My Brothers

This is my brother Dan...The photo was take by my sister Judy when she went to visit him about 2003, in Utah. Dan does construction and is considering retirement. But he's such an active guy I don't think he'll stay retired too long. One cool thing about him is that he took a truck load of things the he and his friends collected and drove them to Mississippi right after hurricane Katrina hit. He's a very generous person, I'm glad he is my brother.

Here is a family photo of Brevan, Kristin & kids. It was taken in Logan, Utah during the summer of 2005. He was there doing an internship with some doctor. They are now back in Connecticut & school...Unless he is on his Christmas trip out West. Brevan is the same age as my son Nick. He seems more like a nephew or friend than brother. One neat thing about him is that he did a 100% turn around in his life when he was 19 years old. He went on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A new Barfuss Tradition?

Well, this year I started a new tradition, I hope. Kaye Baugh made 4 trees out of fabric for me, from my design. There are 24 ornaments out of fabric with rings under them. Here's how it will work if my children want to participate. Each family will send 1 small present to every member in the family. They will mail them so they arrive before November 30th. The family who gets the gifts will then tie them on to their tree on November 30 and hand it up. Then each day throughout the month of December 1 person from each family will open a present from someone who loves them. This will hopefully help us love and appreciate all the good times we have had together and help us focus more on the love at Christmas instead of over spending on presents for each other. If you like the idea please comment in the comments. This year I provided all 24 presents for everyone,I bought too big of presents so I had to modify how to attach them. I think it would be better to make sure the presents were small. Next year if we continue the tradition I will send my 1 present per person and them make up the rest for each family. For example: Max's family will get: sally-4, nick-4, and us-4; equaling 12, I would then send 12 to make it 24. Here is a photo of our tree with the presents (sent by Dad & Kaye). I love the idea and hope you do too!

Christmas is Love!

I attended our Ward Relief Society Christmas Party on Dec 7. It was beautifully decorated with lights strung throughout the entire gym making a false ceiling of Strings of Christmas light that were all white. They had poinsettias every where and trees with lights. We had hor'dervers in the RS room and chatted then moved to the gym for dinner. While we ate dinner we had live piano music played by my friend Irene's daughter. She plays beautifully and it was so awesome to have Christmas music live while we ate. Then we had three sisters who shared their feeling and love for Our Savior Jesus Christ. They were eloquent, moving, and filled with the spirit. As I participated I looked around and realized that in just 9 short months I had become well acquainted with 90% of the Sister in the Ward and feel a great love for each and everyone, individually. LOVE was in abundance! I am blessed to have been here and learned about so very many people who are special to our Father in Heaven and to me! Merry Christmas. Christmas is love!

Christmas music and baking smells are in the air! Christmas decorations and thoughts fill the house with LOVE!

The stockings are hung on the fireplace
The angels and lights are on the tree

The Cards are in the foyer

We are loving talking to all our family members one at a time! We are thankful for all the love you all extend to us. Hope you are feeling the Christmas spirit at your house too!

BIG FAT GREEK THANKSGIVING!

We went to the home of Irene Keenum for thanksgiving. When she invited us she said it would be a "Big, fat Greek thanksgiving because her family is from Greek descendants. We arrived at 1:00 and visited and helped make deviled eggs. Then everyone began to arrive. They were all you can imagine, loud, friendly,talkative, loud, happy, and generous. We had enough food to feed and army and guess what...We must have fed an army because there wasn't that much food left over. We enjoyed the traditional turkey, stuffing, potatoes & gravy, pumpkin pie and rolls. But with that we had the southern additions of sweet potato souffle, corn pudding,oreo pie, mandarin salad, and green bean casserole. There were more teenagers there than any other age group and we had fun visiting, laughing and crying because one of the "uncles" was in the hospital and not able to join us. Rick was given strict instructions to take pictures and then ask the names of those he photographed...It proved to big of a task with all the stuff going on. So here are the photos he did take. As I was walking home I found the biggest praying mantis I have ever seen. Like everything else this day- it was part of the big, fat theme. I said a big fat prayer for all that I am blessed with. My family, my home, my friends, my love of the Savior Jesus Christ and my job that is teaching me so many new things. Hope your Thanksgiving was a blessing to you. This one was for me because it is the first in 31 years without my children and other family members I love. I enjoyed being around these BIG FAT GREEK friends!

This has been an interesting week!

Sunday began with Rick and I singing in a Choir who performed for the Lilbun Stake. We did a performance of a Musical about Joseph Smith. The Name is, "My Servant Joseph". It was written by Kenneth Cope (for anyone who is interested in hearing beautiful music.) My favorite was a song called Tiny Hands. It was sung by people portraying Joseph & Emma Smith. They both have VERY professional voices and it was a moving song about losing their twins when they were only days old. I was so happy to be a part of the Church's Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith.

Next some friends came over and invited me to go to the grocery store with them because the store was serving Thanksgiving Dinner free. Can you imagine that, free? Yes sirree, we went and as you stepped in the door they were serving turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pasta, spinach and corn. Then as you walked around the store in each department they were also serving other items, frozen section: ice cream, bakery: rolls, small eclairs, pies & more; dairy section: had hot or cold cider & egg nogg; meat section: little sausages and finally the candy section had Hershey kisses. They have done this every year for at least 13 years (because that is how long my friends have lived here &; they go every year. It was a fun night and they gave away coupons for BIG discounts. I also picked up a coloring page and crayons. Here is the coloring page if you want to print it and have the kids color it. If they send it to me (or any other picture) I will post it on my blog for them to see. That is my contest for the month of December. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, we will be thinking of all our loved ones!

Nick, Jasmine & Isis have their first trunk-or-treat!

Hi Everyone…Nick wrote to me and sent photos? Very Scarey!

This year me, Jasmine and Isis had a fun Halloween. The moon came out and suddenly I turned to jasmine and she was covered with fur! I was getting a little scared when I noticed Isis started growing Fangs, and blood was coming out of his mouth! The ultimate torture came to me when I realized I too was turning into a werewolf!

We had so much fun getting dressed up, Isis was a little scared to at first but then he got into the whole spirit of Halloween. Not many people in Australia celebrate Halloween, or do anything fun, but thankfully a friend from America threw a really fun Trunk-or-treat party.

We had to decorate our trunk (boot) and all the kids invited to the party would come around to each trunk and collect their candy (lollies). There were some real spooky trunks, my favorite was the Horamona’s (a Mauri [people from New Zealand] Family) who had a trunk with a big pot of eyeball soup brewing.

We made a Dinosaur graveyard, Attached is a picture (crappy, I know but I took them just as I was taking the trunk down so I couldn’t re-take the picture…) Kids had to reach into a volcano to get their candy, and I even threw in a vibrator to make the candy shake like and earthquake.

Contest...."Some of my favorite people are nuts!"

Well, it is finally fall in Snellville, Georgia. I take a walk every morning at 7:00 am. While I am walking I see beautiful leaves and all sorts of nuts falling from trees. I have gather a few and have taken photographs of them. But when I developed the pictures I saw what I thought were ghost faces in the pictures. Then I looked more closely and I saw the faces of some of my favorite people. "A contest," I thought. So here are the rule. Take a look at the photos and decide what kind of nut you are. Then e-mail, call, or write me with your answer. Each person who guesses the right nut will win a prize. Boys will get a comic book and girls will get princess jewelry.
Good luck to all! Hope you fall weather is as lovely as mine!



Possible answers are: acorn, pine nut, hickory nut, pine cone, oak nut, walnut, pecan

Max, Brigitte, Mason Natalie & Sally, Andy, Luke, Lily, Mabel Halloween 2005

I just received photos from by photographer in Utah (Brigitte Ballard-
Barfuss). I love to see the grandkids all dressed up and having fun. This year they went to the work party and here are their cute photos....who is the real Darth Vader?

Humanitarian Opportunities

About three weeks ago Rick and I were able to combine with members of the Lilburn Georgia Stake and assemble 3,650 clean-up kits for those who have been affected by the hurricanes in the Gulf Coast States. We received another opportunity and will be going to help again. The way we receive information (including the Ward Newsletter) is by e-mail from the Ward specialist. This is a copy of the e-mail we received. This time we will help assemble kitchen kits. We feel really blessed to be safe and happy and are very grateful for our opportunities to help. I don't miss my Red Cross opportunities quite so much.