Shooting Star

Sarah's school has a Shooting Star of the week where each student gets recognized and gets to pick like the books they read and activities throughout the week. She had to make a poster for it. Of course I wasn't going to let Tom lounge on the couch, and he was a good sport in cutting out the pictures and using the "Threading Water" border punch to do the mats for her name. and Yes, that's the Glue Glider Pro that he's using to stick the letters to the mat :)

Her name was cut with SCAL using the Comic Sans font. And the person is from Everyday Paper Dolls.

More Christmas Pictures!

I hope that everyone had a safe and wonderful Christmas! I thought that I would share a few pictures from this weekend!

^ here is Ashley and one of her favorite shirts from the weekend

^Sarah with a new WII game - ZhuZhu Pets

^Jordan and his Monster Shirt.. this picture was taken Saturday night... He was still wearing this sweatshirt today.... Apparently Monster Sweatshirts don't get dirty...

^This is my favorite blackmail picture.. Jordan got a Penguin Pillow pet from his grandparents.. and you can tell that he loves it dearly!

^Ashley, Jordan and Lilly at Grandma and Grandpa Olson's (Sarah didn't make the trip with us, she was with her mom for the weekend)

^Lilly and Ashley in their matching Justin Bieber Pajamas that they got from Uncle Eric and Aunt Katie (Sarah opened her pair when she came back from her mom's on Tuesday)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Kasper/Hall family!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless smartphone

Awesome Projects!

Wow! Susan Bluerobot has been busy! Check out these great projects that she has made! I wish I had the time and talent to do these!

Please click on the links to view the details on the projects, and be sure to leave a comment! Also, don't forget to check out the rest of her blog for more amazing projects!

(Note: These are NOT my projects, just sharing them! All projects are Susan Bluerobots )

Cruising for a Good Time

Mr. and Mrs. Claus
Snow Globe

Angels

An Angel to watch over you

"New" Bathroom!

OK, so it's not 100% done, but I'm excited that it's made it this far!

A few days ago I posted my Christmas list.. New Toilet seat. New Paint. New flooring. I wanted the bathroom upstairs to not only be functional, but well, enjoyable to look at too. Here are pictures of what it used to look like.

^ there is a sink in here, however it didn't work. Waterlines are all there, but for whatever reason, Tom could not get it to produce water. More on that below...

^ the toilet seat was replaced before I took a picture... it was not pretty beforehand...

A trip to Menards, and $25 later... I had new paint (Bargain area, $5) New Flooring (45 sq ft for $12 on sale) Toilet seat ($8 on sale)

The tiles are the peel and stick kind, and I only used about half the box, so I can use the rest for the downstairs bathroom when

we get to it. They were really easy to cut and set, and Yes :) I did it by myself. Tom came up to see the progress and I put him to work with some of the painting.. needless to say, he did around the edges and then quickly went back downstairs.

By the end of the night, the walls and floor were done. There was still one thing bugging me.. and that was the sink. It had not worked for the 4 years that Tom has been in the house. And it was a simple fix. And he was very impressed that I figured it out. On the faucet, there's the spout where the water comes out. All I did was take it off. *poof* the water worked. The gasket and screens were filled with rust and sediments from the well water that it clogged and caused the water to not come out. At

one point in time, before he moved in, it must have been left on for a long time just dripping out. We soaked the inner pieces of the spout and now they look brand new, and the water works. *happy dance*

The set above is the one that my mom got for me, and I'll get that on Sunday when we drive up to MN for Christmas. I'll post a final picture then :)

Thanks for looking!

Decorative Cork Boards

I've had these cork boards in my stash for about 2 years now, and I've FINALLY altered them and made them pretty!

The first picture is how they looked when I bought them... pretty boring.. But with a little spray adhesive and some fabric, they will look great on the girl's walls... and they double as christmas gifts!

Tissue Mosaic Candle Holders

Working at a liquor store has its perks. Such as I get these cute glasses for FREE whenever we need to ungroup gift packs. Sure, some have logos on them such as Baileys.. but they are easily covered up with a little bit of Mod Podge and tissue. I've been saving these for about a month now, and just now have finally gotten to decorating them. Of course I had help :) and Sarah did twice as many as I did.

These were really easy to make! Just cut the tissue into squares, they don't have to be perfect and adhere with Mod Podge. Then use the Mod Podge to coat the whole glass afterwards (it dries clear) Once that was completely dry, I clear coated it with Rust-oleum in a satin finish.

Mine is the first one.. and Sarah decorated the other 3 sets :) We'll be getting some inexpensive candles and giving these as gifts!

Buh-bye Car :(

Well.. stopped in to the Auto body shop today around noon... not so good news... at that point in time, the damage to my car was at $4700. They have it booked at $8500, so it was a 55% loss so far... and they still had to put it on the lift and check out the underbody.

I got a call around 4pm with the final damage... $7200... 82% loss. I talked to the insurance and the threshold for totaled is 65% in Iowa. So, looks like once they get all the paperwork straightened out between the body shop and the insurance company, my car loan will be paid off, and I'll have roughly $2000 for a down payment on a new car.

I didn't catch everthing that needed to be repaired, and half the stuff I don't know what exactly it is, but some of the things included : Grill, front bumper, driver and passenger doors, Struts, Rockers and craddle. They didn't even factor in the frame itself since it was up so high.

Now for the fun part of Car shopping and hoping that I can get approved for a decent loan. Talked to a dealer today and they have a "Bad credit no problem" deal, and they claim to be the best in the business (around here) on getting people loans. I've been kinda eyeing a 2008 Chevy Impala :) Praying that it all works out for me, as I can NOT be with out a car.. that would be a wonderful Christmas present to myself, and well, I know that the dealers have to meet their year end numbers, so that may help "push" the loan through in my favor :)

Thanks all for the well wishes and prayers! I do want to quick clarify one thing.. Baby is due to arrive in April, so s/he was under good protection and not in a car seat in the back, and my belly isn't big enough to touch the steering wheel yet, so with the help of my seatbelt, I was able to stay close to the seat and not flop forward.

Angels looking out for Me....

Although I am far from being religious, I do believe that there was angels looking out for me today...
Had a scare today... was driving into town on my way to work, and I hit some really loose gravel. The winds have been really bad out here in the country and I lost control of my car :( It was like hydroplaning on water, but I was on gravel. I'm not sure what the extent of the damage to the car is, I will find out tomorrow once I get a call from the auto body shop. Once we got it out of the ditch, you could tell that the frame was bent. The driver door doesn't open, I had to get out through the passenger side. The tires are out of whack and the brakes don't really line up. My car is a 2005, and has dual airbags.. but neither one went off, so that is something that they are going to look into also. I spent an hour in ER, and just have a bump on my head and minor whiplash, luckily, nothing serious. Baby is doing fine and was not injured :)


^ this first picture is the first part of the ditch that my car hit.. I must have bounced off the bank and then turned around to where it landed.

12 Days of Handmade Cricut - By Cori

Visit Created by Cori for your chance to win during her 12 days of Handmade Cricut Giveaway! I wish I would have looked at her site sooner, as it looks like the contest ends on Dec. 12th... but I'm sure if you head on over there and become a follower, you'll still have a chance to win! Click on the link above to go to her blog, become a follower and then leave a comment telling her that Amanda from Cricut Creations sent you :)

My "Grown-Up" Christmas List

'Tis the season to be jolly right? Not in this house for the last week :/ Last weekend, I got the flu and was pretty helpless for 4 days. Not only did things not get done around the house, but I also missed 3 days of work :( There go the extra for Christmas money, Santa will not be making a stop at this house this year. I went back to work on Thursday despite of a sinus infection, thank God for HALLS cough drops, and VICKS vapor rub. Atleast I can semi sleep at night (when I don't wake up freezing cold cause someone snatched the blankets and rolled himself into a burrito....)

The other day, Tom asked me what *I* wanted for Christmas. First thought was "What scrappy stuff will I need for baby's book..." and then I thought, lets be a little realistic on this. As much I would LOVE new stuff, right now, the money just isn't there for the extras. So... I'll settle on a new toilet seat for the upstairs bathroom, for the tub surround to be re-caulked, bathmats, and a new shower curtain. I also want new carpet in the baby's room, and paint for the bathroom. He laughed, as that stuff isn't really "for me" pffft. OK.. I'll take some new socks too. I'd also like kids that listen and that don't get into my scrapbooking stuff which is a whole 'nother story, and neither of the girls will confess who's been in my pens or how they end up in their school bags.... Needless to say, he didn't really seemed "thrilled" with my list (hey, I was trying to be reasonable...) so my Mom is picking up the bathmats and shower curtain for me, because well, moms "get it". I'm still working on the toilet seat tho... the one that's in there is plastic and peeling and well, probably 20+ years old. And THAT is how I know that I'm Officially a "boring" grownup, since I'm not really wanting anything "fun" for myself, and I haven't really even crafted anything in months....

Thanks for listening to my rambling post.... I honestly have nothing really major to blog about, but figured that I should here and there even if it's just meaningless ones like this one :)

Papier Mâché Piggies

Two weeks ago when I took the girls to my parents house, we Papier Mâché 'd over balloons to make Piggy Banks.

Then, this last weekend, we painted and decorated them!

^Even Tom got in on it!

This was the end result!

The green one will go in the baby's room. The purple with the skull (Tom drew the skull and I painted it) went to my SIL who likes pirates.

Since Lilly wasn't with us, Tom painted her's blue.

Sarah painted the pink one and Ashley painted the purple one with the flowers.

Ultra Sound Photos :)

Had my first official baby doctor appointment today :) All is well. The due date was changed from May 3rd to April 28, as Baby Hall is measuring at 14 weeks and 4 days. We go back in a month for the next check up.

Halloween Fun!

Last weekend we had all the kids, and well, they needed something to do, so we went to the pumpkin patch and picked out a few pumpkins. The girls did a wonderful job designing them, and they looked pretty spooky!