Furniture Moving and School Carnivals

Sorry I wandered off again to The Motivation Station and neglected Finding Footprints in the Sand... Actually we are looking for another host to co-host on Friday or Saturday... No experience needed, just the desire to be motivated to get it all done fifteen minutes at a time...


This past week has been crazy with the boys... Son1 is always on the go with work, helping his friends with their cars, working on his car, girlfriend and sleeping... I am still waiting for him to attend to his dogs and get car insurance... his priorities are of course different than mine so we have been butting heads this week... and his priorities change by the minute...

Son2 got his progress report and that wasn't pretty.... Geometry D+; PE A; Spanish 1 C; Psych/Sociology B-; Computers 2 A; Mod Wld Hist F; English 2 C+; Biology F+.... His problem is turning in the homework when it is due... some of the teachers allow work to be turned in late but lose points so he thinks no big deal I will turn it in late but then sometimes that turns in to not at all.... or he skips things that are easy points... he is just a big procrastinator...

Son3 is just already too excited about all the holidays coming so has gone on vacation early... he gets the school work done but doesn't want to study extra for tests... and keeps forgetting to bring books and/or homework home... plus I think he is still maturing for school... after all the trouble in 1st and 2nd and not getting the structure he needs and the academic basis he needs... he is now in 3rd grade and his teacher is treating them like 3rd graders expecting them to relay things home to the parents and keep up with their responsibilities of schoolwork and homework... so he'll either be great by the end of 3rd grade or this will be the year he is held back... he still seems behind to me in spelling and reading and day to day awareness in school...



Meanwhile son1 and I have been moving around the front room to accommodate his things... When he moved out he gave his entertainment center to son2.... Well he took it back so he could get his TV off the floor... So we moved hubby's book cases to the side and moved my little antique desk to the family room... Notice the hutch on the right that I had emptied, son1 filled it up with his clothes to use as a dresser.... Now he just has to figure out his bed, the couch pulls out to a bed and he has his futon... so he is trying to figure out how to fix a bed that doesn't take up the whole floor all the time... We will also have to put the Christmas tree in the family room this year as it always went in the front window but that is now where son1's bed is....


Before son1 took back his entertainment center he found one for son2 at the Goodwill for $25... It's a bit smaller, missing the door handles and has a few nicks but a great deal.... Meanwhile son2 has been sleeping on his floor as he still hasn't put all his stuff away that he took off the old entertainment and it's all over his bed...


Last night we went to son3's school carnival... It was three weeks later this year landing at the same time as the Big Fresno Fair... so there was not as many people there as last year and then we had a low turn out... Son2 came too as his friend's band was performing... We then never saw him again til we got home and texted him, where are you and come home now... he had walked his friend home and was already on his way home... He had tickets for drinks and cotton candy....


Son3 spent all his tickets on bounce houses and carnival games... Tee Ball, football toss, basketball toss, golf, tic tac toe bean bag toss, and others...


Bounce house, son3 is on the right...


Bounce slide... they also had a bigger slide but son3 rammed his finger at the bottom and had enough of that ride... caused a big pile up while he sat at the bottom crying.... but he was fine again by time we got to the carnival games... His favorite part was winning all the candy and toy prizes....

Now today we are off to the pumpkin patch... It's also a Christmas tree farm and has a steam engine.... and a suspension bridge and nature trail.... I'll take lots of pictures and be back later...

Happy Journaling...

Color Carnival

To Play Visit Martha...




The Bounce Slide at the school Carnival last night with son3...



Happy Journaling...

Weekend Decorating....

Son2, son3 and I made all the candy/toy bags for the trick or treaters today...

All the toy goodies...


Some of the toys were too big for the bags... Actually the bags were teeny compared to what I expected when I ordered them...


One toy and three candies per bag and tie the string closed...


Son2 was putting the Halloween erasers on the Halloween pencils...






142 pencils...


141 goodie bags plus toys... We also had a bag of candy left over... So don't think I will have to buy any goodies for next year, maybe just more pencils and give out pencils and skip making all the goodie bags... Last year I made 120 bags and the kids were still coming, so figured 150+ for this year...


Hubby was putting up decorations in the front yard...


We were going to go to the pumpkin patch today but I remembered that it's the weekend for their Railfest for their steam engine and BBQ... so there would be no parking for the pumpkin patch... So we will go next weekend...


Painting the tombstones....


Light up jack o lanterns and ghost...


My new witches hat... It's purple... I've been wanting one...


I also cleared the hutch in the front room so son1 would have more room for his stuff... I've been wanting to clean it out anyway...


Son1's space in the front living room...


So now everything is still all over my bed waiting to be cleaned out... but not today... will just clear the bed for sleeping... lol... mostly hubby's books and computer paper supplies... will have to find a new temporary home for them...


Holly's new sleeping place, on the back of the couch...

We also went to the grocery store today... Got pizzas and dips and chips for dinner... Watching Delgo, an animated movie for son3, but he is off playing computer games... It has Freddie Prinz Jr and Jennifer Love Hewitt...

We also have Pete's Dragon, Changeling, and Burrowers to watch...

Tomorrow back to work...

Monday is a holiday but the boys have school...

Got a call from the school yesterday... we haven't had rain in forever and yet son3 found a mud puddle to fall in and got soaked and muddy... of course they called just when everyone went to lunch and I was the only one in the department plus I was off in an hour... so I finally tracked down hubby and he went to pick up son3 who was back in class and fine if not a bit muddy...

They do say we will have lots of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday with snow in the Sierras... and it will only be in the 60's.... brrrrrr..... lol....

I'm off to finish the movie, clean up the kitchen and watch another movie...

Happy Journaling...

Color Carnival

To Play Visit Martha...

Fall Mums on the front porch...









Happy Journaling...

Wednesday and still here....

So where have I been... at The Motivation Station, cleaning the house, Facebook (son2 and son3 are now on Facebook too), watching all the new shows, keeping on the boys and their school work and working which has been very stressful lately... Actually I have been very helpful to the customers lately and they have been very nice... we are making changes as of 11/1 to the structure of our shoe associates so I am looking forward to that... but meanwhile we have no hours or coverage, tomorrow I am the only one all day til 3pm... we have been waiting for VIP visits that never come... I am not having good luck with equipment this past week... I have had supplies that I have had for years... the other associates lose and break theirs so this past week I have let them use mine and so now mine are broke too... how rude... I walked away from my work table the other day to answer a call and came back and someone had emptied my stuff off and taken my table... how rude... they were from a different department, I found my table... I am way behind in boxes and running out of room, every thing is coming in for Christmas shoppers... I'm on vacation at the end of the month...
We have also been getting ready for Halloween...
Hubby is making tombstones and working on Halloween card...
I need to start putting the goodie bags together...
Next weekend we are going to the pumpkin patch...
and start getting out the Halloween decorations for the yard...
Last weekend we brought the boys Halloween shopping and they picked out new costumes....

Son2 as a Werewolf...



Son3 as the Crypt Master...


Happy Journaling...

Comfort Stew

At The Motivation Station we are planning our menus for the week... Come share your weekly menus with us...

I recently made beef stew from my new crock pot cookbook and Betty asked for the recipe, so I'm sharing...



Comfort Stew:

1 1/2 pounds stew meat
2(10oz) cans French onion soup
1(10oz) can cream of onion soup
1(100z) can cream of celery soup
1(16oz) package frozen stew vegetables, thawed

*Place stew meat in sprayed slow cooker
* Add soups as listed and spread evenly over meat. DO NOT STIR. Turn slow cooker to HIGH and cook just long enough for ingredients to get hot.
*Change heat setting to LOW, cover and cook for 7 to 8 hours. Serves 4-6.

I adjusted to what I had on hand:
*I browned the stew meat before putting in the crock pot.
*I used a package of dry onion soup mix and mixed with water per instructions on soup mix box.
*1 can of vegetable broth.
*1 cup of water, I should have used two to make more gravy.
*1/4 cup of water with 2TB of flour to thicken gravy.
*I used the bag of frozen veggies.
*I added five cut up potatoes.
*I put the crock pot on low 8-10hrs overnight.

It was tasty especially browning the meat first, I had never tried that before... Next time I will add more water and more veggies like carrots...

Happy Journaling...

Color Carnival

To Play Visit Martha at Color Carnival...



Happy Journaling...

The Motivation Station...

Didn't post an entry here this weekend as I've been busy at The Motivation Station... If you haven't stopped by to visit us yet, please do... It's all about the motivation of cleaning together, not just tips and hints... We challenge each other on what we can get done in fifteen minutes each day... And we also have a count down to the new year challenge going on...
Make sure you sign up for comment alerts as we stop by throughout the day leaving updates as to our progress...

Tomorrow is my day to do an entry: Thursday's with Linda...

Some are working on completing larger projects and some of us are working on just getting through daily chores... just fifteen minutes at a time...

Here are some pictures of projects I've completed and some I'd like to start...


These are my kitchen cabinets that I cleaned out and organized before we even started The Motivation Station so I don't have any before pictures... but you can see they are still clean and organized... before it was just a big jumble and good luck finding anything without pulling everything out... I even got rid of some things we never use...



On Saturday I cleaned out the fridge and washed all the shelves and drawers and then we went grocery shopping and filled it up....
We also have a challenge on cleaning out drawers throughout the house...



These two pictures are my side of the bedroom... An ongoing project that I have been working on for years now... Tubs full of baby stuff for the boys and me to finish filling and reorganizing... Stuff to put away and clean out that just ends up on the dresser... drawers full of cards and letters to sort and put in the plastic bins for each boy that I bought and scan some cards to use for graphics...
School papers to put away in boxes and scrapbooks to finish putting together of report cards and award certificates and diplomas... so lots of future entries for The Motivation Station here....




This is our art room... what you can't see is hubby's art table and the game computer... what you can see is the craft table that needs cleaning off, hubby's tombstones that he is working on for Halloween, behind the tombstones are two trunks of all my school papers and cards and letters and mementos from my childhood to go through and sort, and the plastic drawers contain all sorts of school supplies and art supplies that need to be reorganized as I just threw them in there, a project that was never finished...


and this is my new crock pot cookbook... want to get better at having dinner ready since I don't get home from work til after 5pm now, as I used to get off early but now hubby has the early hours, however he can either do homework with the boys or make dinner, not both.... I made beef stew the other day, combining a couple of the recipes together... should have added a bit more liquid to make more gravy, but it was good, still is as we have leftovers....

Happy Journaling...

Finally Friday...

Son2 finally missed the bus today... one of the things that the vice principal mentioned was that son2 was taking the wrong bus, all the kids do so they can ride with their friends... anyway he went to his correct bus stop this morning and it was leaving just as son2 was getting there, five minutes before it's scheduled time.... so hubby had to take him while I got me and son3 ready for work and school....
Work made me grumpy... so tired of being surrounded by children... new guy looked at his schedule wrong so he said and was three hours late to work, so I had to cover the floor all morning while opening boxes too.... next month we have some changes coming again that will effect the hours in a positive way so that will be a good thing...
Son2 ended up having a good day at school, getting lots of support from his friends on the loss of their two friends from the group...
I got home early today... spent some time talking with hubby, working on my 15 minute cleaning challenge for The Motivation Station and checking email on the computer... and picked up son3 from school...
We got Taco Bell for dinner and watched Bones and Supernatural... Now we're watching Smallville... also new tonight is Ghost Whisperer, Dollhouse and Numbers...
Now I'm tired and looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and having a big egg breakfast... a trip to the grocery store with hubby and not sure what else...



Happy Journaling...

Color Carnival

To Play Visit Martha...



Getting ready for Halloween with all the goodies for the trick or treaters... lots of toys, candies, stickers, and pencils to go into goodie bags....

Happy Journaling...

Everything on Thursday...

So I heard it was Fall, not that we would know as it's still in the 100's here... we're promised the 80's next week...
Today has been a whirlwind of a day...
Got son2 and hubby off to school and work and then got me and son3 ready for school and work... Did more homework this morning to make up for him being too tired last night... studied 6x, did I mention he passed his 5's, studied his spelling words and read his library book... Today his school had their Jogathon and his class had a movie party... He brought his pillow, a soda and popcorn... he brought the Disney Mulan movie but they watched Hannah Montana, he said he loved it, lol...
It was just me at work today til 3pm... I spent all day helping customers and opening boxes, made a bit of a dent in the pile that I am two weeks behind in... saw son1 before he started work at noon... I still see him every day at work even if it's just in the parking lot...
After lunch I got a phone call from son2's high school... remember his friend and then son2 is friend's with the girlfriend well seems son2 and friend got into an altercation after school yesterday that son2 did not tell us about and the others parents went to the school to report it... I support the school in their zero tolerance rule of fighting but also seems the school wants all three of them to never speak to each other again... felt like I was on the Jerry Springer show not that the school was giving any details but felt like they were more complaining about son2 being friends with the girlfriend than the issue at hand: fighting..... but son2 says his friendship with them had been ending anyway so he isn't hurt too much by it... makes it difficult with his group of friends however since some are still friends with friend... son2 says he had been making some new friends this year however so things are changing...
So got home from work, had long talk with son2 and hubby...
Poor son3 got his homework interrupted... so he got a late finish on homework... then hubby had to go to a meeting at work... fixed pot pies for me and son2, son3 had waffles... haven't seen son1, now that he's working and has money again, don't see him as much...
Got a package yesterday from UPS and one today of all the Halloween stuff I ordered... was wondering where the missing package was that the packing slip was in so was online researching not realizing that the third package was sitting on the porch as the UPS man had come a second time today...
Worked on my 15 minute challenge for the Motivation Station blog... you have to go The Motivation Station comments to see what that was...
Everything is on TV tonight... FlashForward, CSI, Supernatural, Bones and Fringe... I have two TV's taping but haven't figured out how the boys new digital TV's work while taping with the VCR as you have to change the TV to vid and then you get a blue screen for playing a VHS or DVD but haven't experimented to tape... so will have to watch CSI online... hopefully...
Someday I would like to get a DVR but not yet.....
Now just waiting for hubby to get back from his meeting... he and son1 both have a day off tomorrow... I have a short day and get off at 1:30... yay.... then we're all off on Saturday... Whatever shall we do.....
But first I have to find something colorful for the Color Carnival... hmmmm...

Happy Journaling....

Wednesday

I'm even more tired today... so much for going to bed early last night... son3 was up til 1:30am with a tummy ache... he never did throw up... Then I was up at 6am to get son2 and hubby off to school and work... Son3 was up at 7am and got ready for school so I didn't question him... By 10am son1 was up and off to work... so I had three whole hours to myself today... woo hoo...
I did 8 loads of laundry including rugs and sheeets, ran the dishwasher twice, washed the kitchen and bathroom floor and watched an episode of Emergency online while I folded laundry...
Picked up son3 from school, he was dragging, saying he still had a tummy ache... Came home and coaxed him through homework with him falling asleep at one point... sent him to bed to take a nap and he was wide awake... hmmmm a minute ago you were falling asleep on your spelling... so after a half hour of him not sleeping I let him up...
Fixed him some raviolis for dinner, we had chili dogs and taquitos and now we are watching Battle for Terra which is ending actually...
Now it's time to clean up dinner, get showers and go to bed early tonight...
Glee, Criminal Minds and CSI NY come on tonight...






Don't forget to visit our new blog: The Motivation Station...
Tomorrow is my day to host...
and make sure to sign up for comment email alerts so you can participate in the all day cleaning tips and challenges...

Tired Tuesday...

I'm so tired this week...
Today at work we moved all the men's dress shoes around... took all day... I am so behind in opening boxes... they are piling up in receiving...
Before work I get son3 ready for school and we go over spelling words and flash cards for multiplication...
After work since I am getting off at 4 this week, I take over for hubby and finish homework with son3, make dinner, which was just leftover chicken today, check email, check my zoo on facebook, check on the motivation station blog, watch Castle from last night, work on my entry for motivation station, head the boys off to bed and now here I am in bed working on this entry... sink is still full of dishes, laundry to do, good thing I am off tomorrow... kitchen floor so needs washing... Holly is sitting here with me, well sleeping next to me... exhausted from her day of sleeping... sent the boys to bed early as there is nothing on TV Tuesday nights...
son1 just got home from work... he got a new battery for his car and then had to replace that one... he's thinking now he needs a new alternator... at least he finally got the tail lights replaced that were broken and the front one too...
son3 says he feels like he is going to throw up... too much pizza and chocolate cake this week I think... he says he is OK and back in bed... nope still moaning...
OK he is better now, got him all tucked back in bed....
Now off to tuck me in bed.....


Happy Journaling....

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Click on the new name tag hubby made below...

Mild Monday

I'm feeling better today... I've reminded myself that the whole time son1 was moved out was the worst thing that could happen was that he moved back home... so he's back home and has a roof over his head and food to eat so everything else is up to him... it's just when he was moved out I didn't know what was going on and now I do to a point... I'm working on not reacting...
Today was good at work... I scanned for the display report for men's shoes and athletics... I reset all the displays to the correct way for the visit in mens and athletics... and opened boxes for about an hour but I am way behind on boxes...
Got home and helped son3 with homework and made dinner while hubby went to Cricket to get the laptop Internet, I am back on the laptop again...
And now I am watching The Big Bang Theory while waiting for Castle to come on...
Watched the Emmy's last night... It was ok but didn't recognize many of the shows that were winning...
Now I'm tired and thirsty.. gonna get a drink, watch Castle and go to sleep so we can do it all over again tomorrow...
Happy Journaling...

Witchy Weekend

I am updating from the computer as I left my laptop on the TV tray when I went to work today, thinking well it will be OK.... no, son3 knocked over the TV tray and there went the laptop... the laptop is fine but my Cricket usb is not... so no Internet for the laptop until I go to Cricket... I came home and son2 said you are going to be mad... it's been my theme this weekend so he was ready... I said surprise me maybe it's bad news to him but good news to me, lol... but no it was the laptop... I'm not mad, not happy, but not mad as I knew I should have moved it back to it's regular spot... plus I'm kinda broken down from the weekend for any more reaction... or cause it wasn't a one more son1 thing that has been making me mad all weekend so I didn't react since it was partly my fault...
Anyway son1 is wearing me thin... every day it's something with him... something he needs, wants, don't even have words for all he does... he's very high maintenance... he's always going and doing... I'm tired, I just want to relax or get my stuff done and not always be about his stuff... how much stuff can he have to do... he has short term plans, not long term goals...
And everything he wants or does involves money and lately that is my money... He was moved out for two and a half years and I barely heard from him, three times that I know of to ask how to cook something... now he needs me for everything...
Thank goodness he has a job now... it's only part time but he does not have to pay rent or buy groceries... so I am cutting the apron strings once again... and the checkbook is closed...
Of course he doesn't know this as he is never here and when he is, he is not a talker, gets very defensive if the conversation is not going in his favor...
So anyway at least I still have the computer with Internet access... I'll just have to schedule my computer time when he is not here as it is in the room where he is staying...
I had planned on getting some cleaning done yesterday but I wasn't getting any where... I decided to steam clean the couch that son3 uses as a napkin and found that when son1 used my steam cleaner he didn't empty the dirty water, it stank....
Then hubby was working in the back yard but everything he was doing was because the dog had dug up something...
So anything we were doing was not for us...
So I sent hubby for pizzas and we watched True Lies last night... I love that movie!
Son2 was grounded for a bit yesterday too as his attitude has gotten worse since being around son1... Seems I'm not the grownup around here lately as the boys know everything and let me know it... son2 has been very hard on son3 lately also...
And I know I am rambling... so many thoughts going through my head about all this... being a mom, remembering what it was like to be a teenager... how rude teenagers are now a days and how much they think everything is no big deal... unless it's something they want of course... getting mad at myself for reacting to the emotions of the boys instead of the situation... knowing they have to make their own mistakes... knowing they won't understand any of our reasons until they are 40 yrs old, lol... so frustrating though when you try to tell them something that you know what you are talking about as we've all been there one time or another but no they know more.... argh............... and yet remembering our own parents trying to tell us and no we knew better, lol....
at least with son2 we are able to talk after the emotions are settled... son1 is not a talker... so poor son2 has been getting earfuls of things we want to talk with son1 about... we just tell son2 to learn from his brothers mistakes... he says he feels bad for son3 when he becomes a teenager... I said don't worry we will be out of money and probably dead by then from son1 and son2....
Hubby has been Halloween shopping... So we have been trying to look forward to Halloween... otherwise we've barely had a moment to ourselves between the boys and work... and yesterday was our day off...
Son1 is off today and not here... son2 is watching the 49er game and son3 is playing computer games...
I'm going to watch an episode of Emergency and update the checkbook, then go put away the mountain of laundry and then make pizza for dinner tonight...
Happy Journaling...