The love of consignment sales

Here in Knoxville, it is Duck Duck Goose season, one of my favorite times of the year. You see this is one of Knoxville's biggest consignment sales and I got hooked about 4 yrs ago. If you had asked me 5 or 6 yrs ago, if I would have ever bought any of my kids clothing from a consignment sale, I would probably have said no. But if you were to ask me now, I would say absolutely. The first time is overwhelming, not sure how to "do it" and you see all these season consignment sale shoppers there, with there special baskets, racks, wagons, strollers, etc... There were so many racks, so many people, and the check outline was nothing like I had ever seen. My first time was in the spring and I had my 2 yr old and my 4 mo old in tow with my double stroller trying to maneuver these cram-packed isles. But in the end, I walked out with some great deals. I think at this point I was hooked. This particular sale has thousands of consignors who price their own clothing. So you can find great bargains on some really great clothes and when you have two little ones to cloth, then every dollar you save is that much more you can spend on other things. After my first sale and carefully considering the time and effort involved in getting things together for a sale, I decided to participate in the fall sale that year. I was amazed at how many clothes my children had and have outgrown in a season. After my first sale, I made more then I spent, so that is always a plus. After now doing this sale for 4 yrs, I can't wait until the next sale. DDG does a spring/summer and a fall/winter sale, each year it has grown and grown. They are now in a bigger store, with literally thousands and thousands of feet of rack space. This spring I chose not to consign in the spring sale, I just didn't have it in me this year and had waited too long to get my things tagged, so I will wait until the fall when I have more things to put in the sale. I sort of feel sad that I didn't work this sale this year and miss some of the girls I have gotten to know over the last 4 yrs. Not to mention getting to shop the day before the public and then shop first on half price day (this is when I find my best bargains). I did get a chance to do a little shopping, but didn't buy as much as I would have normally, that is only because I have been buying an stashing away a lot of clearnace things at the end of last summer. But let it be know I will be there this fall. It is my goal to never pay retail for anything again.

http://dkdkgoose.com/knoxville/

Never to old to learn...

Hmmm, I wonder who panned those famous words "never to old to learn"? So in the hopes of teaching an old dog some new tricks, I have decided to go back to school. But seriously, I have given a lot thought here lately. I always said I would go back to school one day, and I guess for me that 'one day' is approaching. At my age of nearly 41, what in the world could I be thinking, have I gone completely mad? For some that answer may be YES, and at times my inner voice is agreeing quite loudly. But there is still that voice inside my head that says "you can do this". So back in January, I researched programs to get my RN to BSN. Right now I have my associates degree in nursing and practice as a licensed RN and have done so for the last 10 yrs. I love my job as a labor and delivery nurse, but as I get older, those long 12 hour shifts on my feet are taking there toll on me. Besides, I think the average age of a RN is 45-47 years of age, so hey, I'm still one of the young ones in this game. Well after my research, I chose to apply to ETSU, they have an online RN to BSN program that seems like it would be a good fit for my busy life. I got accepted into ETSU and now I am just waiting to see if I get accepted in the nursing program. I won't know anything until probably late May or early June. I figured there was no time like the present. With my 5 yr old starting kindergarten this fall and having my 3 yr old home with me this may allow me some time to apply myself to this idea I have in my head. You see by 2015, they are requiring all nurse practitioners to have doctrate degrees (believe I have looked at the course work for that and I about fell over). I have been toying around with the idea of family nurse practitioner and here lately a MSN in nursing education. Both are really good directions to go in: FNP will be more in demand with all the health care reform and a shortage of general practice doctors. It would be a more family friendly schedule having children still at home and the pay would be about twice as much as I am making now. Then there is the idea of MSN in nursing education, there is expected to be a shortage of skill nursing instructors to teach the younger generation coming up. Most of the educators in nursing are aging just like me, but they may have 15-20 yrs on me. But how awesome would that be to be able to pay it forward for a new generation? So here I sit wondering which path to choose. But I guess I need to cross my first bridge and get accepted to the nursing program first. This may be at least a 4 yr undertaking, but I have to start somewhere. I promised my dad long ago that I would always finish nursing school, and I did. But I want to make him even more proud and say not only did I finish, but I continued on in my journey. I also want to use this an example to my children, and want them to see me work hard for my goals and be able to enjoy the 'fruits of my labor'.
Now it's just a waiting game.

The unlikely hero

What was suppose to have been just a quiet day at home with my sick 5 yr old, turned out to be not so quiet at lunch time. Since Jay and Jonathan had went to church this morning, I decided i was going to make lunch and have everything ready for when they got home. What started out as a good plan had me waiting for the oven to cool down so I could clean the flour I threw in there out. Why did I throw flour in the oven you may ask?

Before turning the oven on to pre-heat it, I pulled out the baking trays, unaware of the near disaster that would follow. Meatloaf and veggies ready to go in the oven to cook, placed in the oven and waiting. Abot 10 minutes later, my sweet little Sara comes running to me and says "fire mommy', not sure what she was talking about, I went to the kitchen to look. Sure enough there was a fire in the oven. I quickly turned off the oven, assessed the situation and pulled out the baking dishes I had my food in. There was a plastic plate (that previously had cookies on it) that someone hid in the very top rack in the back (probably to try and hide the fact that there were no more cookies). The plastic had melted and dripped onto the heating coil and caused it to catch fire. The only thing I had on hand that could reach it was a container of flour, so that's what I did. I threw flour on it. The fire was out within seconds, but within the next few seconds we had to endure the high pitched sound of all smoke alarms going off in the house for about 30 minutes.

So lunch was not ready when my family got home, I had one heck of a mess to clean up, but thankful I still have a house standing. Who ever knew that a sweet little girl, who is a mere 33 inches tall and cute as ever would save the day? Thank you Sara Grace you are mommy's little hero!

There's a little Disney in all of us!

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Disney World? Well if I haven't let me just tell you right now that I love the place, could go every year, seriously! I know there are those out there who can say been there, done that and bought the t-shirt and would never care about returning for the rest of their lives. Me on the otherhand, I'm just the opposite. My first visit was between my 8th and 9th grade summer vacation. Just got a taste of Disney then. But as an adult, I returned in October of 2000 for the millenium celebration with my oldest son Jonathan, who was at the time 7 yrs old. It was so much fun to see Disney through the eyes of a child. To have several days there and really get to see the "big" things. Since then I have been several more times (2002, 2003, 2007) and will be going again in just a week! I can honestly say that I have not seen everything, so this trip I plan on riding a few of the rides that I have missed in the past (The Tea Cups, Soarin' and I know there are still a few others) , but still ride my favorites (Space Mountain, Tower of Terror, Bugs Life, Test Track, Aerosmith's Rock-n-roll roller coaster). This time we will be taking Sara our soon to be 2 yr old daughter for the first time. I can't wait to see her expression. This will be Noah's second trip, he was just 10 1/2 mo old the last time, so he will really enjoy this trip. We also will celebrate Jonthan's 17th birthday while we are there. We will get to spend a week this time over the Thanksgiving Holiday, I have never been down there this late in the year and I am excited to see how Disney does Christmas, I'm sure it park will be decked out in wonderful decorations. Hopefully we will get several Family Christmas picture opportunities and will be able to share them with everyone when we get back.

As for Christmas and birthday presents, I think we got it covered!

T minus 1 week and counting, watch out Orlando the Bodiford's are coming to town!

Christmas Time is here....

I just love this time of year when you can start to pull out all the Christmas decorations, yes you heard me right. The sooner the better, if you ask me! We have officially had our Christmas tree up since Nov 6th, at the begging and pleading of our soon to be 4 yr old Noah. Which is fine by me, because yours truly has been know to put her tree up before Halloween in the past. Crazy, maybe to some, but not in my family. We are genetically inclinded to put our decorations up early. But thankfully we do take the lights down after Christmas and do not leave them up all year (we may be of hillybilly decendents but we are no rednecks!)

My biggest splurge was two years ago when I bought a prelit 9 ft Christmas tree from Sam's Club, let me just tell you, these prelit trees simplify everything. The person that came up with this idea should get like a Nobel Peace Prize or something! I pull the tree out of the big storage bag its in and put the stand together, then put the three sections up, fluff and plug in the the lights and voila.....instant gratification! Saves you like 2 hours or more of wrestling with lights. This year my splurge was the 100 count unbreakable orniments from Sam's for $34, I dediced to get these mainly because I have a soon to be 4 yr old Noah and a soon to be 2 yr old Sara who hand like to touch, grab and pull! And I must say they look fabulous!

But I am a bit snobbish when it comes to decorating a Christmas tree:
You only use white non flashing lights, no tinsle (hate that stuff), orniments should have a color scheme, prefer no garland either but have been known to use it ever now and then.
See I am crazy!

I'll have to post a picture later of this years tree.............

Been a little lacking in the posting department

Wow, can't believe it has been several months since I posted anything to my blog. Amazing how time flies and just life in general just gets busier and busier, leaving very little time for the simple things. Well today is one of those days that I am reflecting and just enjoying the quietness. You see, "quiet" is a very rare thing in this house these days. With four busy children its a commodity by any means. So when a quiet day presents itself I take full advantage of it.

This day was not planned, just happened by circumstance, you see, I have been fighting a cold for the past several days and have not felt up to par, so when my work called this morning and asked if I wanted to be on-call, I gladly took it. My wonderful husband was nice enough to get the little ones ready and took them to the sitter so I could stay home and rest. It was nice to get some extra sleep without any interuption, can you believe I woke up at 11am? I was shocked too! I finally manage to get some motivation and decided to go downstairs and wrap some Christmas presents while I do not have prying eyes interupting. The only sound being made is coming from my computer, playing Christmas music and the sound of wrapping paper being cut and folded around presents. Then I manage to go under the stairs and start pulling out Christmas decorations to put out and on the tree. This is like a walk down memory lane for me. I see decorations from the years gone by, those handmade by a tiny child who is tiny no more, that bring back warm and fuzzy memories. Look at old Christmas cards that have been sent over the last 20 years from family and friends. Ornaments that have been given to me by my dear sweet grandma, who is no longer with us. These hold a very dear and special place in my heart. My grandma was a Christmas baby and she loved the holidays like no other, it was always a time to get together with family, talk and catch up on all the things going on in everyone lives, eat and open gifts. Christmas just seems like such a magical time, I love seeing my two littlest children getting excited at all the lights and decorations. I can only hope as my children grow up that they see the importance of family and not the importance of the gifts. That they look back and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas: CHRIST! The birth of our Lord and Saviour, the One who loved us enough to lay down his life on the cross. How lucky we are to have a God that loves us THAT much!

Pondering the last 39 years......

Received a birthday card from my mother the other day and she wrote a quick little note on the inside and one thing stuck in my mind that she said, it was simply "Where has the last 39 years gone?"
I too wonder where all that time has gone, if you stop and think about it, that is almost 4 decades ... a meer 2,028 weeks ....14,244 days (give or take a leap year) .....341,856 hrs ......and a whopping 20,511,360 minutes. Kind of puts a new perspective on when you say you'll get to something next week or maybe tomorrow or in a few minutes. Time is ever continuing, we spend our childhood waiting for summer vacations and Christmas or that next birthday, seems like as children they took forever. But now as an adult, they arrive way to fast. I look back and think about all those little moments that I took for granted and now wish that I could have lingered there just a bit longer. I will never get a chance to hug my daddy or tell him how much I love him again, well at least not here on earth. I will never get to talk to my grandma on the phone again and hear her voice, the one that praised me every step of the way in my life.
You often wonder along this journey that if you might have made different choices, would you have ended up in a similar place in your life that you are now? I don't believe that things happen by chance, but that God put us where we needed to be at any given time. We have choices to make, some good and some not so good, but hopefully we have learned from our mistakes. I can say over my last 39 years that I have made some poor choices along the way, but I am happy with where I am now. I have a wonderful family, a husband that dearly loves me, four uniquely wonderful children, who all have something special about them, a job that I love doing that has blessed me with more "moments" in others lives then I can ever count and a wonderful God and savior, that with Him I have nothing to fear.
I can only hope that if I am blessed with another 39 years that I can look back over my life and say it was good!