Daddy's Little Slugger

One of the highlights of the summer was seeing the kids playing baseball for the first time...

Batter up!

Strike one!

Strike two!

Strike three!

I love me some thriftin'

With this unbelievable economy, there has never been a better time to hit the thrift stores. I love thriftin' - but it has to be a good deal. I am amazed lately at some of the prices I have seen. $4.99 for a used kids' t-shirt? Ummm, this is a THRIFT store. Give me a break. I can buy a NEW shirt for $4.99. At the "Underground Target" I can a buy new clothes for $3.00. Upstairs, at the "normal" Salvation Army, on Fridays and Saturdays, kids clothes are $1.00. Sometimes there is nothing whatsoever that I would want to purchase. Sometimes there are great finds. Here are some of the things I have gotten the past few visits. Again, all of these items cost $1.00 each.

I dropped this down on the floor and it landed just like this, and then Abby laid down next to it :)

For Olivia, a like-new snowsuit, Target brand

a Tommy Hilfiger sweater
For Patricia, a GAP sweater

and a fleece pullover
For Philippe, a Ralph Lauren Chaps sweater

and a really nice lined rainjacket from GAP

My advice to novice thrifters is check for stains, holes, tears in seams. You never know why that item ended up there in the first place. My mom loves to do mending (!!), so if I do find something that needs mending, I still get it, but if you don't sew or know someone who does, I wouldn't. My mom can even fix pretty bad holes in knit sweaters, so that is helpful, too. I don't know how she does that...

My other bit of advice is to learn what days are the "right" days to go. Tuesday is senior discount day at SAVERS and so my mom and I go together and I pay her back for the purchases. Some stores have other pricing discounts like "today all yellow tags are 50% off" so you look for items with yellow tags. Nearly all the clothes the kids wore while we were in Haiti were from the thrift store and I even bought some items for Lee and I so we had things to wear that weren't "favorites" since we knew we'd be spraying bug spray all over, sitting on the floor, etc.

If you are a reader, stop going to Borders and Barnes and Noble. There are ALWAYS tons of books for all ages. I have stopped shopping at the thrift stores who forgot that they are thrift stores. I know the ones who often have good things at THRIFT store prices and I go there. And when I feel the desire to "shop", I head there instead of the mall. It is way more exciting to pay a $1 per item, especially when times are so tough and money is so tight. Have fun! Let me know if you find any goodies!

20 Years...

Ok, so it's official, I. Am. Old. HAHA! My 20th High School Reunion was a few weeks ago. Because it was the weekend before my trip I am (of course) behind on blogging!

Here I am with my friends Ana and Pam. Pam was the first friend I met when we moved to Minnesota in 1979 from San Diego. She and I are still friends after all these years. Next year it will be 30 years! Ack! Ana and I met when she transferred to Mounds View in the 10th grade. My life has never been the same. And neither has her hair color.

Here I am with the infamous Lizzy the Axe from the MN RollerGirls. Umm, help?

My high school buddies Neil and Eric


When my Mama was in ICU, in walks Julie, a classmate from high school turned ICU nurse. It was nice to have her taking care of my dear mom and wonderful, at the reunion to show Julie a picture of mom now, and see the look on her face. God is good.

My buddy Beeks. In all the years I have known Wayne (since elementary school!), he ALWAYS, ALWAYS has a smile on his face.

The girls and their hubbies - us, John and Pam and David and Ana

I guess since the boys didn't know anyone, they kind of got bored...


And fun was had by all.

WAAAAAAAAAY Behind on Bloggin' (aka, LAZY bloggin')

Ok, so this is the laziest blogging I have ever done, but I just am so far behind, so I am sending you to OTHER blogs!! I am sooooo terrible!!! (Ah, but crafty, and I delight in my craftiness.)

Click HERE to see pics of my great-nieces' birthday party (yes, GREAT-nieces). This is my oldest brother's, oldest son's wife's blog (the creator of Foody Friday) Jenny also just so happens to be one of my very best friends. She doesn't have a sister, and I never had a little sister, so since we are already family and feel like sisters, we call each other "Faux" for "faux sister" (Holy cow, that is the most times I have ever typed the word SISTER in a sentence.) Click HERE to see what an awesome auntie that I am :) Jenny, Yerrrr the best-y.

Since we could NEVER figure out a good time/place to take Nana to karaoke (and oh, how we tried, right, girls?) we ended up going bowling. Jenny was out of town for a wedding (whine, pout) so we missed her! Hubby rescued us since it was a last minute idea by bringing us all socks, and me a pair of capris! Thanks again, Lee!















Jenna is pictured below. Please notice where her bowling ball is in comparison to the pins... :)
















Here I am with Youki and Nana. I miss them! :(














Click HERE to see more of our bowl-a-rama night, as I direct you to Jenna's blog. I hesitate to do so since Jenna is way more stinkin' clever and funny than I will ever be.


















Click HERE to see more on the good-bye to Nana ("Jenny and I kept singing to her, Nana Nana, Nana Nana, Hey hey hey, goodbye"). Back to Jenny's blog. She has some very funny posts, so be sure to check it out. Just don't forget about my blog after the Jenny and Jenna blogs! Personal affirmation...my blog is good enough, my blog is good enough...my blog is, ok, never mind. Go click the hyperlinks and have a good day!