still looking

Just recently my family and I have been on the hunt for a new couch.. or should I say sofa? Our current one is in its "senior" years of life. It is nearing its 14th year (which, in furniture years is pretty old!) I can still remember purchasing this couch. I was newly married and we had some extra money to blow. No kids yet. No pets. We purchased pretty much on "looks", but have been blessed with a piece of furniture that has held up. As the years have taken there toll, however, the sags are becoming more saggy. The bottom cushions have holes, tears, rips.. cleverly placed to "try" to hide them. The pretty sage green color has taken on many shades and variations. The back cushions' fluff has separated, causing big balls of uncomfortableness. Needless to go on, we NEED a new couch.
The hunt has begun and sadly it is proving to be quite a fierce one. Living in a smallish town with little to no decent shopping is not helping the matter! When we do encounter a worthy store, the merchandise is "um" or "ugh!" We are not looking for anything too fancy. Just something on the practical side, wish a dash of "somewhat tasteful." Ideally, we are looking for a sectional sofa with a sturdy fabric to last for at least the next decade or so. Something that can withstand 3 busy children and 2 scratching kitties would be a bonus!
So, in the meantime, the hunt continues.

yummy!

One of my favorite finds recently was this Meijer Naturals marinara sauce. My family LOVES it! It has a great, slightly sweet, taste and is very fresh tasting. I tried using others after using this and I just keep thinking how they don't stack up. The price can't be beat either! It is only $1.98 at our store.

2 thumbs UP!

my other blog

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bored games

I was in a mad-dash-spring-cleaning-frenzy mood not too long ago. You know what I am talking about! You get the urge to purge and run around the house like a chicken with its head cut off, carrying around a black plastic bag. Well, at least that is what it looked like over here in our home. On my latest dash around the house I stopped dead in my tracks when I came upon the stack of miscellaneous board games in our family room cabinet. We had so many that the doors to the cabinet could not even close all the way! That was an instant "shout out" to me to take measures into my own hands. I must tackle this beast!

In the cabinet I was confronted with a random assortment of all sorts of games, puzzles, cards, and whatchamacallits. Some boxes were intact, others were barely there, hanging on for dear life. Homeless pegs, dice, and UNO cards practically were "begging" me for HELP! Loose instructions for games that "mysteriously" left the house (aka sold at a garage sale or sent to Goodwill) ages ago, were also among the mix. I literally had to pause and take a heavy breath before tackling this monster head-on. How did this all happen? Well let's see. Three kids times a gazillion birthdays and Christmas's equals a ton of games. Not the forget the garage and rummage sale found games! It all seems a blur.
I had to make a plan. First, decide which games did the kids absolutely not play with anymore (nor would they ask for them in a week after they suspected them missing!) Our youngest daughter is almost 7. Is Candyland still in the running? Ummm...I think it goes in the "maybe" pile, along with Chutes and Ladders (even though it has seem better days!) I knew we didn't need 2 Boggle Jr's, so one went into the bag. The Hi Ho Cherry O game with tons of missing cherries?...in the bag. The Winnie the Pooh puzzles were spared, as was the wooden snail race game. Some of the other keepers were Monopoly (dad's vintage edition, as well as the Spongebob version), Blokus and definitely UNO! Mastermind, Life, Battleship and Othello. Guess Who made it, as did I SPY.
Then I stumbled across Bingo! Oh, bingo! My kids are obsessed with bingo! For one of my children's birthdays (or was it Christmas?) a bingo game was given. In the box there is a wire cage that holds a ton of little tiny grey balls with numbers and letters. These balls are so small that on occasion a wandering vacuum nearly brought it to extinction! The set also includes a series of cardboard bingo cards, complete with (yes, again!) teeny tiny plastic "chips", for placing on the bingo card. Even with these chips being colorful, they too come close to being sucked up into never-again land! This is one of those games that gets the heart pumping! It can be played by any age and it is just old fashioned fun. It has made its way through generation to generation, and keeps on ticking. Just recently, though, I have decided to make the game a bit more "interesting." I took a trip to the Dollar store and purchased a bunch of prizes (aka.. candy). When the lucky winner calls out BINGO, they get to choose a prize from the box. This is a great game to play when the kids have friends over! Bingo stays.

Going through these games was like going down memory lane. Oh the fun times these games were, and still are. I can still remember being in a panic trying to remove the rubber band from the Operation game, without having the little red nose beep at me. Or, getting the Connect Four before my opponent did! I was (and still am) a competitive gal. I try to go easy on my kids though! It just made me realize that my kids are growing up! Their interest in games may be advancing, but the quality time spent playing games and just being together as a family is still so important. Priceless.

vintage happy meal toys FOR SALE

Back in the 1970's my mom worked for McDonald's. One of her jobs was as the "birthday party lady." At the McDonald's where she worked they had a special room designated just for parties. It was complete with life sized statues of Ronald and various other McDonaldland characters. I also remember a make believe tree that children can climb in and play on. There were ride on toys and all sorts of fun stuff. My mom liked this job, most of the time. Times I fondly recall are when she would bring home an extra birthday cake! This was always a welcome treat! I can still remember chopping down the ultra-sweet sugar Ronald decoration on the top of the cakes. Pure sugar. Pure head rush!! Since my mom was in charge of these parties she was also was made available to all the happy meal toys that came out. She would bring home MANY toys! She also put some away and saved them. This bring me to the point of this post.
When my mom moved to Texas back in the 1990's I, somehow, became the new owner of all these happy meal toys. She was done with them and I said I would take them. Well, 4 Rubbermaid totes and 4 states later, I STILL have them! They are still in the totes in our basement. I have gone through ALL of them and know what I have. Many are very vintage and almost all are still in their original packages. I just want to clean house and move them out. I just don't know what to do with them!
So, if you or anyone you know, would be interested, email me junipercards@yahoo.com and I will let you know what I have. We can work out a great deal!