Traffic pro

There is a village wide garage sale May 2nd and 3rd. So James payed $5 to be put on the map. Now the kids and I have to go through the house and garage. James will be gone all weekend so we will have to go through everything ourselves. He took off on the 2nd to help with the sale but he has to work on Saturday.

I guess they do this every year. Since we are a little town out in the country this might really help out. From what I understand they advertise in the Madison newspapers. Friday night they have a Lions chicken BBQ at the park and Saturday the chamber of commerce has a hot dog and brat cook out. So that should be a nice weekend.

Now I just have to go through all of the stuff for the sale. The girls are actually excited this year though. Usually when we go through their stuff they do not want to get rid of anything. This time James told them that all the money made from selling their stuff will go to getting new stuff for the yard this summer. So yesterday we went through Nicole and Neona's closet. As we started to get rid of things we noticed a ton of nice clothes that fit them but were forgotten because the closet was so full.

I just found these today on the blogs of my old home towns newspaper.


1. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.

2. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.

3. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.

4. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.

5. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.

6. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES,USE THE DUCT TAPE.

7 . IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.


I also found this...

Some people are like slinkies - not really good for anything but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs

Sunday we got up early and I made a quick breakfast. Nothing special this week since we were in a hurry. Just cereal with some strawberries in it and Noelle had microwaved eggs and slices of tomato. I did not even have time to make a pot of coffee.

We took a country highway instead of the interstate to get to Racine and visit James' dad. It was a really nice drive and the weather was great. James' dad had planned to take us out to lunch but when we got there we found out that he had gotten hurt. He said that he did yard work Saturday and all of a sudden woke up in pain that morning.

He was on the couch with his feet up in a lot of pain so we asked him if he wanted to get carryout. There is a restaurant in Racine named Infusino's that makes great pizza and everyone that moves away makes sure they get it when they come to visit. So James went and picked up some pizzas while the girls and I took his dogs outside for some exercise.

Then we headed back home. Then as we got to Cambridge the girls decided that I needed to see the Matt Kenseth museum there. He grew up in Cambridge and his relatives all still live there. Everyone in the family but me has been there before so they wanted me to see.

We found out that we should have come the day before. I guess Matt goes there to sign autographs a lot and he was their Saturday. It was still a neat little museum. They have about 6 of his cars inside plus 2 sets of tires that are shredded and covered in confetti from when he has won and burned them out doing doughnuts. The outer most wall is all the collectible mini cars that have been put out and an inner wall has a case of jumpsuits.

This is the big display. The car that he won the 2003 Championship in. It is still all sticky and covered in confetti. It is a small museum but it is really nice and it is free. They also have a store on one side so we of course had to buy something. LOL

They had a big sale going on but I did not realise how good of a deal we got until just now when I checked the online store to get pictures. They have the same sale online but they show the original prices online. The store did not show the original price.

James got this autographed travel cup. For $9.99 and it was originally $19.99.
When we first saw the backpack all you saw was the outside and it was labeled picnic backpack for $19.99. We figured that at that price it must just be a backpack that has that insulated plastic stuff like a cooler lunch bag.

When we opened it up we found all of kinds of stuff in it. It has actual metal flatware, the left is salt and pepper, and the bottom left are four plastic wine glasses. The thing of the side of the outside holds a wine bottle. There is another zipper that opens the back up and that is the plastic insulated lined area for food.

It was such a great price for all of that we had to buy it. I just looked online and the price was originally $49.00 and it is on sale for $19.99. So we got a good deal on it and I am sure we will get good use out of it since we love hiking.

Abrianna took a bunch of pictures at the museum but they used their new camera. Now that I looked at the camera I found that the USB port is teeny tiny and I do not know where James put everything for the camera or if we even got a cord for it. Hopefully I will be able to upload them soon.

When we got home we quick raked some more leaves and started a fire. It was such a nice day that we put our camping chairs around the fire and sat for awhile. It was really nice just sitting and relaxing all together around the fire. It felt like we were camping in our own yard. We did not want to go inside on such a nice day so we just made pasta salad and grilled some brats.

Well it has been nice here the last couple of days. Not really warm but warm enough to open the windows and get fresh air. My house is probably only 63* inside right now but I will sacrifice so I can get some fresh air.

Sunday was a very lazy day for us. James had wanted to go to Racine and visit his dad and grandparents but he of course did not plan ahead. He had Noelle call them at 8am and neither were home. So I made a roast and we just stayed home.

We did a small amount of yard work. The yard is buried in leaves and sticks but we have been only raking what we can burn right away. Any piles we make just blow away. Plus the fact that it is so deep that we have to keep filling a container and then cart it to the far side of the yard. So in a short time we already have more than we can burn and give up.

The rest of the day James played guitar hero in the rec room with Neona and Nicole. Noelle and I watched the 6 hour Tin Man mini series thing they had on SciFi channel ages ago. We have had it on the DVR for a long time and never watched it. This was actually even the second time we recorded it. We were lucky they played it again. Last time the DVR got so full that it got erased before we could see it. This time when we got the warning that the DVR was 80% full we figured we better watch it before we lose it again. I did not know if I would like it but it was actually kind of cool. It is like a new way to tell the story of the Wizard of Oz. It was fun to find the connections in the stories.

Monday was soccer practice. They added a second practice this week to make up for the missed one last week. We still have not heard if they will make up the game. Noelle and I went to the library while they practiced. I will never have to force my kids to read. I do however have to force them to stop reading or they would never get anything else done. LOL

Tuesday we had nothing planned so we decided to take advantage of the windows being open and shampoo the carpet. James had to work late so I used the extra time and invented a new dinner. Everyone seemed to like it but I think it needed more flavor so I will add more ingredients to the sauce next time.

First I put chicken breasts in the oven at 400* with cajun seasoning on top in a glass baking dish. I also had potatoes in there baking in a second pan. Flipped the chicken once while they cooked and put more seasoning on. While the chicken cooked I browned 6 bacon slices that were chopped up, 1 onion, mushrooms, and garlic. (I did not taste the bacon in the end so maybe I should have used more) Then when it was all browned I stirred in 6 tablespoons of flour and browned some more. Then I added milk, salt and pepper to make a kind of creamy sauce. (I am used to everything being full of flavor and spice so I think next time I will use chicken broth as all or part of the liquid and maybe add some mustard for some tang)

Then I pulled the chicken out of the glass baking dish and lined raw asparagus on the bottom. Put the chicken back on top poured the sauce over, covered with foil and baked 30 minutes at 350*. When we ate we put some of the sauce over the baked potatoes.

I have a lot more fun inventing dishes than I do cleaning. LOL

We got the second guinea pig? LOL

I did not think it would be so hard to find a second one. I called all over Saturday and finally found a store around 4pm. Only one other store had any and they were all white. The store we found had just gotten in a bunch so they were only 4 weeks old. I wish we would have found this place before and gotten both of them from there.

The place we got Bacon Bit from is a huge Animart by the East Town Mall in Madison so it has kids in there nonstop picking up the animals. At first Bacon Bit did not want to be held but he is feeling a bit safer now. The new one never had to deal with crowds of kids so he is very calm and just sits in your lap. Maybe it is partly because he is 4 weeks younger than the other one. Who knows...

Well the new guinea pig is a "teddy". He is brown, orange brown, and a little white. His fur is more dense which is why the type is named teddy. They feel like stuffed animal fur. Well the girls wanted to stick with a pig type name like with Bacon Bit so they named the new one Pork Chop. They felt Hammy was too hamsterish. LOL

Well it appears that I will be losing my laptop. Well that is until we have time to buy a new one we like. James needs one for work since he will be going between more stores and two cities.

They gave him the tax forms so he can write off a new laptop and an internet card on his taxes. We have other things to spend money on right now though so we will wait on that. I would rather wait and buy a really good one than just buy one that is "good enough". That is why I told him to just take my laptop for now. I do not really need it I just like the mobility. I would like to be able to get one before summer though. I really wanted to be able to sit out on the patio with it. That is if I can get a signal there.

Well so far today all I have gotten done is moving some stuff from the laptop on to my main computer. I guess I should go do something for a bit.