Thankful Thursday

In honor of Father's Day, my Dad is what I am thankful for this week. Thanks for being such a big supporter of me!

Garage Sale Love

A nearby community is having community garage sales tomorrow and I am excited to get my hands on some bargains aka treasures. As in "one man's junk is a another man's treasure". Here are some past treasures I have found.

Super cute dress for 2 dollars!

I have also held a few garage sales myself. Here are some tips for a successful garage sale.

1. Hold your sale during a community or nieghborhood sale. You will get tons more foot traffic=more sales. If you are going to put forth the effort of setting up a sale you want to sell as much as possible and this is the easiest way
2. Use a Dot system to label items. When I had my sale I had tons of baby/kids clothes. People like to have the prices on items so to save time I used a system of colored dots. Yellow=25 cents, Pink=50 cents, Orange=1 dollar. Then you just put up some signs to explain the colors. Or, if you are really code with making labels off your computer you just make a bunch of labels. If you do this you can also add initials. Which is great if you are having a multi-family sale
3. Advertise- Craigslist, Newspaper, etc
4. Signage- Make sure there are good signs pointing people to your sale
5. Put some bigger items outside....this attracts the drive by garage salers to come in.
6. Have food/drinks. I haven't tried this but I have read/heard of other people having success with it. Get the kiddos involved, have sell lemonade and cookies. Who can resist that :)

Batch Cooking

So...I love summer! We are super buzy this summer with swim lessons, soccer, volleyball, and just plain being outside enjoying the long days. The last thing I wanna do is come home from work and be in the kitchen. So, to speed up the time in the kitchen I am trying a concept I found on another blog called Batch Cooking. Basically I just cook a whole bunch of stuff at one time and freeze the rest. This hopefully will clear up some cooking/clean up time for fun time during the week. It's also a good way to be frugal, I bought a 5.5 lb package of ground beef for around 10 bucks and I stay away from take out or eating out.

This Week I Made:

A loaf of French Toast: It freezes really well and I love me some Brinner.....breakfast for dinner :)
Bacon
Hulled two pints of Strawberries
Taco Meat
Spaghetti Sauce
Lasagna
An Overnight Blueberry French Toast bake recipe that I wanted to try. (yes I really like french toast)
I was going to make Banana Bread but I didn't get to it....I was too tired

My little Helper Chef Audrey

I am a runner

Audrey and I ran the Bellin 10K race in Green Bay yesterday. Wow it has huge! And when I say huge I mean I started the race when the winners finished.....it took 20 minutes to get to the start. There was around 18,000 runners/walkers. I wish I would have remembered my camera. I was in a rush to get to the registration tent after trying to find a place to park.

Here is a picture in the car after the race

Audrey got a cool shirt too!

I decided to make a little medal display for my running medals. Displaying the hardware baby. I broke out my cricut and cut some vinyl letters and used command hooks that I found on clearance at my favorite store here in town.....Walgreens. 

 

Then I decided to organize my race bibs by laminating them and making a little book. I love my laminator. I got off of amazon when they had a deal and it was super cheap. Like the  laminating sheets are more expensive than the machine

Running helps me stay in shape and keep my sanity....even though some people think I am crazy to run long distances. But, I do half marathons so I am only half crazy! haha 

Thankful Thursday

So, I am kinda of a Oprah fan. Not really a fanatic just an occasional viewer and fan of her magazine. She is big on gratitude and so is the writer over at another blog I like to read the http://www.happiness-project.com/

Here is my Thankful Proclamation for the www

I am Thankful for my weekly Volleyball games at the Log Cabin. Good Times with friends....and if we win we get a six pack of beer a piece! Yes, I am from Wisconsin and I love beer especially on a hot day. We haven't been winning but I still have been having fun. Last night was kinda of a family affair. My kids plus some other players kiddos were there and grandparents and friends....all too watch a bunch of old people try not to get hurt and get the ball over the net.

Which brings to my family.... I am so thankful to be the Mom to my little ones. They are both high energy but also tons of fun! I love there budding sense of humor and the bond they have with each other....even if they are fighting about every 15 minutes. I also am thankful to be married to the most loyal supportive man around....I couldn't do it without him. He is always there to give me a hand when I am about to lose it! Love you Guys!

Look What I made!

Since Audrey is a destined to be a princess or diva.... I think she is the most girly girl around. I am dusting up my sewing skills from my 4-H days. I really like pillowcase dresses and found one made out of fat quarters here Fat Quarter Pillow Case Dress

I had found some really cute fat quarters that I picked up from JoAnn Fabrics. They came in a bundle or coordinating colors and think they are perfect for summer. So here is the finished product.

 Not the best picture, sorry. Having fun is the Sand at Marley's restaurant in the Dells. More about that later

I kinda messed up the armholes and the seams weren't perfectly matched up.... probably would have gotten a pink ribbon at the fair. It's hard to sew without your Mom there to help.

I love the colors, she loves it and it will keep her cool on these hot days we are having!

Our New Ride.....Fuel Economy for a Family

I got a new car! My old car was a Buick Rendezvous and I loved it. It was the perfect size for us and got decent MPG. However, it was getting up there in the miles and needed a few repairs.....mirror, shocks, etc.

I also am not a mini van Mom....they are nice for larger families but we are not ready to go there yet. Two is about all I can handle. Rule #1: No Mini Van

Being environmentally consious....more like trying to be economical these days with 4 dollar gas...my husband and I wanted something with really good MPG. I also didn't want to spend over 20,000 on a car. We though about the hybrids. But, since they are all high priced and according the some article my husband read they don't perform as well fuel effeciant wise in the winter. Not good for us since winter lasts at least 5 months a year here in Northern Wisconsin.

So, with a little research we found the Toyota Corolla and took it for a test drive with the kids along. Good tactic for getting in and out of the dealership :) I also suggest it to make sure their is room for the car seats. The corolla was a great roomy ride. Very quiet and smooth over the giant potholes that are also common place in Wisconsin. Good resale value nice car overall.
Next, we decided to drive the  Hyudai Sonata. I was wowed, it looked really cool on the inside compared to the plain Jane Corolla interior. Also I am really impressed with the engine performance. It does not drive like a four cylinder at all! Watch out for this Mama! The one we found is indigo blue....really dark blue almost purple. I love the color and so does princess Audi. I am a little worried about the roominess but am willing to sacrifice that for the money savings we will get from the fuel economy and the bigger SUV types are out of the price range right now.

Owen's last day of 4-K . Fell asleep at 6:45 hasn't moved yet. We can't believe how much he has grown in the past year! We love the 4 K program!