speaker?

Hey girls,

I just got a call from a woman named Elaine Miller who recently moved to Rome. She has been involved with MOPS before and has spoken at many different chapters. She said she was calling all of the local MOPS groups to let them know she was available to speak! Check out her website and let me know what you are thinking... http://www.splashesofserenity.com/. She has written some books for moms too. LET ME KNOW. WE MAY WANT TO BOOK HER WHILE JOANIE IS GONE???

Nov 6th MOPS meeting

Since we didn't get to talk about it much at the last meeting, lets talk about it on here. NOV. 6th will be our "teen MOPS awareness" day. That being said, we will hopefully go with the baby shower theme. Anyone have any left over baby decorations they want to sport?? I was thinking I will use our raffle items as prizes for those who win the baby games. I will have a baby bottle full of candy for people to guess how much is in there. Court suggested having the clothes pin game so anyone who said, "baby" would have to give it up. She also suggested having a baby cake that day...I will make one, but don't laugh if it looks funny;o) Andrea will not be there, but we will be making baby blankets to give to Helen for the teen MOPS girls. Helen (the teen MOPS coordinator) will be speaking with us about teen MOPS..some informational stuff and I asked Joanie to prepare something about "the teenage years" for us. Discussion groups will meet as well! OKAY...so let me know if you have any other ideas or if you have any baby items to decoration with!!

Kara

I will take care of the Welcome table if you take care of the coffee Kara. I will have the cash box to make change for everyone. I kind of forgot that we would have to collect money so I guess it makes sense for me to sit there and collect and then take care of it afterwards. How are you planning on paying for the lunches? Do you need a check or is someone putting it on their credit card? Let me know but if it is a check I need to know by the Monday before, October 27th. Thanks!

more nov 1st stuff

We are going with the Wegman's lunches! It just makes sense! Cheryl has volunteered to pick up the donuts in the morning...thanks Cheryl. We still need someone to pick up the lunches for us. Not sure if we could do it before hand? I would do it myself but that is a good 40 min drive one way for me;o( Any volunteers to pick them up? Even if you got there a few mins late??? We also need someone to man the welcome table. I will volunteer for this but we need another helper with getting coffee started.

I will take a moment to apologize for committing you all to this. I didn't realize it would be such a hassle...at first I just thought they needed the building. So again, thanks to all who have stepped up and helped organize this event. Know that it will be worth it!!

See you all on Nov. 1st.

a definate she's gonna blow moment...

I had an interesting encounter with Makenna (my best friend's 2 year old whom I also babysit) yesterday.

Starting by her bringing a toy out to the dining room and placing it on the table; I asked her to return it to the living room, please. She ran away. I grabbed her arm saying Makenna, I asked you to take the toy back to the living room. NO Auntie!

So I picked her up, placed her in time out on the couch, she promptly burst into tears but refused to be compliant. I require them to say I will...(whatever the issue is) before they can get up from Time Out. Makenna is the queen on being stubborn when it comes to this; So she finally broke down and said "sorry Auntie; I will listen." I smiled and said Ok- then you can go play.

She grins, hops down off the couch. Looks up at me laughing and says "I peed."
"what?!"
She still laughing mind you, says "I peed on the couch".

I was livid, I herded her into the bathroom, set her on the tub step, "That is not okay! You were very naughty!"...she was now howling at the top of her lungs.

I went back to the living room and began sopping pee off my mother's couch. I dialed Aimee; When she answered the phone I started in by saying not quite yelling; "Would you like to know what YOUR daughter just did?!"

I talked to aimee until I vented most of my anger and cleaned up most of the pee. I went back to bathroom. Changed Makenna made her apologize and told her if she peed her pants like that again I was going to put diapers on her. She said she was sorry.
And was good as gold the rest of the day.

Steering 10/9

Great to see you all this past week! I feel we are off to a good start so far and am so grateful for an awesome team! Here is just an overview of what we discussed this week.

Discussion Items:
~Joanie will be gone for 2/12, 2/26, 3/12, 3/26

• Some ideas for speakers while she is gone
• 2/12: Marriage (love and respect) either Gavin or people I know who teach this at EHBC
• 2/26: Craft Blitz
• 3/12: Either Mental Health (depression, anxiety, autism, etc.) or Nutrition
• 3/26: Spa Day

~You were all given your budget for the year. Please do not exceed this. If you feel there is something that really needs to be purchased, let Cheryl or myself know.

~Fall council meeting

• Lori is always on top of things. The following is an email from her detailing what we need to bring. I am thinking those of us who aren't bringing fruit should bring OJ. Let me know who will bring and how much.

  Based on 30 people coming, I think we need 3.5- 4 dozen pastries (donuts and
  bagels).  I would say 2 dozen bagels and 1.5 dozen donuts.  We will need
  cream cheese & butter, but that might come with the bagels when we buy them.
  I also think some strawberry jam might be nice.  I can take care of the
  coffee, tea, etc.  I'm going to brew some decaf as well and buy real 1/2 &
  1/2.
  
  We have 6 people from steering bringing fruit (Loren, melon;  Faith, melon;
  Courtney, bananas; Joanie, oranges; Cheryl, strawberries; Lori, grapes).
  That should be enough fruit. I think it might be nice if the other folks on
  steering could bring orange juice. Juice would be a nice touch and it would
  be easiest if everyone brought the same flavor.  We should need 2-2.5
  gallons of juice.
  
  I also think we should have one or two people assigned to keep an eye on the
  food and coffee. I will be one, since it is my job after all and we can
  recruit from the other steering members to help.

• Courtney called Panera's on Friday and hasn't heard back from them yet. IF it is more than 8.50 per box, I thought we could look into subway? Any other ideas?? AND if it is under 8.50 per box, we will have some money to work with (bagels/donut reimbursement) .
• Andrea and I will be setting up the night before and Cheryl and Lori will get there early to start coffee.
• Any volunteers to pick up the donuts? bagels?
• We should try and get there around 8 to make sure we are ready to welcome everyone!!

Prayer Request

• Amy: current living situation with SIL and kiddos/ Praises for Rhett furthering his relationship with God.
• Loren: Praise for Mike getting involved in small group
• Cheryl: upcoming 10th anniversary prayer that it would go smoothly
• Lori: things are going well
• Courtney: Friend Lauren's walk with God
• Andrea: Growth for MOPS group
• Joanie: Son Bob's job situation
• Faith: Uncle Neil with lime disease
• Kara: Smooth pregnancy
• Cindy: Cat has tics/ job transition

Keep praying for each other girls! You all know the power of prayer!! Please comment on this blog about suggestions for Nov. 1st...

Our first MOPS meeting!

Our first MOPS of the year was in my (Andrea's) opinion a huge success! Here are a few pictures from the morning! We had a few new faces.......that is Adrienne on the far right.Craft time with some oooey, gooey caramel.
Our fearless leader Kara! Thanks for all you do Kara. We love you!
And our marvelous mentor Joanie! You are the best! We are so blessed to have you!
My camera was abducted during our "free time" at the end. The following are some pictures I was surprised to find later that day. Nice one Kara!

I'm not sure if this is a self portrait or not but I think I can see up your nose Loren!
I guess Kara takes credit for this last shot of Loren's foot. It is a beautiful foot...no corns, callouses, and a nice fall shade of polish. What an artistic eye you have Kara! Let this be a lesson to you girls not to steal other peoples cameras! Cheryl, be careful of these two at convention!!!