holiday festivities...

Another busy week has come to an end...where is this time going?  It seems every time i turn around, it's friday again!  Well we'/ve been super busy this week...

A cookie exchange on Wednesday night with friends...got lots of yummy cookies!  Tuesday was the kids holiday concert at school...emma rang the jingle bells!  Monday we met with a realtor...(more about that later) and last night we had our Boy Scout Christmas party...complete with whoelse????  Santa!  All the kids got a special little gift from Santa and we'll just say Sam wasn't so sure about the big guy!  Both Emma and Jacob bravely went up to say hi though!

Even the adults got in on the pics!

Here's our little elf girl...aint she cute??

Finally, a good pic of our tree this year.

did i mention how much i love the galvanized tub it's in!!

and really?  how could you not just eat this little meathead right up?

he is so naughty but you can't do anything but laugh at him.

let's just say, he's following in his older brothers footsteps with his

affinity to electrical appliances!!!  oh goodness!

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done with my shopping, just a few more homemade items and baking to do and then its' time

to wrap...i love the idea of fabric wrapping...or making my own fabric bags..perhaps this is something I can start on to have for next year?  Check out soulemama's blog here for some lovely ideas!

She has such a beautiful sense of the season...

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making banana bread this morning then off to find jacob a blowup santa at the christmas tree shop..cross your fingers that they have them.  his face was just so sad this morning when i told him i couldn't fine one last night :(

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have a merry day!!

sue

thrifting...

Oh I love a productive thrift shop visit and yesterday was a good one. I found a ball of cotton twine, two large spools of heavy white and beige thread, a huge bag of white buttons, a cute little rustic fence/gate and lots of great little bowls/buckets for my christmas goodies! I spent about the same on the fillers for the baskets so it was a total score!!                                                              

 

I love this speckled bowl, it reminds me of a bird egg.

And even funnier, I found this like 1970's era plastic Santa that Jacob just had to have.  69 cents later, it was ours!!

Now, I found this idea yesterday for a shabby garland and fell in love with it. 

I have to find the blog site so I can give proper credit to the original owner

of this idea...(it's junk, something, I have to check!),

I had lots of leftover scraps of fabric and I love the way this turned out!

at first, I had the word "peace" strung on it, but the tags were too large.

Without any, it looked too bare.

So I added smaller tags and spelled out "merry christmas" on one side and used

a stamping up christmas tree on the other side of each tag.  I love, love, love how it turned out.

It's hanging in the doorway of my dining/living room.

Hope you have a fabulous thrifty day too!

blessings.....sue

trespassing on school property?

I have to go to court today.  Not because myself or my son committed some horrendous crime, but because back in September my son went with two other students at Liberty High School (one is the senior class president) to take a flag down.  They walked into the school through an unlocked door, traveled to a music room where one of these students has an "office", then out to the ball field.  They were playing football when the BASD security showed up because they had set off quite a few alarms.  The assistant principal was called because one of the students if a family friend of hers.  Apparently trying to keep these three from getting arrested for criminal trespass (I'll tell you about that later), a meeting was scheduled for Monday morning (unbeknownst to me).  The principal thinks my son is in the band with the other two students so they are told to be at school at 6 am.  Not really understanding this, I tell my son he is not going to any meeting until I find out what all this is about.  I tell him to go to vo-tech.  Well, they pull him out of vo-tech to which I have to then call the school and scream at a few people (probably not my best move). 

So now it's noon and I am sitting in the principals office with my son.  Now, it makes no sense to me what the great big deal is.  They weren't stealing things, they were playing football and taking a flag down for September 11th.  They walked in through open doors.  When I went to school, school was a place where people wanted you to be.(Maybe not on a Saturday at 8:00 pm.  I'll give them that.)  Has it really come to that that being on school property gets you arrested?  It does, really.  I can prove it.  I have the ticket.  The ticket for $433.50 for criminal trespass.  So, I talk to the principal.  I tell my son he needs to pay attention to where people are taking him.  If it doesn't sound like a good idea, he probably should think twice about going.  So the school officer sends us the aforementioned ticket.  A a court date is set.  Which is cancelled.  So today is the day.  I get to go to the Magistrate and sit with my son while he pleads "not guilty" to these charges.  And maybe he'll get community service.  He gets to clean up the school grounds I suppose.  All because he walked into an open door, took down a flag and played football at HIS SCHOOL's ball field. 

Am I missing something here?  I understand they shouldn't have been there.  But really a ticket for $433.50 for being on school property?  Talk about wasting people's time and money.  My husband lost a half day of work today so I could take my son.  My son has a job (yes this criminal has a job!!) so he paid the money to hold him over for court.  We are wasting the Magistrates time hearing this ridiculous case.  Isn't there someone committing armed robbery somewhere that could be better served here?  Sorry for the rant.  I am not dismissing my son's wrongdoing in this.  He shouldn't have been there and he knows it now.  He thought it was ok.  He was with the senior class president taking a flag down for September 11th.  He might be gullible, but he's not a criminal. 

And let me just add.  My son heard through the grapevine that at the other boys hearing, he got tagged by the school officer as a "kid with problems".  Yes, my son has a medical condition.  Last time I checked that didn't make him a juvenile delinquent.  Or a criminal. 

So there ya go.  Warn your kids...stay off school property after hours.  It comes with a hefty pricetag and a whole lot of frustration. 

blessings,

sue

Oh Christmas Tree...

Sunday, December 5:  trip to Unangst Tree Farm.  very cold day.  picked a tree quickly, but it just came off the "cut wagon" so we know it was fresh.  kids played around while they shook and baled the tree.  bought a sugar cookie candle and off we went.  tree securely tied to the van room.  hubby had a call so it chilled on the rooftop a little while.

off we go!

hubby is hidden by the sun...our tree!

posers!

sam was all about the lights....ummm who does he take after????

checking the tree out...nice honky walk sam!

last year, madison was too little to notice the tree..not so this year! 

very interesting......ummmmm, wonder how this is gonna work out?

the discovery of the candy cane.

playing with the choo-choo's

the reason i keep losing things...because THIS little girl is walking around redecorating.

my basket handles somehow are missing?

sideways blurry tree!

great photo skills, eh?

the ornament basket.

this year i decided to just put up my special ornaments and put the rest of the

tree ornaments in a basket for the kids to add one each day. 

Now jacob  found the basket this morning and decorated the BOTTOM only of the tree.

we had to re do that a little and explain to jacob that sissy will remove all of them and

pull the whole tree down.  so we redirected some ornaments mid tree.  for safety's sake!

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and a sad note that yesterday was the one year anniversary of the loss of our dear friend and neighbor, Steve.  Sue (or Lucy, or Chachi as Sam fondly calls her) and I went to the gravesite on sunday night.  It was cold, but we sat at the site for like an hour, remembering and talking. 

Steven Renaldi

December 6, 2009

dearly missed...

blessings

sue

Junk Salvation Giveaway

OOOH ladies!  Head on over to this blog to check out 12 whole days of give aways....as part of the entry I have to write about a favorite holiday ornament....not easy cause I have lots of them!  but my favorite ornament is probably the pair of felted ice skates with paperclip runners that I made in the second grade!  I clearly remember making them in art class at Weisenberg elementary school! 

http://funkyjunksisters.blogspot.com/2010/12/come-on-sistasenter-day-3-of-our.html

Head on over to join in the fun!!!

primitive snowmen

i saw this idea on the "art chick studio" blog and decided to make a few myself.  cute and easy to make! 

i added some cinnamon nutmeg essential oils to the inside stuffing so they smell great!  i hung one off my rear view mirror now my car even smells yummy!  really easy to do...a little felt, some buttons and black embroidery floss!  great package topper too!

sue

Hanukkah fun at school...

Emma gets to ride the very special BIG YELLOW SCHOOL BUS today and head over to Mr. Jeremy's class at Fountain Hill Elementary for a Hanukkah celebration.  Now we don't celebrate Hanukkah, but its' fun to learn about other holidays and share in their celebrations.  I found this cute cookie idea in Family Fun magazine and I knew Mr. Craven would so think they were cool.  So i made these (i totally forgot both classes were going to be there, so i didn't have enough for everyone...ooops!)

So you take a fig newton, cut angles in one end.  then you take a thin pretzel rod and break it in two, and stick it in the other end.  i decorated the outsides with Jewish lettering...and voila!  Dreidel cookies!  They are too cute! 

Hope you have a wonderful holiday..no matter how you celebrate!

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Our move to Georgia is looming nearer and nearer with every day that passes.  Our hope is to be gone by July1st no matter WHAT, but I'd like it to be before then.  Alot sooner.  But it is going to be dependant on finishing things here, selling the house and all those other little things...like getting jobs there!  I'm forever looking at houses on line, the market is so wide open with alot of great deals.  How great would it be to find something for about the same, or less than we have here...oh the road to financial freedom!  I know there will always be bills, but how nice to be comfortable, especially in these hard financial times.  We thank God everyday for all we have, our jobs, our home, our health. 

So our plan is to head down to Georgia...Tybee Island to be exact at the end of February to have a "working" vacation.  I've found some awesome condo's/houses to stay at for the week and most are offering a free night or two since it's the off season.  Now we won't be able to swim in the ocean, but it will be a nice view and there's lots to do on Tybee Island.  So we'll be close enough to Savannah and Statesboro to job/house hunt and just be tourists!  that's only like TWO MONTHS away!!!!  Lots to do to get ready for this trip. We;ve decided to drive down to save some cash...on both flights and a car rental.  Not the greatest plan, but it will be worth it in the end.  We will endure this!!  Plus, we'll drive overnight so the kids will sleep (we hope!)  So, everyday I get more and more excited.  I can't wait to see Savannah.  I may not come home!  Oh, but soon I'll be calling there...home.

blessings!

sue