Thrift store find = money!

I had to share this real quick because I am so excited!  A couple of weeks ago while I was browsing a thrift store in Decatur for my DIY: cupcake stand, I came across a lilac colored bumbo.  For those of you that do not know what that is, it's a baby seat that you can sit youngins in before they are able to sit up on their own.  It's lightweight and very handy.  Having one myself I realized the value in this item.  Brand new it retails for approximately $39.99.  When I found the price sticker on the side I about died.  $2.99!!  That's right!  $2.99!!  I know to any of you men out there you are probably thinking woopity-do as you twirl your finger.  If you are a mom you are thinking OMG!

As I sat there holding this 'treasure', I kept looking over my shoulder wondering if anyone was going to race up to me and yank it out of my hands. I already have one of these at home so I started trying to take lots of things into consideration before 'splurging'.  First and foremost, my husband's reaction.  I could hear him plain as day saying, "We already have one of those!  Do we honestly need that?"  I would then explain the fact that I could more than likely sell it and make a profit.  Even if I sold it for $10, I would still make $7!

Apparently whoever had priced it did not know a thing about baby gear so before someone else came along, I decided to snatch it.  As I walked away with all my goodies, I was soooo excited about my find. 

After cleaning it up really well I listed it on ebay.  I knew I wanted a "Buy it Now" price, but you also have to list an auction price.  I started the auction at $14.99 and listed the "Buy it Now" price at $26.00 both with free shipping.  The first night after listing, I laid in bed and realized that if there wasn't a bidding war, I would have to sell it for $14.99 and after shipping which was approx $10, I wasn't going to really make a profit.  There was no turning back though.  I had to follow through.

I am happy to announce that a couple days after listing someone bypassed the auction and bought it for $26.00!!  After shipping that left me with a profit of $14!  Now I'm ready to go back for more :)

Thanks again to Yard Sale Mommy for giving me the fever.  Haha, seriously she has some great advice on finding treasures and selling them on ebay for a profit.

Cayli's Zebra Themed Birthday Party!!

For the past couple of years, my oldest daughter Cayli, has ran with the whole Twilight theme for her birthday parties.  Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Twilight Saga and cannot wait till Breaking Dawn comes out but....there is only so much you can do year after year.  This year however she finally decided to do a Zebra theme instead of Eclipse.  Because zebra prints can be a little overwhelming, we decided to incorporate hot pink and lime green, two of Cayli's favorite colors.  I love to get my creative juices flowing, the only problem is that I procrastinate and don't take action until right before the party.



We decided to  have it at our house because we had recently had a very successful gathering there.  There was a swingset, trampoline, dirt, "treehouse" and lots of room to run and play.  At the other party we had gotten some blue lanterns from the Paper Lantern Store .com for a great price so I decided to get a couple of green and a couple of pink to decorate the tree with. (shown above)  I hung them using some zebra ribbon I had gotten on sale at Hobby Lobby for 50% off.  Woohoo!

I actually made the cupcake stand using 3 different size black plates and 2 small candlestick holders that I had discovered at a thrift store.  The idea came from one of my childhood best friends, Autumn.  She had recently done one for our friend's baby shower.

I brought out many of my clear vases that I have collected over the years from various Dollar Stores and Dollar Trees.  I use these for just about any occasion so for this I added some black and white rocks and colorful flowers to match the theme.

On most of the vases I hot glued a zebra ribbon around the middle to incorporate the zebra theme.  I made sure to only use hot glue on the ribbon so I could remove it after the party and reuse my glasses.

As you can tell the girl's, and there were many of them, had a blast and was probably one of our most successful parties.









Wow...................

Where do I start?  Hmmmm, maybe with Cayli tripping in the bathroom and slicing her toes open (gory details I will not include), or with Ella falling in the bathtub and pushing one of her front teeth up in her gum (rushed her to the ER), or how about the fact that our whole family has contracted some nasty virus that has been going on for about a week..............

Before I get into any of that though, because I know you all want to hear it :),  I am about to post Cayli's successful 11th birthday party which was "Zebra" themed.  Oh yeah, forgot to mention that!!

Stay tuned!

Tire Trouble

Warning:  Long read :)

I started off Wednesday positive and looking forward to our daily trip to Atlanta with Naty and Ella.  She accompanies us on the 1 day a week that she has parent-infant with Mrs. Linda.  On the other days she stays with one of my best friends, Melissa. Unfortunately on days like this my anxiety starts to peak.  I put on a smile and pray that God will wrap his arms around me and take it all away.

We headed down I-75 and I noticed that my car was dragging a little.  This started to worry me because on Sunday, Doug had to plug one of my tires and before I headed out of town where I was all alone, I decided to pull over at a gas station to check it out. 

I exited the freeway and pulled up next to the air machine (correct term?).  Sure enough, it was deflating.  I retreived my handy dandy air gauge and found out it only had about 20 lbs. of pressure.  I started calling Doug to figure out what I was going to do but sadly Doug was at work and his phone was dying because someone forgot to charge it that night.  I finally got a hold of him and I told him of my predicament.  He told me that I would need to plug it again (are you SERIOUS?) and put some air in it.  After arguing back and forth about how I had no CLUE how to do that, I finally decided what the heck....If the tire blew up in my face because I punctured it incorrectly, then at least I would die knowing................that it was my husband's fault.

I decided to drive to my sister's house which was a few miles down the road so no one could see me yelling and sweating profusely while I was trying to shove a piece of metal into my tire.  After taking a few deep breaths I finally got the piece of "beef jerky" into the "needle" and shoved with all my strength into the hole.  I smiled and patted myself on the back and left to go back to the gas station to fill it up with air. 

After sitting at the air machine for 3 minutes I noticed that instead of it filling up with air, it was actually deflating!  This sparked a little bit of aggravation.  I said a prayer to calm my nerves and help me to have a positive attitude and I phoned my husband. 

I knew when I placed the call that there was honestly nothing he could do because he was at work but I at least wanted him to be informed of the situation and know my location in case I went missing.  Seriously, I think about these things.

He told me to put air in it and drive slowly but quickly to the tire store down the road. I informed him of my lack of quarters and he recommended that I should walk up to a complete stranger and beg.  Well, this girl ain't begging.  I will sit in the car for HOURS before I try to inform a stranger that I am a stranded woman by myself.

My sister arrived to my rescue with quarters and I filled the tire up with air and hurried on my way.

Upon arriving at the tire store they started working on my car.  After waiting 45 minutes, I was informed that my tire was irrepairable and that I would have to get a new one.  Apparently whoever plugged it (clearing my throat) pushed the steel through the tire and even if they did put a patch on it, it would still rub against the steel.  While they were putting on the spare, I made the phone call to the Speech School to let them know the reason for my absence.  By this time it was already 9:30 and after I found a tire for a reasonable price and had it put on it wouldn't be worth it to drive down to Atlanta.

I parted ways with my wonderful sister and headed to one of my best friend's Melissa's house, aka Ella's babysitter, to see if she would watch her while Naty and I went on the hunt for a gently used tire. 

The first place I stopped at offered a great price but I would have to order it and it wouldn't arrive till the next day.  Not going to work.  I then placed several more phone calls from the road and found out that my tire was an unusual size and most everyone was going to have to order it.  I went back to Melissa's feeling defeated and tried to figure out what I was going to do.  The easy thing would have been to order it and just wait till the next day when it came in but Naty and Ella couldn't miss another day of school.

Melissa's husband and brother-in-law decided to get in on the hunt with me and ended up finding a little bit different size down the rd for a great price.  I had to go pick up Cayli from school so I figured I would sit at home for just a minute and rest before heading to the tire shop.

Bad idea...........

As I was putting the girls in the car I received a phone call from Infinity which is Natalie and Ella's therapist in Calhoun.  I was too busy putting the girls in the car to answer but at the same time I was trying to figure out why they were calling.  What's today?  Wednesday? OH NO!  I had totally forgotton that the girls had therapy at 3:30.  The clock read 3:43.  I called them back and explained the situation and that I would be there in 15 minutes.  So much for going to get my tire.

As I headed to the therapist office, I called the tire store and to my disbelief they were closed :(  So much for getting my tire. 

On a positive note, God's love and grace is what kept me from pulling my hair out.  Everytime I would start to feel overwhelmed, he would remind me of my blessings and tell me every thing was going to be ok. 

We went to church that night, 30 minutes late, but healthy and the most important part.........able to.  We decided that Misty would lend me her car, even though it didn't have any air, and she would take my car until I could get home and get the new tire put on.

Even though I had to drive a car with no air 67 miles there and back, I was reminded of how fortunate I truly am.

Natalie cut her hair :(

I figured that this post took precedence over all the other posts. 

After giving Natalie a bath, Doug got her out of the tub and proceeded to come in the living room to converse with me.  We could hear her so we new everything was ok......

Or so we thought,

Doug decided to investigate and as soon as he got in the doorway he screamed "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"  I figured she had just gotten into the neon pink nail polish that she had wanted me to paint her nails with but as Doug kept saying those words, in my heart I knew that wasn't the case.

"I don't want to see it," I said, a hint of frustration in my voice.

Curiousity overcame my determination and I got up to look for myself.  I walked in to a horrible scene.  There were pieces of hair scattered everywhere and Natalie was sitting amongst them.  I looked over at the drawer where the scissors were kept and she so kindly put a clump of hair in their place. 

As I stared at her in horror I couldn't help but find this very humorous.  I covered my mouth and turned away from her as I burst out laughing.  Her hair was still damp from the bath so we really couldn't tell how bad it was.  I could tell however that she had given herself bangs and the left side was cut up to her ear.  Of course she was grinning the whole time not knowing what she had just done to herself.  Inside I was cracking up, but at the same time I was weeping.  One of Natalie's best attributes is her curly hair and sadly 3 surgeries later she has had her moments of being half bald. Considering the surgeries were complete we could let her hair grow.

Apparently we don't decide that though.

Miss me??

I'm sure many of you have been



Sorry, Ella just knocked over my entire cup of coffee.  Thank goodness I had let it cool off before I brought it over here to the computer or we might be taking a trip to the ER.  Whew.........

Anyway, the reason for the lack of posts lately is not because lack of excitement.  It has been because the abundance of excitement around our house.  But today.......today I am hoping to take a minute and blog about the ongoings of the family for the past couple of days.  Some funny and some extremely heartbreaking.  So stay tuned!