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.

Nov Update

Sheesh, has it really been so long since I've blogged?  Yikes, I'm not sure where all the time has gone.  I'd love to say I've done a million things but that wouldn't be true....I've done a million and one.  LOL

Last week the kids didn't have school on Friday due to Parent/Teacher conferences.  It also happened to be the same week that 2 of Gabby's best friends in her grade & class moved away & they were not related to each other.  One of her friends moved to Gladstone so they will still be able to play together & see each other once in awhile & the other one moved further away in WI.  I am beyond bummed that she lost both of her best friends in the same week, just a day apart.  So sad for her, especially since she is so shy in the first place & has had these friends since Kindergarten.  She even asked me if I thought that she'd make some new friends quickly.  I told her it depends on how open she is & how open a new friend is.  Friendships take time to grow.  She's actually been praying that she'll find a new friend who is a Christian.

Back to the conferences & how they went...I showed up & dropped Gabby & Braly off in the gym.  (The school thought it would be a good idea to allow the parents to see how AR (accelerated reading) tests work so they had crates of books set up in the gym/cafeteria so that the kids could read while parents were in conferences, then parents could read & watch the kids take the tests on the computers.  My kids got extra time to read since theirs were back to back.  They had each read a few books by the time I joined them.)

First I had Gabby's meeting.  She is such a bright girl, she's kind, helpful, sweet, caring, respectful, etc the teacher told me.  And she takes school very seriously.  She had an A- in math (she always tells me she's not good at math) & the rest were As.  How could I be anything but pleased & impressed right?   She's currently at 51.4% if her AR goal & they just finished their 1st marking period so she's doing awesome.  She loves to read & is quite good at it.  She says her favorite thing is recess because she likes to do tricks on the spider.  It's a large dome that is made of many bars in triangles & she loves to hang like a monkey & do tricks.  She also enjoys History, mostly American & Michigan History.  She grasps the information quickly & remembers it so studying for her tests is fairly easy.  She excels at spelling too since she has a great handle on Phonics.  Her current fascination is The American Girl books & the American History they help her to 'live' through.  She's even asking for American Girl doll stuff for Christmas.

Braly's meeting was next & what can I say...his teacher enjoys him too.  She said that the one thing she doesn't have to worry about is Braly repeating something she's told him not to do.  He's so very eager to fix his mistakes quickly.  He may make many small mistakes since he's learning so much right now but she's right, he seldom makes the same mistake twice.  He's one of the top students in his 1st grade class & he's respectful, kind, a good friend, and improving each & every day on all his skills.  He's one of the top readers in his class & he's doing fantastic with his spelling.  I'm thankful that his teacher teaches in great detail about phonics.  He's always coming home with a new rhyme or song about how to remember something.  I was afraid he would have trouble with spelling tests since he is a sight reader but he sure does a great job.  I would say that one of his best skills is his ability to memorize things.  Sometimes Gabby gets frustrated with him since he is so good at memorizing that she thinks its unfair that he can hear a verse from the Bible & have it memorized in 30 seconds & it takes her longer than that to memorize it.  She does just fine with it but Braly excels with memorization.  It's actually how he learned to read, by just recognizing words & memorizing what they say.  If I had to state something that Braly isn't as good at, I'd have to say coloring. Mostly because he lacks the desire to do it.  But let me tell you that bribing with tootsie rolls has made quite an improvement.  Beyond the Tootsies though, he really strives to have his teacher make nice comments on his pages that he colors neatly.  We still have one hanging on the fridge of some pumpkins he colored that she wrote nice job! on.  He beams with great satisfaction when he sees notes like that.

After I left the elementary school, I picked my MIL up so we could go to Martha's conferences to hear what a wonderful student she is.  Everyone is so pleased to have her in their class.  She starts great discussions, has excellent class participation, confidence, knowledge & is just so intelligent that they all enjoy her.  But just like all of us she has one thing to work on, handing her homework in completed & on time.  Oh to be a teenager again...hahaha

I decided since they kids had worked so hard for school that we could go to McDonalds to eat lunch & then they could play in the playland.  They were thrilled.  After lunch the girls & I headed to Joann Fabrics so we could purchase some patterns that were on sale & choose some fabric to make some jammie pants for Gabby & her friend that just moved to Gladstone (they'll have matching pants) & some adorable Monster pants for Braly.  I have to wash the fabric & then we can start learning how to prepare a pattern & make the pants.  Gabby is excited & scared to learn.  I think it is going to be fun & she'll be impressed with what she's made when she completes it.

We got their school pictures back too so come back to see how grown up they are becoming.

It's a Small World after all

Tonight when I was helping the kids put their stuff away the new neighbor boy's mom came to bring him home and we started talking.  I found out that her son, Ethan goes to Preschool at the YMCA.  Last week I found out that one of our favorite Headstart teachers is in charge of the Preschool program at the Y now so we chatted about how awesome she is.  While chatting, we got onto the subject of Todd & how it has affected Morgan.  A few minutes later Holly asked me how old Todd was & what happened.  I started out by saying something like "I'm not sure if you know where Felch is, but....."  She said, "I grew up around there."  We asked maiden names & found out that she's Holly Statum & graduated the year after Natalie & she remembered when she had a class at Bay with Nat & a conversation she had just after Natalie & Todd were married.  It was strange & yet so neat to find out that our new neighbor graduated from the same high school I went to and that our sons enjoy playing together.  I told the kids that Ethan's mom went to the same school as I did & even dug out an old yearbook to show them her pic when she was in 5th grade.  The old pics were just TOO FUNNY!!!   They enjoyed seeing Uncle Todd with lots of hair too.  Makes me really thankful that we have pics of him to share with them. It really helps them to remember him & fun things they've done with him.  Oh, and Holly works at the newspaper & is going to look & see if they wrote an article about Todd & try to see if she can get them to include the part that he saved a life.  So there is another life that Todd has touched. :)

Tomorrow School Starts

Sheesh, I can't even believe that the summer is over & school starts tomorrow.  Today was fun but busy with family over to visit for the holiday.  Felt very rushed getting the kids to bed tonight so they weren't up too late.  Gabby had a hard time falling asleep.  She's just nervous & excited so I completely understand.  I remember how each year I would ahve a hard time falling asleep thinking about the very next day, the 1st day of school for the new year.

I'm so happy that we had an open house at school on Wed last week so the kids could meet their teachers & see their classroom & their desk.  I had to ask the teacher if she would move Gabby to the front of the room so she didn't have to try to see over the heads of all the normal but tall kids compared to her.  Made lunches for the kids & we've got everything set out for them. I still need to take pics of all their supplies laid out.  It is a HUGE pile for each of them this year.  Oh well.  I'm so tired & need to have enough rest to wake them up on time.

I'm thankful that I have Morgan so she can help me not be quite so sad that Gabby & Braly will be gone from me for 8 hours 5 days a week now.

Summer with neighbors

When we first moved to our house 3 years ago there weren't many kids around for our kids to play with.  There was one that had just been born next door to us & there was another one across the street from us around Gabby's age.  This summer has been FANTASTIC so far because the kids have been able to play with the neighbor kids like crazy.  Think Dennis the Menace where all the neighborhood kids were playing together in each others yards.  That is kinda like what my kids get to do and I am thrilled that they are making friends & we are starting to get to know the neighbors a little better.  Last weekend the kids were playing with Allie next door & her 2 boy cousins were visiting.  They were even asked to go to the park with them.  And they've been playing with Allie every chance they can get.  Then yesterday while they were playing with Allie, Isabella from across the street came to play (she just celebrated her 2nd birthday & so did Evelyn who lives 2 houses away).  Then there is Gabbi on the next block over came over for a little bit.  Today was another story.  While they were playing with Allie, they were invited over to Evelyn's house to play.  And they were told that they could come back anytime. Makes me happy to see them have friends like that & that they behave nicely enough to get invited back.  While we were eating dinner Mackenzie came over to see if the kids could go play.  They played for about 45 mins & now its time to get them scrubbed from their adventures in the neighborhood.  This summer is turning out to be quite fun!

Invaluable Time

This morning Gabby & Braly had a really hard time getting up for school.  It seems that instead of enjoying these last days of school they are wishing they were already gone & that summer was already here.  I am biding my time trying to finish getting things taken care of since Bonnie & Martha's grease fire in the kitchen on the evening of May 14th.  So much running around to do, cleaning, sorting, & hauling.  I've been completely exhausted the last several days & trying to catch up on some rest when possible but that seems nearly impossible.  Anyway, back to the story I was about to share.

Morgan was outside waiting with the kids for the bus & talking to the neighbor girl for a little while.  When she left for daycare I told Morgan to take her bike to the backyard & then come inside.  She did it ever so slowly enjoying the beautiful morning.  The sun is shining, the sky is a bit hazy but so beautiful, the birds are singing their brilliant songs & the temperature is just right.  She decided to enjoy God's beauty a little longer & hopped onto the swing.  Did I mention before that my 3 year old can pump her legs to get the swing going pretty high.  Yeah, that's right!  She learned earlier than the other two most likely because she has had access daily to try it out & watch her brother & sister so she got the hang of it.  Woohoo!!! No more having to push her all the time & I think she loves the Independence.  So I heard her talking a bit & then didn't hear anything & went to check on her.  I have almost ALL the windows open in the house so I can hear her no matter what side of the house she's on & still let her play outside.  No sounds makes a momma a little concerned so I went looking to see where she was & what she as doing.  She was swinging on the swing.  Then she hopped down & walked over to the neighbors fence, the vacant one.  I thought she was looking at the super long grass & all the dandelion puffs & thought she wanted some puffs to blow but instead she was starring a the tree.  I had opened the window & was standing behind the lace curtain so I could see her through it but she couldn't see me.  She started talking & shook the fence a little and then I saw it just as she had....it had a fluffy tail & came scampering down the tree...it was a squirrel.  It froze with her rattling the chain link fence & then she talked to him & he started moving again.  She got up & walked toward our shed following the path of the squirrel & watching him intently.  I ran to grab my camera & before I got it ready with muting the sound, she was done with the squirrel gazing & had opened the door to come inside.  Photo-op lost but not the memories of what I saw.  Standing there watching her for several minutes could have been considered time wasted but that time is fleeting from me too quickly already with how fast these kids are growing up so just as she sees things in a different light, I am too.  I don't think that I could put a price on those moments of time...they are invaluable.  And my goal this summer is to live in the moments & enjoy them.