December already!

I am a bad blogger. I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged and also read blogs. So I've been catching up this morning, at least on the reading. The girls are playing house, so we'll see how much I can type before they decide they need to be on my lap.

Let's see....we travelled for Thanksgiving. Had a very nice time with family on Thanksgiving day and the day after. Hi, Oma, Opa, Tori and Tim! We miss you and all the family! We brought home a truck load of gifts for the girls from the family, both birthday and Christmas. They are all still sitting in our living room in the bags and box from the car. We did get the tree up, but that's as far as it goes so far. Just the tree, no lights or anything yet. My 29 cent poinsettia sits on the dining room table, and my $5 Santa on the entry table. Story of those: I shopped the 90% off sale at Hobby Lobby after Christmas last year. The santa was $50, and the poinsettia was $29.99, but it was marked down to $2.99, and the sales person (even though I told him it was marked already) said, 90% off marked price - 29 cents! Cool, huh? I also got some stocking holders on that sale that aren't out yet.

The husband and I received very nice gifts from family ~ gift certificates to Lowes and Home Depot. We desperately need some things done around the house, and we are very grateful for these gifts!! We decided that we would enjoy the fruits of those gifts in time for Christmas, so over the past week and a half, we have put down a new kitchen floor, rearranged the stove and refrigerator for a much better, roomier look, and installed a new light above the sink, a pendant light. Cool, huh? We also worked in a clearance-priced rechargable Swiffer/Red Devil power handy vac and a pack of batteries for just $13 total over our Home Depot gift card.

And this past weekend, with the help (mucho help!) of a friend's husband, we installed a brand spankin' new potty! Our old potty had a leak into the basement. It was not a huge leak, we could catch it with a bucket, but what a pain, right? It leaked only when flushing, so it was a toilet problem. That, combined with a crack in the tank and just general ugliness of an old potty all added up to one thing: we needed a new one! We didn't go super designer or anything, but we got a nice basic American Standard "toilet in a box" that had all pieces and parts in one package. That and a new halogen bulb for the new pendant light in the kitchen took care of our Lowes gift card and about $4 extra.

We really made those gift cards work for us. For an additional investment of $10, we put a new bathroom floor with the leftover kitchen tiles (a cottage wood look, so it also works in our gardeny bathroom). The final spending was about $20 at Ace to cover plumbing pieces that friend needed to fix the stupid pipe thing that was wrong with old potty. Now we have nicely installed new potty that won't give trouble to any future moving or changing either. Of course, if we had much more money and tools and ability, the floor would have been these wood plank (think Pergo type) floor, and tile in the bathroom. But this is good; we like it; it was affordable; it's a good thing.

Also news: I'm working at Archivers! We decided that the family could use a little steady extra income, and if I could get a job at this fun store, it would hardly be like working! Well, that's not exactly true (after 6 hours yesterday, lol), but if I gotta work, it's a total blast to also be surrounded by scrapbooking while doing it! I get to see new stuff, talk sb'ing, and get paid. Even more cool beans, especially right at the holidays.

So this is how far I made it. The girls are now in my lap. Well, Maddie is. Emily is serving me coffee in her Little Tikes cup and saucer. So cute.... Ok, off to more of my day. I will try to add a pic or two later on, but the coffee pot (the real one) is calling my name for now.