Thanksgiving Blessings - Coin Treasure Hunt, 111, In God we Trust

Because Princess One is still feeling sick much of the time and she doesn't feel well driving, we decided to have Thanksgiving dinner in her city. She and Princess Two, who lives about 10 minutes apart in the same city, asked if we could do Thanksgiving at their houses instead of mine as they didn't want to drive down for the day since we had my extended family Thanksgiving the next day.

It was a bit harder than usual to pack up all the fixings and everything to cook a Thanksgiving meal. Princess Two doesn't have many pans and with all of us, there would need to be large amounts of potatoes etc.

I purchased a very small turkey so I wouldn't have any leftovers to worry about and I did a really good job making enough that everyone could have enough but not making so much we had left overs. We enjoyed our meal and Princess Two invited two friends that didn't have family in the area for the meal.

We had one bowl of combined leftovers which we had later for dinner.

While the food was cooking, there were a few things I wanted to purchase for Christmas that were on sale that day only. We all headed to K-mart and purchased a few things but since it was so late in the day, there was not much left. The girls wanted "Monsters University" and there was a great deal for the Blu-ray, digital and regular dvd for $14. However, there were none at the back of the store.

As I checked out and was leaving, there were two at the checkout. They were the "Collectors Edition" and were $35 normally. Since they were in the add and were virtually the same thing, they gave them to me for $14 each.

That night, Princess Two wanted to hit the mall as there were a few things Princess Five wanted that I haven't been able to find in a small town. We went to the mall and I was stressing about money as most  parents do over the holidays and I looked down as we went in and there was a dime. As the shopping and night continued, we followed a money trail all over the mall. Each store we went into, there was a coin just in the door or at the checkout from the stores from which we purchased items. Even just walking down the center of the mall.

As we finished shopping, there was a dime on Princess Two's side of the car. The trail led us through the mall and back out to the car.  All of the coins in the picture were from our small shopping excursion to the mall at midnight.

The next day, we were picking out a few things at Shopko that we didn't find at the mall and I was once again stressing about the cost of Christmas. The things the girls would like aren't bad things. I was also paying down their dance fees, choir trip fees and the putting the down payment on Princess Fours graduation trip.

I just put braces on Princess Five along with the wisdom teeth extractions, you can see why I have been a bit stressed over the bills.

However, walking around Shopko, the same thing happened. Penny trails through the store and when I checked out with our purchases, I bet you can guess the total? Yep. $111 dollars.

I laughed when I saw that. My Heavenly Father was reminding me as we shopped that I need to trust Him. He will take care of the bills one way or another as he always has.

He continues to show me signs through the money I find and in His own way using the 111 with me. How does he show you?

I am so grateful He can relieve the stress I felt shopping for the things the girls may want. Nothing they are getting is over $15 each item so it wasn't like I was getting big ticket items but how do you as a parent tell your child that their braces are Christmas? So, I purchased some things that they want but not big ticket items.

I know they would be happy with whatever they got but as a parent, you want to get your child something they would like. I am grateful to God for showing me good sales and helping me find things they would like for low cost. I know HE loves me and the girls as He does each of us. I am grateful that I can see His hand in my life almost daily.

Recycling Plastic Bags and Table Cloths into a Backpack

I shared a post a few years ago about my sister-in-law's father who crocheted old plastic shopping bags and used plastic tablecloths. 


Here is the link to that post. He has been making these for years. 

While I was at Thanksgiving with my family, she showed me his "new" pattern he is making. 

He started making those cute backpacks that are popular with the kids. 

He uses the shredded plastic table clothes and matches colors to make strips. He is quite talented and I think they look great. 

He uses string to sew the straps on. The top drawstrings and it works just like the cheap advertising backpacks that shred and fray quickly. 


I thank her for sharing this as I think it is a great use of old things that would otherwise fill the land fills. 

I think I need to ask her for a pattern.

Moving for Thanksgiving - Princess Two's New Room

Princess Two has had an exciting few weeks. One of her room mates moved out of her rented house. This room mate had kind of a tiny suite. It has a walk in closet bathroom and has a built in book shelf.

Princess used to have to share the main bathroom and shower with another room mate. When this room mate moved out, Princess decided she would like to have her own bathroom. She would have to pay a little more per month but the benefit is worth it.

Princess moved into the room and her landlord was amazing as the room only had one light bulb and a lamp. The landlord decided to put in a ceiling fan with three lights. This will help in the summer as it is hot in the house so she was excited about the ceiling fan.


The shower head in the private shower was a bit low and they were wonderful to find an extender that raises the shower head about a foot. I have never seen that type of thing before but Princess Two is thrilled about it.

Her new room has lots of shelves which is nice for her. It has a nicer dresser as well. 
 
She suggested to a friend that she may want to move to her city and look for a job. The girl decided to just take the leap and moved up into Princess Two's old room. She moved in over the Thanksgiving break and the two have been having fun together. 

Her friend just got a great full time job with great benefits. They are doing well and they just found out this week that the other room mate is moving out this month. 

Princess Two has gotten three or four people jobs at her job in the last month or two. She is hoping she can get one of those friends to take the last room in the house she rents so they can have some fun together at work and at home.

Thanksgiving Bunko Bash

The family got together for our annual Thanksgiving dinner and bunko bash. 
 
I handed someone the camera and asked them to take pictures. I realized looking for pictures of this post that I don't have pictures of all the girls. 

They got some great one's of other family members and of some of the girls. 
 
I really love that my family gets together for the holidays but as they all get older, less and less of the cousins actually show up and they all tend to leave early being busy with their lives. 

I don't know how many more years the events will take place with all the cousins. I am guessing it won't be long until we break down into smaller family units for the holidays. Once everyone starts having more grand-kids, I am sure that is how it will go. 


That is about when we stopped doing things with my cousins. I rarely see my cousins anymore. I have planned a few family reunions with my cousins over the years and I really enjoy visiting with them.

Click here for post about a bunko reunion.
Click here for a second post about a bunko reunion.
Click here for a third post about a bunko reunion. 
Click here for a fourth post about a bunko reunion.

I really enjoyed getting to visit with the family but most had to leave so I took up all the prizes and we played with only a few people as most had to leave. I don't think I will be doing bunko with the immediate family anymore but will just save it for the larger family reunions.

I did laugh and joke with my dad that if I had offered $1,000 prize for the most bunko's, everyone would have stayed to play. I figure even if I offered $100 for the main prize, more people would have stayed to play. My dad laughed. 

It was wonderful to visit and I am thankful for my family!

Furnace on the Fritz

The other day, we had a really cold day and the girls were carrying heating bags around the house with them. I was running around and didn't notice until I sat down that night. 

I was FREEZING. I had heard the furnace pump going the night before and hadn't noticed that the furnace hadn't kicked on. 

I still didn't know why the house was so cold and kept piling on jackets. I went to the basement to put something away and I heard a beep like a smoke detector does when the battery is getting low. I opened the door to the furnace to find the red alarm light on the pump flashing. 

I went to find the owners manual and there were all sorts of alarms going off as it will flash once for this problem, twice for this etc. It was flashing all types of numbers. The book said something about a power surge so I flipped all the breakers trying to re-set the furnace. The thermostat was black unless I turned it to the "cool" setting. It said it was 63 in the house but I had a hard time believe that as we were all very cold. 

I was worried about pipes freezing and had purchased the little heater at the top for Princess Four for Christmas to take with her to college this year. 

I pulled it out of her gifts and put it in the basement in the laundry room to keep the pipes down there from freezing. 

I then started calling all the heating and air people in town and surrounding area. Most had no emergency number and the one that did, didn't answer. At this point it is 11 p.m. and the house is REALLY cold. I called a disaster clean up and carpet cleaner I know asking about space heaters. He said his were all in use but since I have wood stoves, I could use both of those and put fans in the halls to pull the air from that side of the house to the side with all the plumbing pipes. They are at opposite sides of the house. 


I told him I thought that the pump was the problem and that I think the drain hose they put in the attic was frozen. He suggested that I drain the pump and see if the furnace went back on.

I pulled off one of the little plastic covers and could see the pump reservoir was full. I didn't know that I could have pulled the top off and used a glass to drain it so I found a squirt bottle and spent almost an hour draining the pump.  My hand and arm ached.

After finishing that, it was full again in less than two hours. I was up all night draining the pump so the York furnace would continue to work and keep the pipes from freezing as it was COLD. 

The installer has been here twice and is coming again in the morning as there isn't and easy fix for the problem. I am hoping if we extend the drain hose down into the house area instead of out to the air that it will keep the drain hose open. We are going to try and insulate it with foam tomorrow. 

The little gallon reservoir to catch the water is so small that I finally got a five gallon bucket in there so I can only drain it a few times a day depending on the temp outside.

The windows in the house have been getting icy each night and the temperatures have been quite low. I am SO grateful that I can keep the furnace going and the pipes from freezing. I've learned to drain the containers quite quickly. The drain pump works when it is warm outside but a few hours after dark, the hose freezes again. I didn't have this problem that I know last year but it has been happening nightly for a week now as of today. 

The worker has been great trying several different things but lets pray this last resort works before they have to mess with electricity or finding a new drain. 

Who knew that furnaces made so much water. My old furnace never did have the pump or any water that I could see. 

Kinda makes me miss my old furnace. I never had any problems with it but it was getting old and they thought it had some cracks in it. 

Pray for the repair man! The whole thing makes me appreciate electricity, furnaces, and repair men!

Princess Five's First Competition - The Dancing Princesses

Another first this week. Princess Five went to her first dance competition as a member of the High School team. She was SO excited to be going. She told me how she would always watch the teams down on the floor after the dancing while they waited for the results dancing and goofing around and she couldn't wait to participate.

It was a rough day for the team as I haven't ever seen them have such a hard time getting together. The girls kept their heads up but I think there is much going on in the world of the dance instructor as she has a wedding this week, nutcracker performances, dancing at Christmas tree lane and regular school and dance classes. She doesn't have an assistant and tends to take everything on herself which doesn't leave lots of time for the girls this time of the year. 

It was the first time in all five of my girls dancing experiences that they didn't place in one event. I feel like the other teams deserved their placements but my heart broke for the team.

Princess Five being a freshman, was only in the Hip-Hop dance. You can see her flexability and long hair in this photo of her doing a back bend.

Both girls did well in the drill down but this competition has my least favorite caller. Every year she messes up on her calls and confuses the girls and for the first time ever, they tried to drill down EVERY school size classification at the same time.

It was crazy and with all the mistakes, the girls would look around and Princess Four got to the top few and the woman messed up and she made the smallest of movements but being in bright blue when most were in black around her made her stand out and she was touched out of the competiton.

On a brighter note, I won a headband prize from one of the vendors for my quick guess of "Gilligans Island Theme Music" for name that tune during one of the breaks.

I guess all the years of playing "Name that tune" in the car with my mother paid off as I won that exact same song at last years competition. Here is a post about that win. 

On another break, he played "the Charlie Brown Theme" and I yelled it out but yelled out "Snoopy Song" and someone to my left yelled out the "Charlie Brown Theme" at the same time.

Princess Five walks over at that point with a prize. She was the winner with that song. I guess us playing "name that tune" in the car when she was young paid off for her as well.

Throughout the day, there were many prizes but there were only four or five girly prizes given. Most prizes were mens hats, knife sharpening stones, shirts, etc. Most years they have gift cards and things but this year, they had not one gift card.

Of the four girls prizes, one was a little purse type thing, two were leggins and one was the head band.

We won two of the four girl prizes and out of the 25 or so prizes for the day, we got the only two things my girls would have used.

Princess Four was so excited to go out and exchange the leggins for the style and size she wanted. The head band person said we could trade in the blue and white head band for one of the girls choice. I let Princess Four choose it since Princess Five already won something.

By the time I got it to Princess Four with the information, guess what vender was the only one left still there? YEP they stayed until she could get out there and pick which head band she wanted. She chose a white lace one that I think looks adorable on her.

Another blessing for the day was that I was able to catch a ride there and back as it snowed most of the day and as you know from my post the other day, my car doesn't do well in the snow. It was nice to be able to ride both ways with friends and neighbors. My ride there is one of my bunko friends I've known for years and I enjoyed our visit. On the way home, my nieces new in-laws drove me and they have a house three away from mine so I was in good hands. And, I saved myself some gas money.

The girls had fun with their friends and each other dancing away after the competition and winning prizes and getting to dance which is something they always enjoy.

You can see by Princess Fives expression and "Hip" hop moves, that she enjoyed her time on the floor.

You can see by the smiles of her trying on her new leggings, that she was happy with her big win. Princess Four looks beautiful as usual, in her head band.

I am in awe of the ugly leggins that are now popular again that used to be around in the 80's. The girls still fight over my paint pants that are just about, if not more ugly than the leggins Princess Five won. To me, they all look like 80's thermal underwear or long john pj's.

Obviously, I am not the one to ask about fashion but I think there are only a hand full of people that look good in skin tight pants with small prints on them and I am not one of those few people so I wonder what they will come up for those of us who aren't quite so petite to wear? ;-)

Sad for Princess Five that her first drill competition wasn't the best for the team but I am happy that she made it fun and that her big sister was so wonderful to make it a great memory for her.

She packed her real shoes in her bag that was on the bus before she realized she only had dance shoes. Her older sister, Princess Four, carried her piggy-back all the way from the school to the bus in the snow. If that isn't love, I don't know what is!

Princess Fours only comment on the act of service.... "I kept thinking to myself that I am grateful I didn't have to do it like the pioneers did for hours day after day."  I figure I have some really amazing daughters. I am glad we don't have to walk in the elements like the pioneers did either and I am grateful my girls can still see the good in a rough day!

Gift Bags for Princess Fives First Dance Competition

Having had five daughters on Dance Teams in the past, I have learned a few things about what girls like.

Of course, every girl is different but for the most part, girls are girls and boys are boys. They all like similar things overall. Since Princess Four is a senior this year, before they go to each drill competition, one senior will get a gift for the team wishing them luck.

Princess Four offered to do the first gift. I had collected a few things knowing this day would be coming. I watched for good deals at local stores on clearance items and had a few sets of gloves left from when Princess Three did her team gift.

Here is a post where I showed how I got the gum on clearance. I found the fingernail files, soap, manicure kits and some of the shoelaces on clearance for $.50 - $1 each as well. I did have to go to the dollar store and purchase a few more of some items as they didn't have enough at Walmart but at least some of the items were cheaper.

I continued to keep my eyes open and I found a great deal on the watches. Someone donated a case of new black and a case of white slap wrist watches to a second hand store and the batteries were all dead. I had a few cards of the batteries needed as they are the standard 377 watch battery. I went to three stores around town looking for the batteries to replace mine and they were $3.50 each. I was glad I had just enough to put in the watches for the girls. I will have to keep my eyes open to replace mine when they are on sale somewhere.

I was grateful that the dollar store had face wipes as the girls like them to clean the make-up off their faces once they are through dancing. . The other candy I purchased after Halloween for an OK discount. Not as much as I would have liked but I knew this was coming so I got several different bags for variety.

The girls all like lip gloss or chap stick and I have done both. Princess Five said socks are always needed and she actually needed hers that day so was grateful they were in the bags.

I could have used any of the items to make the tag but the girls were excited about the face wipes and watches so we used those for the tag theme.

I spent an evening putting them together in the bags and tying them off. The girls kept coming in and checking on them. It was cute.

Today after school, Princess Five came in and said, "The girls loved the gift bags and I saw some wearing the shoe laces. Two were wearing their gloves all day, M**** went home last night and gave her family manicures, including her dad with the kit."

After the bus ride home, Princess Four had similar comments. I asked her if that made her feel good? She said it did. I am glad she was able to feel good about the gift bags she gave to the team and I am GRATEFUL that Heavenly Father provides me with every thing I need and want, blessing me daily in my life. If I had to pay full price for all the items in the bags, I wouldn't have been able to do it. HE allows me so many blessing for myself and the girls.

I am truly grateful to HIM for all He gives me. Each week there are new things that are like "gift bags" from Heaven to me. Just this week, my furnace went out..... I'll share that with you another day. Just know, He blesses me daily and I am grateful to be so blessed.