Shopping...

Yesterday after church I had to run a few errands...groceries, costco and I needed to return a few things. I was Not going to shop. Big Mistake going to that mall!!!

American Eagle and Hollister were having HUGE sales...Old Navy too, but I only got a few things there. I get sucked in to the AE and Hollister, because it seems like their stuff never goes on a really big sale, but this time it was half off all clearance. I came home with 3 bags from each store!!! I'm big on buying whatever and going through it at home and then making returns.

So Tyler starts going through the bags and picking what he likes (most everything) and I decide he shouldn't get anything because he THROWS his clothes on the floor constantly!!!! And he had all this laundry, plus a load in the wash. I think he has enough!!!! Now I know you've seen pictures of Tyler...my skinny guy... and while he's grown many inches over the past 4 or 5 years, he just hasn't gained that much weight!! (wish I could say the same!)

Now I didn't used to be a Hollister fan...skanky A and F offspring and all, but I must say that their clothes are very well made. Back to the skinny Tyler...this is his first Hollister shirt, from 7th or 8th grade (he's a junior now) and he still wears this shirt, for P.E. and work, but still!!!!
It's even quite white yet!!!!


So I let him keep a few things. One for now and the rest for his birthday next month!!!! And I did his laundry. But he has to put it away!!!

Now for all those darned returns!!!!

It's still raining here...sigh...

Our leak turned out to be more work than we thought and we had to call in the pros!!! Steve and Brian had to take off the siding, take out the window and put on window wrap, which should have been put on in the first place, and put the window and siding back up. Plus new trim. Plus paint, which if you recall, we just did the whole house in Sept. We'll have to wait for warmer weather to to that.

Part of the roof needs to come off and a barrier put up with new roof going back on. It's been so wet that it can't get done. But I do have a lovely blue tarp up for all to see!

One good thing from all the rain is that our pond is so full and beautiful!!! It's never been this full before! Isn't the reflection just so pretty??

We can sit on these rocks in the summer, and there are a few more that you can't see. The pond has come up about 4 feet since summer.

The rain also brings out the duck hunters. This kid is walking in the field behind our house. Brian has had to tell them not to aim at the house!!!! Stupid kids!!
Oh my raspberries look messy!!!

I Won!

It's here!!!

Last week I entered a give-away over at Homestead Revival .http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com

Amy was giving away this awesome solar powered radio/flashlight and I was the big winner!!!! For those of you who don't know me well....I love all the survival, homesteading, preparedness stuff. I was just a little disappointed that Y2K was a big nothing! I kind of wanted to see how we'd do!!! Don't get me wrong, I love having instant lights, a remote fireplace, TV, computer and most of all, indoor plumbing. But still, I wanted to see what we were made of!!!
I love all the tips and ideas on Amy's blog, so go and check her out and tell her howdy!!

I've been working a lot at my "farm" job, Drench-mate. I can pretty much chose my own hours, but best of all I get to watch The Waltons!!!! Four episodes is about my limit and then I head home. But this little dvd player keeps me sane in this old shop with no windows!!!

I get to use power tools and build things, but unless you're in the dairy business, you wouldn't be interested in this!

I make these little buckets with pumps, hoses and a few other parts and we send them all over the world! It's fun and a great little side job!

We had a lovely snowstorm last Tuesday during the big cross-town rival basketball game, in which the gym was at least 85 degrees!!! We came outside to snow coming down, the wind blowing and the promise of a snow day!! We had about 5" and school was cancelled!!!

Unfortunately it warmed up big time, started raining and has been raining ever since!!

This is what things are looking like this week...




I watched this guy attempt to go through this yesterday. He quickly turned around!!

I had to get out of the car and take some pictures!

I'm so thankful that we don't have flooding at our house, and pray that the rain slows down or stops. It always amazes me how powerful water is.

With all this rain we noticed a wet spot on our ceiling (what is it with us and leaks?). Brian's taken the last 2 days off to work on it. Found some rotting sheeting on the south side of the house, rotten window trim and now we need to take out a window and replace all the boards and trim around it. If it's not one thing it's 50!!

Playing Catch-up

Still have things to post from "last year" due to camera difficulties!!!! But I couldn't forget to post the finished bedroom after our attempt at board and batten. We're so happy with the way everything turned out!


Thankfully Brian enjoys this kind of work and figured out all the measurements, cutting etc. my only job is to paint, which I did grow weary of!!!

We trimmed out the window, the closet, the bathroom doors, the entry door and all the baseboards, chair rail, board and batten and crown molding. We lowered the crown molding because we had it that way before with the metal. Brian had put in an outlet and we ran rope lighting behind it. We still have to put the lights back up. I re-painted all of Ashleigh's furniture too. We love it!!!

Mid December brought TOLO and here are a few pictures of Tyler and his date, Krista. They went shopping to get the tie and the shoes to match and I think they look pretty nice!!!

Krista's parents had everyone over for pics...about 20 kids and their parents! Lots of fun!!


In November we had family photos taken by Jodi of The Snapsisters. (You can see them on my sidebar)
We haven't done this in years. I used to be so good at getting the kid's photo taken, but not lately. We had so much fun doing this and Jodi did such a great job!!

Awwwww.....me and my honey!!!! (looking older than we thought we did!!)

We brought some fun props...

had some sibling love...short lived...

and this was our Christmas picture this year.

We gave some pics as gifts, so I couldn't post them til after Christmas!!

Hope your new year is off to a good start!!!!