Bargain Time

Guess it is time to update again... has it been that long?  Really?  I honestly think about it all week, but who wants to hear all the boring stuff I am trying to do arranging all of our stuff and getting settled in?  I really think I can only talk about that mess for so long - and believe me it is a mess...

I woke up with a nudge from my hubby telling me "the twins are out!", so I jumped and ran to see this:

It is the twins out with their mom!  Steve claims one if them is a boy because 'he'' is unruly - running and jumping, side kicking/butting 'his' mom and running away.  She has to scold 'him' to come back... maybe Steve is right, you know how boys are!

After we sat and enjoyed them for a bit they left and we started chatting about what to do today.  Just for the heck of it, I asked Steve if he wanted to go to garage sales.  I really needed a break and we have a few things we are wishing for, but since we love old stuff and the new stuff doesn't give us the warm fuzzies, I figured garage sales would be just the ticket.  

For my overseas friends, a garage sale is when you take things you are tired of and toss them out in the garage with a price on them.  Then you advertise with a sign and people come look through your loot and if they want it, they pay you the price you have marked on it (or they bargain with you!).  Anyway, when I asked, he said "sure!"  *gulp!*  Seriously?  Really?!?  I jumped and ran - got dressed and was ready to race out the door before he changed his mind.  All the while I was thinking, dear God, please let him have a good day so we can make this a regular occurrence.  Steve has changed so much over the years - but I didn't know how receptive he would be if we bombed and didn't find anything today...

Off to the first one - he found the iron sides for a bench to sit outside by the pond for 2 bucks!  He had just refinished Steph's so he was pretty excited to get them so cheap to sit by our pond - awww SWEET!  God is smiling down on me!  I love the (coming soon) bench; I can see two old people sitting by the pond watching the turtles eating the corn... darned turtles!  Well, back to the find:  BINGO!  He might have gotten hooked at that very moment... I can hope, right?  We moved on and found all this loot...

I got all of this in a bag for $5 - we were there at the end of an estate sale and they were getting rid of stuff, so if I could stuff it in a bag, I could pay $5 for all of it.  CHA-CHING!

(I think I see something someone wants... and I am not naming names!)

The lamps are 3 of a kind, perfect for our living room.  I have been looking at spending about $150+ for 3 new lamps, but I found these 3 for $45 total.  Seems like a lot of money for a garage sale, but they are solid brass and not bottom of the line lamps/shades either.  If you drop one on my foot, someone will be hauling me to the hospital - they are heavy!  I am super happy with them.  For three times the price I could have bought 3 cheap crummy new ones, but instead I got 3 great ones for a third of what I expected to spend.  You know me, I don't have to have 'new' to be tickled pink!

We got this milk jug for $7.50 - perfect to lift my bear up off the ground:
 

Steve hit a gold mine - at least that is what HE thinks!  Here is his stash:

See the sides of the bench?  TWO bucks!

He was tickled to get this antique skill saw (and it works!) for $14:
 

He also got a grinder and the shelf it is attached to and whatever was in the drawer for another $14 - and it works too!
 

He got a level and plane - just fun stuffs for him - all very old:
 

And check this jack out - right there in the center - for a mere $11:

He thinks he needs duplicates now - we have gotten so used to them I guess... he found 2 braces and some bits to go with them for $6 each:
 

Thankfully he passed up several after that.

So I may have gotten him addicted to garage sales, but I also may not be able to afford for him to be addicted!!  Lol...

This past weekend, I actually scrapped (worked on scrapbook pages) with some new friends!  Well, I have actually known one of them for 35+ years - she was a classmate of mine in high school!  She found out I was back, we made arrangements to get together and she brought a friend!  SWEET!  So this past weekend, I had moved stuff around and made room in our now empty living room and invited them over.  We still cannot decide what we want to do with it.  This is the first time in my life I have too MUCH room to deal with - and now I don't know how to handle it I guess.
 

Anyway, back to scrapping.  The girls came over and we all played with scrapbook pages.  I didn't finish many layouts, but I did finish a few.  Don't have time to scan them, but here they are:

I am SO out of date on my work - I admit it - however, I need to get back in the groove.  And I have so much stuff, I cannot justify buying new stuff.  My scrap room is not organized, in fact, it is a disaster right now!  I cannot make myself organize it, because I *know* once I will never walk out of it again!  Lol... so I have made myself work on the rest of the house.  I still have plenty to do, but next week,  I will tackle my scraproom.  Beware, I may never venture out again  ;-)

Finally, I have found a few things that made me happy:

My frogs:

(Ann, the one you got me is on a shelf in my scraproom - it is not an outside frog - I need her close by on my scrap table where she sat in BV)

Some of my old junk has found a permanent home now:

And I think our kids will be happy to see this, it has also found a permanent home:

And finally a really "old" friend came out to play.  When I was a kid, this sat on the refrigerator of a very close friend, Norma.  At some point Norma gave it to me and  it still makes me happy.  Jeanie, my best friend (as a kid) will have to come visit - Norma was Jeanie's mom.  I think this cookie jar may make her smile too:

We have one room close to done - everything complete except pictures on the wall.  This is where we relax for the 30 minutes we can before crashing at night.  It has finally started feeling like home.  Soon, I will be able to share pics of all the house.  For now, it is a work in progress and you will have to settle for this one picture of the living room - our relaxing spot:

And no, that is not a macro tv.  We can see it just fine thank you. 

Finally, just so you are not caught off guard, Steve has been looking at Harley Davidson's - now if you know him, you know he has always wanted to get back on a bike.  Well, the time has come.  He has worked hard for 34 years and earned a bike.  He will probably buy one this next week. We have been looking, but he wants a red one... you know the whole name thing?  "Red" suits him and he wants red.  So until the HD place gets a red one, he will be dreamin', but when his dream bike arrives, he will be riding.

I have an appointment with a surgeon.  I will not go into detail, and I don't now if they will do exploratory surgery to find my problem, but I have found a Dr that promises to follow it through to the end.  He has already spent a long time with me updating himself and calling long after hours were over - and he made the appointment for the consult to see if surgery was an option.  He thinks it is definitely a priority - he is 'disturbed' (his words) at the pain I am in after punching around on my abdomen and was quite concerned to find out how long I have been in this much pain. 

And that is all I have to say about that.  My creative juices have moved... and apparently not with me.  I hope to find them in one of these boxes and get back here on a regular basis.  Until then I won't promise more than a post a week - but I want to. Honestly, I do.