Mom of the Month, Laura Bersoza

Madelyn, Laura, and Oscar Bersoza

What do you enjoy most about being a Mom?

I think the best thing was the instant love I felt when Madelyn was born. I have never experienced that kind of love. The love for your child is so intense. Of course I love my husband, but its a different kind of feeling and love. I also love making Madelyn laugh and seeing her happy!

Where did your husband propose?

We took a trip over Christmas break to Riudoso, New Mexico with another couple to go snow skiing. On Christmas Eve, Oscar and I were sitting by the fire and he proposed. He had been asking me some serious questions all night, so I was starting to get suspicious. The other couple got engaged too! We will be married 6 years in July.

What are your secret snacks?

Chocolate, Chocolate, and Chocolate!

What is your fondest memory of your grandmother?

My memaw was very loving. I always liked to sit on her lap and rock, even up to a few years ago before she passed away. She was the best cook! She always had lots of food and desserts! She made the best chocolate pie-my favorite

What is your most memorable family vacation?

When I was in 8th grade we went on our first cruise to the Bahamas. It was for my sisters graduation present from high school. Well first we went right after school was out in May and there were lots of kids that just turned 18 that were there to party. Some were our neighbors and they were loud all hours of the night.

My sister and I were at that stage where we fought alot and I wanted to do everything like her. We got into this huge fight one day b/c she was wearing a hat and I wanted to wear one too. It was so dramatic! Also, while we were docked at the Bahamas, my dad was exploring the town and all of a sudden this women comes out of an alley and pulls out her breast b/c she was a prostitute. My dad ran away as fast as he could! We still tease him about it. It was a really fun trip overall!

Best piece of parenting advice you have received?

My mom always tells me: This too shall pass! Short, but sweet!

What is your favorite home cooked meal?

My moms homemade chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy-yum!

When do you sense being most alive?

When I have consistently had my quiet time with the Lord and been in prayer. It makes such a huge difference!

4 Questions Reminder

Are you using the 4 questions for correction?

1. What did you do?
2. Was that right or wrong?
3. What should you have done?
4. What do you think we should do about this?

Guess who's pregnant?!

Check it out!

Easter traditions

St. Patrick's Day is over, now we are fully focusing on Easter. I loved this article about instilling Easter traditions.

March MOPS

March meeting will be next Thursday, March 12 from 9:30-11:30 am. Please join us! We'll hear a testimony from our good friend Marla about God's faithfulness to their family in blessing them with four children (two are in Heaven).

We'll also host a baby shower for Hope Pregnancy Centers, Inc. A gift is not required but if you want to bring a (tax-deductible) donation feel free!

Special items they especially need are:
- new washcloths and towels
- new booties and socks
- new pacifiers
- new onesies
- new sleepers
- new small baby toys
- new bulb syringes
- packages of newborn and size one diapers
- new or used outlet covers
- new or used baby bathtubs
- new or used maternity clothes
- new or used cribs, swings, bouncers, exersaucers, hi-chairs, etc.

February Fun

We had a great crowd and fun meeting in February. Thanks for coming! We made candy topiaries and Bev DeSalvo shared with us about three gifts. Gift one is sex, from God to us. Gift two is permission, from us to us! and Gift three is our bodies, from us to our husbands.

Back to Organizing...

I'm cleaning out my office and ran across this article we received last year in the organization talk. So good!

Promotional Postcard

Mom of the Month, Misty Morris

The best thing about being a parent is...

Being able to create memories with my daughter while she's young that she and I'll never forget. Spending time with her at the zoo, park, splash park, library story times, or just hanging out on the weekend watching a movie at home.

Choose a word that best describes your life up to this moment

A whirlwind because the last 3 yrs have flown by. I married into the Army, had a beautiful daughter, moved 3 times in those 3yrs, found a new church family, and have made great new friends.

What are life's most useful objects?

Baby wipes! I think even after my daughter is potty trained I'll still carry a box of wipes in my purse.

Do you think you inherited some of your mother's emotional qualities? Which ones?

I think I inherited being extremely sensitive from my mother. My feelings get hurt so easily.

What was the major news event of your life? How did you feel about it? What influence did it have on you?

Finding out my husband was deploying right after my daughter's birth. Being a new mom and having no family around I was terrified and nervous. I decided to move back home near my family while my husband was deployed. It influenced me in so many ways. I learned a lot about myself. I was stronger than I'd ever known and I build a close bond with my daughter.

Does your family have photo albums, scrapbooks, slides, home movies? Who created them?

I love taking photos so needless to say our family has several photo albums. I also scrapbook a little. My daughter now runs when I take out my camera. She is only 2 1/2 yrs old and already tired of being photographed.

Great sex this Thursday

Don't miss our February meeting this Thursday from 9:30 am -11:30 am. Bev DeSalvo (those of you from Temple Bible Church will recognize her as Pastor Gary's wife) will speak on issues of intimacy and how we can have a sensuous and sacred sex life! You'll love it. Plus we'll have a hot chocolate bar with all the fixings and make an adorable candy topiary. Leave me a comment and let me know you're coming!

Bring a glue gun if you have it! We only have a few to go around.

Marriage Builders

Here's an article with 6 simple ways to strengthen your marriage during the parenting years.

Body image

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I'll link up a series of posts that relate to our relationship with our husbands. Here's the first one on "Do these jeans make me look fat?"

So simple, yet so huge!

This post has been my mantra today!

Cute video

My kids have gotten a big kick out of watching this little cutie giving the "evil look."

Mom of the Month, Ericka Mitchell

Here's Ericka with Brody and Kenna--they took this picture as a gift for her husband Brett. Her New Year's Resolution is to take a recent family picture!

What do you enjoy most about being a Mom? I love that I understand my children more uniquely than anyone else, except God of course. It is such a joy to watch them learn and grow. I also enjoy seeing my children through the eyes of others and watching grandparents admire the special things about each of my children.

Tell us about your first date with your spouse. For our first date while in college, we got to know eachother over strawberry ice-cream then we went to see the movie "Father of the Bride II". Brett was a wonderfully romantic gentlemen, and from then on, we were a couple. Now married for 9 years, together for 13 years!

If you were to say that your general outlook in life has changed since becoming a parent, how would you describe the difference? I used to be ready to conquer the world - I now view the world as a place from which my children need refuge. My daily prayer is for the health and safety of my children; that they may enjoy their childhood full of love, peace, fun and faith.

If you had to recall the time when your family laughed the hardest and loudest together, what would you have been laughing about? We have laughed uproariously in recalling a time, this past Christmas, when my son ran to me with tears in his eyes saying "sister hit me with Jesus and his friends!" He was talking about a child-size nativity statuette.

If you could smash one thing and one thing only, what would you smash? I would smash, burn, shoot, shred, poison and drop-kick my husband's favorite sweatshirt! It is a 20 year old mint-green relic, that has more holes than threads. He loves it and knows I hate it! I am secretly scheming to have it kidnapped. :)

Pics from January meeting

Brenda, Shele (with Blaze), Jennifer, and Misty


Allison, Stephanie, and Karen


Marla, Shannon B., Candace, Ericka, and Anna


Marianna, Betsie, and Charisse


Marla is pretty excited about her Starbucks gift card door prize!

Organizing Tips

What a fun meeting today! Thanks for coming! Brenda will email me the pictures later to post, but I wanted to get on here and see if everyone might post a comment with your favorite organizing tip.

Here's mine. I love this calendar so much I blogged about it! It's just enough organization to keep me functional, but not so much that I can't keep up.

Here's a more detailed explanation of the Office in a Bag. Also wanted to list some of the books we mentioned today.
-The House That Cleans Itself
-Organizing from the Inside Out
-SideTracked Home Executives
-ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life

Catching up

Hi ladies! Hope your Christmas was wonderful! We can't wait to start the New Year off at MOPS with a great speaker--a professional organizer! Danabeth from Busy Solutions will share tips and tricks to keep the clutter under control this Thursday, January 8 from 9:30-11:30 am.

Here are some pics from last month's open house. Everyone had a blast and we had a couple of new faces! Hope to see you Thursday!


Candace, Betsie, and Laura at the hot chocolate mix station.


Kerri, Marianna, and Laura at the origami gift box station.



Candace, Laura, Ericka, and Stephanie busy making gift tags



Fun treats!

Everyone also went home with a dozen frozen balls of cookie dough! We had chocolate chip, peanut blossoms, sugar, peppermint meltaways, cranberry lemon, chocolate peanut butter chip, and snickerdoodles.