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What`s been going on?


heidiiiii

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Just thought I would update on stuff that has been going on:

Chelsea loves the art school. She cannot draw without the board and easel..LOL I dragged the easel out of the basement and she has been sketching away. I am going to bite the bullet and pay for the gas to drive her for the next two weeks (i havent said anything to her about money), I dont want to influence her decision to go for drawing 2 and painting. I will just keep an extra $60 aside for each of the two weeks to gas up the car. They taught her how to measure..?? taking a stick and looking at something. No one ever taught her what she was supposed to do after she looked at it..they did at this school!

I am ordering the part for the car on Friday. Mechanic will put it in next weekend weather permitting. That is one less thing on my mind.

After the car is fixed, I have a dryer guy coming. We didnt have dryer fixed cause car is more important right now. You should have seen our electric bill! OMG! It was so low and with ac`s running. We decided to put up a clothesline to use for most things to cut the cost even more.

Dealing with the dangitall moths again! I swear I hate those buggers. I have traps all over the house. Not too bad this year. Everyone I talk too is having the same pest problem. Hardware man said it is cause of the damp spring.

Watched re-runs of Oprah`s Debt diet. We are going to try and use some of the tips and see what we can do. I was shocked about the couple that didnt buy anything for a year. They live in NYC! That must have been hard!

School shopping is looming! I need the girls to go thru their things and see what they need. Of course they say everything but cant afford everything. Bookbags, school supplies, unmentionables, socks, Fall jackets, etc etc.

How has everyone else been doing?

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Hi Heidi,

Glad to hear Chelsea loves the school. She'll learn a lot and wait till they show her how to draw buildings and find the horizon line and all that - it's pretty exciting stuff :o

Things here are going ok - as has been usual for the last month I'm way too busy with real life things and not nearly busy enough with miniature things but there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel and this time it's bigger than a pin speck :D My office ahem.. I mean work room- is still a wreck but the rest of the house is looking pretty darn good if I do say so myself :D - We won't discuss the yard ^_^

And hey it's summer - put off that dryer and enjoy the lower electric bills :D I don't own a dryer I'm one of the few people in town that hangs their laundry, of course now and then I do borrow my sister's but there's not room in my house for a dryer and an oven - yes it's a strange house. And as for living cheap if there's anything I can do to help let me know. I think almost everything in my house was either purchased second hand or on clearance but living in Calif you can find great yard sales and lots of thrift shops and it really helps keep the cost of living down. I don't think .. no I Know I couldn't go a year without buying anything but sometimes it's pretty amazing what other people don't want anymore and place a low value on or even just give away. And don't forget about Ebay it's a great place to get rid of unwanted things, there's nothing better than getting rid of thing you don't want and making a couple of bucks doing it :p . Chances are if the price is right someone somewhere will want it. Well seems I've managed to climb on that soap box again <kicking the soap box away> bad soap box! :D

-David :D

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I think almost everything in my house was either purchased second hand or on clearance

DS#3's neighborhood is all duplexes housing mostly married grad students (FSU & FAMU) and he has furnished his house & a couple of friends' apartments with what he finds on the departing neighbors' trash piles in front of their houses.

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Hi Heidi, we've been hanging in there with this heat. I seen in you other post that you got your storms last night, our storms that we were suppose to get broke up before they got here ^_^ , but it's a little cooler than it was, not much.

I'm happy to hear that Chelsea is really enjoying art school. I think it's great that kids find something that they like to do, I wish mine would. Christopher is 12 and starting 6th grade this year and he is in the 'transition period' as I call it. He still wants to be a kid but he wants us to treat him a grown up :D . But he can't seem to find anything that keeps his interest for very long, unless it's playing video games. Amber who is going to be 6 in October is my little stomach with legs :D . Her favorite hobby is eating every hour it seems. The only thing is she doesn't gain weight :o , DH says it because she runs it off. I guess I can go with that.

I'm dreading school shopping this year, I'm going to have to buy all new clothes (Chris definately sprouted this summer). I one thing I don't have to get is a new winter coat for him. My mom-in-law's best friend's daughter has 4 boys and gives me what they don't destroy. I'll take whatever comes my way and if I can't use it I give it to goodwill or the other second hand shops around here. My motto 'cheap or free' that's the only way to get something. Actually looking around the house right now I don't see anything that I didn't get from someone else or a second hand store :p . The best thing I recently did get was my kitchen table and chairs and they were free. The people down the street put them out for garbage and we walked down and the only thing wrong with them was the chairs lost a couple of screws that made them wobble, easy fix and brand new table for us :D .

Right now I am enjoying peace and quiet. The kids went to grandma's to go swimming for the day and they may stay there for the night :D (dancing around). So I'm going to red-up the house and go work on my mini's for a while. You know if I didn't have this forum to come and talk to everyone everyday I think I would actually go insane. I'm glad to have all of you as my friends/family :D .

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We're sort of hanging loose, with our trip coming up the end of the month. I'm trying to finish the McKinley so it can go with us. I'm also thinking I'd better take another kit along to work on while DH is out climbing on piles of waste tires to count them.

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Oh I am the queen of free and thrift. Just got a new love seat from neighbor for free, push mower free, kitchen table yard sale, chairs free. etc etc.

I noticed when the girls were gone that I didnt have to go to the bank, I had money, I didnt need to go to the store. Kids suck ya dry!

I used to be part of a place called Frugalmoms but that is now defunct. I know how to do things but sometimes family isnt all the way for it!

The girls are allergic to sale racks. I just give them a certain amount of money and say you can blow it on two outfits or make it stretch and get a whole lot more..Your choice.

Electicity is up, gas is up, food is up, necessities are up in prices. If you dont get a raise and the prices go up, it gets kinda tight.

That would be good if we could give each other tips on saving money in all sorts of ways.

I have one: When you make pasta or can, save the water and use it for your houseplants and garden plants.

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This is what happened yesterday. LOL. I had an argument with my son because he bought a video game called warcraft. I do not mind him playing but i will be damned if i will pay $14.95 a month for him to do so. After that we got in my car to drive him back to work at summer camp. On the way up the hill we heard a thump and rusty colored water sprayed lightly on the windshiled. We got out and looked and found the top half of the radiator blew up. We waitied a long time for the tow truck. i got pretty sick in the heat. After getting home i noticed i did not have the digital camera Darrell gave me. i panacked, this was just to much for me to handle and i started crying again. I had cried a lot when the car broke down, I called the tow truck company and they said i left it in the tow truck and could pick it up tomorrow, luckily i fell asleep quickly and nothing else happened untill morning. We had decided since Darrell had to be at work at 6:30 and no one would be at the station i am working at untill 8 and the fact that my boss went home early because she was sick, that i would call in and try to make arangements to get to work untill the car can be fixed. i slept in untill 9:30 and was due at work at 9:00 When i called the secretary asked when i was comming in because the new person that is going to help out for a little while was there to be trained and my boss is in the hospital. i told her that i could not make it in and she said she would put the new person to work doing some mailings. i have been at this job for 4 weeks, When i started we were wrapping up one of the semi annual fundraiser auctions we hold, so i know what needs to be done at the end of each one, We were just starting to begin the next one. All that needs done has been done so far, i do not know what the next thing that needs done is. No boss to ask, Her boss and all the other bosses are either on vacation for 2 weeks or at a 1 week national confrence. So tomorrow i will go in and try to figgure out what needs done and try to train a new person to do what i do not even know how to do, What fun. later on in the day, i ran into a piece of furniture with my baby toe of my left foot. Now that toe is all swollen and purple, Uhh Ohh broke the toe. AND it has been over 105 degrees all week with nothing but hotter days forcasted, I think it got to 111 today.

Here is what my car looked like

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Today Is much calmer. Boss is still in the hospital. I managed to get some things done at work. My toe is fatter and purpler.lol. My car is now in the shop. Darrells car will go in soon. My daughter took me back and forth from work today. I have tomorrow off. I am working on the westville some today. It is still hot, but staying inside give me an excuse to work on mini's.

Melissa

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uuuugggg poor melissa!

I hate breaking down in the car. I dont care what the reason and in this heat I would have been crying and cussing like a sailor! here is big hugg for you!

post-9-1153352007.gif

now it can only get better!

take care of yourself! are you building the Westville now?

nutti ^_^

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Melissa, I hope you are feeling better (between the heat and your toe). I really hate cars when they act up, I would have been crying like a baby if that was me and probably having a panic attack. At least you have tomorrow off so you can relax and take it easy.

(Big Hug) ^_^

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Yes I am working on the Westville I added another half to, while waiting for the orchid to ship. It is almost completly sided and i wanted to paint in like the one on the box, but Darrell said NO NO NO. So I painted it the ugliest color of green I have ever seen out of spite. What is funny is i LIKE it lol. I will be donating the Orchid to the PBS Tv station for their holiday auction

Melissa

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Heidi I glad Chelsea is liking art school and learning lots of new things--you won't regret having to transport her the next two weeks and later in life you can say but look how I went out of my way to see that you got what you needed ^_^

Melissa, I hope tomorrow is a better day. I would have been cussing soooo bad. And you never think about your toes unti they get hurt and then the darn things seem to constantly be in the way. I really feel for you having to stay out in the heat, here in GA it has been so hot, that I'm doing good to make from my car to to the office without just wilting and it has really affected my respiratory system.

As any of you who are involved in the latest swap know, I've spent last week worried about siblings. They are home and doing good. So this week I'm trying to catch up on rest lost while sitting at the hospital with DSis. This weekend we plan to go watch our oldest GD participate in her first Ti Kwon Do tournment. Should be very interesting.

Before DSis and DB got sick/hurt I started working on the Creekside Cabin. Made a lot of progress in one weekend, but poor thing has had to wait the past week and a half for me to get back to it. Now I need to restock paint before I can go any further.

So I'm hoping for a uneventful, lazy week. But we are waiting for the Dr. to set up an MRI for DH to check out his back and hip and find out why they are givng him so much pain.

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Melissa, this is probably too late to help much, but I am a past master in the fine art of breaking pinkie toes. You go out and buy a 1" roll of gauze and some hypoallergenic tape and wrap your pinkie toe to the toe next to it with the gauze and then a piece of the tape around to hold it; this will help keep you from ramming it into every stray piece of furniture in the house.

If you put an ice pack wrapped in a towel on it two or three times an hour it'll help minimize the swelling so it doesn't look so much like a scuppernong grape.

Finally, it's a great excuse to wear open shoes/ sandals without socks and to prop your feet up every chance you get.

I'm sorry to hear about the car, too.

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Melissa I hope you are feeling better soon.

I have spent the last two days clearing trees and brush from the back yard. It ended up being 5 very full trailer loads. Thankfully that is done. Now I have to finish the new master closet. It was pat two of the toy room redo. Drywall, prime, paint, and hang shelving. Tomorow should be prime and paint.

I hope to work more on the castle this week. I just ordered some really neat stuff off the web for it. Oh I went to Pearl last week too and got some minis! I should get something for all this work right?!

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Hi Melissa,

Hope your toe is feeling better soon and the car gets fixed without it costing an arm and a leg... these days though it seems any auto work costs an arm.. or at least a shin. :D

Heidi,

Ohh the Queen of free and cheap :D Too cool!! I Love finding treasures in other people's junk! :D There still is one thing I need to learn though - and that's how not to bring home quite so much of it :wacko: Now that I've got most of my hobby energy focused on miniatures though the stuff I bring home is much smaller in size heheheh

-David :D

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David, I am also a master at the art of haggling (I use another phrase that I learned from my mother but I wont use that because I DO NOT want to offend anyone!)

I will come up with a sob story to get it for free or have the price knocked way down.. How do you think I got the Marquam Hill for soooo cheap?

That chest that the Marquam in on.. Made dh help me carry it home from the neighbors take me im free pile! I painted it, found hardware for it, painted the top with chalkboard paint and filled it with arts supplies and board games for the girls. They loved it! It smelled to high heaven and I filled it with kitty litter for a month b4 it was ready.

I am also the Almighty Ruler of the broken baby toe!!! Ta Da da! Look at her beautifully deformed pinky toes with lil pointy toe nails that dont grow right.

To get into the kitchen from the hallway of our bedrooms we had to navigate past the kitchen table and chairs and a radiator. There is nothing I can explain the type of pain you feel when you are walking and your toe stops dead on that pipe that comes up from the floor connected to the radiator! :D:wacko: My baby toes have been banged again and again in the years and the pain doesnt faze me anymore...LOL It stops hurting after like day 2.

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Well, things are beginning to settle down. Heidi, congrats on your daughter in art school--sounds like she is really enjoying it and learning new stuff!

Don't get me started on school supplies. Bought 10 spiral notebooks for Walmart's 10 cent special for Amanda's school supplies. She goes into the middle school this year and we still haven't received her school supply list.

This week we have been getting geared up for Amanda's /birthday/party cookout tomorrow. She just got back from session at Job's Daughters and did really well! I'm really proud of her, she was one of the girls in her bethel to be picked for state representative position--the other girl got Illinois, Amanda received Montana. She also received a 1 st place ribbon for her artwork that she entered in the craft competition, so she was really pleased. So some of her friends in the bethel will hopefully be coming to her cookout party this saturday.

Heidi, I know exactly what you mean about haggling! Amanda needed formals for her period at session, and at two yard sales I found a beautiful Ann Taylor dress for $1 and another lace cream dress for w/ tags for less than a buck too. I also found some beautiful skirts too for her. Children's clothes are so hard to buy when they get to the teen-ager years. I rely exclusively on yard sales and it is true, you will not believe what people will sell for a quarter--new shirts with the tags still on them simply because they don't want to be bothered with taking them back. :D I usually am always scouting for shirts and t-shirts to buy 2nd hand since I have a tendacy to ruin them with paint, working on dollhouse kits,e tc.

Heidi. My tip for saving money--raise a garden! Because Chris & I planted a garden, we now have tomatoes, green beans, butterbeans, and peppers. We are currently planning on canning alot of things later and the garden is really helping out with having this cookout--I have already prepped the tomatoes for the salad, and the peppers too. Also, save your bread when it gets old and dry--chop it up and freeze it until you can cook into croutons. In November I start buying bread if I have none left and shop for Christmas tins or bags, and make friends and family a crouton bag kit. I save alot of money doing this, since I can get the bread cheap at the bread store. That's my tip of the day!

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David, I am also a master at the art of haggling (I use another phrase that I learned from my mother but I wont use that because I DO NOT want to offend anyone!)

I will come up with a sob story to get it for free or have the price knocked way down.. How do you think I got the Marquam Hill for soooo cheap?

I am so bad at haggling that I don't even try. The best I'll do if it's something I really want badly and Really think is just over priced is I'll ask if it's a firm price - other wise I can either afford it or I can't - heck I've even been known to go completely the opposite way and tell people that they're undercharging for items LOL And you know what?? The weird thing is people have given me free stuff for that :D I don't understand it but I won't knock it either :D On the other hand this is a really tiny community and everyone pretty much knows everyone And their cirucmstances so a sob story wouldn't do me any good at all LOL :wacko: Come to think of it.. that's probably why they give me stuff.. they know about that Scottish part of me that can't say no to anything marked "Free" and they want to get rid of their stuff!! LOL

-David

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I have to tell one of my broken little toe stories.

I also have to manuver around obsticales in the bedroom in the dark

things like chairs and weights and my cedar chest...all have been the culprit in the breaking of my little toe.

poor DH loves to be awaken to screams of agony and cussing because HE moved something after I went to bed.

and this one time was his fault also. his weights are always somewhere...never same place twice

he was asleep...Im comming in to go to bed and his barbell is on my side of the bed under my nightgown

so I know where the gown is...I kick the barbell and as I bend over to grab my toe I bang my eye on our head board...yanno the kind ....waterbed bookcase SOLID wood headboard. not only did I have broke toe I had a black eye....with teachers meeting the next day.

never boring around here! :wacko:

nutti :D

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OUCH!!!! Melissa, I hope things are better for you today and so far I have not broken my pinkie toe though I have stubbed it several times.

Heidi I am happy to hear Chelsea is enjoying school!

Annette, 12 years old is that weird age for kids. My son sure was moody and everything until last year. Now he is calm and sweet again so I think it does get better around 17 but the change started at 10 years of age for him and I thought I would never see him like this ever again :D .

David, I can't wait to have my own yard! :wacko: Lisa, You should see my decks I have tomatoes & pepers and flowers everywhere . :D My beans died :D but I am doing them in big pots.

Holly can't wait to see your Mckinley

Melanie I can't wait to see more of your Castle

Lynette, I hated my waterbed. we had one of those for the first 7 years of our marriage. When I got preganant woth Sarah I went shopping and bought a new mattress, had the other taken apart and the new bed put together on a day I stayed home for work. Hubby did not notice (For the first hour) what was different but he knew it was something (I thought he would realize his dressers under the bed missing right away :D ). I stubbed my toe on that plateform SO Many times plus I could not bend down to get my socks out of that drawer anymore :D

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The nurses all thought I was nuts after I delivered because the first thing I'd do when I got out of bed was a happy dance that I could see my feet again (did I mention I carried both of mine IN FRONT?)!

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I thought everyone lost sight of her feet around the 8th month of pregnancy.

Goodness, Melissa... I feel like passing you a box of kleenex and a couple of strong pain relievers. What a HORRIBLE day.

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I thought everyone lost sight of her feet around the 8th month of pregnancy.

Because I carried mine all in front I usually waved by-by to my feet toward the end of the sixth month.

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Too funny!

Melissa, I went back and re-read your post and sorry you had such an awful day. I know how upsetting it can be when the car just won't...go. I hope things turn out better and this weekend turns around for you.

I have finally had time to take and look at everyone's photo albums and pics and projects! Stunning work!

As I write this, I made time for me.....<grin> so that's why it's almost 6 am in the morning here!lol!

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I would have grabbed the barbell and put it right on his stomach! Not hard, not fast, but it would have woken him up! LOL I bang into dh`s boots (i call them his dang clobhoppers!)

Lisa I have been gardening for 7 years.Tomatoes are a must. I can them into sauce. Usually they have a CanCan sale at local ShopRite (having one now) and they have my Tutorusso (sp?) tomatoes for really cheap. I combine to make sauce for the winter. I have yellow peppers, cherry tomatoes, and chives this year. I usually do more but I dont have the energy. We pick strawberrys, raspberrys, and peaches. I can them into strawberry jam, raspberry jalapeno jelly, and cling peaches. At the Farmers market I get a deal. I ask for a 1/2 peck of ginger gold apple seconds (dents but they are beautiful) for $12 and I make applesauce.

I freeze the strawberrys and raspberrys until I have enough to make 12 pints of each kind. We also have a produce distributor in town that sells seconds in a store for markdowns. If the cukes are too small they cant sell to stores. Unfortunately ALL of the bread stores in my area have closed down. :(

David, Yard sales.. You talk to the people. Oh I love your roses, what kind are they? Your home is beautiful. Pet the dog, buy the kids lemonade, etc. I am nice but I am calculating! :D I went to yard sale and have levelor blinds to buy for $7 a piece (there were two). There was a sewing machine for sale but they couldnt figure out why it wasnt working. I went over and fixed, threaded bobbin and got it to work! She sold the machine and sold the two blinds to me for $5 for both! See? :o

Dh loves me.. He used to tie my shoes for me when I was preggers.

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