Garage Sale News

This weekend was the big garage sale weekend. After preparing for it for more than a week I was definitely ready to get rid of all this stuff! I totally agree with my friend Ann, that garage sales are a lot of work! Especially when you have as much stuff as we did it! Gathering everything up that you want to get rid of, setting it up on tables, and pricing it takes a lot of time. Usually it takes more time than you think it's going to. I even had a lot of Evan's clothes from last year all ready priced and it still took a lot of time to set up. I'm a little anal when it comes to organizing for a garage sale too. I like to have things grouped together that go together. Girl's clothes, boy's clothes, toys, kitchen, books, etc. You get the idea. I even go as far as putting the baby clothes in order by size on the tables sizes and labeling the tables in sections by size. I did this last year and it seems to make the clothes sell a lot better. I just think of it as, if I were shopping for a certain size, I'd like to know right where to look instead of digging through a bunch of sizes that are of no good to me. A little extra work on my part is a little extra money in my pocket!

Below are a couple photos of all of our garage sale items. Let me warn you that it's quite a bit. A very packed garage and a very full driveway! All this stuff just waiting for a new home.


I'm a little embarrassed at how many clothes & shoes both my kids had from newborn to size 2T. Seriously, it's more than they probably needed and some even still had the tags on them! Here are two very full tables and tubs filled with Evan's clothes.

At least some of his stuff got double use since my friend Marie was able to use some of them at one time. Here are two more very full tables and tubs filled with Em's clothes.

Friday proved to be the best day for selling girl's clothes and Saturday seemed to be the best day for selling boy's clothes. While I didn't get rid of all the clothes, I'd say that was a good chunk of my sales! I did get a lot of compliments on my organization of the clothes and my labels on the tables so that was nice to hear. I guess my extra work paid off.

Greg had Friday off so he could watch the kids while I had the sale. The three of them even went out special to pick me up Jimmy John's for lunch. I just love Jimmy John's and it was sounding good since we hadn't been there for a long time. I love my husband for hauling two kids in and out to pick me up Jimmy John's. Of course he got some for himself too! Here's the three of them coming back with lunch!

Overall, the sale was a big success! Friday was much busier than Saturday, but both day the weather was perfect so I can't complain too much. I did get a little crispy from being in the sun for two days, but hey I made money for working on my tan!


Not many of the kitchen items sold. I thought that would be some of the first stuff to go, but nope. I guess if I don't need that kitchen stuff then nobody else does either. The baby bottles were a hit though. I'm thinking I had them marked to cheap! Oh well, they're gone. I did get rid of that little lamp and desk organizer which I was glad. I had kept those from last years sale.

Nobody was too into buying camera stuff or Christmas decorations. The toys weren't as big of a hit as I thought they were going to be either. I figured toys would be gone fast!

I did get rid of a few big items like the bouncy zebra in a previous picture and the pack n' play in this picture. As well as a printer and 13" TV. We even managed to sell our old grill in this picture. Remember the one that got busted in the storm a couple months ago. I put a sign on it that only one of the three burners worked and had $10 on it and somebody wanted it. Go figure! Greg told me to put free on it, but I didn't. Hey, $10 more in my pocket and we don't have to worry about hauling that big thing away!

While we did get rid of a lot, it appears we still have a lot left. After doing all this work, I'm thinking I should probably have another go at it before hauling some away. I'm participating in a mom2mom sale in July so I'll be taking some of the kid's clothes to that, but since they were a hit in the garage sale I might as well try selling some more. So I just need to figure out when to have it again. Sooner than later since everything is set up. I'll keep you posted. Also, a guy who owns a knockoff purse store in town offered me a deal to swap some baby items and clothes for his wife's second hand children's shop and he'd give me a credit for his store. So say I give him $50 worth of clothes and toys I can get $50 for his store. I see a new Coach purse in my future!

A Few Updates

Here it is June already and I still haven't had the chance to tell you about a few things I've mentioned previously- terrible two's, Em's teeth, Ellen entertainment, dance video, and more. Don't worry I haven't forgotten. I'll get to a few now and the rest later. I also haven't forgotten about my favorite Evan pics slideshow. I hit a roadblock and couldn't find some of his pictures. Not to worry, I just found them earlier in the week. I finally finished uploading all the pics in an album tonight and wouldn't you know it... I tried to add the slideshow to the blog and just like last time it wasn't working. So I'll try again tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have success and it will be on here in the next day. I know you're waiting with anticipation to see Greg's "mini me" pics from when Evan was born.

In a previous week of "Fun Facts" I mentioned that Evan slept in his bed all night and Emmaline was getting her last few teeth FINALLY. I told you more on these two later. So let me start with Evan. Ever since Evan was born he's never been one to want to sleep in his own bed. Then when Emmaline was born and we had her crib in our bedroom it was even worse. Basically for nine months until we moved Em's crib out of our room it was one big camp out in our bedroom. Thank goodness our room is big enough! Still after that no matter what we tried Evan would always wake up and come in our room in the middle of the night. Well, there was no way he'd be sleeping in our bed so he'd crawl into his "camping bed" (blow up mattress). Finally we took it down, but he'd still come in our room and just sleep on the floor. In the past month, he's been better at staying in his bed ALL night for most of the nights. Occasionally he'd come in our room, but usually not until like 6:30am so we're making progress. It's been a long time coming. Believe me we've tried everything! So I'm hoping over the next couple months Evan masters sleeping in his own room as well as he's mastered riding the bike without training wheels!

Now onto Emmaline's teeth. Good grief, I thought this girl was never gonna get all her teeth. Her teeth came in way later than Evan. Now if you ask me when Evan's teeth came in I could tell you when many of the first few did. They're all noted in his baby calendar book. His first tooth was at about 7 months. Em's first tooth was after that, but don't ask me when. I've been so bad at keeping her baby book up to date. I've got things written down on various pieces of paper, but where those papers are off hand, I'm not sure. I do know though that her teeth were all very slow to come in. A lot slower than Evan's because he had all his teeth way before 22 months. Geez even some of Em's friends her age or younger had all their teeth long ago, and then there's Em. Slowly, but surely her last three teeth, two on the bottom and one on top have finally come in. I was beginning to think she'd still have some holes for her 2nd birthday. Instead of "all I want for Christmas are my two front teeth" we'd be teaching her "all I want for my 2nd birthday are my last three teeth!" So now I can add that to her baby book, well some day when I get around to it.

In the last month also, Em's been a lot more of a handful than normal. Cranky, naughty, crying, screeching, and sometimes up in the middle of the night. Of course my first thought is always, she's got to be getting some teeth. Especially if she's up in the middle of the night because that was often the case with her other teeth. Every morning I'd check her mouth and no teeth. At least not until like a week ago when those last three came in, but then she wasn't even waking in the night so what is the deal? We were at my mom's over Mother's Day and she was a handful, wouldn't nap, etc., etc. Then one day I was talking to my sister and she says, "It's probably the terrible two's." Duh, why didn't I think of that? Of course it is! Although she's not yet two, so she's starting a little early. All you mom's out there, I'm warning you... yes it starts before two! Oh, and if you think two's are bad, well think again. My friend Liana always told me three's are worse! No, they couldn't be, really? Yes, really because Evan was worse at three than he was at two. Emmaline seems to be a little worse at the terrible two's than Evan so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that for her three's are not worse than two's!

One more update and then it's time for bed. Remember the bird nest I found in my hanging basket? Well, about a week ago Greg noticed that another egg was gone. It wasn't on the ground this time. It was nowhere to be found. I had noticed I hadn't heard the birds around as much, and this past week nothing at all. The birds had abandoned the nest and left the one egg. So needless to say, no baby birds here. I have no idea why they left, but ever since the first egg was smashed on the ground they hadn't really been back in the nest. So the good news out of it is that my plant is surviving and it's getting watered now.

Now, I'm off to bed so I can get going early in the morning with the garage sale. I'm hoping for good weather and a good turnout! I would really like a lot of this stuff gone! I'm sure it won't be all gone because that would be a miracle and as far as garage sales are concerned miracles like that don't happen. Does anyone ever end up with an empty garage after a sale? I don't think so. Besides I think I have way more stuff than your average sale. At least way more baby stuff than the average sale. I wish some of you reading lived closer because I've probably got lots of baby and kids clothes you could use! The sale is Friday and Saturday, so when all is said and done I will let you know how it turned out.

My Little Bike Rider

Last time I talked about Evan riding his bike without training wheels, he was trying it on his old little bike. Well, that was almost two weeks ago when I posted the video. He was doing so well that three days later Greg took his training wheels off his new bigger bike and he was off. The first time, no fear, no falls, just riding without the training wheels like he's been doing it forever. He rides by me so fast that I'm so used to him riding like that and had forgotten I hadn't videoed him on the new bike. Then when I do remember I don't have my camera, so finally yesterday afternoon I remembered. So here's Evan riding the new big bike without training wheels.


As you can see, he's got this bike pretty much mastered too. He definitely must get this from Greg. I sure don't remember riding without training wheels that early. He even turns around without getting off the bike and cruises on the bike while standing up. Sometimes I think he's a little too confident. He has had a couple little falls, but thankfully nothing major and he seems to ride without any fear still. We're very proud of him and I know he's proud of himself. Every time we're on a walk and we see someone we know he says, "Look at what I can do!" Then he takes off riding and going over bumps and makes sure to mention he doesn't have training wheels. So all you neighbors out there, I'm sorry he keeps telling you over and over, about his no training wheels, but he is only four. So hopefully you can understand why and see the excitement he has. It's a little hard to hear in the video, but you can tell he's proud of himself too because he says, "How about a few more pictures" and "How about me coming back," making sure I'm getting all of his ride! Way to go Evan! We're all very proud of you mastering the bike without the training wheels!

Little People

I remember playing with the Fisher Price Little People when I was a kid. However, I don't think I have any pictures of me with them. Well Emmaline has the Fisher Price Little People too. She loves to play with them. So today when I saw her playing with them it was too funny, and I just had to grab my camera. Here's a couple of her Fisher Price Little People. They've come a long way since since I had them as a kid!

As you can see they are very small. That's why they are called Little People. So when I saw Emmaline doing this, I had to grab the camera...

For some reason she thought she would fit in two of the chairs. Silly girl! Then she decided she could fit in just one chair...

and then she thought she could sit in one chair AND start to dance...

I tell ya, the things this girl comes up with. So now when she's older and has kids of her own, and they're playing with Fisher Price Little People, I can show them what their mother used to do when she played with them. That's my little Emmaline! Oh, and here's one more pic hours later from the first few. She was doing this again after her nap (back to two chairs), just as I was writing about it. Don't you just love the rolls on her legs?

Recipe Entry

Lately I've been making you read what seems to be a book. So this post is going to be short and sweet as far as what I have to say about it. It may appear somewhat long, but that's the recipe part. My friend Ann is having a giveaway on her blog Life On Roosevelt Street . Yeah I know, how fun, right? See that's why you should read and be a follower of my blog because you never know, maybe someday I'll have a giveaway! I'm sure it's a ways off if ever, but you never know. To enter her giveaway you have to submit one of your favorite entree recipes. My recipe entry is for Chicken Enchiladas so I thought this would be the prefect time to post it here. They're not only one of my favorites, but my family's favorite, and super easy to make.

Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients:
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
1 (26oz) can condensed cream of chicken soup
3/4- 1 cup sour cream (I use reduced fat)
5-7 flour tortillas
Shredded Colby Jack or Mexican Cheese

Directions:
~I boil & shred the chicken ahead of time so it's already to go, but you don't have to. Either way boil chicken for 20 min., cool, and shred with fork.
~Preheat oven to 350.
~Combine soup, sour cream, and chicken in saucepan. Heat thoroughly. About 5-10 min. (Reserve small amount w/out chicken pieces)
~Spoon into tortilla (enough to fill) and roll. Place in pan. Repeat until all tortillas are filled and lined in a row in pan. (I use a 9x13 pan)
~Spread reserved soup mixture over top of enchiladas.
~Sprinkle with cheese. (I don't measure, just enough to cover all enchiladas.)
~Bake @ 350 for 20-30 min.

Notes:
~If don't have a large can of cream of chicken soup can use 2-3 (10 3/4oz) cans.
~Makes 6-7 using small tortillas or about 5 if use medium tortillas.
~I don't necessarily set aside some of the soup mixture, I just make sure to get most of the chicken out and then save some in bottom of pan to spread over top.
~These work well to make up the day before or morning of and keep refrigerated until dinner time then just pop in oven.
~I like to serve with refried beans and/or Mexican rice.

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

I think it's high time that Greg gets some much overdue credit for the great work that he does. While he does get credit for his photos and videos at work, sometimes I don't think it's enough. Most of you know that Greg works at Michigan State University. He works in Media Communications and is a visual journalist. He's been at MSU for almost eight years as a photographer, and in the last year he's taken on videos as well. His job is to take pictures and videos for a variety of different things. Depending on what's needed for his department, depends on what the latest assignment is.

He's covered everything from Big Ten basketball tournaments and football games to Homecoming events, to MSU Board of Trustees meetings and MSU graduations to pictures of professors and President Obama's visit back in October when he was campaining to become President. (For those of you who are not Obama supporters, I'm sorry, but yes my husband has his picture with President Obama and I'm proud of that.) O.k. moving on from my Obama plug. I may be a little prejudice because he's my husband, but he really does do nice work. So nice that other people like to use his stuff for other things besides what it's used for at MSU. Everything he does is property of MSU, and a majority of it is used for University things such as on the MSU website, photos used at the MSU football stadium, photos used on football tickets, etc. However other places can call and request to use his photos or videos should they need a photo or video to do with MSU. All his work is attached with his name to it, but since it's his job for work to take the photos or videos he just gets paid the same no matter what the assignment. So when someone calls up asking to use his stuff, it ends there. For example, a few months back the Lansing State Journal & Detroit News wanted to use one of Greg's photos taken at the MSU Cyclotron to put on the front page to go along with an article on the FRIB Grant MSU obtained. Now that's great, but MSU just hands it over to them to use, and no extra pay for Greg for it being in the paper.

Recently the MSU Federal Credit Union chose one of his photos to use on their credit/debit cards. How cool is that? My husbands picture in 100's of thousands of people's hands everyday when they use their credit/debit card! Plus the picture is posted on MSU Federal Credit Union billboards around town. If only people knew, who took the picture, especially those who know Greg. Here's the photo they used on the MSU Credit Union card:

Beaumont Tower

This picture was actually taken back in 2003, but it's not uncommon to dig from the archives when places are looking for a photo. So why not give credit where credit is due? I think sometimes some people get overlooked and aren't appreciated for their work (especially teachers & stay at home moms) as much as they should be. But today I'm giving my husband credit for his work because I truly believe he deserves it more often. He does great work and I'm proud of all his photo and video work. He's come along way as a photographer and most recently in the last year as a videographer.

One of his latest video assignments was to create a video of three former MSU football players bike ride to Mexico to raise funds for an orphanage. He took the video and edited all himself. Here is the link to his video:http://vimeo.com/4330146

So just the other week, CBS Sports (yes, the network) called up asking to use parts from his MSU bike video above. When Greg told me that, I was like, "Oh my gosh, that is so cool!" What a great honor. Then last night he comes home from work and says he was talking to someone from CBS Sports again about using his video. They were talking about a time frame of when the video would be used and Greg was thinking probably in the fall around football season. Well maybe, but the person he was talking to from CBS Sports went a little further and is talking about using parts of his video during the Super Bowl. Holy crap! Excuse my statement there, but WOW! Now remind you, Greg gets paid by MSU for his work and then it's MSU's to do what they want with, but hello... the Super Bowl. Do you know how much money is made with Super bowl ads, etc. I'm thinking a little more credit is definitely deserved if this happens and a little extra compensation for using his video! That's highly unlikely that the extra compensation will come, however I'm putting this out there for all those of you who are unfamiliar with Greg's work in saying, "Greg you deserve credit where credit is due!" I'm proud of you!

Graduation Open House

I was telling you in the post below what a busy day we had Saturday. If you remember after "Touring the Town" we were off to Grand Rapids for a graduation open house. On our way into town since we were near my mom's we stopped in for a few so she could see the kids since she's unable to travel this way for awhile. Might as well kill two birds with one stone. She had been at my sister's all week so they had just gotten back into town that day. I thought the kids could visit grandma for a few and I'd help my sister do a couple of things around the house so she could get to the party too. I figured it was the least I could do since Jen had mom at her house all week. Thanks, Jen for doing that ALL week! I know it's hard to adjust your lifestyle and with Kaite's softball games and working. Hopefully we'll have some good news that the ankle and wrist are healing well when Mom heads to the doctor on Thursday. She's supposed to get a walking boot so we're all keeping our fingers crossed!

After a brief visit we were off to the graduation party. This was a double high school graduation party for my cousin's kids. This is on my Dad's side of the family. My cousins Dave and Laura's two boys Tyler and Mike graduated from Byron Center High School. I feel old because it seems like just yesterday that I was babysitting Tyler. Oh my gosh where do the years go? I can't believe it's already been 16 years since I graduated from high school. Class of 1993, wooo hooo! Here's a few pictures of the kids at the party.

Em in her pretty purple sundress at the graduation party

Emmaline being not so lady likeEvan and Em talking with Grandpa & Great Uncle Karl

Evan running around at the party

We don't get down my Dad's way (or to GR for that matter) often so we rarely see that extended side of the family (the Sharkey's). As a matter of fact, none of the Sharkey's had ever met Emmaline and she's almost two! While we had a jam packed day Saturday we weren't sure if we'd be able to make the party, but I'm glad we did so everyone could meet Em. It had been way to long since we've seen everyone, and they've only seen Evan a couple of times so it was nice for them to see him again too. I had forgotten that my cousin Joe's birthday is the same day as Em's. Usually Em's a little shy when she's meeting someone for the first time, but she was all over Joe. It must be the shared birthday thing! Intuition! Here she is giving him a kiss.

It was a long day, but we had a great time at the party and catching up with the family. Now that the Sharkey's know about my blog maybe they'll be my newest followers. Hopefully they'll get a chance to read this so they know we really enjoyed the party! Thanks for the invite and yummy food & drinks Dave & Laura! Congrats to the boys and after a couple of years at CC, I'm thinking they should head our way to MSU! Hopefully we'll get to see all the Sharkey's more this summer. Evan wants to head out to Joe & Diane's house if we're down that way to see their horses. Evan even said he'd ride one of the horses so we'll see if that happens. I'll be sure to inform you if and when that happens! Both the kids were exhausted on the way home. Evan chilled listening to his iPod while Em couldn't quite stay awake until we got home! Here's some pics from the car ride home.

Emmaline was pooped on the way home!

Evan letting his sis hold his arm while she sleeps.
He said he was taking care of her like a good big brother.