Suspension!

My senior son was suspended from school (on assault charges) for 10 days! 

He has a hearing before Nov 13, to determine if he can return to school.
 
Why?

Because he stood up for his younger sister, when another young man who has been bullying her since school started, started calling her a liar - right where was my son was standing.

What makes this worse - is that we go to church with this family.  And this young man and my son have already been involved once before in something similar, because this same young man shoved another girl into the door extremely hard (thus hurting her) on his way (he was shoving everyone) to get to dessert that night at youth group.

I am not denying that my son did this - he and his sister told us right away what happened.  However, given this young man's actions in the past (ugly things said to her and to her friends, hitting her in the face with his binder, zip-tying her backpack shut and to the desk)...

can we blame my son for responding the way he did?

We have decided that there is no punishment for him being suspended - as he was standing up to a bully in defense of his sister.

You know - he may not be the perfect child.  As a matter of fact, he has been acting like quite a jerk lately, but he did what was right - when it was needed...

and that is what matter the most.

No sewing here...again...

Mostly because my kitchen is non-exsistant - except for my stove and microwave.

We are using paper dishes, instead of doing dishes for 8 people, 3 times daily in the bathtub. 

But - it was bad.  We had to remove all the cabinets on the wall where the leak, which was in the celing near the water heater, all the drywall, all the insulation, and the obviously the countertop, dishwasher and sink. 

We only have to replace the drywall and insulation.  The cabinets only need the hardboard at the back of them replace.  And all the wood holding the cabinets to the wall and floor.

Not too bad, moneywise...but the stress from going to one leak, to the next, combined with my A+ exams in not good.  So, I won't be doing much sewing this week, while I study full time for my exams.

So...on to more studying...

More leaks...

Sewing?  Sewing?  The only sewing going on here was for Halloween (thank you stitch witchery!) - with pictures coming at Halloween. 

I did finish my Haiwian blouse (with no stitch witchery).

But leaks?  Those seem to exist at random in our home.

The latest?  The huge leak spray that was in the ceiling.  In the kitchen.  Above the water heater.  That has been there for so long that there is wet insulation.  Wet drywall.  Wet everything.

I am cutting out a muslin to Simplicity 2508.  I am cutting out the green jacket on the left front.  I have decided which sleeve yet.  So I will make it up with both the straight sleeve and the gather sleeve.  Then I will decide.

I have several things to make while tweaking the coat.  A dress and blouse for my mom.  2 new shirts for my A.

Oh.  and a wall to fix.

Where have I been?

At home.  And not sewing.

We have fixed the leak, via our neighbor who is a contractor (and he would only charge me for parts!), re-tiled, re-grouted, caulked, sealed, re-drywalled, taped & mudded all seams, matching the texture as well as possible, primed, and am now finally painting the family room and bathroom!

I have managed to get the other sleeve on my Halloween Haiwaiin shirt (which is also a muslin for some other pretty fabric for the winter - note to self - add 2" to the length of the shirt) and I have tailored MD's new work pants (heaven forbid they be too baggy!).  That is it sewing wise.

Fortunately, husband has been home to work on this - yesterday and today have been the only 2 days I have actually worked on this repair - otherwise I have been studying.

Oh - and repairing the wall where the cabinet fell off in my sewing room (we won't talk about how the previous owners were NOT very good at home improvement things)...and replaced the cabinets with some nice shelving.  Which I like even better than the cabinet!

Sewing posts hopefully coming up in the next few days!

What I did today (and yesterday) and YES! it involved some sewing!

I cooked more all day yesterday:

15lbs of ground beef
3 lbs ground sausage
1 ham (which we ate partly for dinner and froze enough for 2 more meals)
1 turkey breast
5 lbs round steak (now shredded)
5 lbs fish

Everything is now frozen in our new freezer (thank you Lowe's and their next day delivery!).

So then I sewed!  3 new knit shirts for my younger boys!  Yeah!

And this afternoon, I had a client show up quickly with a bridesmaid dress for a wedding (she was an emergency substitution) to be altered before Wednesday!  Almost done - all I have left to do is move the zipper some and then it will fit perfect!

So - I got to sew!  Yea!!!!!  Go me!

And now?  I'm taking a break from studying...

and the "replacing the drywall and re-tiling project that has to be done now because of water damage"...

No sewing going on here - just cooking, cooking, cooking....

Yep - nothing but cooking.

Our freezer is dying.  We inherited it from my husband's father last year when he died.  We really didn't realize how old it was until we starting adding the years together while on the way to buy a new one - it was almost 20 years old!

Anyway - I caught it tonight, as I went to get tortillas out for dinner tonight (bean burritos).  2/3 of my freezer was thawed!  UGH!!!

Needless to say, with the help of 4 ice chests, very nice neighbors, and a little re-arranging of my 2nd freezer (hey, with 6 kids, what do you expect - this one is full of veggies, cheese, and pork), we were able to store most things.

Tonight, we went and bought a new freezer - from Lowe's!  They offer free next day delivery with hauling away of the old freezer, plus they gave us a 10% discount on the price of the freezer because my husband was in his military uniform (he was coming home from work and didn't change so we could go and buy the freezer right then)!

The new freezer will be here tomorrow morning - and ready to add food hopefully by late tomorrow night - or Monday morning.

Tonight we cooked:
8 lbs of ground beef
12 chicken breasts
1 whole chicken
2 pizzas
4 stuffed baked potatoes
8 pork chops
2 steaks
2 hamburgers

and the ham is still in the roaster - it was only partially thawed - so it will be there through the night cooking.

They did eat the pizzas - and 1 of the steaks!

Tune into tomorrow for what we cook on Sunday!