Why I am the biggest party pooper on the planet!!

We had fun cheering our girls at the Gymnastics Championship in Coos Bay this weekend!! My 12-year old Clara had a rough day, she had been harboring a cold and cough and had a sore throat, then ended up having an asthma attack in the middle of the competition... In addition she had hurt her back on a fall at practice and ended up not being able to do her floor routine! On Beam she fell twice! Still she came home with a 5th place in Bars... My 10-year old Rita had a better day, she qualified first in Bars, second in Vault, and even though she, too, fell twice on Beam, she came home with a 4th place all-around for her age group!! I was hoping to get some pictures, but little miss airhead here took a camera with no memory card inside.... Typical!!

On the subject of cough, I learned this trick from a friend, and I have to tell you, it really works!! If you child has a persistent cough keeping them up at night, rub some Vicks Vaporub on the soles of their feet and put socks on just before going to bed. It works better than any cough medecine!! And my husband tried it and it helped him too!!

Sunday we went to get a Christmas tree. We are very lucky we live by a ton of tree farms, so there is a lot to choose from! We ended up finding a place where any tree was no more than $20!! We ended up getting an 8 ft Douglas Fir for $15!

A few years ago, a friend of ours said we could come to her property and pick any tree for free... I was teaching a quilting class that day so I sent my husband and kids. This is what I came home to find:


I know it is hard to see the scale of the tree, but you do remember the living room I showed you a couple of posts ago... This tree covered the entire diameter of the room (my husband had to move the sofas out of the way as you can see). Our ceilings are about 22 feet high and the tree actually touched the ceiling!!

After I came in and saw this monster, I was speechless for about 10 seconds and then could only utter...NO!!!!!! How did they even get it in???!!! Within minutes many of our neighbors had heard about it and were ringing the bell to see the biggest Christmas tree in the neighborhood!! My husband ended up having to saw the tree into smaller pieces so we could discart it, and my kids still hate me for being the biggest party pooper in the whole world!!

So, now we are back to NORMAL trees...!!!

I have a dilemma I hope you can help me with... As you can see, the girls have been accumulating a good number of medals. I need some ideas on how to display them! Right now, they are hanging them on the canopy above their beds (which is actually a planter we hung upside down and then added a gauzy swiss dotted fabric). I would love to figure out a creative way to have them hang the medals, but no ideas are coming up...!!! Can someone help me? I would be so appreciative!!!!

I will be back soon with a post about my all time favorite bargain finds!!