The Pierce Family

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day

Due to crazy schedules we had to celebrate St. Patricks with Mom early in the month. The bonus was that Bryan was visiting for his spring break! We all headed down for a delicious meal of corned beef and cabbage plus some tasty dessert.

Doing what we do best - hamming it up for the camera!

Saturday, August 26, 2023

Heading into March

Starting March off with some fun things!

On a terribly stormy night, Xander went with me to watch some of my students and young women perform in the junior high's musical, Madagascar. They did such a fabulous job!!

David, McKenna, and I headed up to Dayton on a Saturday morning to participate in Soap Up Dayton. We learned about human trafficking in our area of Ohio and then distributed soaps with a human trafficking hotline number on them to various hotels in the area. We always talk about horrible things going on in our world and how we can fight back and this made us feel like we were making a small difference. We definitely plan on doing it again.

Some of the hotels we went to were a little sketch, ha ha.

Treasuring every I have with my Xander.

Spa night with my young women that included facials, fingernail painting, and foot massages.

I volunteered for our DAR chapter at the Springboro Expo where we had a booth and shared information about joining the DAR. I really enjoyed talking to various people about the wonderful things we do but my absolute favorite part of the day was pinning Vietnam vets. We had several walk by and we were able to recognize and pin those who hadn't received their special Vietnam War Veteran commemorative pin. I tried to fight back the tears with each one, especially when they themselves got emotional. It was a memorable experience, one I will truly treasure.

Thursday, August 24, 2023

My Sub Life

From mid-December to the end of February I was a long term sub for a 7th grade Social Studies class. I had never wanted to be a long term sub but when the teacher approached me about the assignment I just felt so good about taking it. What an amazing blessing it turned out to be in my life. For two and a half months I planned lessons, graded papers, and taught, mainly about the Roman empire, and absolutely fell in love with my students. They made me laugh, they made me want to pull my hair out, they gave me hugs, they spilled tea, they shared fears and frustrations with me, they tested my patience, they shared their talents, and they became such a source of joy each and every day. These kids will always hold such a special place in my heart and the greatest thing is I will sub for them for another 5 years and be able to watch them grow up.

In the time I spent with them I didn't really take any pictures because I didn't feel that was appropriate but I did grab a few of some memorable things.

Some of their mosaics projects - I was so impressed!

That one morning when one of the student's backpacks started smoking and we quickly got her chromebook outside as sparks started to fly!

My little blue balloon buddy that one of my favorite students, Max, made for me.

The board notes left for me on my very last day.

I was feeling a lot of emotions on my last day of teaching them, February 28th, and was overwhelmed with all the sweet cards and gifts that they gave me.

I decided to take March 1st off and celebrate the end of my long term job with a much needed sushi lunch date with David.

And then I was right back at it and of course my most desired sub jobs are with "my" kids. Thank goodness I developed a wonderful relationship with the other teachers from that team and they always ask me if I'm available when they need to be out for the day. These crazy kids - I absolutely adore them!!