kid couture

{via cool mom picks}

The world would be a happy place if every child I see this spring were wearing these!

for my girls

So ... I should preface this by saying ... most of my 'deeper' posts start out days ahead of time in my head. I just feel a bunch of thoughts coming on and unfortunately for you dear readers ... they usually end up here in a spewed-out mess of jambalaya!

This post started in my head as a list to my girls. A list of who I want them to be, what my wishes and desires are for them. And as I'm thinking of it and listing it out {in my head}, I realized if I did that in a post, it may seem somewhat morbid without explaining why ... especially given that I'm traveling and away from them and God forbid something happened. So ... here is where this post is coming from.

I had a customer at the store who ordered wedding invitations. Through variety of {honest and unfortunate} mistakes her order was never placed. A few weeks later, she called to inquire about her order. Uh-oh! When we finally found her order and realized what happened, I called her back to explain.

She was very nice, but looking for some sort of compensation. "10 percent?" I asked. "I was really hoping for more than that," she answered. We settled on 20 percent. And that I would do my best to get her envelopes printed and pre-shipped so she could start addressing them.

I told her I'd get back to her the next day. I would be traveling, but would call her as soon as I got in. When we landed, I checked my emails to see if the store had an update for me, and thus began a flurry of upset.

I was told this woman called the store and was very upset and felt 20% was not compensation enough. I was thoroughly confused because it didn't sound like the woman I had talked to the night before. I called the number I was given and was shocked to find out it was the bride's mom!

Now, I admit ... I've probably had my mom cover for me for things far beyond the age of appropriateness {i.e., calling in sick for me ...}. But come on!

This mother was horrendous to talk to. Seriously. It was an honest mistake we'd made. I was doing all I could to rectify the situation. I even offered to hand-address all 175 of her invites!

The mother said she just didn't know that she could 'trust' us, considering how we wronged them. Seriously?!? I may have raised my voice at that point {ever so slightly, mind you}, as I explained to her that I don't run my business that way. It was an honest mistake. We realized what happened {mis-filing} and are doing all we can to make it better.

The wedding isn't until the third{ish} week in May. The reply date is the end of April ... they really have plenty of time for these to get out. I understand the frustration ... but are the accusations and drama necessary?

When I finally hung up the phone with her, she had a 45% discount, rush-processing, and overnight shipping {all paid by bwp}. Curt had an upset wife in a bundle of tears ... mind you, we had literally just arrived and walked into our room at this point.

Okay, so the reason for my post? In playing this all over in my head, I began to wonder ... what is this mother teaching her daughter.

To fight, fight, fight ... break someone down to the point of tears, to get an obscene discount and come off as a problematic person/customer?

Definitely not what I want to teach my children. And so the post begins:

For My Girls
be kind, loving, and generous
hold doors open
say please and thank you
be understanding & patient
hold judgement
leave large tips
clean up after yourself
give to others
be courteous
be respectful ... of everyone
be kind
if someone wants to pass you, let them
honor your family
be joyful
jealousy will get you nothing
work hard
be loving
have goals ... and follow them
pray
be kind
have compassion
be honest
marry a Christian boy
smile ... a lot
if invited for dinner, help wash the dishes
count your blessings, no matter how small
take walks
laugh ... a lot
cherish friendships
be kind
love God with all your heart
love yourself

thoughts on raising children

I've talked about some of my recent struggles in trying to stay mindful of my children's lives and the effects my 'busyness' has on them.

I'll try to spare you a book here ...

But this is a sign we have near the house in Exuma. I passed it the other day and thought, "Wow, this is a pretty deep message." I realize I'm in this frame of mind right now, but think about it for a minute.

Ten miles per hour ... kids crossing. Am I crazy in my *deep* thoughts? Or can you feel me? If I can stop and remember this message frequently during the day, I think it'd do me good. I get so busy with "not right now" and "in just a minute" or "I'll be right there."

This weekend has been so refreshing to me ... I've felt mindful and present like I haven't in a long time in my girls lives.

As for the message I've typed in next to the photo ... I'm reading a book by E.D Hill called, "I'm Not Your Friend, I'm Your Parent." {a gift from my mom ... thanks mom, I am actually reading it}.

And last night as I read the quote from Jackie Kennedy, it just really came together for me. Not that it hasn't before, mind you ... but for some reason, I need to continually be hit over the head for things to sink in ... I. am. a. slow. l-e-a-r-n-e-r!

Anyway.

I read the quote and thought of the photo and thought I'd put it all together for you to put into your own relevant bag of parenting tricks.

uh-oh ...

Hey Pipes, what's going on?  Who're you talking to?

What?!  Wynter is locked in the bathroom?!

Um, yeah ... good times at the Stier-Johnson house.  Never a dull moment ...

Piper is an amazing sister.  She cares for and takes care of her little sisters so amazingly.  Wynter did, in fact get trapped in the bathroom {toilet room} the other night.  Take a look at the door handle in the second photo.  They were installed wrong, and poor Wyntie was the victim.

Piper kept telling her, "I'm here Wynt, can you feel my hand?  I'm right here."

Unfortunately, I had to leave for an event at work, so left this little project in the capable hands of Odinn and Curt.  Masters of the screwdriver they are and Wynter escaped unharmed.

"princesses don't use nukies ..."

That's what Piper said to Hunter as they were laying in bed with me Sunday morning {I think it was Sunday}.

They were both up about 5:30 that morning, so I snuck them into bed with me before Wynter woke up and saw they were gone.  I forgot to grab a nukie for Hunter and asked her if she could go to sleep without one {yes, I was trying for another half hour of shut-eye!}.  She said, "no."

Ever so seriously, Piper looked at her and said, "princesses don't use nukies."  Hunter {oooo, I love her} says, "I not princess.  I bebe."

And off I went to get a nukie ...

Last Friday the girls had off of school, so we went to Mayfair for some shopping and a visit to Build-a-Bear.  As they were picking out their outfits, it brought back so many memories of Taylor loving that store so much.  We have a basement full of built stuffed animals!

parenting

Children make us crazy ... I'm convinced of it. Why else would I ...

-hide band-aids and tape?
-sing the ABC's in the shower
-pretend to eat plastic food
-scream the word "because!"
-let a child eat ice-cream for breakfast just so I have time to check my email
-call my husband "Daddio"
-take a 3 minute shower and feel clean
-ever-EVER say...'don't wipe, let me do it'

I read this here this morning and had to share!

movie time

The girls have been all about the Jonas Brothers, Camp Rock, Miley Cyrus & Hannah Montana.

It’s actually kind of fun listening to them randomly bust out in song ... 

Click here to see a couple new movies.

summer's over

I feel like I was so negligent in posting the last half of the summer, that I thought I’d bore you all with one long informational post {complete with photos, of course!}.

So where should I start?  Let’s see ... there was the afternoon I came home from work {late} and Curt was going on a conference call, so I decided to take the girls on a picnic dinner at the playground.  We packed up our dinner and headed to the park.  The weather was perfect for pb&j and corn puffs!  See photos here.

Next up ... the hatching of monarchs!  Curt had taken the girls up to the lake and guaranteed ... they come home with some sort of creatures every time!  This time was a box full of monarch caterpillars.  The girls built a nice habitat for them, put them in the bug house and watched mother nature take its course.  We watched as the chrysalises were formed and slowly the butterflies were hatched.  It truly is amazing!  The girls carefully took out the ones that were ready and released them outside.  See photos here.

After the butterfly hatching, we took the girls {and honorary sis, Ana} to the Racine County Fair {you have to read that with a little bit of a southern accent ...}.  The girls loved the rides.  Hunter’s turning into quite the little adventure-mobile!  Wonder where she gets that from.  :)  See photos here.

All summer long we go out and feed the fish at the bridge.  The girls love it, the fish thrive on it, and it’s sort of become a tradition.  This time was a little different though ... it involved winter boots, a nakie fanny and a princess crown!  See photos here.

Then there’s the annual trip to the EAA air show in Oshkosh.  For some reason, I’ve missed the last couple of years ... so was glad to catch this one.  See photos here.

Remember how Piper was on swim team?  Well, the club had awards night and since everyone got an award {and Piper did a great job} we needed to head over there.  As soon as the awards were handed out, we boogied out of there and over to the Ophelia Project run.  Piper and Wynter ran in the ‘kids dash’ ... it was so sad {cute} that we put these kids at the start line, we head down to the finish line and then ask these kids to run for their lives ... right into a sea of screaming fans!  A lot of the kids started crying just as they were nearing the finish line.  Gotta prepare them better for that one next time.  And then after the race was over, I had to take advantage of the beautiful night, Hunter’s great dress {thank you Trishie}, and the beach.  See all photos here.

Let’s see ... then there was a day off with the girls.  We were trying to think of what we could do.  I can’t remember now what the first thing was that we were going to do, but for some reason that didn’t work out.  Then I talked them into going to the Mitchell Park Domes.  I hadn’t been there in years and thought it would be fun.  It wasn’t super great weather ... so I thought it would be perfect.  We headed out and just as I was getting on the interstate, decided to call to make sure they were open.  Nope, they were in fact, not open.  Closed for renovations.  Okay, what next?  We decided to try out Apple Holler.  Turned out to be great fun!  See photos here.

Oh yeah ... and then my {very weak} attempt at potty training Hunter.  See photos here {yeah, there are photos}.  And no, she’s not potty trained.

If you didn’t read here, here or here, I took Taylor on a trip to Los Angeles right before school started.  I think it’s important that she and I spend some alone time together, without Curt and the other girls ... so I asked where she wanted to go, and she decided on LA.  We brought Ana with too.  It was a really great time!  See photos here.

And lastly, the day before school started, I took the girls to Six Flags.  I hadn’t been there in forever and have really wanted to take them this summer.  It was just the four girls and me, and we had a great time.  The weather was perfect for it and I’d love to make it a ‘day-before-school-starts’ tradition.  See photos here.

OH! One more thing ... I took the girls to the State Fair.  I didn’t want to bring my camera along, and then of course regretted it ... but here are a few photos I snapped with my phone.  The first one is of Hunter on a trampoline bouncy thing ... you have to look kind of carefully, but she’s on the top of the photo.  The other two are of the girls eating cream puffs.  Fortunately, no one got a photo of me eating one!  :)