Lake Fun with the Pierces

Love

Abby & Jack

Kids

Emma & Ellen

Friends and Family

Utterly Adorable

Not enough time in the day

A prayer to St. Joseph

Friends of ours who are still in El Paso recently buried a statue of St. Joseph in our yard. It is said that if you bury a statue upside down in your yard and say this prayer your house will sell. When the sale of your house is concluded St. Joseph is dug up and placed within the new home. We have many who are praying for us and for the sale of our El Paso home. We are grateful to all of you who include us in your thoughts and prayers. It is my hope that by including this prayer on my blog our house will indeed sell. Thank You

O, Saint Joseph,

you who taught our Lord the carpenter's trade,

and saw to it that he was always properly housed,

hear my earnest plea.

I want you to help me now as you helped your foster-child Jesus,

and as you have helped many others in the matter of housing.

I wish to sell this [house/property] quickly, easily, and profitably

and I implore you to grant my wish by bringing me a good buyer,

one who is eager, compliant, and honest,

and by letting nothing impede the rapid conclusion of the sale.

Dear Saint Joseph,

I know you would do this for me

out of the goodness of your heart and in your own good time,

but my need is very great now and so I must make you hurry

on my behalf.

Saint Joseph, I am going to place you

in a difficult position with your head in darkness

and you will suffer as our Lord suffered,

until this [house/property] is sold.

Then, Saint Joseph,

i swear before the cross and God Almighty,

that i will redeem you

and you will receive my gratitude

and a place of honour in my home.

Amen

Berries and Wine

Blackberries are one of my favorite things.  No, not the handheld, electronic version, the fruit.  On one of our daily walks we stumbled upon wild blackberries.  I was surprised at the amount of fruit on the wild bushes.  The more I looked the more I discovered that they are everywhere.  The bushes like to grow along the creek in  our neighborhood.  The more we walked the more we found.  I was determined to go and pick some for myself.  The kids love to pick strawberries, apples and peaches so I was sure they would enjoy this.  The fact that the berries were not in nice neat rows and were along a creek only added to the adventure. 

 

The kids and I walked down to the creek and found several bushes.  I explained what we were looking for and that we only needed the black ones not the red ones.  I handed out their cartons and away we went. At first the enthusiasm was abundant.  Then a few complaints came and went.  Blackberries have thorns and after a few pokes and a little blood, Jack was done.  Mark and Emma kept on picking.   Then Emma was bitten by a fire ant and then she was done.  Mark and I picked a few more minutes until he was distracted by the search for more bushes and off he went to follow the creek. I continued to pick berries determined to get enough to make a blackberry recipe I had found.  While I picked I listened to the buzz of several dragonflies,  the gurgle of the creek and the whining of my children.  Jack was hot, not to mention bleeding from a cut on his ankle.  Emma was whining because, "no one asked her if she wanted to pick the stupid berries."   I tried to over look the whining after all I was the one who forced them out into the creek.  I am so mean. 

As a parent I try to add variety to our summer vacations.  I truly thought that this would be fun, and for me it was.  I have to admit I had a beautiful image of my kids and I laughing, joking and discusing the wonders of picking wild blackberries.  As it turns out I once again exceeded my own expectations.  It appears they will someday need therapy for the blackberry picking mom made them do!  Eventually, I decided to go and hot, tired and a little bloody we returned home with just over 4 cups of wild blackberries!

FYI

Hello?  Is anyone there?  I know I have seen you walking past.  It's me your quilt in progress.  I was just wondering when you were going to get back to me?  It seems that quite a bit of time has passed since we last worked together.  We just wanted you to know that we are here for you.   We are ready to work when you are. We are concerned because we have been sitting here for rather a long time.  While we don't normally like to complain, some of us  do have pins in us.  Not that were in pain, yet, just uncomfortable.  Perhaps you haven't forgotten, you just cannot remember where you put us.  We are here on  your dresser. Just to the right of the stack of Twilight books and under a few headbands.   You might have move the scissors and look under your daughters pajamas from last night.  Yes, there we are quietly hoping the next time you walk by you will be coming to get us.   While we were sitting here we thought that you might be more inclined to work on us if we promised to match our corners.  If this would be helpful, we could probably talk a few more of us into it.  Although you know there are always a few rebellious souls who make the rest of us look bad.  If you could just give us a time frame that would be good enough for now, you know tide us over for a while.  So, we will let you get back to whatever you are doing that is more important than quilting.  Just hurry back soon.

Sincerely your quilt pieces.

Happy Father's Day

The father of three children had won a toy at a raffle. 
He called his kids together to ask which one should have the present. 
"Who is the most obedient?" he asked. 
"Who never talks back to mother? and
"Who does everything mother says?" 
Three small voices replied in unison. "Okay daddy! You get the toy." 

Thanks A Lot

I would like to say a big THANKS to my  sister and her family for letting us stay with her this past week.  Crazy, hectic, insane, exhausting are just a few of the words that would describe our visit.  Dealing with 5 kids ages 12 to 2 was challenging but with the two of us it was a blast.  We enjoyed watching our kids play and listening to them giggle. 

 

Mark and Ian became best buddies.  Ian idolized Mark and Jack often referring to them as one person, Markjack in his toddler-isms.  Mark was super helpful and was a great babysitter.  I enjoyed watching them interact.  It was great to see while Mark was the older of the 2, Ian was definitely the boss!  

Jack was slightly interested in Ian and attempted to play trains and the Wii with him.  If you haven't played with a two year old give it a try sometime, I guarantee you will either  come away smiling or gritting your teeth.  Oh, the two's!  What a crazy age.  

It was great to see Kaela and Emma together.  They did lots of girl stuff and had a blast telling secrets and giggling.  It was interesting to watch the girls ask for things. They figured out easily who was the pushover (Danielle)  and would always start there.  Finally they would say, "Emma's mom said it was OK."  of course I knew nothing about it.  The true tale was at dinner one night.  We all went to a very nice restaurant on Virginia Beach called Catch 31.  We dined on the outdoor patio, with the beach and ocean in the background.  Everyone had gotten dressed up and the moms were trying desperately not to get ketchup on us.  The girls got together and decided they wanted to go down to the beach.  They discussed strategy in hushed whispers.  Then it was decided they would each ask their mom separately.  I am not sure what they anticipated but I said,"No"  even though I was assured they would not get dirty or wet.  Dani however said  "sure. After dinner."  Okay they were stuck.  They discussed it further and tried asking again changing some of their qualifiers.  Emma pleaded saying, "don't you believe me."  Again I said 'NO'  At this point Emma said, "Why do you always say no and Kaela's mom always says yes."  I tried logic and explained that I did not always say "NO."  I even sited examples.  Apparently she was unimpressed because she said, "I wish Aunt Nell was my mom!"  Thanks-a-lot!

While the weather was overcast and gray the smiles and laughs had our days sunny.  We spent only one day at the beach and as you can see the weather was not cooperating.  But how can you be sad at the beach?  

Soccer for the Princess

This week was Emma's dive into Summer Camp.  This was the first year I could get her to agree to go.(and even then I had to stay until she said it was OK to leave.)  Emma struggles, as I suppose most youngest children do at one time or another, with growing up.  She wants to be "big"  like Mark and Jack, yet she fills the roll of "baby"  so well.  She decided on her own to start playing soccer.  She has always admired her brother for playing and God knows she has logged in enough time watching.  I am not yet sure what inspired this new interest but she seemed happy with her decision.  Ah, with one catch.  There is always a catch.  She is ready to go to soccer camp provided she has the right accessories (most people call it equipment).    First and foremost it's about the shoes.  Big surprise.  We spent the better part of an hour trying on soccer cleats.  First we tried on the pink one, then the nike with the color changeable swoosh, then the plain black.  All the while her brothers were reeking havoc of one type or another throughout the store.  She decided on the black nike with the white and blue trim (you can never go wrong with black) .  Then it was shin-guards, hair ties and what type of shorts to wear.  Exhausting work.  I wasn't sure even after the shopping extravaganza that we did indeed have everything she "thought" she needed.  And sure enough everyday she came home with a new item(s) that she "needed."  Fortunately, a quick raid of Mark's old soccer things provided us with everything, almost.  Soccer camp was a huge hit.  Everyday she told me stories of what they did, who she talked to,  and what she had for snack.  Today was the last day for soccer camp.  Emma was quite upset that soccer would be ending.  I assured her she would be able to play this fall.  While slightly pacified she threw in a few tears for good measure.  After every camp ended I would ask, "So how was your day?"  And she would rattle on for at least 30 minutes.  Today, was no exception.  I picked her up and asked, "So how was your Last day??"  To which she replied,  "It was great momma!  We played boys vs. girls and the girls won!  But best of all you know what I learned today?!"  She was so excited I couldn't imagine what it was.  " I learned this.  After we beat the boys we would sing.  Girls go to college to get more knowledge. Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider."  Well, that is something.