Bad Blogger, Very Bad!

Sorry for the hiatus.... I went back to work and haven't stopped to breathe for the past three months!

Earlier this month, our school levy failed (again), and the superintendent told me that my job would be eliminated (again) although it wouldn't be officially voted on until January, and would be effective at the end of the school year. Last year when the levy failed, they eliminated music K-6. Since I had seniority, I got shifted from teaching fifth and sixth grade band to teaching seventh and eighth grade band. Twelve music teachers out of nineteen were laid off. I was the lucky number seven (and the last one) that was kept. Now they will be eliminating probably all but three music teachers, and so I'll be gone for real this time. That is, unless the levy passes in May.

I of course don't want to lose my job (I feel so bad for the kids who are missing their art, music, and P.E.) however the thought of getting to stay home with my little rugrat is very appealing! I would love to be able to stay home and do crafts with my son (like these wonderful Christmas crafts from No Time for Flashcards)

I haven't been very crafty lately due to a lack of time. My friend T-3 and I did find the time the other day to pump out four of these chef hats for some of my students. We're doing a piece called Christmas in the Kitchen in which four percussionists are playing water glasses and pots and pans. We made them chef's hats and I thrifted some aprons for them to wear. It will be so cute!

I did make a blue baby quilt for my husband's cousin's new baby, Jacob. It was my first attempt at actually quilting. (I usually just use yarn and tie the layers together). Here are some photos of his cousin opening her gift:




I have been out on many thrifting and garage sale trips this fall and have found lots of good deals. My favorite item from my last trip was a Santa Claus suit for Joel. The outfit cost $5 which is 10x more than I usually spend (since my limit is 50c), however I figure the photos we take of him in it will be priceless and so it was worth it! I also found a tiger Halloween costume for Joel for $3:





My last thrifting trip also yielded a $9 black peacoat for myself and a wooden dollhouse (which I am so excited about!) for under $2. I took it home, cleaned it up, used some wallpaper samples to the walls, and painted a light blue over the old bright red paint job, and voila, a wonderful masterpiece for Joel when he's a little older!

The only other (somewhat) interesting thing I've done lately is clean out my closet, set aside many t-shirts that are past their prime downright ratty, and either place them in a dusting-rag pile or a make-a-tee-shirt-quilt-someday pile. I did start to make my aunt a lap quilt from my four Breast Cancer Walk t-shirts, however I don't know if I'll have the time to finish it before Christmas. I also intended on making a baby quilt for a pregnant friend, but as her shower was a week ago, and I didn't finish anything more than cutting out some squares, I ended up buying her some gifts instead. (I'm so ashamed!)

Hopefully it won't take me three more months before I post again!

You say Tomato, I say To-mah-to

Yes folks, it's that time! Time when tomatoes are ripening, and I'm bringing them into the house by the truckload.

I haven't done menu planning lately, but as I'm about to go back to work in a few days, *sigh,* then I better get my act together and get organized!

This week our meals will be based on tomatoes. This morning, into the crockpot went ten fresh tomatoes, an onion, two tiny lovely garden-grown, yellowish-orangish bell peppers, along with chili powder, pepper, curry powder, paprika, oregano, and two pounds of ground turkey. Hopefully this turns out like Cincinnati style chili, but we'll see. I'm going to cut up a pack of hotdogs and toss it in too, and the whole concoction goes over spaghetti and is topped with cheese and oyster crackers. Never heard of Cincinnati chili? Boy are you missing out!!!

After that's gone (maybe Tues?) then I'm going to make turkey burgers with some garden-grown shredded zucchini, topped with... you guessed it... sliced tomatoes! To go with that, I think I'll make some macaroni and cheese with chopped tomatoes in it.

That should last us until Thursday maybe. By then I'll be back at work, so my stay-at-home husband will have to start learning how to cook! He can grill very well, so we'll probably round out the week with marinated pork chops on the grill and some frozen vegetables. (Not tomatoes) And after heading back to work, a tall glass of wine might on the menu!

Bathroom Update, Part Deux

I don't have much time because I'm squeezing this blog entry in before heading over to the in-laws' place to go swimming. I took some photos and just wanted to share! Sorry the photos are pretty crappy... lighting was bad!

Brushed Nickel finish

I'm a medicine cabinet in disguise (and it only cost me $14 plus tax!) Sure beats these prices

Once again, bad lighting... the brown is actually quite a bit darker than the photo shows. It doesn't look all that great in the photo, but in real life it looks nicer. I like the handles!


This isn't installed yet. This is a photo of the box :)

If My Blog was a College Student...

... then she'd be able to drink adult beverages now! She has reached the almighty 21 followers! Wow. When I started this blog, I didn't really think anyone would give a hoot about what I have to say. It blows my mind that there's people out there who aren't my relatives who actually come to my blog and read it. (Actually, not even my family reads it except occasionally my husband, and even then I have to beat him with a club and threaten to serve liver and onions for supper before he begrudgingly visits my site).

Okay, I'm kidding about the liver and onions part

In other news, I got back from vacation last weekend. We took a trip down to Chattanooga, Tennessee and visited Rock City, Ruby Falls, the Incline Railway, the Chattanooga Choo Choo, took a train ride, swam in the hotel pool, and experienced country's longest yard sale. I was very disappointed in the Rte 127 yard sale as I thought prices were too high. If I wanted to pay antique store prices, then I would head on down to the local antique mall. I didn't buy a single thing *gasp* You know it's bad when I walk away empty handed!

Since I've been home, I've actually had to do some work. I was glad to get all my school stuff out of the house and shed and back to school where it belongs. We actually had to take two carloads over to the school. I'm all moved in now but still have a lot of work to do in the next week. The fun part about getting ready for the upcoming school year is going clothes shopping. I got a $10 off card from Kohls, so I headed on over today. I spent $13 out of pocket (and used up about ten dollars from a gift card), but I saved $141 by shopping on clearance! For my thirteen dollars, I got four short sleeved shirts and one mid-sleeve shirt for work, and a toddler t-shirt and two baby outfits to give as Christmas gifts. Not bad for $13, eh?

But what's been taking up the majority of my time would have to be the bathroom. Before we left for vacation, I made the mistake of excitedly ripped off the wallpaper border in the upstairs bathroom. I then took down all the pictures hanging on the wall and patched the holes. I bought a gallon of tan "oops" paint at the Home Depot and have plans to repaint the walls. But was this good enough? Noooooooo. I wanted a new light fixture and faucet. So we bought those for $50 and $92 and had my father-in-law over for the install. I also hated the el cheapo medicine cabinet door, so I took it off its hinges and replaced it with a $14 picture frame. (Photos will come later, I promise).

But do you think those changes were enough satisfy me? No, of course not. I also bought a new mirror from Walmart for $35 and painted the vanity a dark brown color. But what about the knobs, you ask? I bought some new, sleek contemporary ones for $5 each at Lowes. They look sharp if I do say so myself!

Jason pointed out that I had brown kitchen cabinets, and I painted them white. I had a white vanity in the bathroom and just painted it brown...

At this point, I decided what the hell. We might as well rip out the tile flooring and tub surround and put in some tile that I actually like. I found some 12x12 tiles at Lowes for 40-some cents apiece but they actually rung up for eight cents apiece! The guy in the flooring department practically called every store in Ohio to see if he could find me any more of those tiles. I ended up with 29. That is not enough to cover the whole floor, so I found a 6x6 tile that looks good with it, and we'll have a cool pattern laid. We're also planning on having our bathtub refinished for less than $300, and we bought a new tub faucet for $118.

We have five different handymen coming to the house for free estimates over the next several days. Keep your fingers crossed that the tile work won't be too expensive!!

Now if you'll excuse me, my blog and I are going to go have a glass of wine and retire for the evening :)

Spot-the-Dollar-Store-Item Quiz

I didn't do so hot. I only got three right. Take the quiz and try to beat my score!

In other news, we leave for Chattanooga tomorrow! Seven-and-a-half-hour-car-ride-with-an-infant here we come!

I didn't go to BlogHer

I think I'm the only blogger in the US that didn't make the trek to the Windy City last weekend. Instead of mingling with blog-stars and battling what sounds like fierce, greedy crowds, I stayed home this weekend. Here's ten things I did that I could not have done if I went to Chicago.

10. Cleaned out the basement closet and the pantry. I was inspired by a fellow blogger (can't remember who, so if it was you who just blogged about it the other day, let me know so I can give credit where credit is due).
9. Discovered I have five jars of pickles in the pantry. I can't even blame it on the pregnancy. I never craved pickles.
8. Took craploads of stuff out to the shed for a future garage sale. (And in the future, I'll probably go through it again, decide that I really do need this stuff, and bring it back into the house).
7. Sewed Joel a bean bag chair, filled with my stuffed animals rather than normal bean bag stuffing.
6. Tore off a piece of wallpaper border in the nursery, which led to a full-scale redo.
5. Sewed window treatments, painted stripes on the nursery walls, repainted a toy box, and painted a book shelf for the nursery. (I just painted that toy box green a couple months ago and now decided that it really should be brown).
4. Continued with my de-wallpaper-borderizing in the upstairs bathroom. Now I'll have to paint that room too. While I'm at it, I will go ahead and repaint our bedroom as well. Pfew.
3. Make tons and tons of Beef Vegetable Soup, froze it, and will bring it with us to Tennessee for free meals in the hotel. Also made and froze baby food green beans, carrots, and sweet peas for the little one.
2. Went to visit my mom's dad and stepmom because they were having a ginormous garage sale. Came home with lots of free stuff, including a blue and white platter, plastic fruit for Joel's toy kitchen, tons of vintage trims, rick rack, seam binding, and bias tape, some children's books, and "Cottage Style" for my reading pleasure. Will blog about that later.
1. Spent time with my family and got spit up on by my baby boy a million times.

What did you do last weekend?

The Fruits (er, Vegetables) of my Labor

Menu Planning Madness is brought to you today by the letters E, P, T, and Z. (No, not a pregnancy test, Thank goodness!!!) Eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini. As in, those are the veges growing in my garden :)

I harvested my first three vegetables yesterday: three zukes were just the right size! I have one tomato turning red (which means gadzooks of them will probably ripen while we're away on vacation...), and even though my green peppers are small, I think they're done growing. They're turning brown which I read was a sign of ripening. My little eggplants are chugging along as well.

I went on a rampage last night looking up recipes to use up all these vegetables as they ripen. Menu planning will revolve around what vegetables are picked that week. My best guess for this week is as follows:

To use up the ranch dressing and potatoes before we leave for vacation:
Ranch Baked Chicken with Ranch Mashed Potatoes
Zucchini Casserole
Plum Upside Down Cake to use up the plums

Italian Sausages with sauteed bell peppers and onions are on the menu later in the week after all that above is eaten. That should do it for the week, and then bright and early Saturday morning we leave for Tennessee! Woot, woot!