Lazy Day

Today we didn't do much of anything.  It was very nice.  I woke up with Nick at 4 in the MORNING!  He left for work then and I couldn't get back to sleep.  So I was able to work on the garage sale stuff then and haven't touched the stuff since.  I have over 500 items priced for this silly, silly sale.  I have charities ear marked that various things are going to.  Clothing is going towards a woman's charity, books are going to our library's organization that has book sales to raise money, on and on.  Our garage sale is this coming Thursday and Friday if you are in the area and want to hang out. 

For the rest of the day we did nothing.  It was nice.  I guess I shouldn't say "we did nothing" because we did some stuff, just not much.  Our zoo has these mornings called "Member Mornings" on Saturday mornings where you can go in before the zoo opens to watch them feed the animals.  So the kids were both up by 7 and we trekked over to the zoo.  Only there were no animals.  Bummer dude.  Lions, Tigers, Crocodiles, Otters, Camels...all were down for count.  They must be in pens somewhere.  The kids were so sad.  I was kind of irritated.  But live and learn, right?

Then we went to Target.  I went to get more labels (which cost me $1.94 btw) and ended up spending quite a bit more. Whoopsie-daisie.  I did get some really good deals and I simply have to tell you about this one...

Starbucks Coffee, originally $8.99/bag was on sale for $8.49.  If you bought 3 you got a $5.00 gift card back.  Score.  THEN I had 3 $1.50 off 1 bag of coffee coupons that I used so I got 3 bags of Starbucks Coffee for $20.97 or $15.97 after you factor in the value of the gift card! That made each bag only $5.33.  I usually get Meijer's ultra cheap/on-the-verge-of-being-gross coffee for $5.99/bag so I was super, duper excited.  It's the little things, I guess. 

After we got back home I did nothing.  Well I got the job of watering the grass.  Which is dying by the way.  It makes my heart tense with sadness to have to tell you that.  Mr. Nick is not a happy camper after paying to sod our yard twice now.  He's been talking to the sod company to figure out what to do.  The good thing is that we at least have SOME grass.  They said since we have some we should be able to put some shade seed down and it should work.  Ugh.  But anyway, probably only my Aunt Jan knows, but our yard is about the size of a post stamp and it is a straight up crazy weird shape so to move a sprinkler somewhere that isn't hitting our house is, well, let's just call it a challenge, shall we? 

After that I made the awesome mistake of not even getting anything out for dinner so after our incredibly boring/unproductive day I am now sitting here writing this instead of making dinner.  I made some homemade yogurt so I wouldn't feel so bad.  It helped.  A little. 

Nick is on his way home and I made the mistake of calling him for dinner ideas.  It went something like this:

me: hey babe.  I didn't make dinner what do you want?

Nick: I don't know what do you want?

me: I don't know.  See me calling you here to ask?  (silly!)

Nick: Gyros.  I'm picking up gyros. 

yeah

The End

Lesson learned I should have said...

me: hey.  didn't make dinner.  I called an order in at Blank-blank restaurant.  Can you pick it up?

But he did have to work on Saturday so if the man wants Gyro's he should get Gyro's.  It's not that I don't like Gyro's.  I do.  Really I do.  My intestinal tract however, seems to have a different opinion. 

And on that note...Happy Saturday night!  :)

It's Been a Bust

I realized that I haven't written about my Garage Sale finds and, well, that's because I haven't had any.
Bummer Dude as my youngest sister would say. 
We went out and haven't come up with anything. 
Last weekend was the holiday weekend so I think most people weren't too into the garage sale scene.
This weekend there were a gajillion sales and I just couldn't find anything. 
I was frustrated with myself this morning because I thought maybe I was just being too picky.
But as I mulled it over during the rest of the day I came to the conclusion that there was just nothing out there for me.  Everything I saw wasn't nice.  Things were broken or incomplete.  Not for us, thank you.
So there you have it on my update as to the sale situation.
Tomorrow there is neighborhood sale with over 100 homes.  I may go but Nick has to go into work so if I do go it will be me taking the kids.  We shall see!  Have a great evening!

2 Teaching Mommies

I wanted to tell  you about this website because I was so, so excited to find it!  It's 2 Teaching Mommies!  You should totally check it out!  There are all kinds of amazing ideas for field trips, family fun nights (can't wait to have a baseball themed night at home!), devotions for little ones, and printable lessons.  Such a great, great resource. 

I know that not all of my readers are homeschoolers like I am soon to be.  But so many of these sites can be used for so many things.  Sunday School classes, playdates, time with the grandkids.  They aren't "teachy-teachy" things but more fun things to do with kids.  Such a wonderful thing! 

Anyway, hope you enjoy this site as much as I am!  I just printed off the devotional about shining like the sun with God's love and we will be starting that tomorrow morning!

Fair Time

Wednesday we made it to the fair.  We went in the middle of the day and it was very caliente, hot!  Next year we are totally going at night.  I think it's fun at night with the lights and all of the action, but it was definitely less crowded during the day which was a nice advantage.  This was also the first year that the kids could actually ride some rides together.  Last year Cal was too little and Emma was barely able to ride a couple of rides so while she rode those two rides she was tall enough we tried to console a grumpy two year old who didn't understand the concept of not being tall enough. Plus, last year Cal wasn't potty trained so we had the diaper bag, and the sippy cups, and the stroller, and on and on.  Boy what a difference a year makes!  It was nice to just go to the fair.  Just to get out of the car and go.  No gear, no bags, nothing. 

 The first thing the kids wanted to ride were these motorcycles.  Notice how happy Emma is.  She loves it. and then you have...

 Mr. Serious.  He was intent the entire time.  I really think he legitimately thought he was driving this motorcycle. It was his job and he wasn't about to take it lightly.  So cute. 

 Here's Cal with his 4-H project.  See how nicely he stayed in the lines?  NOT!  He's so cute!  This was his first year so he was excited to find his project.  Not as excited as he was to try to tear down everyone's model building projects, but still excited.  Don't worry...no models were harmed! 

 Here's Emma...she did a sewing project.  Hard to see, sorry!  It was a butterfly and when we turned it in the fair people thought there was no way she did it on her own.  I'm not the doing my 5-year old's fair project, type of Mom, you know. 

 My little hear swelled a little when the kids passed up another ride in favor of the carousel.  So many kids think they are boring but our kids LOVE them.  They watched the mechanics the entire time!  Emma picked a horse away from Cal and I was so worried she was going to fall off and die in some fiery crash.  I kept asking "Are you okay?" And by the end she sounded like a teenager answering "ugh, YES, maummm.  Leave me aloooone!"  Okay, okay.

Here are Cal and I...he's such a happy little guy!  I love his hat!  We scored it at the GAP.  If you like the GAP you should go.  They had things on sale and then an additional 40% off.  His hat was some crazy cheap price like 2.00.  Holy Moly. 

 I love these three people so much it makes my brain hurt thinking about it. 

Here is my favorite moment of the fair.  Nick took them on this ride.  I have never been on it.  My mom would never, ever let me go and as a result I am now terrified of it. But Nick wanted the kids to experience it as it was always the thing he looked forward to do (isn't that just the cutest thing?) So he took both kids up.  I was really expecting that Emma would get out there and chicken out.  But she didn't...she loved it.  She screamed the entire time coming down!  I guess as a result of me not going I got this cute picture so it was worth it.  :)

 A fair's not a fair without some weird side show race thing, right?  Here we have the "weiner dog" races...don't you just love their costumes? 

And here are the pig races.  Seriously my husband was more excited than anyone to see them and I have no idea why.  They were pretty cute though.  We had fun and then went home. 
The End.

HoW's tHiS???

Do you like this font? Is it okay to read? Sorry to put you all through the font-wringer lately. I am so not a "Times New Roman" font size 12. But it's also hard to find something that is readable on all ya'll's computers. PLUS I REALLY like the font of my title's of each blog (that's not going anywhere no matter how much anyone makes a fuss) so I want something that kind of goes with it. Ya know? Do font's really go together?
Well I'd better get going. It's my turn to do some shopping (grocery that is, yee-haw) and I need to get crackin' on my list.
Eggs and bacon till we meet again...

4th of July Fireworks

This past weekend Nick ended up having 4 days off and we did nothing. NOTHING. It was heavenly. We worked around the house, we spoiled the kids rotten, and we made tons of little family memories. The only thing on our agenda was turning down invites to picnics and people's houses...we just wanted to be together and recoop after our seemingly crazy schedule. So we did a lot of this...

Ah! I'm sad this is probably our last year for footie-pjs. There's nothing like snuggling up with a kid sporting those soft pajamas. Here he is waiting for fireworks to start.

And here they are! All together now...oooh, ahhh. It was a fun night. I love living downtown for the fact that we drove 3 blocks to see them.

Here's Emma watching...

And Cal with Daddy (and blue easter bunny...cleaverly named, right?)

So that is what we did. I did do some garage saling but found practically NOTHING! So we went to Goodwill and had a grand old time. I found the ugliest dress EVER! And bought it :) hahaha!

Hope you all had a happy 4th and did everything you wanted to do :)

Parade!

Well as I mentioned we went to a Parade on Wednesday. It's a family tradition of ours that we go down to Nick's mom and dad's and watch the parade go by their house. The kids love it. Here are some pictures of the big day...

Emma dancing...isn't she so cute? And yes folks, that is gen-u-wine shag carpeting...museums are starting to call...

Here's my boy shotgunning black olives as fast as he can get them on his little thumb. It's amazing to me how much he's looking like Nick and Emma's looking like me...weird, right?

Here we are getting ready for the parade. Believe it or not but this was the time when they were NOT getting along at all. We were having some "be by each other, but don't talk to each other, don't look at each other...just leave one another alone!!!" time

Seriously...this girl loves to pose. vogue, vogue, vogue

Their annual spot...CHEESE!

So sweet.

They both were wearing red shoes...I am thinking of blowing this pic up REALLY big and finding a place for it in our home. What do you think? I just love the simplicity of their little feet in cute little shoes out on the curb, waiting for the parade.

I try to get a picture of their profiles, side by side, every year. No idea why...it just makes my heart go pitter patter...

The parade is also the kick off to the town's fair so afterwards we walked down and got some carny good. I think the kids were a bit overwhelmed by their cotton candy.

Happy Fourth of July!

Hang in There

I am going Garage Saling by myself this morning. Super excited about that. I have such an amazing husband that is cool with sleeping and not getting up to go with me at the crack of dawn around town. But I like doing it.
Anyway, me and my punk self TRIED fixing the font but I think I made it worse than it was before. SORRY!!! Just wanted to let you know I am working on it still and I think I am going to have to call in the big guns to fix it (Nick).
Happy Friday!!!

Garage Sale Flop

Today the children and I went garage saling. There were three sales to go to so we weren't out long. Ugh, we didn't find anything. NOTHING! I was pretty bummed. But tomorrow I am going out by myself. I know I was going out Saturday but Nick is going to be off tomorrow and I am noticing that all of the sales I am interested in start tomorrow rather than Saturday. So might as well go, right? Makes sense to me!
Anyone have any big plans this weekend? We are looking forward to not much which sounds heavenly right about now!
And even though our Garage Sales were a bust today we have played in the sprinkler and had lots of fun! Happy Thursday!

Homeschool Fashion

As many of you know we have decided to homeschool Emma this upcoming year. While many (make that Many, Many, Many) people have expressed their distinct distaste in this decision, there was one distaste that stuck with me.
When we were thinking about the idea of homeschooling I was still working. Well out of home. My boss gave me this horrified look and said "you're not going to dress like them are you?" Looking back on this it makes me laugh and I can most assuredly tell you, no. No I am not going to dress like them. Whoever "them" is referring to.
But you know who she's talking about...the people who wear wood soled clogs and corduroy skirts (in my Seinfeld voice I'll back that up with not that there's anything wrong with that).
A girlfriend down the street homeschools her four children (heaven help her) and she was talking to me about homeschool fashion. She was saying that her kids can wear whatever they want because they're homeschooled and sometimes their outfits are so odd that she's sure the neighborhoods abuzz with comments.
Maybe I will be eating these words in the coming years when the aliens have scooped my brains out and left only soft, worn denim in their place, but I will not be dressing my family in this fashion. So here before God and my country I make you this pledge:
*I Lindsay-not-telling-you-my-last-name will not wear clogs
*I will not wear a corduroy skirt unless they become back into fashion in a big, big way
*My children will not wear something that came out of the swiss alps collection
*They will stay well groomed
*They will be dressed in clothes, not pajamas or something that could pass as scrubs
*Until Emma gets that streak where she refuses to wear anything I like, our children will be fashionable (well as fashionable as an old prude like me can dress someone as). After Emma insists on dressing herself, there's no telling what we are in for.

Whew. I feel so glad to have that out in the open. I will be blogging more about homeschooling as we get closer to the school year starting, aka when my head will explode and roll around on the passenger side of the car.
Amen.

FINALLY...My Saturday Finds

Good Lord, where has this week gone? I honestly cannot remember it. Wowwie. Well first of all let me give you a little recap of Saturday. Nick had to go into work so it was me with the kiddos alone to go garage saling. I was a little worried!
But it was fine. It was also nice that it wasn't somewhere that we had to go. If they acted out (meaning, Cal's pulling Emma's hair and Emma's punching Cal in the face on the ground...and yes, this HAS happened) we could just go home...it wasn't somewhere we had to be. This was all optional, folks. The kids figured out soon enough that some garage sales do not have things they want to play with and beg and beg and beg for. So they asked to stay in the car.
FINE WITH ME!
I brought some toys and their breakfast in the car so they watched mom garage sale from the comfort of their plush car seats with cup holders. Ah the life, right?
So anywho, here's our loot...it ain't much folks :)

Emma insisted on posing...this pic took years, gents, years...for some reason Vanna kept sticking her bum out inappropriately. What kind of blog does she think I'm running around here? Yeesh!
My peecture is a not a so goood, but it will work. In total I paid 8.25 for Monkeys in a Barrell (old school game), Bob the Builder slippers (never worn...kind of weird about worn shoes), 2 Gymboree dresses/outfits, magnetic "paper" dolls from Melissa and Doug, metal noise makers (I remember these from my Grandma's house when I was a little girl), a train station for Cal's train table, a yo-yo, a creepy clown Pez dispenser (that was in a free box!), flash cards, two paint with water books (those suckers are HARD to find in the store!), a couple of stuffed monkeys, and a small Superman and Cinderella. Not bad, right? Nothing that was "shockingly good" in the deal department but oh well.
It was also 50% off day at the Goodwill so we went there...to one. Here's what we got for $5.00...

That's a RL Polo (ebay), a Fisher Price stove (Ebay), A wire basket (any ideas for this folks? I saw something like this in The Farm Chick's Christmas Book with some red thing in it at Christmas...maybe I'll do that???), a few books (PTL the Children are bookies), and Toy Story bath toys...which aren't squirty so I could sanatize the crap out of them! muhahahahah!
Here in Hicksville, Today is garage saling day again today and I have no idea if I am going out again or not. We'll see how the kiddos wake up. And Saturday Nick doesn't work...did you hear me? Is this thing on? SATURDAY the man doesn't work. He's already said I could go on my own. I feel so grown up. I secretly am pretty sure he just doesn't want to get out of bed to go with me, which I understand :)
BTW, a Funny story...When we go by houses this is what Cal says (please repeat this for every house you have in your mind we drive by...) "That garage sales closed". At first I thought yep, no garage sale there. But then I realized that he calls Garage DOORS, Garage SALES. So their garage DOORS are closed. Silly kid. He makes me laugh. People probably think he's a real bargain hunter searching for those garage SALES. :)
Happy Thursday!

Parade

Well Blogger is having some technical issues (what else is new?) so I can't upload the picture of the parade from last year...it's so cute :( Oh well. :) Tonight is the parade we go to every year. The kids are super duper excited! I'll post some pictures of it :) Happy Wednesday!

Thursday Garage Sale Finds

Well here we are...everything we got at the sales...I was so excited when I got home and realized how little I spent for so much!

Here is a picture of EVERYTHING! Well Everything except a shield we got for Cal. He is so in the sword phase and the poor guy's been toting around a serving tray as a makeshift shield. So the kid needed a shield for 50 cents!

Do you like these gals? The kids love Pez so we've kind of started collecting them simply because we have so many of them. Cinderella and Princess Leia for 10 cents each!

Oodles and boodles of clothes! I got a gymboree shirt for a buck (to ebay), three pairs of jammies for Cal for 5o cents each, a gymnasts outfit for Emma for $3, and pair of jeans for Em for 50 cents.

An American Girl Molly book for 50 cents and these little Christmas bears that make music together and their little bells light up for 50 cents

Cal liked this superman for 50 cents. Nick said they had a Spierman and a Batman too but they were mean looking...is this really the happy looking one out of the bunch?

Other things we got included a Fisher Price Race track ($1), a little wooden racing track thingy ($1) , a metal filing box ($3)...old and vintage and cool, 3 puzzles for 50 cents each and an Incredibles guy for 10 cents.

Well I think that is about it. The only upsetting thing was that we found this gigantic tub of Barbies...it was HUGE and spilling over. It had 4 vintage cases, all kinds of clothing storage boxes, and little fold open houses for Barbies. There were tons of Barbies, clothes, shoes, accessories...everything you could ever want. Well they wanted $20.00. Saying it now it sounds CRAZY...but I thought it was kind of pricey so I called Nick over to look. He told me to pass it up.

Well we kept saling and then I kept thinking of the Barbies. Afterall Emma's starting to get into Barbies and anything she didn't want I could sell or donate or SOMETHING, right? I mean one Barbie outfit was $6.00 so for all of that I thought it was a steal! Well we went back and it was gone. G.O.N.E. Gone. I was crushed. I had really wanted those 1960's cases. But oh well. What's done is done, right? Nick assured me that I will stumble across more Barbies and I am sure he is right.

So that's it. I've got the kids cereal in to-go containers, smoothie ingredients in the blender glass in the refrigerator, and my to-go coffee cup is next to the coffee maker ready to go. Hopefully we have luck tomorrow and I'll have even more to show you!

Thursday Garage Sales

I've gotta tell ya, I was totally naive when it came to garage saleing. I believe it was last summer when I was talking to my Aunt Jan about garage sales. She was telling me about after work sales. And we were talking about Wednesday being a popular day for sales. How weird, right? For some reason my pea-sized brain had only been able to comprehend Saturday as a garage sale day.

Well I remembered that conversation this year and started paying more and more attention to Thursday sales.

In our area they are actually really, really popular. And for those brave souls who have a 3 day sale (thursday, friday, and Saturday), their best stuff will still be there.


On a side note I can not imagine having a three day garage sale. If you've ever had a garage sale you know that by the first day you are utterly exhausted, wanting to fall to your knees screaming "why God, why?"




Then you have to do it another day. So I can't even imagine doing it for three days.




Anywho, this past Thursday Nick and I took Cal to go garage saleing. And why you ask?




Well I found this awesome blog, Yard Sale Mommy. You have to check it out. I want her life. Well I pretty much have it, but I want her and I to be BFF. We can talk about Kit dolls, and drink Mountain Dew...and garage sale of course silly.


I found her blog through a website I've been going to for a coon's age (like to add hillbilly lingo juuuust to make sure you're listening). That website is Money Saving Mom...which helps you save money as a mom...just in case you can't put two and two together on your own.





Anyway, Yard Sale Mommy (whose name is Jen btw) goes out Saturday mornings and hits up the sales for cute things to ebay and for her kids. Looking at her finds inspired me to get out there and get shopping!





So that is just what Nick and I did yesterday. We took $60.00 out of the bank and we didn't even break into it...just some spare wadded up monies I found at the bottom of the purse were used. And we found so much stuff! It's scattered ALL over the house now with clothes being in the laundry and the kiddos playing with things. I will get a picture together for you. And you will see the awesomeness that is upon us, muhahahahah!


Anyway, it's the little things that make me happy I guess! I am planning on going out tomorrow Garage Saling but here's the kicker...Nick has to work. So that means I will be schlepping the kiddo's around with me. Here are my ideas for how to handle this:


I invited my college age sisters. Or should I say Seesters? Anyway it's not looking good on that front as, you know, they have lives and all.


I've kicked around the idea of dragging around my grandma...exnay on the ringbay randmagay. Did I Pig Latin that right?


Third option is to throw them in the car in pj's, buy a box of glazed doughnuts and just leave them in the car...but then I have to deal with glazed dough goo everywhere and sugar induced coma children when I get home. Hmmm...


My final option here is to take them with me and hope and pray and beg and threaten and plead for them to be good. This will probably be what I will do.

We are also going to a sale at a neighboring college. I usually wait in line at insane times for the best selection but for some reason the kids don't like standing in a line for hours at a time in the dead of night. Weird, right? So we are going later...later is 9ish. I am totally expecting that nothing will be left but then again something might be there, right? Maybe?

I so wish that my husband didn't have to work weekends. It just kills me and makes me not feel nice. It sucks to speak not so lady-like. But then again, he only works every other weekend and he is here and he has a job and it is fine. See? I can talk myself out of complaining...I just need to start talking myself out of complaining before I'm complaining.

Anyway, happy Friday evening. I'll try to find the scattered pieces of garage sale finds and take a pic or two!