The Thrifty Queen Speaks

A Short Break

The Thrifty Queen — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 23:20:41 +0000

Hi All! Just wanted to let everyone know that I am going to be on a short break for about a week. We moved into our new house and I have LOTS of work to do. Plus, we have no internet at this point and won’t for a little while. Hopefully I will be back on schedule with my posts very soon!

Twig by Twig

The Thrifty Queen — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:19:20 +0000

With the changing of the seasons, it is time for a change around here as well. I have decided to quit posting exclusively on The Thrifty Queen Speaks and start a new blog called Twig by Twig. My new blog will incorporate more than just thrifty deals, but will have a different theme for each day of the week. I have decided to use my background in human development and family science and individual and family wellness to create a broader line of topics. But don’t worry, every Thursday will be devoted to The Thrifty Queen. So please come over and join me on Twig by Twig. I would love to see all of you!!

Here is rundown of the different themes for each day of the week:

Monday–Make It, Bake It, or Fake It

Tuesday–Money Talks

Wednesday–DIY Day

Thursday–The Thrifty Queen Speaks

Friday–Family Matters

My goal is to make the blog almost like a Home Ec. class for adults. Maybe you took a home ec. class in junior high or high school, but you don’t really remember any of it. Maybe you have never taken any classes even remotely similar, but you want to learn some basic home making skills. You will find it at Twig by Twig! So come on over and follow me! And pass it on! Happy Friday!!

An Update

The Thrifty Queen — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:45:17 +0000

Back about a month ago, I posted about the pending sale of our Minot house and ended with a picture of the new house that we would be purchasing in Fargo. Unfortunately, there were some major issues with the closing of the Minot (I won’t get into it because it still makes me mad), which meant that we had to back out of buying the Fargo house. It was an extremely stressful few weeks and we ended up having to get an apartment in 1 day and quickly unloading our moving trucks to get them back to the rental company.

Fortunately, it all worked out in the end, but it was very stressful. We closed on our Minot house on Friday…a huge relief. As of right now, this is how it all looks…

Instead, our new dwelling looks like this for the short term (but, there is a bunch of snow surrounding it)!!

Hopefully, though, we will be purchasing a new home in Moorhead, which means changing our residency to Minnesota. We found a really great one that look like it might be the one and is much closer to Luke’s school. It reminds us just a bit of our lovely Forest House and we felt very at home the first time we walked in! Fingers crossed (and a few prayers) that this one will work out and we can pack up (again!) and settle in. Hopefully for the long haul this time!!

Here is a picture of the house that will quite possibly be ours at the end of March! Can you sense the cautious optimism?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The Thrifty Queen — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 15:54:16 +0000

With love to all my friends, family, and blog followers! Hope you all have a wonderful day today and get to eat lots of chocolate!

You Rock!

The Thrifty Queen — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 02:23:06 +0000

For Luke’s first Valentine’s Day at his new school, we decided to take an idea from Pinterest to create a fun Valentine treat for his classmates. In 5th grade, it is difficult to come up with an idea that is not too dorky or immature for Valentine’s Day, but I think we came up with something fun, but not too “cutesy”!

One great thing that his class is doing tomorrow is hosting a Random Acts of Kindness Brunch where they will be making and serving waffles at the school. I will be going to help with the process and plan to bring my camera! What a great way to teach students the importance of doing kind things for others!

Tomorrow night we are getting together with some friends for a family Valentine dinner. It will be a busy, but very fun day!

Hiawatha Hill House

The Thrifty Queen — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:14:10 +0000

I was asked this morning if I had pictures of the Hiawatha Hill House after all the remodeling was done, but before we started packing up. Fortunately, I had taken the pictures right before we had it listed for sale. Thought I would put them on here so everyone could see the end result.

This house project was a lot of work, but it feels good to know that we are leaving it to the new owners in such a pretty and updated state. I always love to leave something in better shape than I found it!

We will begin the loading up of boxes tonight into the trailer and then we will get the UHaul truck tomorrow at noon. The furniture and all the rest will be loaded up then and we will be heading out of town on Sunday. It still doesn’t seem real! It should with the million boxes and tons of stuff everywhere, but it just hasn’t hit me that in two days we will be starting our new adventure.

Anyone care to see a sneak peak of the new house that we will be moving into (hopefully next week)? Well, whether you want to or not…here she is!!!

Ch..ch..ch..changes!

The Thrifty Queen — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:53:58 +0000

I haven’t been on here for a while because my time has been filled up with MOVING plans! We are moving more than halfway across the state of North Dakota next Sunday and the packing is brutal. Even though I got rid of a ton of stuff after the flood, we have way too much stuff as evidenced by this picture!

This is a very small amount of our stuff and there is so much left to pack up, but it is coming together. If all goes as planned, we will be packing a U-Haul truck next Saturday and then making the trek on Sunday. We are scheduled to close on the house here on January 30 and the new house in Fargo on January 31.

We are very sad to leave our friends and family in our hometown area after being back here for 10 years. We have established amazing friendships that have forever changed our lives and we are so grateful for the opportunities we have had in Minot.

What we have realized in all of this is that plans for your life change (and some times quickly). We didn’t ever plan to leave Minot and had intended to be here forever, but the flood and job changes for Ryan changed that in the blink of an eye. We decided that a fresh start would be good for our family, a time to heal and to try new opportunities. While it is hard to say goodbye, we are looking forward with expectation of great things to come!

And who knows, maybe I will come up with some fresh ideas for The Thrifty Queen Speaks! There are some awesome thrift stores in Fargo…

Elf on the Shelf — Day 19

The Thrifty Queen — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:08:30 +0000

You may be wondering what happened to days 15-18. I got a little busy (with the end of the semester) and didn’t have time for any pictures, but Mr. Elf spent some time stuck in a candy jar, hanging from the Advent calendar, and a few other places that right now have slipped my mind.

Mr. Elf is back and not really enjoying life much today. The Lego guys thought we had an intruder and tied him up with some dental floss. It took quite a few Lego men to get Mr. Elf all tied up! Good thing he is still smiling!!

Elf on the Shelf — St. Nicholas Day!

The Thrifty Queen — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:20:17 +0000

Happy St. Nicholas Day!!!

Elf on the Shelf- Days 10, 11, 12

The Thrifty Queen — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:02:51 +0000

**I missed a couple of days of posting so am catching up with Mr. Elf’s adventures!!**

Day 10, just hanging out in the flowers!

Day 11, napping!

Day 12, stuck in a skate!