The Rewards Jar Update

I have to say I'm seeing somewhat of a change in Katie now that we have the "Rewards Jar". If I had to guess, I would say she has 1/2 the rocks from the bag into her jar. She gets so excited when she remembers to say "please" and "thank you". When she sees my eyes get real big, she starts giggling and tells me "oh, I get a rock for saying that." Too cute! I let her get a rock out of the bag and put it in her jar. I think the last time I counted the rocks in her jar, she had about 25. She gets one rock for every good deed. She also helped me clean up the Living Room, her room and wash dishes today.

I did have to take one rock out of her jar because she was sassing me this morning, telling me "no" and that "I not 'shhh' her". It's not like I didn't warn her because I gave her two warnings and that was that. Boy, she didn't like me taking a rock out of her jar. She begged and cried.

A couple times I caught her wanting to put more than one rock inside the jar. She knew what she was doing because she would look up at me. When I corrected her, she put just one rock inside the jar and put all the others back in the bag. Little smartie britches! I also had to correct her because she would just come up to me and say "please" or "thank you" for no reason. After I asked her why she said that, then she said "I get a rock in my jar." Smart Thinking! But no rock for just saying the word(s). At least she tried. Right? It amazing how kids minds work, sitting around and thinking up stuff.

I wish you could watch her choose the rock she is going to put in her jar. It is so cute, but very timely. She'll go through several rocks and talking aloud, "I think I'll get this one. No, I think I want this one. No, I think I want this one." This may go on for about a minute, as she's picking up all these rocks. She has to pick a special one for her jar, apparently.

Oh, I've got to tell you. While talking to Katie about the Rewards Jar and it's benefits, I mentioned that we could go to the Bounce House. Well, that's all it took. She didn't hear anything else I said. From then on it was, "I put a rock in my jar and go to the bounce house." Unfortunately, she thought just one rock would do the trick. As soon as she put a rock in her jar, she'd ask me "are you ready to go." I got to asking her "where are we going?" She responded, "we go to the bounce house today." To her disappointment, I had to remind her several times that it takes all the rocks from the bag to go to the bounce house. I thought it was going to loose her enthusiasum because she got to where she didn't want to put the rock in the jar anymore. Uh! So, I got to talking up the bounce house to her again. I tried to encourage her by saying, "come on! Put the rock in the jar, so you can work your way up to the bounce house." She started getting a little excited about it again. Before bed, she pee-peed in the potty. She thought she would get her usual chocolate. I gave her an option - chocolate or another rock to go towards the bounce house. With a smile on her face, she said "I get a rock for my bounce house." I showed her the bag and the few rocks that were left in the bag. She got excited once again.

Roof
We've been looking into getting a new roof. This past week, we had a couple of guys come by and give us an estimate. This one guy, Reed, is a country bumpkin. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but he cracks me up. He is very down to earth and sweet as pie. He also has a few missing teeth, a huge scar right down the side of his face (there could be a story there) and drives around in an old rusted (looks like it could have been blue at one time), oil leaking pickup about the size of an old Datsun. I told Doug that I thought the rust kept the truck together. Tehe! Now Reed's a pretty good size man. I had to see him and two other of his comrades get in this teeny tiny pickup. You'll just have to take my word for it - IT WAS A SIGHT! Reed gave us a very good price for the work. The big question was, how's his quality of work. I made sure that he knew up front that I expected there to be no messes, including nails in my yard and I didn't want any bushes demolished. He said he understood and would do just that - good clean work. They gave Doug some references. Apparently, Doug has been talking to our good friend, Lindley, about the roofing job. Lindley had Reed come by and give him an estimate on his roof as well. Lindley was just as surprised as we were on the price. He wanted Doug to go with him Saturday to check out a couple of houses, Reed did work on, but Doug had to work that day. Doug talked to Lindley today at work and he really liked Reed's roofing work. I know Doug called up one reference and they had no complaints about Reed's work. Lindley told Doug that he believes he is going with Reed, so guess what? I guess we are as well. Tehe! Doug and Lindley have it all figured out. We are going with the dimensional shingles with the ridge put in instead of new vents. After Doug explained to me what a ridge was, it makes sense. The ridge covers the whole length of your roof and can create more circulation than a vent does. I know from experience that our roof is way too hot. The other roofer that gave us a quote said our roof was too hot. The first couple of years we lived here, I pulled out some things that I had stored in the attic. Ugh! A lot of our stuff got ruined, especially my Christmas decorations because at the time, I stored most of my Christmas decorations up there. I was so disgusted! Doug said that with a ridge the attic won't get that hot. Plus, the dimensional shingles that Reed quoted us has a 30 year warranty compared to the 20 year warranty on regular shingles. Now, we've got to get them penciled into the calendar.

Grandma Day
Peggy really hasn't had an opportunity to spend time with Katie these past couple of weeks. So, I'm taking Katie to her Grandma Peggy's for the day tomorrow. Katie is so excited. She wants to take her dolls (Barbie) and play dolls with Grandma Peggy. Be prepared Grandma!

I plan to take this opportunity and visit my Mom. I haven't seen her since Thursday. I think Mom does better during the day, so I'm going to try to make the effort to get there during the morning hours.

Cleaning Out Katie's Toys & Closet
Today, I went through and organized Katie's toys again. It seems as if I do this once a month or every other month. I like it because I'll know where every thing's at when she wants it. I can't wait until Katie gets older to where she can do it herself. I have a clear plastic box for: dress-up/pretend, Fisher Price Little People, Barbie Doll Clothes, Blocks and Disney Princess Miniature Dolls & clothes.

I pulled out some toys, out of her toy boxes, that I felt were too young for her. I'm planning on packing them away for the next little Mason. I didn't have anymore boxes to put them in, so I had to use a garbage bag for right now. I plan to grab a few boxes tomorrow, while I'm at Walmart. I also need to get a couple more Space Bags for Katie's old clothes. I'll be glad when I get my storage building because I discovered that Katie has either took the caps off of most the Space Bags with clothes already in them or has unzipped the uses bags all together. Ugh! I have no where else to put these bags. They've always worked real well behind her bed, but the stack has gotten so high that I've referred them as "The Wall of Clothes." Santa Claus, if you read this - please get me a storage building.

Blue Angels
If you keep up with my Calendar of Events, you know that the Blue Angels are coming to Huntsville next weekend. I'm excited for Katie. She's like her Daddy when it comes to planes and helicopters. She loves to watch them take off or land. The last time the Blue Angels came to Huntsville, Boeing made it a very special event with lots of vendors. The Blue Angels are suppose to begin their performance around 3:00. Doug is that right? I think we are planning to get there a little early because I want to take Katie around to the vendors before the show starts. I'm sure as soon as the Blue Angels have finished performing, all the vendors will have closed up shop and headed home. I just hope the weather will hold out for us. The forecast tonight showed that the temps will be around the mid 80s and 60% chance of rain. It's only Monday, so there's a good chance the weather will have changed a couple of times before the weekend gets here. We'll see.