In this episode of Joy Moments, we welcome Joe (Lacey's husband) to the podcast for the first time. We dive into a candid conversation about finding daily moments of appreciation, the differences in how we experience and express positive emotions, and the various ways families create meaningful rituals.
Joe shares his memorable experience of hearing his five-month-old daughter Violet say "dada" for the first time – a distinct moment that stood out from her usual baby chatter. Meanwhile, Lacey recounts a precious morning when her first-grader read books to his baby sister before school, and Sara delights in discovering beehives named "BS in the D" during her weekend trip to Detroit.
We also explore the lighter side of family life, including Joe's impressive cereal collection (featuring Reese's Puffs, Honey Bunches of Oats, Grape Nuts, Cheerios, Frosted Mini Wheats, Lucky Charms, Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Protein Cheerios, Fruit Loops, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch), our debate on the proper way to enjoy cereal milk, and why roller skating feels impossible even for someone with Joe's natural athletic abilities.
This conversation reveals how joy manifests differently for everyone – whether through "cool things that happened," shared family rituals like high/low dinner table discussions, or simple everyday moments that bring unexpected delight.
Submit your own joy moments to be shared on future episodes!
Welcome to Joy Moments, where a moment shared spread ripples of joy.
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:I'm Lacey your
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:co-host who's not alone today, but we'll
address that in a second here with Sarah.
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:Hi Sarah.
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:Sara: Hi Lacey
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:Lacey: I invited my husband, Joe today.
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:Joe's been on no shame in the home
game and sharing the middle, so he
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:had to hit, joy moments as well.
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:So welcome to Joy Moments, Joe.
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:Joe: Thanks for having me.
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:Lacey: we'll just say Lacey and
Joe are set up in a very precarious
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:way, to be able to record both
of us and, we're making it work.
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:Joe: I do what I can.
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:Lacey: This is just to make Sarah
happy 'cause I knew it would make Sarah
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:Sara: I was gonna say, I've gone
straight to Giggle Town and I'm
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:actually like covering my mouth and
tempted to mute myself because I am,
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:I'm a big Joe fan and so, sorry Joe,
I don't wanna make you uncomfortable.
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:I know fan girl makes you uncomfortable.
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:Lacey: Are you not gonna respond to that?
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:Joe: What do you want me to say to that?
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:Lacey: I don't know.
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:joy moments.
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:We share, moments of joy, real
moments of joy, so hopefully they can
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:provide joy to others in the world.
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:I invited Joe to share a joy today.
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:and I'll be honest, Joe was reluctant.
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:'cause at first he said,
I don't have any to share.
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:And then I listed several to which
he said, those feel too personal,
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:which I think, is a very interesting,
thing of, and just showing how
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:different old bro and I are.
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:Joe: Yep.
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:Sara: I think, you know what though,
I love this because we talk about
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:like, even just the word joy for
some people isn't the right word.
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:thankfulness, gratitude, a
moment of something I enjoyed.
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:So it's very personal, right?
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:And when what?
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:What feels like you want to share
and even what you wanna call it.
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:So it could be something
that made you laugh today.
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:It could be something that.
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:Delighted your taste buds.
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:I don't know, like, it doesn't
even have to be anything that
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:personal, , so I think this is great.
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:it's forcing us to look at this
from many different angles.
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:Lacey: I make Joe do
this every day already.
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:at our dinner table, everyone is required
to share a high from their day and a low.
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:They don't have to have a low, but
you always have to have a high 'cause
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:There's always something we can
find in our lives I'm used to making
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:Joe find things to be happy about,
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:Joe: Even when you're not at dinner with
us, for whatever reason, I still, we all
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:still do it, so not forcing me to do it.
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:Lacey: I, it started with
me forcing everyone to
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:Joe: do it,
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:Lacey: and now it's part of our
routine, they, can't have dessert until
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:everybody goes, so everyone's real
motivated to get it done at times.
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:So nothing like forcing, gratitude
and positive thinking on people.
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:Sara: So wait, are you promising
me and Joe Dessert after this?
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:Lacey: no.
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:Sara: Okay.
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:Lacey: you can have dessert.
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:We've got some ice cream bars
downstairs if he wants one.
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:We have cookies.
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:Did you buy that for the cookie dough?
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:You bought?
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:Cookie dough.
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:Oh, is that just for me
to eat or it's just, yeah.
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:Okay.
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:Joe: It was on sale,
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:Lacey: Joe loves a flash sale.
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:It was not
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:Joe: a flash sale.
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:Lacey: we use Kroger delivery sometimes
they have these things called flash
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:sales, which is essentially the equivalent
of walking into the aisle to do a
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:checkout like temp you to buy stuff
someone is very susceptible to, bro, if
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:Joe: I can get.
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:if I can get something that I
know you're gonna like, and it's
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:a dollar, why wouldn't I get it
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:Lacey: sometimes there's 12
donuts who's gonna eat all
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:these donuts and they get eaten?
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:So you got really excited about something.
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:Sara: Oh, Joe saying, who wouldn't
buy an endive on a flash sale?
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:That's just like my new favorite
sentence that ever I never knew
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:was ever gonna exist in my life.
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:And now it does.
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:And now I never wanna forget it.
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:And I don't even know
what an endive looks like.
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:I don't know what I would do with
an endive, but it doesn't matter.
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:I love the sentence.
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:Lacey: So it was Belgian
and Dive and we got it.
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:We used to do Blue Apron when it was just
us before we had kids, and it actually
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:was a really good solution for us.
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:And it taught us how to
cook very, pretty much too.
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:So we're very comfortable
cooking because of it.
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:Joe: of cooking techniques.
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:Lacey: Yeah.
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:one of the things that we got, that they
had us make several times was an endive
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:salad with just like a vinegarette.
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:And I always really enjoyed it So
it's yeah, if there's an endive
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:shoved in my face, let's do it.
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:sounded a little bit different than
I wanted it to, but that's fine.
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:We're gonna keep moving.
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:Joe: No comment.
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:Lacey: do you want share your joy first
or do you want one of us to go first?
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:Joe: I think somebody
else should go first.
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:Okay.
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:Lacey: Sarah, do you have one
or would you like me to go.
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:Sara: I have one
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:so this past weekend, there are
so many joys within this, but
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:I'm really gonna focus in on one
because this is not the Sarah show.
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:I was lucky enough to go to Detroit
with my sister this past weekend.
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:First of all, Detroit.
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:Can't say enough lovely things about it.
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:what I'm gonna focus on is I was
walking around the hotel we stayed
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:in, it was a refurnished refurbished.
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:1920s firehouse.
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:So it was really every
turn was a discovery.
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:So I was walking around with my coffee,
just looking at things and in the
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:interior, so it, there was an empty
above the first floor, so there was
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:like a platform, but all the windows
looked into this rectangular open space.
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:There was beehives, but the part that made
me happy was that the name of the beehive.
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:It was called BS in the D, and
I just thought that BS in the D.
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:Lacey: Okay.
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:Sara: until I saw your face,
I hadn't even taken it there.
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:I just thought it was so cute.
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:And then later that day, we were walking
along the riverfront and there was
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:lavender in this like raised bush and
all the little honeybees were there.
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:And I.
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:Lacey: Sarah, being excited and
talking to bees is very Sarah.
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:Sara: As you know, I do
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:Lacey: I would go with some
kind of variation of bees knees.
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:Like how do, is that?
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:Yeah.
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:I don't know.
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:We're not gonna workshop b names.
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:We're gonna workshop B names.
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:Sara: B's in the D.
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:Lacey: name in the dating.
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:Sara: Oh my gosh.
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:Lacey: I've heard lovely things about
Detroit and all the things going on there,
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:Sara: Shout out Detroit.
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:I highly recommend it.
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:this episode is brought to you
by the Detroit Tourism Bureau.
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:if only I could say
the word Bureau Bureau.
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:Lacey: Office of tourism.
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:Sara: of tourism.
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:Thank you, Lacey.
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:Do you have a joy moment to share?
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:Lacey: I do.
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:we have been getting into
our new school time routine.
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:Isaac is now, a first grader,
so he's going to school all day,
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:which we all love, it means that.
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:Invite We, me, but it means that we
wake up and we get him on the bus
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:in the morning instead of having
a lot of time in the morning.
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:And this morning we got done
getting everything ready early.
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:He did a great job and he's
been loving, carrying Violet
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:around and it's very cute, but.
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:I tried to channel that energy this
morning into him reading her books.
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:So I set her up in the Boppy so she
could sit up and he wanted to read
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:her a Minecraft book, to which I,
was like, maybe let's pick something
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:else that she's a little interested.
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:And he was like, here's mine.
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:gonna start with this book
Homeboy read her four books.
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:Read four books, and he is just in
there having the time of her life
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:and she thinks he is the bee's knees.
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:And they just had this lovely time
and I just sat in the kitchen,
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:left them bee, ate some cereal, and
it was just really lovely moment.
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:I think in general, one of my favorite
things in the world right now is
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:seeing my children things that I know.
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:I would say come from me, but like
that, that I know I say out loud and
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:the things that I do, and this was one
of those things I, as he was reading,
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:I was hear him, hearing him use some
of the different phrasing and things
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:that we do and it was just very sweet.
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:And I got to enjoy my cereal by myself,
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:Sara: I'm so curious.
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:What kind of cereal does Lacey eat?
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:Lacey: really only two at the moment.
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:Honey Bunches, boats Reese Puffs.
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:That's it.
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:there is a cereal connoisseur in
our household, and it's not me.
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:Joe: I have no idea what you're talking
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:Lacey: about somebody who
has a cereal buying problem.
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:Joe: It's not a problem
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:Lacey: because cereal
just continues to show up
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:Joe: It's not an addiction.
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:Lacey: And so it's so interesting
that the two that I'll eat, those
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:get eaten pretty regularly, but
just more cereal keeps showing up.
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:Joe: I have no idea what
you're talking about.
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:Lacey: a third cereal that I would love
to eat now, and that's crackling oat
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:bread, which you would think not good.
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:It is the best cereal in the world,
but it's too, it's just too expensive.
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:It's too expensive for
that tiny little box.
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:Yeah.
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:Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs
is the one that I always want.
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:But for some reason, honey bunches of
boats makes me feel more like an adult
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:Sara: Yeah, it's the word bunches
that really makes it grown up.
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:If Joe doesn't wanna share
a moment of joy, I would.
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:I would happily listen to all
the cereals, like, list all the
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:cereals in your house right now.
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:Joe: I can do that and
share a moment of joy.
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:obviously as we have Reese
Puffs and Honey Bunches of Oats.
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:we have grape nuts, which are
a favorite of mine, Cheerios,
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:which are my other favorite.
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:frosted shredded mini wheats,
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:Lacey: it?
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:There's strawberry, frosted, minted.
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:Joe: they're strawberry.
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:Yeah.
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:there's a lucky charms, right?
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:For kids.
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:yeah.
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:Lucky charms, course.
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:that's not for me, honestly.
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:That, and then Chex, but both
rice checks and corn checks.
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:Lacey: Yeah.
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:So multiple boxes of checks.
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:Well
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:Joe: now wait a second.
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:I buy it when they have
the family size on sale.
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:So that you can get two for the same
price as what one box normally is.
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:Lacey: So we have to store bigger boxes.
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:We do for longer.
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:We do.
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:Joe: Is there any out on the counter?
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:Lacey: anymore.
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:Sara: Wait, is that the end of the list?
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:Joe: Yes.
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:Sara: not.
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:Joe: no.
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:hold on.
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:There's also some protein cheerios,
and like a off-brand Fruit Loops.
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:Lacey: there's Cinnamon
Toast Crunch somewhere.
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:Joe: No there's not.
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:Lacey: Yeah, there is.
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:It's in the pantry cabinet.
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:Oh, tiny.
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:There's multiple ones in the, there's
a tiny, there's that, and then
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:there's something else in there too
that's the other two Fruit loops.
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:Joe: That's the off-brand Fruit Loops.
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:And the protein Cheerios are the
three that are in that little spot.
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:Sara: Follow up question.
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:Do you ever mix two or more
types of cereal together?
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:Joe: Sometimes.
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:Sara: Can I hear your
favorite combination?
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:Joe: probably Reese Puff's
and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
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:Sara: Nice.
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:Okay.
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:That was one of my favorite things in
college when they had the dispensers,
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:was to mix and match different
kinds and then like, as it like
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:gets more soggy and then it changes.
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:So yeah, that's like a, gosh, we could
do a spinoff podcast about cereal.
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:Lacey: I am not a cereal person.
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:I've always liked Reese Puffs, like
I'm so much that I'm not a cereal.
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:person, that I didn't know that
Cheerios and a Honey Nut Cheerios
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:were two different things.
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:I thought they were the same thing.
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:And when I told Joe that, he was like,
I'm sorry, what is wrong with you?
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:So if that tells you.
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:How not of a cereal person.
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:I am.
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:Yeah.
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:I also don't like drinking
the milk afterwards.
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:What he thinks is sacrilegious.
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:So I've gotten really good
at not using very milk.
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:Joe: don't have,
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:Sara: I'm with Joe on that one.
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:I grew up in a family where if you didn't
drink your milk with your cereal in the
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:morning, it would be poured in a glass
and that would be your milk at dinner.
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:So we just learned to
drink it with our cereal.
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:Lacey: That would've taken way too
much thought process for my family.
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:all right, Joe, you have a
joy moment you wanna share?
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:Joe: I Do Lace and I were talking in
the office while Violet was in little
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:Lacey: jumpy thing.
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:Joe: It's a little jumpy, but it's.
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:You know the
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:Lacey: activity center?
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:Joe: Yeah.
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:Where there, she's in her seat and
there's toys in a circle around her
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:and she can rotate and bounce a little.
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:I don't even, and it holds her up.
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:Yeah.
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:You, anyone who has kids knows
what we're talking about, but I
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:couldn't tell you the name of it.
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:Anyway, she's sitting in that
and Lace and I are talking, and
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:Violet, who is very chatty, just
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:Lacey: contributing.
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:Violet likes to, she's been on the
podcast letting her voice be heard,
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:Joe: but I think at this specific
instance, we have to be very clear
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:that she was not saying words.
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:She was more like, yeah, she's making
almost like singing, but not singing.
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:Almost like yelling, but not yelling.
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:It's she has this way of
communicating by just like making
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:a noise or like a level of noise.
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:And in the middle of that,
she stopped clearly, looked me
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:in the face and said, dadda.
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:And then went right back
to the kind of like, why?
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:And I'm like, this girl
is five months old.
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:What is she doing?
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:Lacey: we both,
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:Joe: we did the, we both looked at
each other and we literally both
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:just, we stopped, stared at each
other and we're like, did she just.
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:Did No, did she really?
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:And it, there was a very clear
distinction between when she was making
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:the noise to when she said that, to
when she went back to making the noise.
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:And it was completely distinct
from what she was doing.
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:So it was, it, I There's no
other, it's not like she was
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:saying like, blah, blah, blah.
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:Nothing like that.
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:No, it was, yeah.
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:Lacey: So that
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:Joe: was,
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:Lacey: Joe's been running that high
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:Joe: a little bit.
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:Yeah, little bit.
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:Lacey: there's been a few
other moments since too.
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:Joe: she did it again today.
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:Lacey: And the thing is, we both
stop and look at each other.
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:So it's not just in
either one of our heads.
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:Joe: Yes.
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:So that to me is that's all it took.
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:Yeah.
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:So think we know, I think we
know who's the daddy's girl now.
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:Lacey: Okay.
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:Joe: I think I can hear her.
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:Lacey: She's y'all are talking about me.
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:Joe: I think that was good enough.
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:Lacey: Yeah, that was great.
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:Joe: Yeah.
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:Lacey: Yeah.
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:Sara: Would you call Joy moment
something else from a dude's perspective?
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:Joe: I probably, because when you
said like moment of joy, I was like,
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:I don't have joy, so I don't know
what I would call it, but for me
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:personally, joy would not be right.
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:Sara: cool things that happened to Joe.
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:Lacey: I don't have joy.
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:Sara: I know that's,
it's a branding thing.
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:We gotta work on it.
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:Joe: certainly feel free to move forward
with that, but I'm just saying from my
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:perspective, if you were to say, Hey.
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:What was a moment of joy that you had?
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:And I'm like, I don't know.
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:When was the last time I
was on a slide as a kid?
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:That to me is more like joy as opposed to
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:Lacey: Yeah.
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:Joe: Does that make sense?
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:Lacey: At any, they went
roller skating this weekend.
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:Did at a roller rink.
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:Did, yeah.
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:At any point in there, did you have joy?
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:Joe: No.
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:'cause my feet hurt.
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:I don't like, I, I'm not, okay, so
this, I can ski, I can water ski.
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:I can ice skate.
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:I can roller blade for the life of me.
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:I cannot roller skate.
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:I don't know what the difference is.
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:There's something about.
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:I walking on little mini cars.
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:I guess I, I don't know it, first of all,
they hurt my feet 'cause they're just like
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:flat metal boards in the bottom of them.
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:And I cannot control
myself when I'm on 'em.
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:I'm way super wobbly, so put me on a pair
of roller blades and I'll, skate around,
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:skate backwards, all that kinda stuff.
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:Not a problem.
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:But do roller skates.
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:Lacey: He actually, I've been skiing
once in my life and I went with him
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:I had a panic attack on the bunny
hill and then never touched my skis
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:again as the story for another day.
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:But then he was like, do you
mind if I go do this one?
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:And I'm like, that's fine.
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:So I'm sitting at the bottom
and Joe was like, really good.
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:I'm like, I am.
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:Extremely attracted to you right now.
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:I did not know that was there, but,
so yeah, Joe has a lot of natural
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:athleticism I don't necessarily
think he gets credit for, but put
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:'em on rolling, mini rolling cars.
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:Well, those are our joy moments for today.
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:As always, you can share your joy
moments with us by submitting them on our
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:website, joyful support movement.com/joy
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:moments, so we can share yours,
whether it's joy or happiness, or
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:whatever word Joe would approve of.
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:Sara: It is always good to see you, Lacey.
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:Lacey: Thank you,
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:Sara: Thank you, Lacey.