I was looking for a blog topic tonight...

and so I asked LeeAnn about money (and saving it).  Here's what she had to say:

What is money?
I don't know.
How do Mommy and Daddy spend money?
By saving.
What is a coupon?
Well, a coupon is some stuff that we cut that we buy stuff that we show on the list that is on sale.
Where is Mommy's favorite store to shop?
Grocery store.
What do you do when you get money?
Save.
Do you ever spend your money?
To buy toys and candy.
What else should I know about money?
Money is great to save. 
Why?
Because so we can save them so we can buy groceries and cars and trucks and toys and games and movies and coloring books and back packs and markers and crayons and pencils and paper doll toys.  That was a lot I said!Anything else I should know?
Um.  If something, or your house gets on fire - you just buy a new one. 
Anything else?
I want you to think about some stuff.

Ahhhhh - the brain workings of a four-and-a-half-year old!  I'd like to think that Brian and I do a pretty good job of talking about money with LeeAnn, but maybe there are some things we need to change. 

She is right that a coupon is something we cut and then use to make a list...sometimes, in order to get her excited about shopping (although she normally does just fine), I will take pictures (from an ad or from the coupon) and tape them to a paper and then list how many we need of each (she's been working on learning her numbers) and then she is in charge of those items at the store.  It does take us a little bit longer (she thinks she has to get EXACTLY what is on the pictures) but she thoroughly enjoys being in charge of the shopping for those items!

And she does save her money - every penny she gets goes into her piggy bank.  We do take some out on occasion to hit up the store with (or the garage sales).  And she's right - she usually buys a toy (but rarely candy...not sure where that came from!).  And she is certainly right that money is great to save!  As you can see - she is also on a school supply kick (although she got no new school supplies this year - she's just going to preschool).

As for the buy a new house after a fire...  We were just discussing this evening that we need to go through her toy room and weed out what she doesn't use.  Last fall - there was a fire at the home of a young girl we do Girl Scouts with and so we went through LeeAnn's clothes to give them some.  So now - whenever we discuss giving to someone in need, she correlates that to giving to someone who has had a fire.  I don't know exactly where she came up with buying a new house though.

So - I think for being 4 1/2 it's a good thing she doesn't think money grows on trees.  And saving money is good!

Christmas in July 2010 was a SUCCESS!

I *love* Christmas.  I love winter.  I love snow.  And I love to spend time with my family over a good meal.  So, Christmas in July seemed like a no-brainer to me.

When I first told Brian about it he seemed a little wary.  But he's a go with the flow kinda guy so we set a budget (which I blew...I'm good at that it seems) and decided to make today - July 25 our Christmas in July.

After some shopping in Lafayette on Saturday evening, LeeAnn and I set up our small fiber optic tree and wrapped one strand of lights around the front door.  She hung two pictures that she had made in pre-school and we even put snowflake window clings on the back door.  When it was all done, I turned on the tree and strand of lights and turned off the lights in the house and she says, "Mommy, it is gorgeous in here."

THAT made it all completely worth it.

So we wrapped Daddy's presents and after she went to bed I wrapped hers (just one from the present pile we keep in the basement) and I set out some of the things I was going to fix for dinner tonight.

After church, we had lunch and LeeAnn was so excited to open her present!  Shortly after that I went to Marsh to get some items needed for cook and then I started on the dinner preparations.  My mom came over to help (she's awesome like that!) and after prepping the pies (Kentucky Derby and pecan) I went to slide the pies into the pre-heated oven...but the oven wasn't even hot!  After some inspection, the heating element was broken and so the pies were whisked away to my parent's oven to bake (thanks to my dad for baking the pies!).

Then it was back to my house to prep the dressing and corn casserole and those went to my grandma's house with my mom and into her oven (thanks to my mom for doing that and my granny for heating her house...just to use her A/C to cool it down again). 

I stayed home to devil the eggs, bake the rolls and make my green bean casserole in the toaster oven (which actually started out in a pan on the stove).  Add in some mashed potatoes and gravy (from the turkey that had been in the roaster all day) and some pea salad (contributed by my grandma) and pasta salad (made by Brian) and we had a regular feast!

The kids had a great time playing together and every time I told them Merry Christmas my nephew looked at me like I had three heads.  It was fabulous though.  The insanity of trying to cook one meal at three different houses was so well worth it.

Brian said I was going to create a monster (you know, Christmas in July and all) but I say I'm creating memories...memories that she won't soon forget.  So now it's time to go take down the tree and that one strand of lights and pack away the pictures and snowflake window clings.  It was totally worth it though.

Merry Christmas in July!


And if you want more Christmas in July, head over to Life as Mom for her annual Christmas in July celebration.  She'll have giveaways daily and some great ideas to make life easier for us MOMs. 

Thanks to FishMama and a friend who baked Christmas cookies earlier this week for my ideas for my own Christmas in July!

And of course - for my husband...

It seems strange that it's been just over seven years since I met the man I married!  I'd known who Brian was for a long time...since middle school.  And one mutual friend swears he tried to set us up years ago.  But alas, we had to find each other on our own and I'm so glad we did.

But today...TODAY is his birthday!  It is the day I look forward to ALL YEAR LONG because (for a few months at least) we are the same age and he can't give me crap!  I love my husband, I do, I do, I do but he loves to make sure that everyone knows (and reminds me often) that I'm older than him.  Not by much...just nine months and four days but it's enough for him to be younger than me for a while and to rub in it. 

So, to my wonderful husband, amazing father and best friend - Happy Birthday!

Family fun trip became a bargain trip!

When we left for Indiana Beach on Tuesday morning I had no intentions of sharing about the trip but it became a bargain for us so I had to share about our experience.

Indiana Beach is an amusement park about an hour north of us. I hadn't been in years - probably 15 or so and neither had Brian but he decided we needed to take LeeAnn. So we did.

We packed a picnic lunch (because the food and drinks there are outrageous) and ate in the car when we got there. Because we could go in and out of the park as often as we wanted, we left the bag with the swimming gear in the car. Tuesday and Thursday at Indiana Beach are Coke product days - take any Coke product and get $10 off. So we grabbed a couple Coke product cans and paid $43.10 for Brian and LeeAnn to ride and swim as much as they wanted. General admission is free (so I didn't have to pay anything).

After a couple hours of rides (in Kiddyland and some bigger rides that Brian and LeeAnn went on together), LeeAnn decided it was water park time. We went back to the car, had a quick snack and drank some water (it was hot out!) and headed back into the park. As we were walking in, two others couples were walking out and told us they were closing the park due to power issues.

We went back into the park to the Guest Relations desk and yep, the park was closing temporarily due to power issues. They gave us two free passes to come back another day and mentioned that if we wanted to hang out for a while to see if the power issues would be resolved, we could and we could still keep the free passes. Brian decided to go to the pool area to ask if the pool was closing (we figured the slides and Lazy River would - no power to run the water through them) and sure enough - the pool WAS open! So Brian and LeeAnn were able to spend the next two hours swimming and within 45 minutes the power was back up, so they were able to enjoy the Lazy River and water slides as well. After swimming were more rides and games and we ended the day at Treece's - a small-town restaurant that is "famous" in our area.

So - our trip for three that cost us $43.10 plus gas (and eating out at Treece's - $30.00) because a half price trip because of those free passes. I don't have another day off anytime soon so the next trip will be just Brian and LeeAnn (I went more for the dressing room changes than anything...well to spend time with my family but I neither ride nor swim). He decided that he can do it himself (the showers in the men's changing room were closed stalls - that was his biggest concern). So hooray for half price amusement park trips!

We're not homeschoolers but I had to share...

Our kiddo isn't in kindergarten so no homeschooling for us but we do know that she'll be attending a public school when the time comes.  This summer though, she is attending School de Mamaw and Papaw!  My parents have worked for the school systems for a combined 55 years (my dad teaches 7th grade Earth Science and my mom works in an elementary school as a paraprofessional...many years in the library) and have dedicated their summer to helping my niece and nephew and LeeAnn with their learning.

The three kids are seven-, five- and four-years-old (entering second, kindergarten and preschool this fall) and love to learn.  They all have things they struggle in and things they excel in and my parents are working hard to help them excel even more.

Since my niece and nephew are at my parents daily (in the mornings) they get to play "school" all the time.  C works on learning her letters and number.  L reads outloud to Papaw and is working his math too.  And when Mamaw is home (she also works part-time at the public library) she does the same work with them.  LeeAnn is so jealous that they get to play school so often (she only goes in the afternoon for an hour or two) so this evening we went over so she could show me what she was able to do this afternoon.

Enter pudding.  Yep.  Plain ol' pudding is used at my parent's house as a teaching device.  And LeeAnn LOVES it.

Mamaw spoons a cup of pudding onto a plate and then also sets another plate, a spoon and a napkin on the table.  As LeeAnn is going through her flash cards, she is writing the letters she doesn't recognize right away into her pudding and then when she's done she'll lick the pudding off, use the spoon to smooth the pudding and go on to the next card. 

While using your finger to write isn't the same as using a pencil to write, it gives her the same basic concept and she loves that she is playing in the pudding.  And when she's done, she'll eat what's left of the pudding and get cleaned up.

Another game LeeAnn was able to play tonight involved her letter flash cards and a fly swatter (and a quick, or sometimes not so quick, Mamaw).  Mamaw sets several (four to six) flash cards on the table and then calls off a letter.  LeeAnn is supposed to try to swat the right letter with her fly swatter (a brand new clean one, by the way) before Mamaw reaches up there and swipes the card she called off away.  This is supposed to get her going with quick recognition of the letters.

The time that my parents have spent working with other kids is amazing.  The fact that they are spending multiple hours per day helping their grandkids is even more amazing.  My dad often teases me during the summer that he's just going to lay around and read a book while I work (because I work year-round).  This summer though, between teaching the kids and carting them around to various swim lessons and library classes, I'm not sure he (or my mom) have had any time to read just for the joy of it.  And I had to share these because I thought they were fun, easy and cheap ways to maybe show your kids another way to learn. 

Record your Life...Posting on Thursdays now have purpose!

I have joined up with Mommy's Piggy Tales to share the stories of my youth - or at least what stands out to me in my memories.  So be watching on Thursdays for the next 13 weeks (the first two weeks are done...you can find them in prior postings) for the story of my life as I remember.

I was thinking earlier today though about my dad (duh, it's Father's Day - of course I'm going to think about him!).  I've been blessed when it comes to my dad and the dad-like figures in my life.  I wanted to record for myself (and for my baby girl when she's older) my first memories of my dad and even my grandpas, both my mom's dad and my dad's dad.

There are two distinct memories of my dad that I keep in my head.  I'm not sure how old I am in either one but I think I'm a bit older in the second memory, maybe five- or six-years-old. 

In my first memory we are out in the yard behind Mrs. Bailey's house and we are just playing around.  I know there were dandelions out, so it must have been spring and probably the weekend as well since he was at home with us and not at school.  I don't remember my brother being there, so I'm thinking I was very young - two-years-old or just older than that and he wasn't outside with us.  In this memory I'm plucking dandelions and he grabs one and swipes it under my chin to make it yellow.  And that's about it to the memory.  I think we even have pictures of this day, so maybe I just remember the pictures but it is in my mind as something I really remember taking part of.

The second memory of my dad isn't such a good one...  My mom babysat for other kids and it involves Tammy, one of the girls who was at our house a lot and the only one I still to this day consider my "sister".  I don't remember exactly what was going on or if it was early morning or late afternoon but I do know that my dad was leaving the house (he walked from our house to the school where he taught if the weather allowed...so it was morning when he was leaving or afternoon when he was going back for a sport practice or game) and I had yelled at my dad that I hated him.  I honestly don't remember why I said it or what had happened to make me say it but I remember Tammy and I both got sent to separate rooms (she to mine and I to my parents) and I cried and cried and cried because I felt so horrible for even saying it. 

To this day it makes me sick to my stomach to think I yelled that at my dad.  And I'm guessing that he probably doesn't even remember this happening (although, as far as I can remember this is the only and only time I ever told my dad that).  The comment also had no truth behind it.  I love my daddy...he'll always be my one and only daddy.

As for my grandpas - for my maternal grandma, my earliest memory is standing between him and my grandma in their big 15-passenger van as we were headed to Kentucky.  I don't remember puking in his pocket but apparently I did!  I've heard the story a hundred times too.  And I remember him playing his guitar too.  Man could he sing!  My earliest memory of my paternal grandpa is when I was older...probably seven- or eight-years-old and he kept calling me Windy because I did such a good job at blowing up the beach toys at the beach!  He actually called me Windy for many, many years - every time we went to the beach!

And now...the daddy that is in my life daily is my husband.  He is an *amazing* daddy to our baby girl.  He is patient and nurturing and has a teaching way about him.  Every little thing they do becomes a learning experience for her.  He is her protector and comforter.  I couldn't ask for a better daddy for her.

Who is your dad to you or your dad-like figures?

Happy Birthday Ma!

Happy happy happy birthday. Happy happy happy birthday. Happy happy happy birthday. To you to you to you. Ole!

Hope it's a great day.

Dee

So I have this baby cousin. Her name is Dee. Well, not really but that's what I call her.

Dee is amazing. She is my rock. She is my sounding board. She keeps me sane when I'm not. She is my insanity when I'm sane. She holds me when I cry and cries from laughing when I snort. When I call her and say "Dee" in just that tone of voice she KNOWS what it is that I need from her. She always laughs when I say "don't you hate it when" and remembers the first time we uttered those words together. She knows my secrets. She knows my dreams. She knows ME and she is STILL my best friend.

So, today we talk and I knew instantly that something was up. But you know what? She's FINE. She's more than fine. She's amazing. She just doesn't realize it yet. She will though. She'll be fine and look back one day and say "Thank you God for making me do that, I appreciate what it taught me." She might think I'm crazy now (which maybe I am a bit) but she'll get to that point eventually.

For now though - I'm looking forward to seeing her this weekend...talking and laughing and being together. It doesn't happen often enough and I love every minute we have together.