Look Mommy! I'm a Bucket Head!

Those were the words I heard.
This is the image I saw.


Boredom causes strange behavior. That's what I'm blaming it on. She has been home sick and stuck in the house Sat, Sun, Mon and Tues. That's a long time for a 2 year old. :)

I think she looks brilliant, don't you?

Doug's preaching!

If you live in the Erie area and you are interested:

Doug will be preaching this weekend for all 3 services at the Edinboro campus at McLane Church. He is wrapping up the Nehemiah series we've been doing. He refuses to give me a preview - he likes it when I experience it for the first time with the rest of the audience. I'm pretty excited to hear what he has to say!

He also will be preaching Nov 29th at the Union City campus at 11am and 7pm at Church In A Bar. He is scheduled to preach at the Boro again January 16 & 17th.

If you don't live around Erie but still want to hear Doug, they will post his sermon to the website a few days after the sermon...you can check it out there.

Just wanted to share! :)

It's normal.

Our little girl has some quirks that just crack me up. And part of what cracks me up the most is how "normal" these things have become at our house. Is it true that anything can become normal if you are exposed to it long enough?


Doesn't everyone where patent leather dress shoes with jeans???? on the wrong feet????





Don't you put every sticker you receive immediately on your face????


And band aids...everywhere....all the time. EVERY injury requires a band-aid if you ask Danika.


And to be honest...those poor little knees take such a beating, sometimes I prefer she just keep them bandaged up....they get hurt less when she falls!



My poor little girl. It is yet to be seen if she truly inherited my clumsiness or Doug's incredible eye-hand coordination...but one thing is FOR SURE. She falls down a LOT. I don't think those poor little knees were without band aids all summer long.

A sad little Halloween

No trick or treating for us.


We were dressed...ready to go....and then we heard those dreaded words..."Mommy, I don't feel very good."

Indeed. Danika had a fever of 103.3 - and when we asked her to open her mouth so we could look at her throat, she threw up. That was it...the end of our trick-or-treating adventure for 2009. Doug said I was way more disappointed than Danika...but that's only because I knew how much fun she was going to have this year, and she had no idea what she was missing out on. She looked so darn cute, too!

Here is our cowgirl.

Since we were all dressed, I made our little family sit down for one quick picture before we changed back into normal clothes and took her to Urgent Care.

Here we are - the whole Bierer family - 2 farmers, 1 cowgirl, and a cow. :)

We made it to Urgent Care just a few minutes before they closed...and they were still SO nice to her. Gave her stickers and a baggie of candy and everything. :)

The verdict? Strep throat. She is on antibiotics, but still feeling pretty lousy. It was a sad little night. She had to stay home the next day from church. I stayed home with her (and John, too)...and she got to hang out in Mommy's bed and watch "PBSkids-dot-org" in there. She loved that part of being sick. :)
**Side story here: Danika is VERY influenced by advertising we have found. The only TV we let her watch is some of the PBS cartoons...and they don't really have commercials, but they do advertise their own website. She used to ask for PBS...then she started asking for "PBS kids" because that is what they call it between shows....and now she asks for "PBSkids-dot-org"...she uses the whole phrase. It is very cute...and yet slightly disturbing. :)

Yes, I am that dumb.

This is actually a story from last fall, but it is still funny. And since I just found the offending piece of equipment again, I was reminded of this and laughed at my stupidity anew. So, I thought I would share with you.

We live in a slightly older house with an older front door that has large full-length glass panels in it. The front door opens up to a little sun-room/front porch that then opens to the outside. The sun-room/front porch often becomes a "dumping" area of sorts for things that are either in transit from the house out to the vehicles, or from the vehicles back into the house. We have a habit of putting things there and forgetting to finish the trip and make sure they get to their final destination.

I went to a conference for work (I work in Highway Safety) and received this little gadget as a gift. It is a combination flashlight, seat belt cutter, and glass breaker, for use if you are trapped in a vehicle after a crash.



I took it out on the porch because I wanted to remember to put it in my mini-van. But, as often happens, I kind-of forgot about it, and it ended up sitting on the table on the porch next to our front door for a couple weeks.

One day Doug comes in from outside through the front door and he is holding my little gadget. He looks at me with that look I am used to getting right before he informs me of some ridiculous thing that I have done.

"Andrea - what is this?"

I explain the gadget's many useful functions and then ask, "Why?"

He starts to snicker.
"Well...since you've been leaving it on the front porch, under our porch light, right next to our full-length glass panel door, I assumed it was a "Do-It-Yourself Break-In Kit." It's nice that the thieves don't have to bring anything with them....no need to figure out how to break the glass or bring a flashlight to look around once they are in - you've got them completely covered."

I think it was a good 5 minutes before I recovered from my hysterical laughter enough to run over and smack him where he was collapsed in fits of laughter on the floor.

Oh - and we moved my gadget. If you are planning to break in, bring your own tools.

Big Girl Bed!

All the credit goes to Doug. Somehow, he just knew she was ready. I wasn't there yet - I didn't think that it was a good idea yet. I have a new baby that refuses to sleep - I wasn't ready for a mobile 2-yr old that can let herself out of bed. Besides....she is so tiny she still fit in the crib just fine! :) But Doug told me he thought she was ready for a big girl bed. He was right.

So - the 2nd week of September, Danika got a "big girl" bed - and Nana was here a week later and put the icing on the cake when she bought Danika a Tinkerbell bed set for her new toddler bed. Danika LOVES it.

The really funny part is that once we put her in it, she won't get out...at all.... no matter what. She just calls for us over the monitor as if she is stuck in the crib still. Doug has tried to reason with her that she can get out and come downstairs on her own in the moring - but she is having none of it. It has been two months...she won't even get out if she drops a blanket or stuffed animal...she just cries for us. It cracks me up. But, it is also kind of nice - if you put her to bed, she stays!

These pictures are from the first night with the new sheets and comforter - we even got her the matching pajamas. She was so cute...she couldn't wait to sleep in it.







Is that pure joy or what?

Print your blog...

Just a random note for those of you who write blogs...found this great website that lets you download your blog to a PDF. When I did it a few months ago (May 09) it wsa just $2.50 for that PDF...now it is $7.95. But, they added more formatting options, which is cool. And, if you are like me and this is kind of the "family journal" for your household, it is a GREAT way to keep this blog for the future.

Blog2Print

Just thought I would share. :)