Little A turned 9 months old today! Wow. She spent almost the whole day with grandpa and grandma (and Auntie Kous Kous AKA: Karissa).
Tony and I were at a marriage and parenting workshop today. I found it via a friend's posting on Facebook. It was FREE and put on by The Northwest Institute of Marriage. We figured since we didnt have to pay anything, we'd go and see what it was all about... and if it was a bust, we could always leave since it was voluntary. Well, it certainly WASNT a bust! It was awesome. Lots of fun, so funny, and great information. We met at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, and we had "lectures" for about 8 hours. When we got there, they had Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Starbucks coffee, fruit, and water. We signed in (we had already registered online), got our raffle ticket, put on name tags, and picked up our free tote. It was basically a laptop carrier. In it was travel mug, pen, survey, booklets to take notes in during the lectures, and a book written by one of the instructors, Dr. Bob Whiddon JR. It was about marriage called Secrets To... Surviving The Marriage Fog. After eating, we headed into the auditorium and started the class. We had class in one hour intervals with 10 minute breaks in between. There was always food out during these breaks - soda, chips, cookies, granola bars, licorice, etc. All free. We had lunch in the middle of the day catered by Panera. We each got a box with a sandwich (I chose turkey), condiments, chips, and a cookie. We also got a soda. Again, free.
During one break, we even got to pick one of Rick Johnson's books (he is a "parent expert" and author who also taught 2 of our courses today). He was giving away one free book to each family unit - we chose the father and daughter one called That's My Girl: How A Father's Love Protects And Empowers His Daughter :) The classes overall were fun and very informative. We went over what a healthy marriage should look like, what an abusive relationship consisted of and how to get help, why fathers are so important in their children's lives, and parenting with love and logic. I especially liked the last one. There are so many things from parenting with love and logic that we want to implement in when raising Anistynn. I like that approach much better than what typically happens - getting angry at your child, yelling at them, and explaining over and over to them what they did wrong. Love and logic has a much more laid back approach that has been tried and proven to be true. It's great. At the end of the day, there was a drawing to either win a leather recliner or a 2 night stay at a bed and breakfast in Bend (both worth $400). We sadly did not win either, BUT we all got to leave with a $40 gift card to Fred Meyer. Win! ;)
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