off from school...

The video Santa promised Emmy he would bring her some makeup and fake nails...well here they are!

Jacob using his new pencils...gotta love coloring!

Jacob made this Santa ornament.  The face is actually a tracing of his hand

and then he glued white snow all over for the beard.

and here's the prettiest girlin the world playing with her pull back car...

and here's the two prettiest girls in the world...

even the boys love the dollhouse!  aint' it rocking?

meathead playing with his trains.  why they are all in the corner of the couch, i know not.

he pulls the pillow off and says "TAH-DAH!"

that's sam for ya. 

***

off to my sister's tomorrow for the dysfunctional family holiday dinner. 

this should be good!

blessings

sue

the day after...

Ah, the post christmas hubub...cleaning up wrapping paper and bows.  Trying to find a spot for new items, donate the old, sort through and put away.  The looming of the upcoming new year always puts me in the cleanout frame of mind.  Once the frenzy of the holidays is over it's almost a relief.  Although, we didn't have a crazy holiday, ours was sort of laid back.  We did the things we wanted to do, visiting places we knew we wouldn't see again and tried to make it a real christmas, not a commercialized one.  Let me tell you...despite the having gifts for five kids  under the tree on christmas morning, it was quite quiet.   No whirring electronic toys were to be found.  Wooden trucks, lacing beads, dollhouses filled my front room.  Creative toys that children use their imagination to play with.  The only exception was Nick's new TV, which quickly disappeared into his room anyway! 

So last night I sorted books, pulling out old one's to donate, refilling the shelves with the newer books for the kids.  New crayons and markers, play-doh refilled the craft cabinet.  Fun things to spend long lazy winter afternoons creating masterpieces at the dining room table.  11 days of no school.  I have to do something with all of them!!

Christmas Eve and day for me was spent at work with just a few hours on Christmas morning to spend with my family opening presents and chatting.  Then off to sleepy land for me.  Work really brought my Christmas spirit to a halt.  Too much violence on what was supposed to be a beautiful holiday made me realize how much I don't want to be here anymore.  Here where it's almost ordinary to see some violence everyday.  Now I am sure that it is everywhere, but my hope is to be in a place where it only happens once in a blue moon.  Not every single day.  A place where people are kinder and speak nicer.  Where it's not ok, to shoot someone or stab them, or assault them.  Maybe it's just because our view of it is so concentrated there.  It's like watching the news.  Only it's really there in front of you.  Not just pouring through the tv screeen in your living room.  You get to experience firsthand the crying, the belligerance, the smell of blood and alcohol.  The anger.   I guess once a long time ago, people respected the medical field, it's practitioners and we were kind of shielded from harm.  No more.  Some days I think these people are just animals.  What are they doing?  For what reason?  It's baffling somedays.  But there's always the one person who really needs your help, who is either dying or injured through no fault of their own.  I'll always help all of them, the one's whose own  anger got them there and those who just came along for the ride, I just won't understand the former. 

here's to a better new year and a lovely week HOME with my family...
sue

Christmas Eve

What a lovely morning.  No school to rush off to, the hubby is home from work.  We ALMOST thought we could sleep in just a little bit, but a little voice woke me at 7:57 am chattering on about stockings under the tree.  And sleepy time was over...um, ok.  So downstairs I went to find little Sam half snoozing on the couch and jacob and emmy messing with the stockings under the tree.  They are trying to find a place to hang them, but with 7 stockings, my mantle will surely fall off the wall!!  So we lay them under the tree and hope Santa fills them up!

What are your plans for the day?  We visited Koziar's last night (despite my saying I didn't want to go because it was SO COLD) and it was packed.  The kids loved it all..so it was good.  Then we came home and they all pretty much marched themselves off to bed.  We shared a drink and chat with our neighbor and then both of us were pretty ready for bed.  (late night last night building the dollhouse...shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)
So today the ham is basting in the crock pot and cranberry bread is baking in the oven.  We'll have our Christmas meal today, then it's off to work for me.  Hubby will have to get everything out without me..so when I come home in the morning it all will be under the tree.  With any luck the kiddies will be sleeping yet, but i doubt it!  Then it will be time for the Christmas frenzy of unwrapping...some breakfast and off to bed for me.  The kids will have the day to play with their new toys and enjoy the day. 

jacob's gingerbread house...he's quite an artist

cranberry walnut loaves

goodie baskets

Hope  you all have a wonderful holiday with your family.  Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!!

the frazier family:  Danny, Sue, Nicholas, Jacob, Emma, Samuel and baby Madi

Four days and counting....

Ok, so I admit it.  I haven't starting wrapping anything yet.  Not one thing.  Oh my goodness, I'm baking more cookies yet today and my house is a bit of a tornado.  Kids are antsy and I can't seem to get anything done.  I need to clean, organize the presents and I've also got all the stuff in my head that i have to do with the house.  On a good note, the realtor visit went AWESOME! 
So my plan is to listen to a little LEADBELLY and rock out some Christmas wrapping as soon as I drop emmy off at school and put baby 1 and 2 to nap (hah)  Umm, also found another new CD I love at the library...Gillian Welch:  Revival.  Love it! 

do i really need to make another trip to the Christmas Tree Shoppe?  Maybe I can improvise with what I have here for packaging...although those salt boxed painted round boxes would be super to stash all the goodies in...little shredded paper and pack it all in.  No wrapping, no fuss.  I have one, maybe I'll pack it and see how it goes...ummm. 

Sam needs another video visit from Santa...Jacob was hilarious this morning watching his.....

Hope your holiday is filled with unexpected surprises!

holiday festivities...

Another busy week has come to an end...where is this time going?  It seems every time i turn around, it's friday again!  Well we'/ve been super busy this week...

A cookie exchange on Wednesday night with friends...got lots of yummy cookies!  Tuesday was the kids holiday concert at school...emma rang the jingle bells!  Monday we met with a realtor...(more about that later) and last night we had our Boy Scout Christmas party...complete with whoelse????  Santa!  All the kids got a special little gift from Santa and we'll just say Sam wasn't so sure about the big guy!  Both Emma and Jacob bravely went up to say hi though!

Even the adults got in on the pics!

Here's our little elf girl...aint she cute??

Finally, a good pic of our tree this year.

did i mention how much i love the galvanized tub it's in!!

and really?  how could you not just eat this little meathead right up?

he is so naughty but you can't do anything but laugh at him.

let's just say, he's following in his older brothers footsteps with his

affinity to electrical appliances!!!  oh goodness!

********

done with my shopping, just a few more homemade items and baking to do and then its' time

to wrap...i love the idea of fabric wrapping...or making my own fabric bags..perhaps this is something I can start on to have for next year?  Check out soulemama's blog here for some lovely ideas!

She has such a beautiful sense of the season...

*****

making banana bread this morning then off to find jacob a blowup santa at the christmas tree shop..cross your fingers that they have them.  his face was just so sad this morning when i told him i couldn't fine one last night :(

***

have a merry day!!

sue

thrifting...

Oh I love a productive thrift shop visit and yesterday was a good one. I found a ball of cotton twine, two large spools of heavy white and beige thread, a huge bag of white buttons, a cute little rustic fence/gate and lots of great little bowls/buckets for my christmas goodies! I spent about the same on the fillers for the baskets so it was a total score!!                                                              

 

I love this speckled bowl, it reminds me of a bird egg.

And even funnier, I found this like 1970's era plastic Santa that Jacob just had to have.  69 cents later, it was ours!!

Now, I found this idea yesterday for a shabby garland and fell in love with it. 

I have to find the blog site so I can give proper credit to the original owner

of this idea...(it's junk, something, I have to check!),

I had lots of leftover scraps of fabric and I love the way this turned out!

at first, I had the word "peace" strung on it, but the tags were too large.

Without any, it looked too bare.

So I added smaller tags and spelled out "merry christmas" on one side and used

a stamping up christmas tree on the other side of each tag.  I love, love, love how it turned out.

It's hanging in the doorway of my dining/living room.

Hope you have a fabulous thrifty day too!

blessings.....sue

trespassing on school property?

I have to go to court today.  Not because myself or my son committed some horrendous crime, but because back in September my son went with two other students at Liberty High School (one is the senior class president) to take a flag down.  They walked into the school through an unlocked door, traveled to a music room where one of these students has an "office", then out to the ball field.  They were playing football when the BASD security showed up because they had set off quite a few alarms.  The assistant principal was called because one of the students if a family friend of hers.  Apparently trying to keep these three from getting arrested for criminal trespass (I'll tell you about that later), a meeting was scheduled for Monday morning (unbeknownst to me).  The principal thinks my son is in the band with the other two students so they are told to be at school at 6 am.  Not really understanding this, I tell my son he is not going to any meeting until I find out what all this is about.  I tell him to go to vo-tech.  Well, they pull him out of vo-tech to which I have to then call the school and scream at a few people (probably not my best move). 

So now it's noon and I am sitting in the principals office with my son.  Now, it makes no sense to me what the great big deal is.  They weren't stealing things, they were playing football and taking a flag down for September 11th.  They walked in through open doors.  When I went to school, school was a place where people wanted you to be.(Maybe not on a Saturday at 8:00 pm.  I'll give them that.)  Has it really come to that that being on school property gets you arrested?  It does, really.  I can prove it.  I have the ticket.  The ticket for $433.50 for criminal trespass.  So, I talk to the principal.  I tell my son he needs to pay attention to where people are taking him.  If it doesn't sound like a good idea, he probably should think twice about going.  So the school officer sends us the aforementioned ticket.  A a court date is set.  Which is cancelled.  So today is the day.  I get to go to the Magistrate and sit with my son while he pleads "not guilty" to these charges.  And maybe he'll get community service.  He gets to clean up the school grounds I suppose.  All because he walked into an open door, took down a flag and played football at HIS SCHOOL's ball field. 

Am I missing something here?  I understand they shouldn't have been there.  But really a ticket for $433.50 for being on school property?  Talk about wasting people's time and money.  My husband lost a half day of work today so I could take my son.  My son has a job (yes this criminal has a job!!) so he paid the money to hold him over for court.  We are wasting the Magistrates time hearing this ridiculous case.  Isn't there someone committing armed robbery somewhere that could be better served here?  Sorry for the rant.  I am not dismissing my son's wrongdoing in this.  He shouldn't have been there and he knows it now.  He thought it was ok.  He was with the senior class president taking a flag down for September 11th.  He might be gullible, but he's not a criminal. 

And let me just add.  My son heard through the grapevine that at the other boys hearing, he got tagged by the school officer as a "kid with problems".  Yes, my son has a medical condition.  Last time I checked that didn't make him a juvenile delinquent.  Or a criminal. 

So there ya go.  Warn your kids...stay off school property after hours.  It comes with a hefty pricetag and a whole lot of frustration. 

blessings,

sue

Oh Christmas Tree...

Sunday, December 5:  trip to Unangst Tree Farm.  very cold day.  picked a tree quickly, but it just came off the "cut wagon" so we know it was fresh.  kids played around while they shook and baled the tree.  bought a sugar cookie candle and off we went.  tree securely tied to the van room.  hubby had a call so it chilled on the rooftop a little while.

off we go!

hubby is hidden by the sun...our tree!

posers!

sam was all about the lights....ummm who does he take after????

checking the tree out...nice honky walk sam!

last year, madison was too little to notice the tree..not so this year! 

very interesting......ummmmm, wonder how this is gonna work out?

the discovery of the candy cane.

playing with the choo-choo's

the reason i keep losing things...because THIS little girl is walking around redecorating.

my basket handles somehow are missing?

sideways blurry tree!

great photo skills, eh?

the ornament basket.

this year i decided to just put up my special ornaments and put the rest of the

tree ornaments in a basket for the kids to add one each day. 

Now jacob  found the basket this morning and decorated the BOTTOM only of the tree.

we had to re do that a little and explain to jacob that sissy will remove all of them and

pull the whole tree down.  so we redirected some ornaments mid tree.  for safety's sake!

***************

and a sad note that yesterday was the one year anniversary of the loss of our dear friend and neighbor, Steve.  Sue (or Lucy, or Chachi as Sam fondly calls her) and I went to the gravesite on sunday night.  It was cold, but we sat at the site for like an hour, remembering and talking. 

Steven Renaldi

December 6, 2009

dearly missed...

blessings

sue

Junk Salvation Giveaway

OOOH ladies!  Head on over to this blog to check out 12 whole days of give aways....as part of the entry I have to write about a favorite holiday ornament....not easy cause I have lots of them!  but my favorite ornament is probably the pair of felted ice skates with paperclip runners that I made in the second grade!  I clearly remember making them in art class at Weisenberg elementary school! 

http://funkyjunksisters.blogspot.com/2010/12/come-on-sistasenter-day-3-of-our.html

Head on over to join in the fun!!!

primitive snowmen

i saw this idea on the "art chick studio" blog and decided to make a few myself.  cute and easy to make! 

i added some cinnamon nutmeg essential oils to the inside stuffing so they smell great!  i hung one off my rear view mirror now my car even smells yummy!  really easy to do...a little felt, some buttons and black embroidery floss!  great package topper too!

sue

Hanukkah fun at school...

Emma gets to ride the very special BIG YELLOW SCHOOL BUS today and head over to Mr. Jeremy's class at Fountain Hill Elementary for a Hanukkah celebration.  Now we don't celebrate Hanukkah, but its' fun to learn about other holidays and share in their celebrations.  I found this cute cookie idea in Family Fun magazine and I knew Mr. Craven would so think they were cool.  So i made these (i totally forgot both classes were going to be there, so i didn't have enough for everyone...ooops!)

So you take a fig newton, cut angles in one end.  then you take a thin pretzel rod and break it in two, and stick it in the other end.  i decorated the outsides with Jewish lettering...and voila!  Dreidel cookies!  They are too cute! 

Hope you have a wonderful holiday..no matter how you celebrate!

********************

Our move to Georgia is looming nearer and nearer with every day that passes.  Our hope is to be gone by July1st no matter WHAT, but I'd like it to be before then.  Alot sooner.  But it is going to be dependant on finishing things here, selling the house and all those other little things...like getting jobs there!  I'm forever looking at houses on line, the market is so wide open with alot of great deals.  How great would it be to find something for about the same, or less than we have here...oh the road to financial freedom!  I know there will always be bills, but how nice to be comfortable, especially in these hard financial times.  We thank God everyday for all we have, our jobs, our home, our health. 

So our plan is to head down to Georgia...Tybee Island to be exact at the end of February to have a "working" vacation.  I've found some awesome condo's/houses to stay at for the week and most are offering a free night or two since it's the off season.  Now we won't be able to swim in the ocean, but it will be a nice view and there's lots to do on Tybee Island.  So we'll be close enough to Savannah and Statesboro to job/house hunt and just be tourists!  that's only like TWO MONTHS away!!!!  Lots to do to get ready for this trip. We;ve decided to drive down to save some cash...on both flights and a car rental.  Not the greatest plan, but it will be worth it in the end.  We will endure this!!  Plus, we'll drive overnight so the kids will sleep (we hope!)  So, everyday I get more and more excited.  I can't wait to see Savannah.  I may not come home!  Oh, but soon I'll be calling there...home.

blessings!

sue

finally some pictures!

a little sad face....

not quite sure about this big old cake in front of me?

Happy 1st Birthday Madison!

building with blocks...yeh for simple toys!

this is the coolest kid in town.

almost finished playblanket!

taking steps...she goes across the room now...

our door isn't really sideways!

garland that lucy and i wrapped (new bulbs though!)

my favorite felt banner.....

nativity set and using some other "borrowed" farm animals!  Love the angel

hanging overhead!

teaching myself to knit...this is so much fun!

Hallmark singing snowman and penquins.  always a hit with the kids!

Just a glimpse into our family and holiday prep! 

enjoy!

sue