Collier Clan Update

Here's an update on all things Collier:

Gabriel: He is loving school. The tardy bell does not ring until 8:10, it only takes us 7 minutes to get to school. Gabriel is ready to walk out the door at 7:30 and every morning I have to fight to keep him home until 7:45. He no longer wants me to go with him. I guess I am just cramping his style, but to be honest I want to go with him because he is my baby but it's much easier to let him do it himself and it saves me time. Gabriel has scored 100's on each spelling test and we've had three (so proud). The only problem is that he came home with a discipline contract for hitting another boy, in the privates no less, in the bathroom. When we asked him why we were told, "I just wanted to." This really bothered me so I had the teacher call me and talked to her and was told that he had told her the same thing. Wii and TV were taken away and lectures given hopefully this will make the difference. He's a good kid, even if I do say so myself, but he makes some poor choices.

Abby: Is so full of herself. If you ask her what she did at school today she'll often tell you everything and this is usually true. Her favorite thing about school is painting. I got tired of cleaning up the messes so I rarely let the kids paint at home so being able to paint almost everyday is priceless to her. She also loves being with her friends everyday. She has already asked to have a sleep over. I may have to try a late night playdate with the kids going home instead of sleeping over. We will just have to see how that one works out.

Elizabeth: Cries every time I drop her off at school. I am told that she is fine shortly after I am gone but she cries none the less and that makes it hard. I know she stops crying because I am often working around the school and see her playing and having a good time. And the days she has preschool are the days I get the best greetings. Oh what smiles, hugs and kisses I get on those days.

Matt: Has started back to school and things have picked up at work at the same time. He is trying to get through the next couple of months until things slow down a little, at least work wise. Things won't slow down with school until May when he graduates with his MBA. And May really can't come soon enough.

I am too busy to relax it seems these days. I am planning the Fall Festival for the girl's preschool and that is taking a whole lot of time. I am also in charge of the school's one and only fundraiser that is year long with the first orders coming in this week. If you know anyone who wants to order some gift cards I've got those and it will support our school. MOPs starts back tomorrow and I can't wait to see everyone. And then there are all the activities and usual things you do as a mom. We are all busy and I keep trying to find ways to lessen everyone's loads and then find myself with as much or more than I had before. Hopefully, I will learn not to commit myself to so much.

Okay, it really sounds like I am complaining and in some ways I am but this seems to be life. I enjoy staying busy and being on the board gives me some purpose other than being a mom and a wife.

Crazy, Insane Me

Today we were supose to have our end of the year MOPS picnic. We usually have it on the church playground so the kids can play in a fenced area and we can talk about our summer plans. This year though we got rained out. And me being me invited everyone over to our house to picnic in our garage and to play throughout the entire house. Talk about chaos. We had at least 10 moms with at least 1 child each but most with two eating and playing in our house. When I suggested it everyone was in doubt that I was serious. I don't think any of them would dream of inviting that many to play inside their homes. I didn't see a huge issue with it. The house is child friendly for the most part and everyone does a good job of helping each other out by watching out for each others kids. I even had a mom change Elizabeth's dirty diaper for me. And it all did work out and the house wasn't trashed too badly either. It really doesn't look any worse than any other rainy day when the kids are stuck in the house. We will have to get Matt's opinion on that when he gets home. We had fun and that was really all that mattered.

Can You Help Me?

I volunteered to come up with a question that would divide our MOPS moms into seperate tables or groups of table during the social time of our meetings. I thought this would be easy but am having trouble coming up with questions with enough different answers to have 6 or 8 tables. The reason we are doing this is to get the moms to sit with other moms in the hopes of meeting someone new. We will also have ice breaker questions at the tables once the moms find the table with their answer. If you have any cool, interesting or just good questions I would love your input. Thank you for your help.

First MOPS Meeting Today!!

Today we had our first MOPS meeting of the year. It was so great to see everyone I have missed during the summer. It's amazing how much everyone's children have grown and the changes the moms have gone through as well. It was a good meeting and we had lots of new moms, which is always beneficial. The mom's were able to decorate bags as their craft and also put beads on their name tags to signify each child in their family, blue for boys and pink for girls. The moms seemed to appreciate both crafts/activities.





Every year we fill out a questionaire for our directory. The typical things are asked like name, address, phone, but we also ask for information to get to know you like, home church, favorite color, hobbies, and a question. I really enjoyed this year's question because it made me think. I would love to hear your answers! "What do you enjoy most about being a mom?" Any dad's out there? I want your answers too.



I had a really hard time coming up with just one thing. There is very little I don't like about being a mom. But the best part about being a mom are the cuddles, hugs, kisses and "I Love Yous" I receive everyday. I know one day they will lessen so I enjoy them even more now knowing that.