Birthday Surprise / Value Village Find!

The day after Ella's birthday party was President's Day so we were all home having a lazy day. First thing in the morning I got a text from Jen asking if they could stop by and surprise Ella with a visit before they headed home to Spokane. 

Ella had no idea Logan was coming over. She answered the door Jen said she had this funny confused look on her face. They were only able to visit for a couple hours until they had to drive home, but it was still such a fun surprise! 

The day before Ella's birthday the kids were at Ga-Ga &Pa's and Michael & I had a date day. We stopped at Value Village to look around. I found a few workout clothes for Ella since she said she needed new ones for Gymnastics. She only ended up liking one shirt and one workout coat. You have to return things to Value Village within 7 days and since they have 50% off on holidays it was a good day to go in. Ella ended up getting a few things...her favorite was this fun bright puffy vest. 

I ended up finding these....

Prince Albert Rose Cottage China. 

I about fell over when I saw it. I was sure it was a fake. There was no way this could be at Value Village. I turned it over and was shocked to see it was legit. I was then sure its was going to be all individually price, but again I was floored when I looked at the price tag and it said $20 for all of it!!!!! Are you kidding me! I scooped it up and put it in the cart still not 100% sure I was going to buy it. When we were finished shopping I decided to look online to see how expensive this china is....I found one 8 inch salad plate for $18.95. After that I didn't need to look any further I knew I was buying it. It is almost a full set of 4. It's just missing 2 tea cups & saucers and one of the cups and saucers has a small chip in it, but still $20 for all this was a steal! I would actually like to have a set for 8, but this is a great start. Now I just have to start frequenting antique shops or thrift stores to find the other pieces to the set. It's going to be a fun treasure hunt! 

Dress Shopping!

Back at the beginning of July Ga-Ga & Pa took the kids home with them after church. The kids were actually stay there for a total of 11 days! Michael and I came down for the 4th of July and then I stayed there since family was flying in from Wyoming. More on that in another post! 

Whenever my parents take the kids home from church, Michael and I use the rest of Sunday as a date day. We usually head to Kent Station for lunch...on this day we ate at Mama Stortini's. I was so shocked that Michael even wanted to eat there...he doesn't normally like it. I think this time he had Sunday brunch and he did actually enjoy it. 

Since this was the Sunday prior to the 4th of July Value Village was having a 50% off sale that day. I didn't really need new clothes since we've gone to Value Village quite a lot this year, but I had just recently started liking dresses and I'd never really spend a good amount of time looking at dress at Value Village. I have bought a couple over the years, but just when I absolutely needed a dress. Michael obliged me, but I could tell I had reached his max amount of time for shopping for the year so I better make it quick. 

When we walked in I encouraged him to stop and look at dress shirts since he didn't have much luck with short sleeve shirts the last time we'd gone. He did end up finding 4, but something I realized later is I really need to have him first...try them on in front of me...sometimes they are too big and secondly...look them over for tears or stains. One of these shirts ended up having a tear on the arm and it was a really nice shirt. Total bummer! 

As for me...I hit the jackpot with dresses and one shirt! 

Going left to right...the blue striped one is not something I would normally try on, but it was just so vibrant. It's actually a halter top dress. It's a great length and it's so comfy and soft like a T-shirt. The dress shirt next to it was a total impulse buy. We were standing in the checkout and I saw it on the rack and again the colors were so vibrant. Michael didn't want to have to wait again for me to try clothes on so he said..."Just buy it, if it doesn't fit you can take it back". It's got a definite Japanese flair with the way the collar is and I get compliments anytime I wear it. The next dress is super comfy and has cute cap sleeves. I'm not normally a sleeveless girl, but this covers just enough of my shoulders I feel comfortable. Plus the length is longer and I'd been wanting a good long dress. The next one I actually completely missed when trying on all the dresses. It had gotten buried in the cart! When I was pulled clothes out to buy them I just decided to hope for the best and it turned out great. This dress actually ended up being Michael's favorite. 

The black and blue ones isn't my favorite, but I still think it's super cute. I will definitely wear it to church, but it's not an all day kind of dress. I was really excited about two maxi dresses. I have wanting a maxi for years, but I had never found any that were the right length. Normally they are too maxi and I would need to hem them. I love chevron patterns and that coral color. The one on the right is cream on the top with a fun lace pattern. It also still had the original price tag on it...of course the actual price part had been ripped off, but $7 for a dress is amazing. I have worn this one once already and I paired it with a sweater while I was at work since the whole not super into sleeveless thing. 

The last two need some minor sewing work. The one on the left has a super cute fit to it. It's also has that see through look from the knees down. The only thing is the fit under one arm is a bit funny. After further investigation it looks like someone actually altered this so it would fit tighter under the arms, but some of the stitching has come out. So I'm just going to restitch it and it will be perfect. This next dress is so cute. Perfect length...at the knees and it has pockets. The only thing is the stitching in the front makes me look like Madonna...too pointy if you know what I mean. So I'm going to do a couple stitches on either side that will fit that right up. Now I just have to find the time to actual do that. 

Value Village Finds / Electrical Problems!

On Sunday, May 27th the kids went home from church with Ga-Ga & Pa to spend the night. Right after church Michael and I got to go on a date....we went to lunch at Wing Stop and then we headed to Value Village. Whenever there is a holiday on a Monday Value Village has there 50% off day the day before and the day of the holiday. We had gone shopping for Michael back in February when they had 50% off due to President's day. We were mainly shopping for cold weather clothes and now it was getting warmer out and he needed short sleeve shirts. 

Here's what we got at our shopping trip on Sunday. 

Michael got 3 short sleeve shirts. 

I got Owen 2 pairs of pants, 2 t-shirts and swim trunks. 

I got Zeke 2 pairs of pants, swim trunks and a long sleeve shirt. 

I got Ella a dress, 2 short sleeve shirts, one long sleeve shirt and a pair of sandals. 

I got Jack 2 short sleeve shirts, swim trunks and a swim shirt. 

For myself I got 5 short sleeve shirts.

I got 1 pair of capris and then 2 pairs of jeans...the skinny pair can be rolled up to be capris. The most amazing thing about these 3 is that I didn't try them on at the store. I wasn't even going to look for pants, but I decided to after I had already tried on my shirts. The line to try on clothes was crazy long and I wasn't in the mood to wait again. I figured since we were going to go to a different Value Village the next day that even if they didn't fit I could return them so it wasn't a big deal. The craziest thing though...they all fit perfectly! Sometimes I might try on 10 pairs of pants at Value Village and none of them fit so the odds of all 3 fitting was pretty astronomical! 

Like I said the next day we went shopping at a different Value Village before we went to pick up the kids at Ga-Ga & Pa's house. Here's what I got from that trip. 

3 short sleeve shirts for Ella. 

1 short sleeve shirt for Zeke and a swim shirt to go with his swim trunks I got him the day before. 

I found 3 more short sleeve shirts for Jack and a Spiderman blanket. 

4 more short sleeve shirts for Owen. 

Michael got 4 more short sleeve shirts as well. One of them ended up being too big, but I had already washed it so I couldn't return it. But that's the best thing about buying from Value Village...it doesn't cost a ton so it doesn't hurt as much if something doesn't work out. 

I also found 2 more pairs of jeans for myself and one more pair for Owen. 

I also got 1 tank top, 5 short sleeve shirts and the light blue cover up is actually pajamas. I had never thought of wearing basically a light sweater to bed, but let me tell you it's the most comfy thing. 

I did buy something a bit out of my comfort zone....this is a short dress that looks super cute over skinny jeans or leggings. I'm thinking ahead towards going to Maui next year and I think this would be fun to wear there. 

So in all we bought 57 items and spent $160...making each piece cost $2.80! I love bargains! 

Of course the most ironic thing happens when you've just recently bought a ton of new clothes and need to wash them all....my dryer stopped working. 

But when you have 4 kids there is no stopping laundry...it must get done. So I went to Wal-Mart and bought a drying rack. The only thing is right around this time it wasn't very sunny at all so it was taking all day for one load of laundry to dry. Sometimes overnight! 

I almost resorted to going to the laundromat, but I really wanted to avoid that if I could. 

The whole problem had to do with our bathroom remodel that we did in 2016. We had run into a little issue with the electrical, but Michael talked with a friend who was an electrician and he found out what to do, but come to find out that obviously didn't really cut it. Thankfully Michael is awesome and put the wires in a metal junction box so it didn't burn our house down. It did however fry the wire and made it so I couldn't use my dryer. Michael had some contacts with the company that did our electrical for our jetted tub and since Michael knew the previous owner they gave us a screaming deal with only charging us $98 per hour for labor. They also fit us in earlier then they initially said so that was a plus too. We weren't going to be home when they stopped by to do the work so Michael had all these signs pointing to the places they would need to know. Right when they opened the garage door he had a sign on the floor pointing to the left where the junction box is. Then an arrow pointing to the right where the breaker box is. The junction box isn't accessible when the garage door is open though so they needed to shut it. So Michael also had signs pointing to the correct garage door opener since we have two and if they hit the wrong one they would have dropped the Lego table on the trailer. It was so funny when I walked in that evening to a sign that the electrician had made himself with the scrap wire.  

It was so nice to be able to do more than one load of laundry a day and feel safe knowing our house wasn't going to burn down. :) 

Value Village Finds!

With Michael getting the promotion to General Manager he needed new clothes! The weekend after he got the job was President Day weekend. Value Village always has 50% off on Sunday and Monday for a holiday weekend. Ga-Ga & Pa came to church with us on Sunday and then took the kids home with them to spend the night. Michael and I got to go out to lunch and then we headed over to the Value Village in Kent to do some shopping. I can't remember if we went and saw a movie too or if we just got a movie at the Redbox and took it home. Either way we had a nice time! The next day we went to another Value Village in Puyallup and then ate at the Bourbon Street Bar and Grill in Puyallup. If you've never been you need to go. It's seriously a hole in the wall place, but the food was AMAZING!!! 

I posted some information about this on FB, but I didn't want to say why we were getting Michael new clothes. I just said that Michael needed a new wardrobe and he did! We took 2-30 gallon lawn and leaf bags to donate to Value Village. Some of the clothes Michael had were back from when we first got married almost 19 years ago. Yeah he needed an update for sure! 

The total for all these clothes came to $225!!

I got 2 sweaters, 7 tank tops...

3 cover up sweaters, 4 love sleeve shirts & 2 short sleeve shirts. 

I got Ella 2 short sleeve shirts, 2 long sleeve shirts and one romper. 

This shirt says...One ray of sunshine goes a long way. 

Michael got...1 pair of jeans, 3 pairs of slacks and 2 pairs of dress shoes.

Here's his third pair of slacks. He's not so sure about them. I think they look amazing. He said he's never going to wear these to work, but he'll wear them to church. 

3 long sleeve button up shirts

2 short sleeve button up shirts & 5 polo shirts. 

The biggest purchase were the 14 long sleeve sweaters!!!

The funny thing is the light gray on in the front on the left is now Jack's sweater. I washed it in cold and dried it accordingly, but it shrunk SO much it was hilarious! 

This is the sweater on the upper left side up close....I love the blue and green argyle look. 

So that's a grand total of 53 pieces of clothing for $225! Some of them even had the tags on them! That averages out to being $4.25 per piece. I love Value Village!!! 

I think Michael is done shopping for a while though! I did go to Wal-Mart and bought him 3 more pairs of Wrangler slacks and a couple packages of dress socks!  Can't wait to see him wearing all these business clothes everyday!