My trip to Value Village

I have been wanting to visit Value Village for several weeks.

I actually had no idea the store existed until I heard about it from another blogger.  Unfortunately, with my horrible memory, I can't remember exactly who that was.  I apologize for my forgetfulness.

When I did a search online and realized there was one about 25 minutes from me; I made a point of heading to check it out as soon as I could.

Today was a great day and I made my oldest son go with me.  He's not a huge thrift store shopper, but he got in the car and went anyway.

 

Half of the store is made up of clothes and the other half is made up of furniture and home goods.

They didn't have as many house wares as I think Goodwill does but their clothes were in better shape, in my opinion.

I did find this must have.  Too bad I'm done having babies.  Where were these tummy tatts then?

 

I found this poor thing in the toy isle.  Doesn't this scare all the children that come by?

 

They actually had a great furniture department.  Everything looked new and it looked really nice.  They had some unique pieces that I haven't seen anywhere else before.

 

I love this table.  It's the height of a pub table and if I hadn't already put one in my breakfast area, I would have been tempted to get this one.

 

My son loved this sofa.  It would actually look great in his apartment but since he'll be leaving with the National Guard in February and everything he already has will most likely end up in my house while he's gone, I don't think so.

 

However, this sofa and love seat would look great in my basement.

 

They had an OK book section.  Goodwill's book section is much bigger.  I saw a couple things that I might have been interested in and their prices were comparable.

 

They had a huge section of hats, scarves and socks.  I like that they had them all hanging.  Everything was individually priced, which is very nice as well.  At Goodwill all you get is a sign and everything tossed into a bin.  Having to dig to the bottom of a bin to find something like a hat or scarf is a big turn off for me.

 

I did find these great place mats.  They are great colors for fall and were only $.99 for 2.  Not a bad deal considering they were $1.99 each originally.  

 

So I brought them home and put them on my dining room table.  I think they look great and I'll be able to use them through Thanksgiving.  And, yes, they do need a hot iron.  I'll get to that later :)

On another note, completely unrelated.  My daughter hit her first home run yesterday in the junior varsity game.  I was so excited and proud of her.

This is her home run ball from last night.

 

This is my little softball star!!

Have you ever been to Value Village?  Find any creepy dolls there or is that just at mine?  I would love to hear what you thought.

I'm not sure if it's worth the extra 15 minutes to go there over my local Goodwill.

Victoria pitching video

We spend many hours at the softball field.

I have put together a video of our daughter doing what she does.

Enjoy!

My lil journaling project

I used to keep a journal.

Back when my kids were little and I had time.

I love to pull them out and see what kind of "place" I was in during that time.

I started this blog as a way to write down our family stories and anything exciting that we did like home renovations, decorating and just fun family stuff.

I'm not very consistent in my writings so I was very excited when Ashley over at lilblueboo.com announced her Lil Journaling Project.

I figured this was exactly the motivation I needed to get started again.  Sometimes it's just about getting that little push and idea for something to write about.

 

The project started on Monday and while I may not complete each entry on the day assigned, I have completed them and am all caught up for the week.

Day 1 was simple.  We had to write on the first page the following:

this is my journal

there are no rules

it's imperfect

and perfect

all at the same time.

We had to write that in our opposite writing hand.  I'm right handed, so I had to write mine with my left hand.  I'm not very good at writing with my left hand so when you first open my journal it looks like the work of a 2 year old  {imperfect}

 

Day 2 was to draw the first classroom I could remember.  I remember my kindergarten classroom.  I remember the desks where we sat.  I remember the chairs we sat in and I remember where the teacher's desk was.  I remember I only went half a day.  What I do not remember was a reading circle, books, or blocks.  I don't remember any carpets on the floors or big rocking chairs the teacher would sit in the read us books.  I'm certain we had those things, surely we did; I just don't remember them.

 

Day 3 was to make a list of the little things that fill my heart with joy:

: silence - complete and total silence

: a clean house

: Zachary chewing chips close to my ear

: a washing machine that finishes the cycle without error codes

: hearing my husbands car door shut in the garage

:my cat asking for treats at 5:30am

:christmas decorations, especially lights

:when it gets dark early and the whole family is home

Can you tell what kind of a day I was having from the first 2?

 

Day 4, which I actually did today, was to write about a stranger that you met somewhere.  I'm not one to make a lot of small talk with strangers so this one was a little tougher for me.  It took me a full day to think about it.

Here is my story:

My daughter decided she wanted goldfish for her bedroom.  She droned on and on about it.  We didn't get the fish in her time frame so that just made the matter that much worse.

I finally had time this week to take her to get the fish.  We were looking at the fish and fish supplies when I noticed a young girl who had come in with her father.  The girl was probably close to my own daughters age but she looked a lot younger.  She was short, she didn't have any make-up on and she looked like she hadn't brushed her hair in over a week.  She instantly butted into our conversation about what fish to get.  Oh, she knew her stuff.  I imagined she has a house full of fish tanks and her and her dad sit around watching fish all day.  Either that or, like me, they kill all the fish that they purchase and have to constantly return back to the store to buy new ones so they have learned all the different types.

What ones to get.

What ones not to get.

What fish are dirtier than all the others.

What fish get along well with others, which do not.

We finally pick out 2 goldfish, which this girl told us not to get because they are dirty.  I wanted to say "Yea, well they probably won't live that long so it really doesn't matter."

I held my tongue.

As the store employee was getting my daughter's fish, the strange girl was standing right by her ear talking the entire time.  When we walked away, I asked my daughter what the girl had said.  She said, "I don't know!"

Like mother, like daughter!

 

Today, Day 5, I got to do something a little easier.

Doodling.

Now, doodling, I can do.

I'm really excited to be on board with the project and am going to try really, really hard to keep it up.

Do you journal?  If so, you should check out the Lil Journal Project over at lilblueboo.com.  I think you'll love it!

 

I'm linking up at lilblueboo.com   

Big Sister, Little Sister

High school softball is in full swing.  We always knew our daughter would want to play and we definitely encouraged it.  She is such an athlete at heart.  I'm not quite sure where exactly she gets that from.  I'm not exactly a couch potato, but I'm certainly not a gun-ho, train 3-4 hours at a time kind of person.

I guess that's another trait she gets from her daddy.

She started playing with the high school team about a month before school started.  They have what they call the "summer season".  It consisted of a couple practices a week and a couple tournaments.

It certainly didn't prepare us for what was to come.

First day of school, practice for about 3.5 hours.  The same was true for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th day of school.  They had their first game that Friday.  Parents met the kids at school and helped transport the girls to the park where they were to play.

Believe me, that was just the tip of the iceberg.  We have done something softball related (practice, game, travel 3 hours away, etc) almost everyday or weekend since school started on August 6.  The season is almost halfway over so we are beginning to see a very small light at the end of the tunnel.  Just when we get to be old pro's at this schedule, it'll all come to an end.

High school sports are a completely different world than the little rec league down the street.  

 My daughter loves it.  She loves the early mornings, school starts at 7:20am; she loves the practices after school and she loves staying after and going to the games.  

After the official try-out, she made the Junior Varsity team.  After the first week of practice, she made the Varsity team.  She came home on cloud 9.  She was so excited.  She plays primarily for the JV team, but gets to dress out for the Varsity games.  In her book, that was way better than watching from the bleachers.  She's even gotten to come into a game during the varsity games once or twice.  

One of the things they do is have big sisters and little sisters.  I love the idea of this.  I think it builds a unity between the incoming freshman and the older girls (juniors and seniors).  My daughter's big sister is a senior and she's the sweetest girl.  All the big sisters got their little sisters a gift for their first game and the same of the little sisters.  

Tonight is senior night and so we I have been on the hunt for a gift for her big sister.

The last gift consisted of candy and a Powerade.

I wanted to do a little more than that this time.

This is what I came up with:

 

I started out with all my supplies

 

 I looked for one of those buckets with the chalkboard piece on the front.  I couldn't find one so I just bought the plain bucket and the chalkboard sticky paper so I could add it.

I started by just simply drawing a shape in Microsoft Word

I printed the shape out and cut it out.  I then made sure the shape would fit on the bucket.

 

After that I traced the shape onto the back of the chalkboard paper.

 

I then stuck it onto the bucket and made sure it was down really good.

 

I then got some tissue paper and started putting the gifts inside.  Everything fit perfectly.

I put the "A" charm on one side and on the other side is a zipper pull that she can take off and use on one of her jackets if she chooses.

 

I love the way it turned out and I hope she likes it too!

Have your kids gotten into high school sports?  Do they have big sister/little sister programs?  How about boys, do they get into getting each other gifts or is that just the girls?  

First Day of School 2012

 

My 2 favorite days of the year;

the 1st day of school

and the last day of school.

Our book bags are packed and our new shoes are ready to go

today is the first day of school

it's always so bittersweet

This year, I have a high school-er again and the baby is headed off to middle school.

Guess that means he really isn't a baby anymore.

The alarm clock went off at 5AM!

I don't get up at 5AM very often, so it was a complete and total shock to my system.

Now that we know what time the bus will actually get to our house, I'm thinking we can get by with sleeping a few extra minutes.

When my oldest son went through high school, I got up with him the 1st day of his freshmen year and never had to do it again.  He got himself up, fed, and out the door for the bus all on his own; for 4 years straight.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to have the same privilege with our daughter.  We shall see.

This is Trency his first day of 9th grade.

He was actually so nervous, he couldn't eat all of his breakfast.

I had to make him fake taking a bite.

 

August, 2005

I always make the kids whatever they want for breakfast on the first day.

Victoria wanted french toast.

 

I don't make french toast very often, but it turned out really good.

Hubby even got a hot breakfast today.  I'm sure now he will want me to get up early every day.

Victoria enjoys her breakfast then heads upstairs to finish getting ready.

 

Our official first day of school photo.

 

She's getting so big.

We then head out to the bus.

See how dark it is?  That just isn't right.

 

These pictures are so fuzzy because it was so dark outside and I had to try to lighten them up so much.

 

Next is Zachary's turn to get up and head out.  Since he is in middle school and they go last, he gets to sleep in an extra hour after the high school-er is already gone.

It's so weird not having them both getting ready to leave together.  This is the first year since the youngest started school that I haven't taken a picture of them together on the 1st day of school.

Cool dude waiting on the bus.

(At a much more reasonable hour, might I add)

Oh, and ignore the dead flowers in the background.  It's been an extremely hot summer.

 

The bus finally arrives.

 

I'm left with loads of laundry and trying to get the house cleaned from all the chaos of summer.

I've been very fortunate to stay home with my kids and I wouldn't miss getting them on the bus the first day of school for anything.

Did your kids go back today?  I hope they had a great one if so.