Playgroup TOMORROW, Thursday, March 21 at NCPC!

Are you at home on Thursdays with little ones looking for something to do? Join us in the Fellowship Hall at North Creek Presbyterian Church (The church is located 621 164th St SE; Mill Creek) on the 1^st and 3^rd Thursdays of each month from 10:00-11:30am for a drop in play group for kids 6 years and under and their parents or caregivers. We will have different play stations, a craft area, snacks, coffee, and a short group time at the end. The adults can chat while the children play. It is free and open to anyone so pass on the information to your friends!

Thank you for your consignment donations! Sale starts TOMORROW, Thursday, March 21!

Thank you to Brooke Yule for organizing and donating garage space for our most recent fundraising effort: To consign items with proceeds to benefit our MOPS group.  Thank you to Brooke and Erin for tagging all of the items for sale... a labor of love!
Thank you to those of you who donated items!  We received about 260 donated items for the sale.  WOW!

The sale is scheduled for tomorrow Thursday March 21st, Friday March 22nd and Saturday March 23rd.  Most of items are half price on Saturday.  Sale will be held at the Gold Creek Church in Mill Creek.  All items that our mops group does not sell at this sale we will put in the Monroe-Snohomish sale in April.

Link to Just Between Friends sale website:
http://www.lynnwood.jbfsale.com/

Meet March's Mom of the Month, Melanie

Meet our Mom of the Month, Melanie.  She is a giving member of our MOPS who has a shining personality and warm heart.  She has a heart for Mary's Place and recently helped by organizing the Easter Egg stuffing at our last meeting.  Presenting Melanie, read on to get to know her a little bit...

Thank you for all of your efforts with Mary's Place.  How did you get started with helping Mary's Place? 

 

Kate was the Outreach coordinator the year before me (my first year at MOPS). She introduced us to Marty, the director of Mary's Place. When Marty spoke about Mary's Place, I knew I wanted to become the next Outreach coordinator. Marty is very inspiring and I was super excited to work with her.

 

What is your favorite part about helping the women and children of Mary's Place?

 

I emailed Marty to tell her we had 1200 Easter eggs and 65 buckets ready for the kids. This is her response email and it is my FAVORITE part of what we do!:

"Amazing! The Easter Bunny will be sure to find every boy and girl at our shelter! We love our MOPS moms! You insure that all moms regardless of their income, address, past or present circumstances look like a hero in their child's eyes. Thank you for lifting them up so nobody has to feel let down. You are the angels we prayed for.  Thank you for being the answer to our prayers,  the encouragement we needed and the love we hoped for. Thank you Melanie for bringing hope, renewing dreams and reminding us we are not alone! MARY'S PLACE LOVES YOU!!!" ...talk about tears of joy coming down my cheeks!

 

Are there any words that encourage you as a mother?

 

"It's bedtime!!" Oh wait, that's probably not what you meant! I like this simple quote about life and I try to live by it, "Smile more than you cry, give more than you take, and love more than you hate." We also have a mantra at our house, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

 

Who is your mentor?  Who do you admire?

 

I would have to say I admire my dad, John. He isn't my biological father but he adopted my sister, Genesis, and I when we were young. He and my mom divorced when I graduated from high school. John has always been there for my sister and I, no matter what. He has also helped raise my (awesome) step-mom's two girls. I mean, any man who is willing to raise four teenage girls deserves a medal! John is an amazing dad and grandfather!

 

If you could be any movie star, who would it be and why?

 

Christina Applegate!! I would love nothing more than to be Ron Burgandy's co-anchor, Veronica Corningstone, in "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy".  Although, a close second would be Robin Wright-Penn. I would equally love to play Buttercup in, "The Princess Bride". In any given week, I can usually find one or two conversations where a quote from either movie is relative! It's a gift!

 

What do you do to give yourself a mommy break? What relieves your stress?

 

I relieve stress by working out at the gym. I don't particularly like working out at the gym, but I do enjoy the results! I also volunteer at 'Homeward Pet Animal Rescue'. I LOVE my volunteer work at the shelter. You will either find me in the dog room cleaning kennels or you may spot me out and about in Woodinville walking all sizes and breeds of adoptable dogs! Helping these homeless dogs has become my passion.

 

 

What was your occupation prior to being a mother?

 

I was a waitress and bartender for over ten years. I was happy with my profession. Serving isn't for the faint of heart! I had a great job and I was making great money. During that time, I realized I had a good eye for photography. I have taken black and white film photography classes and I'm now working on going all digital. I bought myself a beautiful digital camera! I'll be honest, I'm terrified to use it! So far, I have taken it out of the box and put it into my camera bag. I've had it for about two months! I am good at what I do, but I think I'm afraid at failing, so I haven't even tried. I so desperately want to pick up this camera and start shooting. I will. I will.

March and Easter Activities

Is Easter in March?  Yes, it is!!  March 31st.  If you are looking for some family fun Easter activities, this is a great link for you.  It includes many Easter egg hunts around the north end. 

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080320/NEWS01/663850000

What are some of your favorite Easter traditions?  If you have some you would like to share, I would love to post.  

I want to connect Christmas to Easter for my children.  Is there anything that you do to connect these two significant holidays?  I have heard creative ways such as:
1) Save branches of the Christmas tree and making them into a cross for Easter. 
2) Plant ashes from a burnt branch with new bulbs for Spring.
Here are some of my ideas:
3) Plant spring flowers and clean up dead flowers in the garden with your children and talk about this season of celebrating Jesus' death and resurrection.  Talk about new life and how God brings new life back into plants and nature all around us.
4)  Make an Easter themed ornament for the Christmas tree, perhaps a blown egg or something to symbolize Christ's death and resurrection. 
5)  Bake cross or Easter themed cookies and talk about how we can bake special things to honor Christ at his birth and during Easter.
6)  Decorate a little tree with Easter ornaments.
7)  Read the story of Jesus' birth and death and resurrection during this month.

Meet our Mom of the Month, Jamie!

Meet our mom of the month, Jamie!  She is a mom to an adorable son and sweet daughter...  Grant is 3 years old and Grace is 18 months.

What is the best advice you received when becoming a mom of two children?
Sleep when the kids sleep!

What do you do to relax?
A hot bath!

What is your favorite easy dinner recipe?
I love to put a roast in the crock pot with a bag of Lipton Onion
soup.. It cooks on high for 4 - 5 hours and is tender and juicy.

How did you and your husband meet?
I met my husband Justin in Olympia, WA when I was working as a receptionist and Justin was the company's UPS sales manager. The shipping manager asked Justin out for me (without me really knowing what he was up to)! Luckily (for me) Justin was planning to ask me out anyway! It will be 9 years since our first date on February 26th.

This is Melissa speaking...  I would like to apologize for the delay in getting February Mom of the Month out... my computer had a virus and it is finally "working" although it feels like it is on dial-up.  It is slowly chugging along.  All the fonts are ancient looking.  Guess our computer is still in the works as I write this.  Hopefully it will be feeling better soon!