my mom and my grandma...although my mom and I had eaten almost 1/2 the pan by the time grandma got any! :)

It was a great weekend to de-stress and get moving...the fall-like weather certainly helped a ton too! :)