Fantastic Weekend

As you can see by the title, I had a fantastic weekend. I went scrapbooking at the Rapid River Lodge and it was a lot of fun. The Lodge seems to be a well hidden secret and I don't know why b/c it was beautiful and roomy. It's tucked in the woods next to a river that was high from the spring thaw and the rapids were beautiful and sounded amazing. Very relaxing, its just too bad it got pretty cold so sitting outside for long wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been.

I took my computer along and successfully learned how to scrapbook one digital page. I had some trouble figuring out my photoshop program but in the end, it was a lot of fun & I met my goal of at least one digital page. I then worked on my "All About Me" scrapbook and nearly completed it. I have a little more journaling to do but that shouldn't take too much longer for me to complete.

The food was great! We were divided into groups to make the meals and everyone brought & made yummy food. Then there were about a million snacks to enjoy including some amazing carmel chex mix and a pumpkin bread roll. YUM! I plan to get recipes and try to make them myself.

We learned how to make some cards with a Stampin' Up consultant and I was able to enjoy something that many of you know I like to do.....TALK!!! LOL Yup, that was me...the talker. And it was a lot of fun.

Oh, best of all, my Aunt Carol shared a lot of family history with me and I was able to record it in my Family Tree program. LOVED that so much. It's one of the reasons I started scrapbooking in the first place, to share memories dear to me and learn about where I came from and share with my children so they can share with their children and so on.

Brr...Golf postponed

Gabby was so excited that she was going to start golf today but due to the cold weather & the class is 1 hour outdoors, they postponed its start until Thursday. I had to send Gabs in her winter coat again. Where oh where is the nice weather?

Gabby brought home a paper a few months back with some classes that the YMCA would be having. When I asked her if she wanted to try one of the classes, she said "Yes, the golf one." I said ok, we'll see about signing you up. We also looked at the other classes & she said she'd like to try the soccer one as well and since there wasn't a conflict, we signed her up for that one too. I haven't gotten to watch her much for soccer but Braly told me that Gabby got to be the goalie on Saturday. She was pretty excited about it & I was happy for her since that was the position she told me she wanted to learn before the class even started. Go Gabby!!!

Soccer Success

As you can tell from the title, soccer for Gabby was a success. At least that's what I've been told by Gabby & Daddy. Adam took her to his class with him and she colored pictures while the students did their presentations. Then everyone told her to have fun & good luck with her soccer. Adam said that she did really great listening to the coaches & practicing the different drills. Her soccer class is more of learning the techniques and doesn't involve actual games. It's more of an introductory class and it sounds like she fits nicely in it. I plan to take her this week (barring another snowstorm & then Adam can drive us all b/c he won't have class). I'm hoping to get some pics of her in action to share with everyone. And hopefully I will have time to try to figure out how to add pics. It's probably super easy but I just haven't tried yet.

Tonight we are heading to Braly's school for a family social night. We are making peanut butter & jelly sandwiches to eat and McDonalds is donating apple slices to go along with it. Braly will receive a book for attending (their way to try & get books into every home) and there will be other activities to enjoy.

Right now I'm watching Braly & Morgan sit on the couch & enjoy some M & Ms together. Braly is feeding them to Morgie and she keeps saying Aaaaw with her mouth wide open for more treats. Too funny! She just told him, I eat.

Still getting the hang of this...and more, LOTS more.

Well one of my dear friends told me that I can make this a private blog so that not just anyone can find out the goings on in my family so that's what I did. THANKS! I'm really trying to get the hang of having a blog but you guys are going to have to bare with me.

A Whirlwind of the last 2 weeks.
I'm not sure how 2 weeks can be so long and yet so short but I guess it goes something like this.

Monday March 31st: Adam came home from work & looked at the weather radar & said that we (my mom, the kids, and I) had better get going b/c a storm watch was starting later in the day & we would be lucky if we could make it downstate to visit my sister Rachel if we waited till Tuesday when we originally planned to leave. We kicked it into high gear & finished packing & were on our way before the bad weather set in. We reached Rachel & Jerry's late that night.

Tuesday April 1st: It was rainy so the kids played inside & I got to work helping Rachel organize & declutter some stuff in her dining room. I don't know what it is but I just love to organize things. I love helping people do it & I'm not too bad at it either. I really think its one of my gifts. It's just kinda hard to get into the mode when having to take care of so many kids & their needs.

Wednesday April 2nd: Beautiful weather, the kids played outside for about 2 hours, I think we really could have gotten used to the temps since its a measly 32 F here in the U.P. lately. We were able to get a little more organizing done & another bag of stuff tossed. Great job Rach.

Thursday April 3rd: I had a big plan the night before that we were going to get lots done & maybe even dust off the pics in the basement & get them hung up. Ummm... that didn't happen. Gabby reminded me that I promised to try to find some cute dressy shoes for her dress wearing days and for the wedding (Kate & Steve's) this summer. So off we went leaving the boys to hang out with Grammy Cheryl. We actually found some adorable ones as Meijer (miss shopping there since we moved). Then back to Rachel's' for some more organizing.

Friday April 4th: Morgan and I headed to the La Leche League Conference to take in some interesting classes. I met some very nice women dedicated to changing the world "One Breastfed Baby at a Time. Rachel & Mom prepared some dinner and then we sat & relaxed for a little while before heading to bed. Auntie Nat & Papa Blaine got in late that night.

Saturday April 5th: Morgan & I headed back to the LLL Conference but this time took Auntie Rachel & adorable Katelyn with us so they could check out some of the classes and booths too. It was fun but exhausting to take in so much. And since I've never eaten at IHOP in my life and wanted to, we met the rest of the clan there for dinner. Gabby & Braly, Xander & Kimmy all enjoyed some Beezlenut juice (clear pop with jello chunks in it) along with a JoJo special (should have been called a Dr Seuss meal) which was a pile of pan-eee-cakes (as the kids say) ranging from small on down to large on a plate with pink & blue sauce & a sucker on top (the clover that Horton carries around). And a side of green eggs & ham. The kids really enjoyed it & I enjoyed some stuffed french toast. Then off to Circuit City to watch Cars (the movie) on the big screen with surround sound while Papa asked questions & looked at tvs.

Sunday April 6th: We packed the car again but swapped Grammy for Auntie Nat as our passenger on the way home. We made it back home at 5pm, made dinner, and then unpacked everything.

Monday April 7th: Braly's teacher came over for a home visit. He has 2 a month with the Headstart class that he's enrolled in. He worked on finding words he can read & trying to add a few more sight words to his box that he made.

Tuesday April 8th: Braly had school today and the girls and I headed to the store to stock up on some food and made it back just in time to get Gabby on the bus.

Wednesday April 9th: Happy Birthday Mom & Aunt Carol! Hope you both enjoyed your day. Sorry that we missed calling you. Parent meeting at Braly's school & then off to bed.

Thursday April 10th: Braly had school again and since I'm not very savvy with financial talk I figured I had better learn some more of the lingo and signed up to take Dave Ramsy's Financial Peace University Class at our church which runs for 13 weeks. This week was week 2 and I had to miss my LLL meeting but was able to swing by & talk with some of the moms there before I headed home & attempted to get Morgan to bed.

Friday April 11th: Ah yes, finally to today. Another Winter Storm Warning in effect and probably for good reason but I ignored the weather & got up early & got the kids ready & headed to Iron Mountain for my eye exam. I was in desperate need of new contacts as the ones I was wearing were nearly 2 months old & were very cloudy & cruddy looking. I was surprised to find out that my eye sight slightly improved. I walked away with my glasses tightened (I seem to need this done often thanks to my kids grabbing & playing with my glasses) & a new pair of contacts that I could see amazingly well with. You may be wondering how the roads were & honestly, I've driven in much worse. It was raining & there was sleet & some snow on the roads on the way there but the way back was nicer & the rain had stopped but you should see it out there right now. YUCK!!! So glad that I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow. The cupboards & fridge are stocked. Scratch that. I just checked the calendar & Gabby starts soccer at the YMCA tomorrow unless its cancelled. We'll have to see what happens. I can't wait to see how she does. I'll have to take my camera to see if I can get a few shots & I might have to find something for Braly & Morgan to do for the 45 mins that the class runs.

So now that I'm up way too late & I've blabbed, or should I say blogged the heck out of this thing, I'm heading to bed to get some sleep as long as Morgie doesn't wake up when I carry her up to bed. She's currently sleeping on the floor near my feet. It's actually her new thing. She plays, crawls, and rolls around on the floor until she finally falls asleep and then I carefully carry her up to her bed. Hope y'all are smarter than me & are in bed & reading this in the morning with a wonderful night's sleep. Toodleoo for now.

Hola family & friends!

The new craze seems to be to set up a blog in order to share everyday life events with family & friends. I decided to join the craze. I know, one more thing for me to try to keep up with. LOL Oh & I'm thinking about not renewing my picturetrail webpage.



So stop by our Pierce Productions blog and see what's going on in the Pierce family. We'll try to keep it updated as often as we can (once I get the hang of how this site works). Don't forget to add us to your favorites (it will be easier to find us since my name can be a little tricky to spell.)