Life is Changing

Well, today is my last free Thursday not actually on some sort of time constraint.  On Monday, I start a part time job at our church as the youth pastor's assistant.  It will be for 4 hours on Monday & 4 hours on Thursday. Nothing too much but it is definitely going to change how things have to work at the Pierce house.  I have been trying to finish patching the living room walls & ceiling so that we can have it texturized soon.  I would have liked to have the living room completely finished before I start this new position but I start sooner than expected & I will have to just work it in throughout the week & weekend.

I can't believe that tomorrow is already Good Friday.  It is crazy how it has come so quickly & yet it is at the end of April (not that silly March stuff).  We have been keeping quite busy with things.  The first weekend of April was the tail end of spring break & we spent the morning at the Pinewood Derby for Braly.  It was fun!  Then we headed to the Bonifas Arts Center for a circus open house.  We ate lunch (for free) had cotton candy, popcorn, pop, & corn dogs.  The kids enjoyed painting some pictures, getting balloon animals (Gabby had a HUGE flower & Braly had a sword, Morgan  missed out).  They played a beanbag toss game & won bead necklaces & walked around learning about the Skerbeck family & their history of the circus.

The following week Rachel & her kids came to stay a few days with us & we were able to celebrate Mom & Aunt Carol's birthday.  We had yummy Chicken, bacon, Quesadillas for dinner & cake & ice cream for dessert.

Last weekend I drove to Natalie's house to help her clean & get it ready to sell.  I stopped at Menard's to buy the sticky tile she asked for & we ended up spending the day doing a little cleaning but mostly installing the tile floor in the back bedroom & bathroom.  I must say that I was impressed with how nicely it looked when we were done.  It wasn't perfect but Nat was satisfied.  I didn't leave until late & had to drive home in a blizzard at 30 mph.  It was worth it though to help my sister out.  She has such an amazing heart for others & it is  nice when I see her getting blessed.

Today is the last day of the week for the kids. I'd like to do some egg coloring with the kids tomorrow if we have time.  We have to order Braly's new glasses & we want to attend Good Friday service at 1pm so we'll have to work it all in.  We have the option on Sat to attend an Easter Egg hunt in Felch but I think it might have to be missed since we will be heading that way on Sunday after church.  We'll see how it goes.

For now, I did my exercising & have checked my email.  Morgan is playing with her best friend Briar & I need to get a shower & a few other things done around here before it is lunch time.  Have to get the oil changed in my car.  And think about what I might wear to the girls  night out (Come As Your Not). That's gonna take some thought.  Plus I'd like to come up with an idea for a contest to win a Photography package as well as a few other wonderful prizes.  More to come.  Oh creative juices....start flowing!

So Quiet

Today is our last week day of our Spring Break & there is an almost deafening quiet in our house at this moment, except for the clicking of the keyboard as I type.  Yesterday we found out that our neighbor's cousins would be coming in yesterday or today.  They are 2 little boys that my 3 love to play with.  So at 10am the doorbell rang.  I was still in my sweaty exercise clothes so I let the kids answer the door in their jammies.  I did say it was Spring Break didn't I?  Hence the jammies so late. :)  When they opened the door to see the boys & neighbor girl outside they got so excited & started talking fast & loud.  They immediately ran upstairs to get dressed for the day & went outside to play in the cold.  I think its about 40 F but with the wind, it feels quite cold.  They played for about an hour & then were invited inside next door to play in the house.  I said  yes, and that's why my house is so quiet.

It makes me filled with joy each time my kids are so excited & happy that they have neighborhood friends to play with.  Siblings are almost always around to play with, so its nice when a few other friends are added to the mix.

Time for me to mix up some more plaster patching stuff so I can get 2 layers on the trench in the wall today.  I'm hoping to have the wall level again by Sunday or Monday.  I am looking forward to having the living room finished with beautiful color on the walls & ceiling.  Our new painting on the wall as well as other decorations to make it inviting & cozy.  And hardwood floor with a big fuzzy area rug to sit on.  It's gonna be beautiful!!!

Wanna see a pic of my gems?

That's right, you guessed it.  My gems are my 3 children.  I think this turned out great, especially considering it was taken at school.  I only bought the disc with the proof on it so I can do what I want with it.  So excited. Wished it was here a little sooner since I had a coupon for 50% off of a canvas print earlier this month.

Funny story about Gabby's hair.  She wanted it curly like she wore it for her Christmas program so we put the curlers in it after she showered the night before.  Then in the morning, we took them out. I heated the curling iron up so that I could curl the pieces that didn't curl & she looked great!  I should have taken a pic of her.  We decided that the kids would just ride to school with  me since Gabby said she didn't want to wear a hat & wreck her hair.  And since I had to bring Morgan to get her pic taken with them right when school started it was no big deal.  I sent Braly outside to shovel the snow since we got a few inches & it was snowing at the time.  Gabby was still eating so I didn't think to tell her to stay in the house when I went upstairs to give Morgan a quick bath & blowdry her hair.  Needless to say, we came down ready to head to school & I found Gabby outside helping with the shoveling.  Ugh!  Her hair was went & limp with the beautiful snow.  I called her in, had her look in the mirror & she was like agh! Now what Mom?  We ran upstairs, turned the curling iron back on, & got the blow dryer out.  I did as fast a touch up as I could but it wasn't quite the same but she looked beautiful all the same.  We were late getting to school & then I had to pull them out of class to get their pic taken together and it's fabulous!  So glad we had it done!

Big Picture Classes Blog Tip

This is mostly for me to remember my contribution to BPC.  So this is what the Tuesday Tip that was shared on the Big Picture Classes Blog looked like.  Thought I would share it on here so that I have a copy of it to share with my children once they get older & start reading my blog.

February 08, 2011

Tuesday Tip!

 

Don't you hate it when things explode & make a crazy mess in your microwave?  Do you forget to clean it up right away or not have time so it crusts on?  Or maybe someone else in your house made the mess & you discover it after its been there for awhile.  Besides getting a cover to use over the food to help decrease the messes, I learned a simple trick.  Fill a coffee cup half full with some vinegar & a little bit of water.  Microwave it for about 30 seconds and then watch the splatters of food wipe off the inside of your microwave with little to no scrubbing.  

Jeannette Pierce

Growing up

Yes, this is another post about the kids growing up...well mainly Morgan.  I just have to reflect on how much she is changing lately & so quickly.  She went from wearing diapers & waking up absolutely SOAKED, to cold turkey wearing just undies.  As I sat here this afternoon researching washing machines so that we can purchase a new one since our 5 year old one died, I let Morgan play Daddy's computer.  She has been a SUPER challenge to get her potty trained...nothing like the other two.  She would fight me when I'd ask if she had to go potty & a few minutes later she was in tears & yelling for my help because she had peed her pants.  She would REFUSE to go when I asked her to try & then have an accident.  She'd do the same when I tried to just tell her to go potty & I'd practically have to drag her there & sit her on the potty & force her to go.  I tried timeouts, privileges taken away, spanking, etc and NOTHING seemed to work with this girl until she accidentally went to bed on Super Bowl Sunday night without a diaper on.  That was a HUGE turning point for this little girl.  She not only hasn't worn a wet diaper since but she's had much fewer accidents AND the one thing I wanted to really write about today, she is going to bed much nicer.  More like a 4 year old should.  And she spent the night with her friend while we were out of town & not only went to bed nicely with her friend, but she also behaved like an angel I'm told.  This girl is also reading some words.  She has been sounding words out & though she needs a lot of practice still, she is doing fantastic with it.  I am one thankful and proud momma.  So happy God blessed us with three wonderful children.  Parenting isn't always easy or fun but it really can be rewarding.

Check this out! :)

Many of you that know me, also know that I LOVE to scrapbook.  I often visit & take classes from the Big Picture Classes website.  A few months ago they decided to do Tuesday Tips.  They are tips that can be for scrapbooking but aren't limited to scrapbooking because let's face it, we don't just scrapbook each & every minute of our day, right?  I decided to share a tip that my mom shared with me....check it out

http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/blog/tuesday-tip-2-11.html

And do you know what I got for my contribution?  A $10 gift certificate to apply toward classes at BPC!  Sweet eh?

On Our Way

Well, it looks like we are on our way to being a diaper free house & I am thrilled about it.  It has been many years since we were diaper free so I am looking forward to this next step in our lives.  What a bittersweet milestone.  Wonderful since the expense will not be there for diapers but a little sad since it means our children are growing up & don't need quite as much help from us anymore.  And yet, wonderful that they are growing up & don't need as much help as before.  It is as God intended & I pray we direct their paths according to God's will.  We won't always be around to hold their hands or to help them make some of life's big decisions but the wisdom we've shared & God's word in their hearts can help them make the best & right decision.  I have faith that this is how it will work for them.  I love to see them growing physically as well as spiritually.  I'm enjoying motherhood.

The other night I was tucking Morgan into bed.  Now this little girl just doesn't want to go to sleep at night for whatever reason.  She wants to be a part of every waking hour but we draw the line at 8pm (most nights) & that becomes adult time.  So as I was tucking her in, she said, "Mom?" In a slightly annoyed voice I asked, "What Morgan?" She went on to tell me, "Mom, I think I know what truth is."  I was intrigued by what she was about to tell me. I have been working on helping her understand what truth is because she's at that age where she doesn't quite understand the difference between a lie & the truth.  When I ask her whether she's cleared her dishes she will tell me yes.  And I know she hasn't done it yet, they are still cluttering the table.  Or I'll ask if she's gotten dressed yet & she will say yes, even though she's standing in front of me with her jammies still on.  I'm not sure if she wishes she were dressed or if she's trying the power of positive thinking by answering yes, thinking then maybe it will happen.  Whatever the case may be, this girl clearly does NOT understand a lie from the truth but she's only 4.  So back to our conversation.  Morgan says she knows what truth is.  And this next statement coming from a 4 year old blew me away.  She said, "Mom, I know what truth is.  Truth is God. God is truth, mom."  My response was, "Yes, Morgan, God IS TRUTH!"  Wow!! Such a phenomenal thing for a 4 year old to say.

Maybe, well more than likely, that statement was for me, since God has been teaching me to remember that He is truth & that the lies I sometimes listen to, that often alter my mood to one that is negative & crabby, have nothing to do with God but rather the father of lies.  I have been working to recognize these lies for what they are & trying to concentrate on God's truth.  The truth that His word says that all things will work together for good because I am in Christ Jesus.  Or one of the verses I've been trying to concentrate on right now is

Psalm 119:68  "Thou are good, and doeth good; teach me thy statues."

How awesome is that?  God IS good AND wants good for me?  That tells me that when negative thoughts come into my mind that they are NOT from God & I need to get rid of them. I still need a TON of work but I am learning & trying to allow God to teach me to change my ways & change my thoughts.  I am grateful that God never gives up on us. He continues working on us, even when He's been trying to tell us something & we aren't listening & acting on what He's been saying, he can use even the smallest to make a HUGE impact.

Okay, so lesson learned & hopefully remembered. I may have another plastic container to add to my organizing tools pile soon (the one that had the diapers in it). Now its time to get some housework done & maybe do some basement organizing.  I love having things put in their place.  It makes me HAPPY! And I do enjoy taking things that look like a tornado hit them & making them tidy. :)

Updating the blog

Thought it was time to update the look of the blog.  I may have made some things a little harder to read. Sorry if that is the case.  Let me know what you think.  I'm still working on it.  I would love to put a HUGE comments button on the bottom of each post so that it is much easier for leaving comments since I love them...well most of them. haha  Actually I don't think I've ever had trouble with any comments that have been left, just that leaving comments seldom happens. ;)  So do be shy. Leave a comment & say hi!

LeapFrog Parent Panel

As a parent who is concerned with what my kids learn & play with I decided to join the Leapfrog Parent Panel awhile back & answer questions regarding the Didj game systems that we purchased for Gabby & Braly 2 years ago (was it really that long or just last year? hmmm).  Anyway, each time I answered their questionaire my name was put into a drawing of all the parents answering questionaires for $100 gift cards from places like Walmart, Target, etc.  They just wrapped up the last questionaires about a month or 2 ago & I reveived an email saying that I had won the drawing.  It was actually the 'grand prize' drawing since they were finished with our panel.

I won a gift card for Target in the amount of $1,000!  That's right, not just $100 but rather $1,000.  The email came right before Christmas & they actually next day aired the gift card via UPS so I got it on Christmas Eve when Adam came home from work.  We started making our list of things we could buy right away.  And amazingly enough since our shopping was already done for Christmas & we had purchased most of the toys that we really wanted, we decided to use the money toward home essentials instead of blowing the whole thing on 'fun' stuff.

Now living in the enormous town of Escanaba we have 2 Targets to choose from.  LOL  We either drive 1 1/2 hours to Marquette to shop or 2+ hours to Green Bay to shop.  We decided to head to Marquette after church last week (well now it has been a few weeks ago).  We ate lunch on the way up with the kids.  When we arrived we headed for a quick stop in the bathrooms & then grabbed 2 carts & started looking at things on our list.

Warning: this is going to be a play by play of just what we spent our money on.  Details may bore you so read on if you are brave enough or maybe you haven't heard me gush about our purchases yet & your curiosity has gotten the better of you.  By the way, I'd love to hear what you would spend $1,000 on at Target if you won a gift card.

If you've been in a Target you know they have their own 'Dollar Store' section with all sorts of fun stuff in the bins.  Since it was just after Christmas, the bins had mostly been picked clean.  Some of the ones that were left actually were on sale.  We found a few pairs of Hello Kitty socks for Morgan & continued on right past the womens clothing section, past the mens clothing & right to buying a box of diapers.  We sure do hope that this is the last box we ever have to buy for our family.  Morgan is working on night potty training but hasn't quite been ready to stay dry just yet.

Next came the cleaning supplies which sucked up quite a chunk of our money.  We purchased laundry soap, softner, dryer sheets, dishsoap, sponges, swiffer wet jet refill pads & liquid.  A new half size broom & dustpan.

Then came the toy section.  Like I mentioned before, we had purchased just what we thought the kids wanted & would play with for Christmas so it wasn't hard to just look at everything.  We did however purchase 2 of the same set of Galactic Heroes for Gabby & Braly.  Braly collects them & has several shelves on his walls to display the coolness of his collection.  Gabby enjoys playing with them too but doesn't usually get her own sets.  However, this was a special set.  It had Padme Amidala in a snow coat & was super cute.  So 2 sets were purchased.  Christmas decorations were next & I opted to buy 2 wreathes for our doors next year.  One did not have much in the way of decorations on it so I also purchased some ornaments to glue on at a later time (with the help of my friend).  I didn't think we needed much more in decorations as Adam keeps stating that there really isn't any more real estate in our house to decorate so would I please keep walking.  Well, maybe not exactly that but you get the idea, right?  We did get a few Christmas candy sales.  Like Wonka specialty bars.  YUM!!!

Next was the car section,. We purchased a much needed trash can to hang on the back of the seat in the car which will hopefully deter our padawans to keep the backseat cleaner.  We also found a special document holder for Adam's car so he can use it for work.  And my car was in need of an air freshener as sometimes the kids & I think it smells like some pigs rolled around in the back. lol

As we continued walking we came upon one of the most fun sections of the entire store. Yup, we're electronic geeks!  We ended up purchasing 2 PS3 controllers so that we can finish all the parts of Little Big Planet & look forward to possibly purchasing Little Big Planet 2 (which happens to come out tomorrow since it has taken me quite a long time to actually finish this post.)  We also found a box to hold computer CDs that fits nicely on the shelf of my desk and batteries were not only on sale but if one purchased 3 boxes with special codes one could get a $10 itunes gift card.  So worth it since we use batteries like they are going out of style sometimes.

On to the health & beauty section of the store where we managed to find toothpaste, deodorant, barrettes (the only kind that actually stay in Morgan's baby-fine hair), 2 electric toothbrushes to replace mine that died on me last year, some toothbrush heads for the new electric toothbrushes, lipstick, nail clippers, shaving cream, hand soap, body wash, etc  The list just seems to go on and on and on in this section as there were many needs.

We grabbed a few arm fulls of food such as Nutella (the new natural chocolate peanut butter, actually made from Hazelnuts & super delish!), some ice tea, canned goods, etc.  And how could we forget the kids clothing right?  They managed to get some new undies, leggings for Gabby to use as long johns since the girl is usually cold, & a nice sweater for Gabby.  I decided to take a look at the purses & found one that is a nice dark purple AND has just the right amount of divided spaces in it to make it super functional.  PERFECT!!! I grabbed some jewelry cleaner as I walked past the jewelry counter & then ran back to get a SIGG water bottle for Gabby but found out they must be discontinuing them since they were on clearance & didn't have much to choose from.  We got a water bottle cleaner though & I picked up a grey sweatshirt as I headed back to the checkout counter.

We didn't do too badly in the movie section either.  We picked out a $3.99 VeggieTales movie & How to Train Your Dragon since we all loved it when we watched it in the theater.  We purchased Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing & a checkbook software program as well.

So as you can see, we had a TON of fun spending our $1000 + a little of our own money & we were as practical as we could get with it.  God blessed us immensely and filled the whole back of our car with products that we can use for awhile.

It took us about 3 1/2-4 hours to fill those 2 carts & spend all that money & near the end Braly said to me, "Mom, you have about 10 minutes before I become a dragon."  I've been working with him to tell me when he needs to eat since he gets a headache & becomes very impatient as well as mean & nasty when his blood sugar drops.  I hate to admit it but he actually gets this from me & he is starting to recognize when it is happening so I sent him & Gabby up to the food court to get a bag of popcorn since we weren't quite finished shopping..  And another question we kept getting from both Gabby & Braly was, "Don't you think that 2 full carts is enough? Can't we be finished already?"

If you made it this far you are either my mom, you have lots of time on your hands, were very curious or well...I don't know what. lol Thanks for letting me share the story of our blessing.  It was a lot of  fun for me. Now leave a comment & tell me what you would have purchased with your $1,000 gift card to Target.  Perhaps a new bedding set, video games, books & movies,a complete new wardrobe....

Actually posted on January 17, 2011  And a pic or 2 to come.