One man's trash...

This week has been an amazing one for my house.
I have so much furniture... when I had practically none before!

Craigslist has been my best friend.
We found a free couch, 3 free TVs, and a massive curio cabinet that we're using as an entertainment center.
The couch is old, and I don't really care for it, but for now it's something to sit on.
The TVs were all sitting on the street corner, and they all work perfectly. I was able to put one in Allison's bedroom and build her a shelf for all of her VHS movies. Yay hammer skills!
The cabinet is just gorgeous. It stretches along the entire wall and up to the ceiling. The detail on it is amazing. It looks high end... and we got it for free because it's missing a couple shelves... that I can easily get made for a few dollars and stain myself. I'm so excited! It even has built-in lights. I've never had anything like it before.

The house down the street has been vacant for a month, and someone came in and gutted it out. All the furniture and clothing was thrown in a huge pile in the middle of the driveway. We watched it for a day, and nobody came to collect anything, so we went and looked through everything. We found a rocking chair for the girls, two side tables, a swivelling barstool, a suede jacket, and a purse with a long gold chain. I removed the chain and made it into a necklace. It's gorgeous.

So our house is getting a make-over.

It's been a month since we reported that our water-damaged floor needs replaced, the doors won't close, and seals on all of the plumbing are leaking. It took 2 weeks for someone to come in, rip up the carpet, and take pictures. It's been over 2 weeks since that, the carpet is still ripped up, we haven't used the master bathroom in a month, and they told us not to do laundry until the floor was fixed.
Nobody has come by at all to do the repairs. It's really frustrating. We go to the office every few days to remind them that we can't access a good chunk of our home, and they always say 'Today, maybe Tomorrow.' It's ridiculous.


Anyway...
Today we took the kids to a private Christmas party on the plaza and they got to see Santa and get their first presents. It was cute. They got their pictures taken and faces painted. All the kids there were dressed up.. and Allison was wearing a skull and crossbones shirt...
but Santa gave them great books and candy...
It was a fantastic day.

We pinned down the carpet and put our Christmas tree over the hole in the floor, rearranged all of the furniture, and turned on the Feliz Navidad lights. We bought the gifts for the kids, and I'm excited for them to go to bed so I can wrap them all.

I bought wrapping paper yesterday, and my kids saw the paper in the car, so I told them that mommies and daddies had to buy paper to send to Santa so he can wrap the presents... so the lies begin.

Since Christmas is right around the corner, I've started introducing the Bible to the girls and telling them the story of baby Jesus. Allison heard 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' on the radio... and lately she's been getting really excited and yelling "Jesus is coming to town!" She's a bit confused. She keeps getting excited and saying she wants to see Jesus.

So.. That's where I'm at now.
Great week.