Advice, please

We have decided to have a GARAGE SALE in two or three weeks. My garage sale experience is very limited: I don't shop at them, and have only participated in one once (or was it twice?) but not at my own house.

I do know this: we have plenty of stuff to sell to make it worth our while. I would not go so far as to call myself a packrat but I would go so far as to say that I pretty much never get rid of anything. The time has come to unload some baby stuff (sniff, sniff), toys, clothes, shoes, etc. and free up some space in the garage, closets, etc. I have been making a list of things to sell as well as necessary supplies; price tags, tables, maybe a clothes rack, etc. But being as inexperienced in this field as I am, I'm asking for your suggestions.

What should I know before embarking on this grand adventure? (yes I know that's a bit dramatic)

I would like the kids to learn something from this experience; who has done this with kids before?

How do I come up with prices?

What do I need to get to be prepared?

Don't tell me about the customers who pretend they don't speak English; I did encounter that one at my last experience a few years ago, and it went down like this:

Price tag: "$2 for one shirt."
Customer: "One dollar? I give you one dollar? One dollar for two shirts?"
Me: "It's $2 for ONE shirt."
Customer: "Ah, one dollar. One dollar for two shirts."
Me: "FINE! Take the two shirts!"

(I'm a killer negotiator.)


In completely unrelated news, a little boy at Zoe & Lucy's preschool told me the other day that I smelled like cookies. And it made my day.

My mom is amazing!

Look at all those appliques! I just love this. I hope that when you click to enlarge you will be able to see some of the detail. Can you see my kids' names on the candy corns?

Thanks so much Mom!

Four Square

The latest before-school activity around here. The weather at 7am is just lovely, and our driveway was made for four-square.

my beat is correct

For those of you just tuning in... Hubs and I went to see Beck in concert last night!

*Update* For a local review of the show as well as some stage pictures, click here.

Took advantage of an in-car shot once we found out we couldn't bring the camera inside. We were clearly excited.

Well, it was awesome. Yes, I use that word with too much frequency. But it totally applies here.


The minuses: too short. The opening band (MGMT) played for like 40 minutes (we caught the last 10 or so). Then we sat and waited for a solid 45 minutes; way longer than it took for the roadies to set up the stage. Then Beck played for about 1 hr 15 minutes. Also: there were some feedback problems on a few songs; the mixer dude needed to adjust his levels.


The plusses: It was so great. LOTS of songs from almost every album Beck has ever put out; he even opened with Loser! That was a fun blast from the past. I can't find a very accurate set list online, but he did about5 songs from the newest album, Modern Guilt, and really played a wide range of other material. One highlight was when all 5 on-stage band members stood together at the front of stage, with headphones and hand-held beat-boxes, and did a great version of Hell Yes (from Guero) followed by another hip-hoppish song (which I can't remember now). That was about half an hour into the set and it really looked like Beck was having a good time; up until then it looked a little like he was just going through the motions. Did you notice that I just commented on the appearance of his mood? That's because we were in the SIXTH ROW! There were four rows of pit seats, RIGHT up to the stage, then a walkway, and we were in the 2nd row from the walkway. Way to score those seats, Hubs!! We were closer than a stone's throw from Beck. If I had good aim, I definitely could've hit him with a stone. Some memorable songs: Where It's At (from Odelay), Nicotine and Gravy (from Midnight Vultures), E-Pro and Que Onda Guero (from Guero), Chemtrails and Volcano (from Modern Guilt). There were lots of other songs too...

Oh yeah, and the FEMALE rhythm guitarist/backup singer was my complete idol. I want to be her. She looked like she was having so much fun, but in a very cool, understated, Patti Smith kind of way. If Beck ever needs a back-up singer/keyboardist, sign me up! I'll tell him all about when I was in the Slamheads in college... (For reals. I was in a band for one semester. Called the Slamheads. I played keyboards. And bass on one song. We covered the Go-Go's Our Lips Are Sealed and the Beatles' Come Together, among other things. Good times.)

Cameras were STRICTLY prohibited. And being in the 2nd row, we had all kinds of security guards nearby and Hubs could barely snap off a low-res pic with his cellphone. If you could see that picture you would see that Beck looked just like Tom Petty, with a baggy flannel shirt, long hair, and a hat. It was especially amusing when the Tom Petty look-a-like was rapping. Oh, Beck, your hair was better short. But, you are still the most creative musical genius of your time! We got to park by some GREAT graffiti. Love that downtown Phoenix. The other reason I'm posting this picture is in self-mockery; I agonized all weekend over what to wear to this show, and this is what I came up with. I put on at least 6 shirts that afternoon, plus different jeans and shoes, before deciding on this.

I think I lost a sizable percentage of my hearing, being so close to the front with no earplugs. But it was a mighty good time!! Thank you Hubs.

We're still young; we still rock.

In case you didn't believe me, here's evidence that he rocks:

I woke up Friday morning (my anniversary) to find this awesome card, all custom PhotoShopped by Hubs, and containing a fun surprise:
(click to enlarge)

We're going to see BECK on Monday!!! I'm so excited about this, I can't even tell you. I was basically grinning all day Friday in excitement. For the concert, yes, but also for the fact that I have such a great husband. He bought the tickets on Ebay, a few weeks ago, paid cash so I wouldn't notice a credit card charge (which I would have) and drove clear across town (by "town" I mean the valley of the sun) to pick them up so I wouldn't intercept them in the mail (which I would have). He's always been the king of good anniversary presents.

I can't even describe my excitement, honestly. There are only a handful of bands/musicians who I would really want to pay money to see, at this point in my life, and Beck is one of them. I went to a Beck show once before, in 1994, when the song Loser was famous. The venue was Club DV8 in Salt Lake, and all I remember about it is who I was with (a different boy named Aaron) and what we listened to on the drive up from Provo (Primus' Sailing the Seas of Cheese) and the fact that the concert was awful. Aw-ful. BUT - Beck has come out with a gagillion really good albums since then and I am so excited for tomorrow!!

P.S. Beck isn't really holding a number 11 on his lap; that's just Hubs' PhotoShop magic. Nice, huh?

This dude rocks

Yeah, it's the same picture I posted last year on our 10th anniversary but I'm posting it again! My favorite shot of our wedding day. 11 years ago. ELEVEN! But the amazing thing is, neither of us look a day older! (ha ha)

Happy Anniversary babe. You rock. Always have, always will.

Smooches,

Wifey

We survived

... an entire week without Hubs! He doesn't have to travel for work, and in fact had not been out of town (without me or the kids) for more than a night or two, since 2001 or 2002. So this was a big deal to us, and worth making a sign:

Hubs was here

doing this (for 45 miles!)

and some of this

with these guys

seeing stuff like this

and this

and this.

From what I've heard so far it was a great trip! I'm so glad Hubs could go; this type of trip is right up his alley. If you would like to see more pictures, go here. (As of 9am Thursday they haven't posted yet, but be patient; they will!)

In the meantime, yes I am very glad to have Hubs home. I managed things just fine (except I missed the garbage pick-up on Monday) but I have no willpower to go to sleep when he's not here; I was up until about 1am most nights he was gone... just watching movies on TV. And he got back in time for our 11th anniversary, tomorrow!! Love you Hubs ;)

It must be almost fall...

Overheard in the car on the way to school:

"Could you believe how cold it was this morning?"

"I know, it's been getting so much colder lately!"

"I was riding my bike before school and I didn't even get sweaty!"

"Guess what the temperature is right now? 80!"

"80?! Man, that's cold!"




(only in Arizona!)

Attacked!

We went to a really awesome, super fun family party for cute Paige's first birthday yesterday! There was swimming, Mexican food, cornhole, presents, homemade ice cream, cupcakes from Sprinkles, a pinata, and the seriously cutest cupcake-themed decorations ever.

Unfortunately, there were some party-crashers, the effects of whom we are all feeling today.

The total mosquito bites in my household is 35 - no wait - 39 (keep finding more since I first posted).

Poor Zoe is the winner with 17; she must be tasty.

Tagged / A little walk down memory lane

I don't like to do these too much but I thought this one would be fun... tagged by my cousin Melanie! Blogging material has become scarce around here so this gave me something fun to do. Thanks Mel!

20 years ago I...
1. Had braces.
2. Had a crush on Bobby Belsher.
3. Had a new best friend named Ginny.
4. Declared my best-friend-ship with former BFF Autumn to be OVER because, hello, she had already told Courtney that SHE was her new BFF, even though she had WRITTEN in my yearbook at the end of 7th grade that WE were still BFF's, not to mention the fact that she had also told EVERYONE that I had a crush on Bobby, which was TOTALLY a secret, and Ginny would NEVER have done anything like that to hurt me, and besides that, Ginny was WAY cooler.

10 years ago I...
1. Was living in Provo, wrapping up my first year of wedded bliss.
2. Was the manager at my beloved CD Warehouse, putting Hubs through school.
3. Was getting ready for a trip to Phoenix wherein Hubs and I, along with Jamie and Eric, would be schooled in the virtues of "Market Research."
4. Wrote in my journal, "I wonder who will have a baby first, me or Jamie?" and secretly I was HOPING HOPING HOPING that it would be me, but it's funny to look back on because neither of us were even close to trying at the time. (But ultimately it was me.)

5 years ago I...
1. Was expecting TWINS (my 3rd and 4th children), and I'd just had my first ultrasound where I was told that it was either a boy and a girl, or two boys. I wrote in my journal that my goal was to "not break the 200lb mark" with this pregnancy; fortunately I only got up to 184. It was twins, people.
2. Had just negotiated the acquisition of my dad's Suburban so I would have something to drive four kids around in.
3. Was worried about Molly's stuttering, but delighted that she was starting to say new words all the time.
4. Sent Noah off to preschool!

3 years ago...
1. We sold our house in one day for too much money and bought a new one for too much money (ahh, the housing boom of 2005).
2. Noah started Kindergarten!
3. Molly started Preschool!
4. My days were spent checking on the progress of the new tile work, new carpet, paint, etc. at the new house (while we rented our old house from the new owners for a month) and making the contractors fix it when necessary (I was VERY particular about the tile work), driving Noah and Molly to & from school every day, and then once we moved in, trying to prevent my 19-month-old twin GIRLS from constantly falling down the stairs.

1 year ago...
1. I celebrated 10 years of marriage and 6 months of blogging.
2. I started teaching piano again, with 12 students.
3. Zoe and Lucy started preschool, Molly started Kindergarten, Noah started 2nd grade, and I started having a little bit of time to myself....
4. I went on a diet and lost 12 pounds (since regained).

In the past week I... (the original said "in the past year" but I changed it)
1. Worked 6 hours with the cubcouts selling Scout-o-rama tickets in front of a grocery store (along with my Noah who had a GREAT time talking to strangers and selling lots of tickets; I was so proud of him!)
2. Acquired enough supplied to put together about 30 hygiene kits for Humanitarian Services for our cub scouts to put together for a service project.
3. Did sharing time on Sunday and directed the ward choir during Sacrament Meeting.
4. Ran out of Advil.

Yesterday...
1. Worked at Zoe and Lucy's preschool.
2. Made final phone calls and emails for my new piano schedule which involves getting my house cleaned for me, some of the time - hooray!
3. Taught five of my piano students.
4. Made this for dinner, and then decided to postpone FHE to Wednesday.

Today I...
1. Was woken up at 4:15am by Noah, who was already showered, dressed, and ready for school. It turns out his clock was 2 hours fast. He honestly thought it was 6am and was quite dismayed when we told him he needed to go back to sleep for a while.
2. Watched this on the Today Show!
3. Let Zoe and Lucy take an hour-long bath together in my tub, because they have SO much fun playing in there. Such great friends they are.
4. Will go to Walgreens (to buy Advil), unload the dishwasher, practice a duet I'm singing at Enrichment this Thursday, teach 3 of my piano students, make something for dinner, and go to Pack Meeting.

Tomorrow I will...
1. Go to the grocery store to get food for my new diet... I'll let you know if it works before I tell you all the details!
2. Shop for my adorable niece's first birthday!
3. Get a big box of old toys gathered up to take to D.I., for our FHE activity.
4. Offer Hubs any help he might need in getting ready to go to Yellowstone!

In the next year I will...
1. Maintain an average body weight of about 15 pounds less than I currently am.
2. Learn to say "no" when I'm already too busy.
3. Take more pictures of my kids, who are growing up WAY too fast, and spend more time with them, quality AND quantity.
4. Make my family, Hubs and the kids, first priority in my life. Sometimes when I have lots of other things going on I neglect them a little bit. But they are my everything, and I'll do a better job of treating them that way.


How about YOU? If you haven't done this or are in need of some blog material, then I tag YOU!

Something new every day...

Recent things I've learned:

Curry is not usually a singular spice, but a spice blend. I learned this from my brother, and yes my sisters have heard me repeat this new fact several times. This is the last time I promise girls :)

Children's laxatives work wonders.

You shouldn't wear your favorite t-shirts when cleaning your bathroom. Three of my faves have been showing up with mysterious bleachy-looking marks on them lately, and since I only rarely use bleach in the laundry, I can only conclude that it's from leaning over the tub & scrubbing it. I have had similar problems with bleachy-spots on pants. And I'm just now figuring this out.

Buttermilk is the leftover liquid from when cream has been churned into butter.

Alaska and Hawaii became states only 7 1/2 months apart, in 1959. There was, briefly, a flag with 49 stars on it, although I don't think many of them were made.

Just thought you might like to know.


I've been a little busy, hence the lack of posts and/or nonsubstantive posts. Bear with me please :)

In the meantime, would anyone like to buy a Scout-o-rama ticket from my son for $5? He'll be calling some of you soon...

Auctions are in the final hours!

FYI - A Room Somewhere's auctions end today at noon central time! (10am in AZ)

Design Mom's are now marked LIVE for auctions still going on, so it's much easier to sort through the hundreds! Many are still LIVE today!

And finally, this girl wrote such a nice tribute. It's worth a read. Just might make you cry.

Happy Labor Day!