Well my hubby had his week vacation...and now I am back :)

Well my husband M had his week long winter vacation :) We didn't go anywhere but instead stayed home so he could work on the addition. Our home has come a LONG LONG way from being the very 80's looking home we bought in February 2006. No longer are the walls covered in paneling and wall paper with colors of blue and mauve. Long gone are the gold fixtures in the bath room and the very very tiny kitchen that meant the dining room would have to house our stove and fridge. And once the addition is done we will have 4 bedrooms instead of just 2, and with baby #5 on the way we DEFINITELY need those 2 extra bedrooms! Not to mention that the oldest 3 kids will be upstairs and me and my hubby and the 2 little ones will be done stairs in the new part of the house. AND the best part..... I will FINALLY get to have a regular full size washer and dryer! I have been here with a very small stacked one piece apartment style washer and dryer combo and oh how nice it will be to finally be able to do a whole load of laundry at once! And the best part of all of what we have accomplished is knowing that we did IT ALL ourselves! I knew a bit about wood working since my grandpa owned his own business when I was growing up, and I spent pretty much every summer going to work with him when I was little. And the demolition part was easy too! I mean I had no problem ripping out paneling, walls, flooring etc. But when it came to hanging new drywall, taping and mudding it and sanding I was scared to death! Not to mention plumbing, laminate wood floor installation, carpet installation and more. And I learned quickly how to figure out the square foot of any space as well (who knew it was SO easy to figure out LOL)

And once the addition is done my oldest daughter B will have her VERY OWN ROOM complete with her very own Queen size bed! She is only 11 but has pretty much always had to share a room with one of her brothers so this will be an extra special occasion for her as well! Once me and my hubby get moved out of that room I am going to block it off so that she can't see it until I am completely done re-decorating it so that she has a TOTALLY new room! We have already added new drywall, paint, carpet and new ceilings so I will just have to make it personalized for her. It has been a long adventure but a fun one! I will post some pictures later once I get them uploaded :) 

And as so many of us know Thanksgiving is drawing very near... today I made sure to get the turkey out so it could thaw out and I decided on my menu. It will just be me, my husband and our 4 kids so I don't have to cook a whole lot because otherwise I would have left overs for a month! But there are some of us that like corn pudding and some who don't so that leads to 2 different corn dishes...and so on :)

~Our Thanksgiving Menu~

Turkey (of course)

Stuffing

Gravy

Mashed Potatoes

Green Beans cooked with bacon and onions

Corn Pudding

Whole Kernel corn

Sweet Yeast Rolls

Pumpkin Pie

Apple Crisp

&

Yummy milk to drink

We are going out this coming weekend to find a tree to put up for Christmas so that I have time to put away all of the Fall - Thanksgiving decor. Which is a whole other topic...but let me say I am having a VERY hard time deciding on Christmas decor! ALL of ours got ruined last year due to water leaking into the large tote I had it all stored in. The kids had been in the storage room and knocked the lid off and a bad wind storm led to some loose shingles and well you pretty much know the rest :(

So this year I have to get new everything!

Well its almost 11am and my time is up here on the computer. I have some things to get done....I really think I got LESS done last week with my husband home than I normally do so I have to play catch up this week.... Of course Thanksgiving is already going to make it hectic so it will be VERY busy!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

~Brandi~

Decorating on a Shoestring Budget

Decorating on a Shoestring Budget is a post I found on Econobusters website/blog and oh honey it is just the most addorable laundry area! Please click on the link above to head over and take a look!
She did a wonderful job!

WOW! Walmart has Halloween things marked down 75%

This is our house decorated for Halloween!

So I went to Walmart yesterday to do some grocery shopping and I was surprised to see their Halloween items marked down to 75% off already! They didn't have much along the lines of candy left, but I did manage to get some of the bags of the pumpkins, that remind me of candy corn :) Our local school doesn't have Halloween parties, but instead Fall Festivals the second week of November so I will be sending the pumpkins with my son for his class. I didn't need to buy any candy anyway as I had bought 2 walmart bags full to hand out to Trick Or Treaters and well living on a dead end street has its dis advantages because we only got 4 visitors the whole night :(

A friend of mine picked up 8 costumes for my little Miss E so that she can play dress up. So for those who don't celebrate Halloween they still have some VERY cute costumes that your little ones can use as dress up clothes! I know alot of people don't think of this, but I called and ask her and well all together she bought 27 costumes to use as dress up outfits LOL! They had doctors, princesses, lady bugs, pumpkins and more so check out the Halloween aisle for some super cheap dress up clothes!

Carving our Jack O Lantern Mr Z, Miss B, and Miss E in her TuTu

Raindy Days Weather....and the flu :(

Well the weather here has been rain rain and more rain! It has rained all week, sometimes a slow drizzle and other times a steady down pour. The kids are tired of being cooped up in the house all week as well as the fact that we have not been able to do much regarding outdoor activities either. We were supposed to go on a Nature Walk/Fall Scavenger Hunt as well as gather leaves for leaf rubbings, but with so much rain we haven't been able to do any of that. I did manage to find some great sites with some printable lap book activities and coloring pages for them as well as some fall stationary for writing practice.

I also found this lovely blog Frugal Family Fun Blog with a great idea to make an awesome Autumn Tree Suncatcher craft! All you need is some clear contact paper, tissue paper, construction paper, scissors, and your creativity! She has TONS of frugal crafting ideas on her blog and my kids have picked out a few already that we plan to make :)

I am still not back to feeling 100% while dealing with the H1N1 flu, and I am sure being pregnant makes it a little harder for me to get rid of the "flu bug" that is hanging on tight! Emma is not feeling well either, so I have been trying to make her feel comfy, which means she gets to lay on mommys lap pretty much all day :)

Sweet Blessing Bum Genius Cloth Diaper Giveaway at Econobusters!

As many know I am all about being GREEN! And I have baby #5 on the way so I was DELIGHTED to see this giveaway in the Econobusters Newsletter! Be sure to check it out, you could win a 3 pack of Bum Genius Diapers!

http://www.econobusters.com/?p=3077

I love this time of year!

I am not sure what it is about this time of year but I would be completely happy if it stayed like this year round! They have a movie on Disney channel on TV called Halloweentown, well I wish I could find Autumntown and move there LOL! I love the colors, the smells, the sights of the leaves changing just every thing! I mean who can resist a smile when you see the beauty of the changing colors on trees, and grinning jack o lanterns on front porches paired with jolly scare crows! Alot of people are re charged by Spring but not me, Fall is my time of year. It seems to really perk me up way more than any other time of year. I don't think it has much to do with the idea of the holidays that will follow, because well those are just stressful if you ask me.

I love to go walk around stores and look at the interesting pumpkins and gourds, all of the beautiful mums in their glorious colors, oh and lets not forget the lanes at stores that have all of the Fall tableware! Oh I could just live on that lane alone :) Just the other day I was out our local farm/builing supply store here in town, ughhhh we were buying shingles for the addition we are building, anyway back to happy thoughts! Ok well they had yellow mums for .99 each, yes thats all!!!! They were 6 in pots so it was a pretty good price....only problem is that I personally do not like the yellow ones because you have to constantly dead head them, otherwise they aren't so pretty, so I didn't get any of them. I did however think of a cute idea, which I *might* try this year. They have TONS and TONS of pumpkins for sale at the store here for only $1.99 ea and they are quite big! So I was looking at them wondering how I could use a few of them to decorate besides the typical carved pumpkin way. Well I thought about cutting the top off, digging out the insides and just plopping a potted mum inside of it! Now granted I am sure I am NOT the first person to think of this idea....I haven't seen it done, yet that is, so I might give it a try this year, maybe closer to Thanksgiving, or atleast after the price of mums go down some.

I have to get my little Emma up and ready for our day now, but I will post some Frugal Fall Decorating ideas in a bit. She has a doctors appt. today at 10am, so NO FUN at all because she has to get immunizations :(

Time Wasters for Women?

We as women, wifes and mothers have so many things to do during the day. What can you think of that is a "time waster" for you? Maybe it's Tv, the computer/internet, the telephone? For me it tends to be all 3 at times, and I admit that sadly :( What could we be doing with that time? What joy could we be bringing into our families life?

That is going to be my focus from now on. Identifying the "time wasters" in my life and slowly but surely getting rid of them! It may be hard, but I know I can do it :)