Let It Snow! Out with the Old - In with the New

We've had a lot of snow here!  Best of all - We got TWO EXTRA DAYS OFF! We haven't been in school for 18 days and it makes going back very hard!

Here's the view out my back window! The temperatures are well below ZERO, which is really what made the schools decide to close.

I took the extra time and made these CUTE snowmen out of tea light candles.

Then I decided to get rid of some of my older wall decorations.  The grapevines and silk flowers were way too dusty and impossible to clean.  So I took the picture I took during the holidays and made it into a sticky poster and placed it into a frame.

Cleaned out my pants - the closet is divided by a wall, so you can't see all of them - but I was able to donate over 20 pairs of pants - Now I only have 79 pairs! ha! 

Here are some of my purchases over the past few weeks.  I needed some new boots.  These brown Clark boots are super comfortable and I love them!

 These are my new black boots (which are also very comfy).

Ryan got a new pair of boots too!  I got a great deal a Kohls - They were 125.00 boots and were on clearance, I had an additional discount card and KOHL'S CASH - final price $21.00!

Ryan had a little red "dorm room" couch in his bedroom -  - it was starting to show it's age.  

I picked up this bench from Target and replaced the couch - it looks so nice!

While out shopping at Michael's, I noticed they marked their Christmas decorations down 80%.....I've never really liked the color lighting on our Christmas tree - This 7.5' Pre-lit WHITE light tree was the last one in an unopened box.  The regular price was 399.99.  After getting assistance with pricing and bring the box up to the register, I was told I could get my teacher discount on top of the clearance price. Which meant another 12.00 off!  While checking out, I was told by the cashier the teacher doesn't apply to clearance items - but since the manager told me the wrong information - they honored the discount! $68.00 for a 400.00 tree! Can't wait to put it up next year to see what it looks like since it was no longer on display!

Back to getting up early tomorrow - UGH! Although I do have the next TWO Monday's off! And Spring Break around the corner!

CHRISTMAS LEFT OVERS!

Well, Santa made it through the ice and snow to deliver Ryan's gifts! Here is a before picture:

And here is the after photo! If you look closely you'll see many Transformers. Ryan is still a big Transformer fanatic. (This picture also has some gifts that belong to Bill and myself.) Over all Christmas was a complete success. Keep in mind, these are only the "Santa Gifts"!

We then headed over to my brother's house where Ryan received more gifts! The boys were extremely surprised by their final gift that suddenly appeared out of nowhere! A Wii Gaming system from Grandma.

The weather has been very "wintery" lately. Ryan has been making a small fortune this winter with his "new business" of shoveling!

Along with the snow it's been very icy. Everything has been covered in ice, making it difficult to get out and about. Thankfully we haven't had to travel too far!

Bill continues to be "off" work. This week he is painting my brother's house which gets him out of the house! We keep hoping that things will turn around very soon! Anyone looking for a good painter????

It's hard to believe winter break is 1/2 over.........one week from today were back to the old "school routine" again! UGH!