Ebay..............

All I've been doing all day is ebay it seems. I've been in a listing frenzy. I have a few things I need to come up with money for.

I saw an ad in the paper today for a full time floral designer at a local flower shop. I wonder if I could do it. It said the requirements were creative and outgoing - I'm both of those! I think I'm going to apply. Like I said, I'm tired of my job.

Tomorrow morning we have a football game, over an hour away. YUCK. It's 2nd to last game so I should not complain. I just am not looking forward to getting the kids all up and around first thing on a Saturday morning.

I'm going to hit the hay. First I need to show the pics I've been wanting to show you. The first one is a wreath I made from Dollar Store items. I had the grapevine wreath, but I glued faux leaves with my hot glue gun. The bow was made from a roll of ribbon from the Dollar Tree too. I think it's cute, it's on my front door.

The second, a super easy dessert I made the other day. I didn't post the after pics though....I went to bed earlier than everyone b/c I was exhausted and noone turned off the crockpot! I didn't wake up until almost morning and there was my beautiful dessert, burned to the crock! Anyway, it's easy. Peel, core, & slice 6-8 apples, toss in crockpot with a little cinn/sugar mix. Evenly pour box of yellow cake mix over the top (I only had white that day). Melt 1 stick of butter and pour over cake mix. Cook on low about 3 hours, or until apples are tender and top is browned nicely on edges. I cooked mine on high for 2 hours, had a little, then it burned up! :) Oh, don't forget to spray the inside of the crock or butter it. It helps with clean up.

Goodnight -

Fall Break

It's fall break for the kiddos & I. We slept in!!! I woke up with a headache though, I guess because I woke at my normal time then went back to bed for a few hours? I don't know. It's gone now though.

Today, I've been cleaning up & they have been watching movies. Karate Kid & Marmaduke. I love Marmaduke!!!! I need to watch the whole movie.

I'm working on ebay & getting some things ready for the shop. I have a sale going on this week in my store 50% off everything. I really hope to get rid of it all. I have a cute little Christmas tree I want to put in there and sell some ornies. I really want to make some stuff to sell but I never have time or space! I'm working on changing that.

It's chilly here! The leaves are blowing all over the place, it's definitely full swing FALL. I love the brisk air & the pretty colors, but I dread what's coming. I don't like winter. I hate being so cold, cleaning off the car, running the furnace, not being able to open windows, all of it. :( I'm sad about it. But, I have a cute idea for two old windows I have, I'll share those if I ever do it.

In celebration of the cool weather, I'm making chicken & dumplings for the second time this month. YUMMMMY, I love it!

Time to read up on some other bloggers, and I'll probably post again later today. I have some pictures to share too.

Spell check. Oops.

Sorry, I'll try to be more responsible with the spell check button before I publish. I keep noticing spelling errors after the fact, because I just realized a spell check was available. From now on.....I promise!

FYI - poor spelling is a pet peeve of mine. I would hate to be a hypocrite. That is one job I think I'd enjoy...editing.

Wasted Wednesday

Today I did very little. I had noooooooooooo driving factor. I was consumed with being annoyed at the school. I wanted to list some items on ebay, and I did, but only a few. I got obsessed with those things. I cleaned a little, but that wasn't appealing. I wanted to make some tasty dinner, but didn't feel like it. It's a blah kinda feeling today. And it's a day that makes me think I need some sort of attention medicine to keep me focused.

Let's see....what did I do? I didn't end up working. The student didn't show up, and has to be rescheduled for Monday, so I have to go Monday as well.

I overdrafted my bank account and am afraid to tell Jamie. He will be so mad. You know why? Many frequent trips to McDonald's that I didn't figure in to my budget. WHY McDonalds? Because Monopoly...duh! I'm obsessed with winning money to get me out of the hole! It's gotta happen to someone - why not be me??? I have won some things this time around though. Fries mostly. An angus wrap. A breakfast sandwhich. A 3 month subscription to Pogo or something. And tons of Coke Reward points on the online portion. :) Nothing big, like that can drive me to work, or provide me a living, or vacation. Not YET. (I have to have faith, right?)

I cooked easy peasy chicken legs for dinner. Frozen corn and canned biscuits. For dessert, I made an apple dessert in the crockpot. It turned out so-so.

Tonight I watched Remember Me. Jeez, I wish I would have known what it was about. It was sad.

I think I'm going to call it a day. My kids are on Fall Break, yay!! No school tomorrow. It's rainy out. I hope it rains tomorrow too so that I can make them clean their rooms. Isn't that mean of me? If I help, it shouldn't take long.

Goodnight!

Ramblings from my Tuesday

So, this is going to be random. Just an overview of the day I guess. I worked. Blah, blah, blah. I'm really, REALLY-REALLY, tired of my job. The students have been bugging me, the fluctuating schedule, just IT in general. Time to change pace.

I opened an ebay store tonight. I sold some items over the last week totalling about $130, so that spurred my motives....

The house I live in is atrocious. We rent. There is a bazillion things that need repair. Tonight, I asked my DH to attach a furnace vent air freshner to the vent, and when he went downstairs, he discovered the water heater is leaking. NICE. No WONDER my freaking water bill was up to almost $67 this month. It used to be $30-$40. Ridiculous!!!!! So, we hauled some junk out to the curb for pick up with tomorrow's trash pick up, and I have to call the Landlord.

That means, I have to skip work tomorrow. I have to! I MUST. I have to get my house in order for strangers to be inside....because if I don't, they'll judge me. Right? I'm an idiot with my realistic fears. So what. They will, and who CARES? I hate worrying about what people think. Like they really think my house is immaculate when I am raising a brood of boys, and we are always on the go. And I work outside the home.

Ummm, lets see. What else? Oh, yeah. I totally was irate and PISSED to the max tonight. My oldest son, who is 13, got an F in gym. An F in gym. A flippidy, effing, freaking, $%^$@$^#^W$ F in GYM. I have monitered all of his grades this entire semester, every single week. He has had an A in there all year. The marking period ended on Friday. THURSDAY, it still said A. Today, his final grade for the record was an FFFFFFFF. For NOT DRESSING. Oh, he still participated when he didn't dress, SIX TIMES, but he didn't dress in his gym uniform. I was livid. LIV-ID. I emailed a nasty note to the gym teacher. To the SUPERINTENDENT. And to the principal. Then the phone rang. It was the gym teacher. The convo went a little like this:

Teacher: "I'm really sorry but Aaron knew his grade dropped an entire letter, each time they don't dress."

Me: "I understand there are rules, but had there been an update on the online grading system, I would have taken care of this on my end, and my son wouldn't have gotten an F!!!! Never once did you notify me, in any way - shape - form."

Teacher: "Well, this rule has been in place for 30 years, and Aaron was well aware of it."

Me: "I don't CARE! The rule is ridiculous. A detention at most would be a satisfactory consequence for a child that doesn't dress for gym. He participated and had all A+'s. Now, he's ineligible for sports!!!!!"

Teacher: "I am sorry but I cannot update my grades online each and every night."

Me: "Well, you updated it weekly, all along. You could very well have put his "non-dress" grade drops in too"

Teacher: "Aaron didn't dress at all LAST WEEK. I didn't enter grades from the week until Friday evening."

Me: (in my head, and not outloud....OMG I'm gonna make my kid wear his uniform to school every day for the rest of his life, that little brat let me yell at the teacher, the principal, the superintendent {where I'm EMPLOYED} and it was his fault and he KNEW IT!!!)

Really, I could use a brown bag to breathe in right now. I'm freaking out all over again. 13 year old boys. Seriously?

I'm blessed. I know that I am, but it doesn't always feel like it.

Good night.

Lazy days...........

Jeez, I miss my family! I like living here sometimes, but I wish I lived near my friends and family. Sure I have friends here, but not my 'old pals' and my family. My sister who lives closest to me (1 hr & 15 minutes away) is the person I see most frequently. Her and I can drive 1/2 way to each other and it ends up being in a town that has everything we could need. ;)

Yesterday, we met for lunch at Papa Vino's. (Her choice, NOT my fave). After lunch, we shopped around, mostly browsed, I didn't buy anything. She got a super cute pair of peep-toe red heels. Next we went to the movies! We saw "Life As We Know It" which was AWESOME in my opinion. I loved it. Some favorites about the movie - 1) it made my die laughing in lots of scenes. 2) the relationship was very realistic 3) awesome soundtrack, Just Breathe by Pearl Jam, in particular 4)there were some hilarrrrious 1-liners. My favorite was shortly after a married guy tells his buddy who's falling in love that he has always lived vicariously through him, he was his last single friend, etc: "Do you know what it's like to be married? Imagine prison. Then, don't change anything!" It was great.

I am procrastination. Right now I should be either packing up ebay stuff, or cleaning the kitchen. Neither are appealing at the moment. I'd rather skim around blogland. Which brings me back to the movie. Apparently, single women who are too old and should be married, must be bloggers. There was a silly reference where he asked the girl, as if it was an insult, "let me guess, you blog too!"

I think bloggers are THE BEST!!!! I've found some really awesome blogs here....it's my favorite past time!

Children in our world

Every Sunday morning, I meet my BFF at Walmart for our weekly grocery shopping trip. We have breakfast at McDonalds first then shop, covering the WHOLE store. Today, did the same thing. Checked out. We had driven separately because she has to work today and just incase I needed to stay longer, or whatever, we drove ourselves. On the way home, she's a little ahead of me & calls because she says there is a little boy walking down the road. In his shorts and tee-shirt, with a backpack. Looks to be 8 or 9. This road, is a double lane road, the speed limit is only 40 mph, but there is no sidewalk. I told her to call the police. She does, but keeps going home b/c she has to get to work. I get up there, and see him. It's a little 1st grader I KNOW because I subbed for him a zillion times in Kindergarten. I whip around and stop. I get him out of the road, he was IN the road, not on the grass or anything. I ask him what he's doing, he is teary eyed....doesn't know. Doesn't have a good reason why...I ask where is his family and he says he lost them. Then I ask where he lives, tell him how dangerous it is on this road. Ask what's in the backpack. Books. :( Incase he wanted to read. I ask what teacher he has this year, he tells me he thinks he can get himself back home but he lost his dog. I ask if that's what he was doing, looking for his dog and he said yes. I asked if he was running away and he said no. Poor baby. I hated to tell him the police were going to give him a ride. He asked me to drive him. The police finally showed up....the poor little guy was crying and pitiful. He had to be freezing, it was only like 40 degrees out this morning. I called his teacher. My heart is broken for him. He has a rough life at home, from what it appears.

Seriously! It's Saturday!! :)

I'm so glad it is the weekend. Yesterday, I skipped out on working (at work or at home), and went shopping. Not huge shopping, but this huge wharehouse near here, I can hardly resist. The best deals I got were 10/$1 packs of Hallmark tissue paper. Both Christmas and plain white. I got a ton of Goodies Hair accessories 2/$1. I'm making ghosts with the white tissue paper, and I'm going to sell some of the hair things on ebay. I also bought a rake for $5.

The kids wanted to rake the leaves so bad with the new rake. So I let them ;). They raked piles, buried each other, raked them again, buried each other...it lasted quite a while. I decided we needed to build a scarecrow. Tell me if this is morbid or wrong. I have a box of my late stepdad's old clothes. I have had it for 6 years now, I'm supposed to make a quilt for my mom. Well, he was a contractor so I knew there were jeans and flannels (scarecrow wear) so we used one of his shirts and jeans and stuffed them with leaves. I don't think he would care! But I wonder if my Mom might? I want to send her a picture, but not sure if it's wrong. I can share with you though - I will put one up later today, we still have to make his pumpkin face.

Last night our two oldest boys went to friends houses overnight, our 'middle child' went with a friend to the football game, and DH & I had a nice quiet evening with just the little two. We took them to McD's for a happy meal since they were the only ones home. They were excited!

This morning, we were supposed to go to G's football game, but he woke up sick to his stomach. Probably all the candy & junk he ate at the football game last night, but I'm worried it's the flu. Just 2 short weeks ago, 3 of the other boys and DH had the stomach flu. 2 kids had escaped it....now they both have diarrhea and G thinks he's going to barf. Is this round 2, or the end of the first session? Jeez!

Monthly Menu

I've decided to start cooking hot and homemade meals for my family every night. I don't always do this, I used to just make stuff that was quick and easy...but for over 3 weeks now, I've been cooking, and they love it! Not to mention, I have saved a lot of money on groceries. I actually have always enjoyed cooking but I don't enjoy the mess involved, because I'm the one who gets stuck cleaning it. Most of my recipes come from myself, mommyskitchen.net, Southern Plate, or Pioneer Woman. Items in red mean I've already made them this month. The (*) means I'm planning on making those this week.

Here's my menu for October.

Monterey Chicken

Upside down Supreme Pizza

Fried Porkchops

Beef Stew

Pizza Bread

Baked Spaghetti

Ham, Baked potatoes, glazed apples

Spaghetti & meatballs, salad & toast

Fried Chicken Strips

Ground beef stroganoff

Slow cooker chicken & rice

Pintos & ham w/ cornbread

Easy Peasy chicken legs*

Beef Tips

Friendship Casserole

Salisbury Steak

Pulled BBQ pork sandwiches

Baked Ribs

Quesadillas

Ham & scalloped potato bake

Chicken & dumplings

Hashbrown casserole*

Swiss steak

Potato Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Biscuits & gravy night

Italian Beef sandwiches*

Chili

Lasagna

Goulash

Chicken & Rice casserole

Desserts

Butterscotch cake

Pumpkin bread with struesel topping

Blueberry donuts

Canned biscuits donuts

buckeye brownies

pumpkin carob cookies