Weekend Report 8/8/11

Its DMV day to renew my license and capture for the next several years the wonderful image of my pimple. Seriously, I don't care. My new mantra ~ Be Who You Are ~ means I'm accepting myself entirely for who I am at this very moment.

DH tells me, they no longer allow you to smile for your picture. My non smiling face looks like I'm really pissed off. I'm thinking about intensifying my eyes and making it really creepy. Why not have fun with it, right?

This past weekend was very full. Friday was garage sales & fish fry with the family & DMIL. Saturday was more garage sales, lunch out with the fam, supper out with my sis, seeing my nephew at his jazz gig. Sunday we attended our friend's Eagle Scout Court of Honor.

I didn't really find anything cool at the garage sales, but DS12 found 3 gallon sized bags full of bouncy balls for his collection for a $1, DS15 found a Gameboy game.

DS15 filmed our garage sale Cootie game. Have you ever done this? You pick up something from a free box and move it to another garage sale without the owner noticing. DS15 picked up a free blue book at the library book sale and later placed the book on a table of books for sale at another garage sale. You do this covertly of course! Later, the owner will be cleaning up after their sale is over and wonder how this book got there. Its a little bit sneaky and maybe a little mean, but it really doesn't hurt anyone. Most people in our town box everything up that didn't sell and give it to Goodwill.

Speaking of DS15's filming, he's really surprising me, delving into aspects of making a film I hadn't considered. For instance, he's created his own movie poster and painted a sign promoting his film which is now sitting outside our house for those driving by to see. I think its awesome he's thought through to the marketing stage of things!

Well, I better get moving here. Have a great Monday!

Weekend Notes 8/8/10

Friday morning DS11 & I saw these mushrooms while on our daily walk. They just sprang up in this family's yard over night. I'm jealous. Any mushroom spores who are looking for a place to land, my yard is open.

Our village had their garage sale weekend, and this year we decided to be bargain hunters rather than sellers. I'd rather just drop off our castoffs at Goodwill than deal with all the work that goes into having your own sale.

Thursday morning I woke the boys up early at 8:00am and taught them the meaning to the saying, "the early bird gets the worm. " In this case, it was the early teenagers get the Nerf guns. We found two awesome Nerf guns with original packaging and Nerf darts marked $8 a piece. We found a mini version of Uno, a few game guides and talked the sellers down to $15 for the lot. Not bad for our first sale of the weekend. One of the Nerf guns is going for $60 on the resell market, but we're just going to enjoy playing with it. I think its crazy how many attachments these guns have, and how you can reconfigure them.

Friday G-Ma arrived to continue garage sale-ing with us. We didn't find any great deals but enjoyed stretching our legs and adding a few more miles to our daily walking total.

Friday evening we had our cousins over to hang out after pizza supper and enjoyed brownies and scones.

Saturday morning DH, G-Ma and I hit up the other side of town to do more sale-ing. First stop was the library's used book sale where I picked up another Series Of Unfortunate Events book for my collect, a Wisconsin almanac and a favorite picture book we enjoyed when the boys were little.

We found a few more treasures including a box full of Yu-Gi-Oh cards for DS11 and a sword for DS14. Yes, a real sword. The handle appears to be silver and the blade stainless steel. We are trying to figure out what the letters inscribed on the handle mean. I can't yet identify what language it is. It could be Russian or eastern European. Both these finds were unbelievable bargains. That always adds to the fun.

We took a break from sale-ing, picked up the boys and went to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Mi Cocina.

We ran some errands, picking up wall anchors for our window hardware. Yes, the drapes arrived on Friday and I love them. Hopefully once they are all hung, it will look great. They are light blocking and insulating, and we went with a dark brown suede. Once I get the Love Nest complete, I'll take pictures.

Saturday night the family got into a cut throat game of Monopoly with G-Ma. It had been quite awhile since we had played. I had forgotten how competitive my husband can get! DS14 won once we established a cut off time after playing for several hours.

Sunday woke us with thunderstorms, which would have been more enjoyable if it wasn't so hot and humid again. We had to close the house back up and put the air on. I feel a little less worried doing this after seeing our electric bill wasn't too high from last month's heat wave. I had DS11 open the bill and tell me what the damage was. I thought it would hurt less coming from him. :) I asked him, is the first number a 1, a 2 or a 3? Thankfully he said 1 and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I still hope August isn't as hot as July was, but it doesn't have that repetition, does it.

  

Its official. I'm a coffee drinker.....

I blame my sister for corrupting me. For years, although I enjoyed the smell of coffee brewing, I didn't like the taste. Tea was the hot beverage of my choice. Then last year she bought me my first mocha from Starbucks. Chocolate does make everything better doesn't it?

I became an occasional drinker of lattes, although I pinched my pennies and steered clear of Starbucks, stopping at Kwik Trip gas stations instead. I've now taken another step down this dark, java path. I brewed my own pot!

My mom had bought me a little coffee pot to keep on hand for when she visits. I brought it out while DMIL was here and this morning she made herself a little pot of French Caramel Cream Decaf. It smelled so good. She wasn't gone an hour before I decided to brew another pot and give it a try. I added a shot of soy milk and wallah, for around the price of .25, hug in a cup!

DMIL was here babysitting the boys. Last night DH and I headed to Milwaukee to catch the Kids In The Hall show. It was a good time although the experience was marred by the shock of stopping at the box office to pick up our Joe Jackson tickets come to find out they weren't there! We checked when we got home and yes, our Visa card was charged. DH also has the email confirming the ticket sale including seat numbers. I'm really hoping there are tickets waiting for us at will call or we'll both be very disappointed. I'm worried they screwed up and gave our tickets away! I don't want a refund. I want my 6th row seat in front of Joe's Piano!!  DH will call tomorrow to try and straighten it all out. The show's on the 21st.

I did a little "saleing", (not sailing), with DMIL before the date night. We scored at the first garage sale open for the season.  I found a dozen Tupperware containers that will make excellent Letterboxes, and DMIL bought for us an early anniversary present, really nice patio chairs and cushions. I'm on the hunt for a patio table now!

Unfortunately, DH is working again this weekend. Sure we squeezed in a date night, but the poor man has worked 15 straight days now. It stinks!

Well, I can't sit here any longer. We're breaking the 60 degree mark today! I have to get out, even though its windy, and soak this up. Its been a long winter, and I can't get the Beatles tune out of my head- "Here comes the sun....na, na, na, na.... Here comes the sun and I say.... ITS ALL RIGHT!!"