Friday...

    We don't normally have the step-daughter on Fridays, so today, it was a joy to still have her around instead of sending her off to her mother's Thursday afternoon.  We had to send her off late this afternoon... SAD FACE :( ... but we got her most of the day.  The only problem was that she wouldn't look for much for herself. So she didn't get anything except these little baby shower favors she liked. She's an amazing kid, at that point where she is trying to be responsible and grow up but hold on to her childhood too. She's absolutely obsessed with Justin Bieber at the moment ... then again, what 13 year old girl isn't obsessed with him right now?.... and she has this Justin Beiber singing doll... she paired it with her prettiest Barbie... which she says is her... and the baby shower favors she bought today were their "twins" together.
         This set me rolling. I think this is THE one dumbest thing she has bought so far. It comes right up there with those fake press on nails she is not allowed to have, but she wastes the money she makes walking the neighbor's dog on them anyway, even though they get thrown away as soon as we find them.
    Anyway, I realize that she is trying to hold on to her "kid-dom", but geez... spending $2 on baby shower favors when she refused to look for clothes for herself and wouldn't even touch the books? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. haha  
     Normally I would look for her ( and in truth, I did, even though I said I wasn't going to) but we are trying to help her with her independance. She is so dependant on us for everything. She won't even walk 5 feet from us to order her own soda or something little like that. It's a scary world out there, but this is the time when you start helping your kids with that, right?  So, the only thing she got were those little baby shower toys. I found several pairs of acceptable shoes for her... I say acceptable because we have just let her into heels. Less than 2 inches if they are spike heels and up to 4 inches if they are wedges. They grow up WAY too fast these days. I'm still pretty young and I didn't get heels til I was 15. I also grew up in a Southern Baptist home back in Maryland, where everything is crazy different.  Anyway, I would rather give her some heels and still have her naive on the sex thing. LOL  I also found several shirts and a couple skirts and a book she would have loved, even though she doesn't like reading much. We have some troubles there... stupid California school system. They are very lax here. BUT she refused to look. I guess she'll learn eventually.

     On to what this blog is really about. We went to one of our normal thrift stores, Lighthouse for the Blind on Baseline Ave in San Bernardino. Everything in the store was 50% off. SCORE.   Apparently it is that way on several Fridays per month. Awesome for me to know. :D  
      I found some gorgeous rice paper flowers from Thailand - - - - $4 for 2 different colors, about 35 flowers in all, I think.

They are going to be alot of random things in the end, from hair accessories, to hat desorations, to I'm not sure what else yet.
     I also found 4 books - two for myself - Tuck Everlasting... about a family who accidentally drank from a "fountain of eternal life" and are now living with the blessing... or curse... it bestowed upon them. This book was 38 cents.

And the Cottage Journal - It has seperate small writing spaces for each day of the year. I found an entry in the very back where a woman was praying for help in saving her house and hoping the brother she lost to cancer had been accepted into the Lord's Kingdom. I really hope everything worked out for her. This book was $1.50.

One for my fiance "Tales from the Crypt". He's into skulls and reapers and dark things. He even has skulls, reapers, and the Cryptkeeper tattooed on his body. Maybe I will post pictures of that one day. This book was 25 cents.

  


And "The Care and Keeping of You" that I'm going to make the kid read... as it's embarassing to answer those questions sometimes when she has no basic knowledge at all about her growing body. This book was 75 cents.

    BUT, the toast of this store was the painting I found behind the register on the way out. I already had my subtotal when I spotted this amazing piece. I simply love it. It was originally marked at $29.95, but it had been there long enough to get marked down to $19.95, which meant today it was 50% off of that... $9.95. We didn't have much left though, so I was about to put everything back and just get that painting when my fiance called the manager over and asked her if we could have it for $7. She gave it to me for $7!!! I was so happy, I could have died!
     Warning, this is ART... there is a set of bewbs... but it's not supposed to be considered adult content, because it's art or whatever. I wasn't going to post it, but I love it so much I can't bear not to share it. Here it is.... ---------------

As you can see, I already hung it up, next to my small collection of hats on one side and porcelain masks on the other.

          Well, I severely need to get to bed. I have two more stores to tell you about, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Watch out for Friday, Partv Deux!  (That's 2 in French)