GREAT News!

My mom called my uncle to see how my aunt's surgery went and she actually got to talk to her sister!! The doctors said they felt like they got it all and everything went well! They are planning on sending her home tomorrow!

Can you believe that?!? Brain surgery one day and home the next! I think we'll have more details tomorrow-but I just wanted to let you know what we know and say THANK YOU so VERRRY much for your concern, kind thoughts and prayers-they really meant a LOT!!!

Great Pyrex Finds!

I found a few pieces of Pyrex recently that I haven't seen before.

 A Golden Butterfly 664-this thing is HUGE!!! I had no idea this even existed!

These are a bright lime green and I just LOVE them! I don't know if the carrier is original to this pan or not-do you know?

A Work In Progress...

Last year, about this time, we decided to turn our deck into a sun room. After a lot of stress, anxiety and work, we got the sun room closed in, tile on the floor, tongue and groove pine boards on the ceiling, windows in, a small deck on the front and drywall up. We still have one giant wall that we had planned to put 2 built in cabinets on. The wall is split by the 9' door wall that goes into the rest of the house.

This weekend we got one of the cabinets almost completed. My shoulder hurts from the all day staining marathon I had yesterday, but I think it turned out great! We are going to finish it off with crown molding on the top, and two solid doors in the middle bottom, and the outer 2 bottom doors will have glass in them.

It takes up a lot of room, and I am worried if we make another one for the other side, it will be too big and too much. What do you think? Would the room look off kilter having a big heavy piece of furniture only on one side and not the other?

When you stain wood, do you put polyurethane on it or do you just leave it? We've used poly and tung oil in the past, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do to finish it. Any suggestions?

Please PRAYYY!

I mentioned my Aunt Brenda in previous posts. I got to spend the day with her when we were driving together to  see my Grandma for the last time and to say good-bye in August. My Aunt is such a sweet, loving and gentle woman who would give the shirt off her back to anyone in need, even though at times, she has been the one in need.

You may remember that I mentioned that she has been in a battle against melanoma. Six years ago, she found a spot on her toe that was cancer and the toe was amputated, treatments ensued and that was the end of her cancer-or so we thought. Last year at this time she found a lump in her leg and had it removed. Since then, she has found other lumps around her spine and other places, and the doctors found 2 on her brain.

Three months ago they radiated the two on her brain, and when she went back in last week, the two that were radiated are GONE! The bad part is, they found 4 more! One looks to have been there since the original first two but wasn't caught at the time. It is now really big and they are planning to operate to remove it this Tuesday.

Please keep my Aunt Brenda, her family and her doctors in your prayers. She loves the Lord and is trusting Him no matter what the outcome. We love her and want to have her here with us for a good long time yet! She is very upbeat, very trusting and very positive-never wavering in her faith. It reminds me of the verse about faith like a mustard seed...even though her faith is HUGE like a mountain!

My mom has an appointment on Wednesday with eye specialists-so if you could remember her too that would be GREAT! She is really scared for her sister, and what they'll find when the go in to remove the brain tumors.

To Keep, or Sell...That is the Question

About a month or so ago, I got this awesome old iron bed at a garage sale at a very nice price. When I bought it, I intended to put it in the booth right away, but I didn't have room in the booth right away. The longer it was in my garage, the more I wanted to keep it. I see it every day when I pull in and out of the garage and I'm starting to feel guilty for keeping it.

I don't have anywhere to set it up until one of the boys moves out, and that probably won't be happening for a few years. Is it silly to keep it in the barn or garage or basement for years? Should I just sell it, and enjoy the fact that I actually found one, and bought it? It isn't a money thing, because I got a smokin hot deal on it. It's more of not having a place for it and storing it for who knows how long.

What do you think? What would you do? This was the first one I've ever seen under $100-or cheap enough that I'd consider buying it...I could sell it for a tidy profit...but...I may never find another one in my price range...what to do, what to do!

Oh Great.....You Invited How Many People?

I've been stressing like you wouldn't believe this week! Kevin and his co-workers were talking last week about their annual Christmas get-together. They decided since our house is pretty centrally located for everyone, that we should host. I don't have a problem with that, because at most there would be 16 or so people.

What I am stressing about, is that he decided to not only invite his team from work, but EVERYONE who works in the operating rooms at his hospital!!! YIKES!!! At the time, all I could think to say is "That's fine, but you better get heat in the sun room so we have enough room for everyone." Now I am thinking..."How in the world am I going to decorate the house!"

I'm not worried about cooking, or cleaning-I've already got a huge list of what appetizers I'm going to make, I'm stressing about having all of these doctors and nurses over to our house- and as a result of simplifying and purging a lot of stuff, we have next to nothing for Christmas decorations now!!

We used to go all out with the Christmas houses/villages, light up decorations in every window, light up things out in the yard...you name it, we had it! Now we have a tiny little 7 foot fake tree and lights for our front gutters....

Just typing this makes my heart beat faster! What are some nice (and inexpensive) ways to decorate for Christmas that doesn't look like you just got any old thing and threw it around the house? Now I might be regretting selling all of the vintage Christmas items in the booth this month!

A Surprise Night Off!

I was supposed to have a volleyball match tonight at 8:40pm, but at 6:00 I got a text message telling me it was cancelled! I almost didn't know what to do with myself---almost! I wish I could report that I got industrious and got a lot of things accomplished in my unexpected free time...but I decided to get my pajamas on early, crawl under the covers, flip on some old reruns of the Waltons (yeah, the Waltons...brings back lots of memories from my childhood), and catching up on some emails and reading!

It has been AWESOME!!! The house is pretty quiet too! Eric has left for our cousin's farm on the west side of the state for his annual deer hunting outing with my Dad, his brother, and about 20-30 of my Dad's cousins and their kids and grand kids. Adam got a new XBOX game last Friday (he pre-ordered it, but still waited in line at midnight for it-crazy kid!), so he and Kevin are downstairs trying to beat it. They'll be down there for a couple more hours, I am sure.

After trying, and trying to get a heating and cooling company to come out and give us an estimate for a heater for our sun room (we tried 6 and only got 2 to actually show up and give quotes!), we decided to order the heater and install it ourselves. Kevin will do that tomorrow. He has been on vacation from work since last Friday, and doesn't go back until next Tuesday! He gets more vacation time than anyone I know! He has also been working on our built-in cabinets for the sun room. He has one base completed, and the top part is about 90% done-so that means I'll probably be staining on Saturday. I'll try to remember to post some pictures over the weekend.

My parents are coming to town on Tuesday. My mom has an appointment with and eye specialist on Wednesday-it's a 4 hour appointment. She has been diagnosed with macular degeneration and has been noticing  subtle changes in her vision. I am hoping and praying that the doctors will be able to prescribe something that will slow the progression of the disease so that she doesn't totally lose her eyesight for a long, long time. She is still very young-she just turned 64! We'll have an early dinner on Thursday, and they will head home until Christmas Eve.

What are you doing for Thanksgiving? Do you have any traditions or special recipes you always make, or someone in your family always makes? We always make our turkey on the grill and it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving dinner to me without it. My mom also has an awesome recipe for stuffing that we all love too.

I am hoping to get to a few sales this weekend, but there doesn't look to be much out there right now. I've been doing much better this month at the booth, so I am excited to get out there and find something really unique and interesting for it! I think I'll quit blabbing now-Criminal Minds is on!

Hope you have a great night! I'll be catching up on what you've been doing during the commercial breaks! Can't wait to see what you've been up to!!!

Happy Birthday Kevin!

Today is Kevin's birthday! He's celebrating 44 years! Happy Birthday Kevin!!

Here he is wearing his medal from his first ever 10K race! 

 Showing one of his projects.

 Goofing around with Adam!

A Youngster in the Navy. 

An All Around Nice Day!

Today has been kind of a whirlwind day, but in a nice kind of way. I got up and out the door to be at a church rummage sale that opened at 8am. It was in the town that my mom's family is from. It was at the church my great grandma used to go to. I went there several times as a young girl for their mother-daughter banquets. It was a very BIG deal in our family to attend these banquets. All of my Aunt's, my Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, and Great, Great Grandma went. About the time my Great, Great Grandma passed away, my Mom and Grandma had a rift and we didn't do so many family things.

I used to LOVE those banquets! I got a fancy new dress and sandals and got a corsage-plus they had all kinds of prizes and drawings for gifts. It was neat to be back in that building today. It sure looks a LOT smaller than it used to!

When I got there, about 7:55, there was about 50 people in line in front of me! Really? Wow! As I waited those long last 5 minutes, my mind was going crazy with thoughts of how wonderful this sale was going to be!!! Yeah...well...it sure didn't live up to the excitement of my mind-that's for sure!!

Nothing was priced (you know how I feel about that already), it was strictly donations. They had one table of stuff that was supposed to be valuable so they were taking bids on that stuff. Nothing on the table or under the table was worth the hassle of bidding, and going back later for. I think most of the shoppers felt the same way.

As I stood in line I watched a woman totally rip them off. She got a white kitchen garbage bag full of clothes, and another one with ice skates, shoes, cross country ski boots, a vintage Star Wars space ship thing, and some really old baseball mitts, and she only gave them $4! Good thing I wasn't PMS-ing, otherwise I might have let the "REALLY-you're gonna rip off a CHURCH?" thought slip past my lips! LOL!

I went to the next table as they bagged up her stuff, so I got a totally different "cashier". I pulled all of my treasures junk out of my bag and spread it out on the table. She counted it up, looked it over and commented that I got some good stuff. Then she says that'll be $30! GULP!

YIKES! What should I do? I did find a couple of good things, but most of it was kind of bordering on "why did you put this in your bag?". What would you have done? Is it tacky to counter offer at a church sale? Should I have made all the people in line wait as I sorted out what I really wanted and gotten a new price for that? Should I have just paid it and considered it a donation to the church (who by the way was celebrating it's 180th year!)?

I swallowed my shock, dismay, and huge gulp of surprise, and I tried to make the shocked expression on my face fade into a normal look...and...I paid it. I figure it IS a fundraiser after all, AND I made up the difference from what the lady in front of me ripped them off for.

Do you shop at church rummage sales? Do you find good stuff? Are the prices reasonable? I've shopped them in the past, and found the prices to be usually really low, but mostly I've found that the stuff they are selling is usually stuff that has been really used up, and probably should be thrown out. I'm not so sure church rummage sales are for me-at least in churches around me. I've read other blogs where they get phenomenal stuff at incredible prices-but that just isn't the case around here.

After that sale, I stopped at a couple more sales on the way to visit my friend and her husband at her Uncle's house. Today was the second day of their estate sale, and she seemed really happy that I drove out to see how they were doing. Yesterday was their first day and they made $1000!! I couldn't believe how much stuff was gone! I was thrilled for them! They still had a TON of stuff, but I'd say at least half of it was gone-good for them!

I went on to one more sale then I met Kevin and Adam at Chili's for lunch. Did you know they were doing free meals for veterans today? It was packed too! As I was walking in, I noticed almost every car in the parking lot had some sort of military markings on it. Either on the license plate, or a bumper sticker.

It took forever to get our food, but it was a nice time to be together. We were also celebrating that Adam got a new position at the rehab facility he works at. He is no longer contingent-he gets a guaranteed 32 hours a week-woo hoo! Since Adam and I got the express lunch, we had plenty of chips and salsa to keep us happily munching while we waited.

Once we got home, Kevin and I spent a few hours in his wood shop in the barn working on the built-in cabinets for the sun room. We got a good start and I am soo excited for it to be done!!! We also had a guy come out to look at the doors on the sun room. We've been having a problem with condensation on all 6 of them. He agreed they shouldn't do that, and was going to see what he could do about replacing them-whew! I thought he would say-too bad too sad, so I am pleasantly surprised!

Now we are just hanging out. Tomorrow is Kevin's birthday. I got a Costco cake to take to volleyball tomorrow night to share with our friends that we play with each week. Other than catching up on laundry and household chores, that's it for our weekend. How about you? What are your weekend plans? Did you get to any sales today? Hope you did better than I did! :)

Here is what I got...

 An old rectangular egg plate.

 A fancy plastic gold mirror.

 Some evening purses and a green wallet.

 A Christmas bun warmer and a pair of smiley hot pads.

 A box with chickens on it...

 That opens up to reveal a block puzzle.

 A vintage dresser scarf.

 A jewelry or trinket box.

 Got this for the frame...

 An antique cookie press with some cookie cutters.

 A golden butterfly Pyrex 664 casserole dish-this thing is HUGE!!

An Avon covered butter dish.

  

 A package of old flocked Easter/Spring decorations.

 This is the same color as the vintage Fiesta gold color.

 What do you think? Was it worth $30? I'm not so sure, but at least the money went to the church.

Here is what I got at the other sales...

 Three chartreuse green baking pans with a wire serving rack, a set of old s & p shakers and an aluminum grease jar-I actually got these yesterday on my way home from work at a sale down the road. You don't come across the lime green Pyrex very often, so I may have to be a foster parent to these for a while! ;)

 A Japan rooster covered butter dish-a quarter! The tablecloth under all of my junk was from the same sale and it was a quarter too. When I asked the lady how much on the tablecloth she said "25" I almost dropped it in my haste to put it down and I asked "dollars?" She cracked up laughing and said "no, cents!"

 A Japan rooster napkin holder-a quarter.

 Some musical Christmas bells-a quarter.

 A bag of foil ornaments-from my friend's estate sale.

 A Florida tray from my friend's estate sale-didn't want to leave empty handed. I also bought an egg incubator and egg rocker/turner tray there for Auntie. She was just mentioning the other day that she wanted one.

 A big vintage pitcher and bowl set.

 This came in the mail today...vintage Fiesta sauce boat.

 This was in the same package from the mail.

 This cute little rooster plate was from the same sale where I got the butter dish and napkin holder. If I would have been about 10 minutes earlier to that sale I could have had the whole back end of my car filled with chicken and rooster stuff from Japan-just as I got there an older lady bought it all up!

I also got a ceramic Christmas tree that has a music box and light under it, with colored pegs on all of the branches-for some reason the picture didn't turn out.

Have a great weekend!!!

Thank you veterans!

Thank you veterans for the many sacrifices you've made for our freedom! Thank you Kevin for your service to our country during the Gulf War!