A Few Thoughts about Rummage Sales

I have had many rummage sales over the years.

It is always the same.

I start out all eager and excited, ready to make some money and get rid of lots of stuff.

About a week before the sale, I am already sick of all the "junk" around my house laying in wait for the sale.

On the day of the sale, I am again eager to watch the piles go down as people purchase my treasures.

By mid way through the sale, I am sick of it and want to pack up or just give it all away to the first taker.

By the end of the sale, I realize that someone is going to have to take all this stuff to St. Vinny's so that we can have our garage back.

And I have made enough money to buy us dinner if it is not at an expensive place.

It is at this point that I swear off of rummage sales forever.

 

But, I am weak.

A few years ago  my neighbor asked me if I wanted to have a rummage sale on the day of the big city wide sale.

She was having one and she said that two of them together would attract more people.

Well, I am weak and I can't say no, so I agreed.

That was about four years ago, John was laid off and we needed some money.  He ran the sale and actually did quite well.

I was hooked again.

 

I did take a break last year, but when my neighbor approached me again for the sale this fall, I was weak, I said, "Yes."

I regret it already as my garage is filling up with crap.

I am pricing in my sleep.

I will have lots to sell though because my brother is getting married and he has a house to clean out.

He and Mallory, my niece have lived in that house for about 18 years and I swear they have everything they ever bought over those 18 years.

So, that is why I have lots to sell this year.

 

Courtney also did some cleaning and has sent some things for me to sell.

She and Tiz will help me with the sale.

I am sure that Tiz will set up some kind of booth and be selling something.

She, like her mother, unlike her grandma, loves to sell.

 

I am really excited because John has rigged up a clothes pole in the garage so all my hanging clothes will be displayed so that people can actually look at it. I am hoping this will help with sales.

I hear it is all about presentation!

Of course, I will update on the results of the sale which will take place on Sept. 21.

First Day of School Pics and a Bit More About Galena

 Here is Tizita on her first day of first grade.

Wow, that is all, wow!

 and here is little Soliana before her first day in 2K in my class.

Wow, again.

How blessed we are to have these two beauties as our granddaughters!

 

Now on to a little more about our wonderful weekend in Galena.

 This is our hotel, The Irish Cottage.

 Here is our room.

 After a very informative trolley tour, we visited a winery.

The view was lovely.

Our tour guide told us we could see all the way to the big "M" hill in Platteville, Wi

.

 We enjoyed the tour and the wine tasting.

The wine was so good, we bought a few bottles to take home with us.

After our winery tour, we had pizza and beer at a sports bar called Gobbies.

After that we had a beer at the Galena brewing Company.  We did not care for the dancers that were groupies of the band there.  A bunch of old people doing swing dancing.

We ended out evening in the Irish Pub at our hotel listening to Katie and Brownie.

 

And you know what we did the following day.

We stepped out of our comfort zone and rode segways.

I still can't believe we did that.

 I have one week of school in.

It was a great week.

I will post about it next.

Guess who came to preschool today?

Today was Soliana's first day in my Preschool.

I am so happy to have had Tizita in my class for two years and now I will have Soliana in my class, too.

I don't think there are too many grandmas who can claim to have been their grandchild's first teacher.

I am both excited and honored.

I hope we make many memories together.

 Here she is in our Jesus circle.

 Being a good listener during story time.

 A serious bean counter

 Taking care of babies

 Soli loves her glue just as much as her sister always did.

 All lined up for the bathroom break.

 Dancing

I think the day was a big success!

I think Wednesdays are going to be a great day in Preschool this year.

And here is Tizita when she first came to Preschool.

Segway Adventure-Check that off the Bucket List

In all reality, riding a Segway was not on my bucket list.

I never really thought about it too much, not even sure I knew what a Segway was, but when I saw the opportunity was offered at Chestnut Mountain, Illinois, I decided we would give it a try.

We were given a gift card for a stay at the Irish Cottage in Galena Illinois.

The girls gave it to me for my 60th Birthday.

We decided to use it over Labor Day.

We felt it was a great way to end the summer.  I start school on Tuesday and John starts his new adventure in Pewaukee on Tuesday, also.

We figured that a trip to Galena would be the perfect way to end one thing and start another.

It sure proved to be a fun get away.

At any rate, I started to look around for things to do in the area since we would be there for two days and nights.

That is when I read about the segways at Chestnut Mountain Resort.

Without thinking about it too much, I went ahead and reserved the segways for Sunday at 4:00.

There was no looking back.

We were going to be riding segways.

 

We arrived at Chestnut Mountain, which is located about 10 miles from Galena

It is situated in a beautiful spot high above the Mississippi River.

We got there in time to ride the chair lift.

Most people ride down the mountain on an alpine sled run and then ride up on the chair lift.

Well, I was not about to do a sled, so we rode the chair lift both ways.

It was a bit scary at times, but we saw beautiful scenery and enjoyed most of the ride.



 Here are John and I on the chair lift.

 

Our view as we rode along.

 You can see the two sled run tracks under the chair lift here.  It was fun to watch the people riding down on the sleds and listening to their remarks as they came down the hill.

Another view of the sled run and my lovely knee just to prove we were up there.

I was so nervous we would drop the camera or the phone.

This is the beautiful view we saw as we rode down the mountain.

That is the mighty Mississippi down there.

On the way back up the mountain, we went over this rather rocky area.

Recently we saw a movie where three people were stranded on a chair lift, not sure how the story went or why they got stuck and no one could help them, but anyway, they could not get down and then a bunch of wolves came and wouldn't leave the area.  I don't even know how that movie ended, but I do know it was not a good ending for the three people involved.

That movie was crossing my mind as we went over this area, I figured we could  never jump out here and there was no way a fire truck could get in here.  I was glad when the lift started moving again.

And here are our feet dangling about that rocky area.

 

We did survive the chairlift ride and after getting off that ride, it was time for the Segway Adventure to begin.

We began our adventure with the viewing of a video on Segway safety.  It showed people falling off of segways in every direction.

It did not put any of my worries to rest, but our instructors, Destiny and Danny assured us that none of us would fall off or get hurt, okay...

There were three other couples in our group, all of them much younger than us, probably in their early twenties.

It was obvious to me, that these three girls were doing this for their men who were very excited.  I felt good to know that none of these people had ridden a Segway before.  I also took comfort in the fact that all the other women girls were nervous.

After the video we had to choose our helmet and then show the instructors individually that we could handle the Segway.

I always opted to go first for the little tests since otherwise I would get too nervous.

After we passed all the little tests we were allowed to go on a grassy area and practice still in turtle mode.

It was going swell for all of us.

Then Destiny and Danny told us we had to practice going up and down hills and we were going out of turtle mode into a faster mode, great, just great.

Somehow I just figured that we would be on flat ground.

More panic, but I passed those tests, too.

We all did and our little group was ready to roll.

Here is Danny, our very patient instructor helping me get on the Segway.
Segways have a mind of their own and you cannot get on or off of one without help until you are much more experienced.

 

Then is was time to try to move it on my own.

It actually went very well and I was relieved that I could actually make it move.

Next we had to each get through the obstacle course of cones.
I made it without hitting even one cone.
That is when I graduated to the grassy area.
It felt like we were putting on a show in that grassy area.  It reminded me of a motorcycle act in a circus or of the nomads in their little cars who perform in our fourth of July parade.

 After the grassy area, we did the up and downhill practices and we had to demonstrate a quick stop just in case we needed to stop fast.
We took a dirt bike trail through the woods complete with roots, gravel, and narrow parts as well as hills.
So much for my idea of a nice level cement trail.
We had just completed one short trail when one couple had to quit because the girl's feet were falling asleep.
How funny is that?
The old people keep going while a younger couple have to quit.
I am sure when the instructors first saw us, they probably thought, "Oh, no, old people who think they can Segway!"  I was glad we could keep up and keep going.
We got started again on some more trails through the woods and finally ended up at this beautiful look out area.
This is the spot where we could have pictures taken.
It is almost impossible to stand still while on a Segway so pictures are tricky, but we managed to get a few and document our feat.

After this area, we headed back to the woods and our instructors told us that we would be going up a steep hill, one at a time for safety.  They would be there if we needed any help.

Oh, oh this does not sound good.

But we all made it up the hill just fine except later John told me that he almost fell over backwards!

We ended up at another look out spot where we were all able to get off of the segways and get our legs back to walking order.

We made our way back to the Segway station and breathed a sigh of relief, we had all completed our task and were all intact.

 

For John and I riding a Segway was stepping very far  out of our comfort zone.

We felt very accomplished and very deserving of a bottle of wine and Italian dinner after mastering a Segway.

 

Check the blog for more details of our trip to Galena in the next few days.

Happy Anniversary to Alissa and Nathan

Happy Fifth Anniversary

to

my lovely daughter, Alissa and her handsome husband, Nathan.

 

Our family on the big day.

The day after the wedding, Courtney and Paul left for Ethiopia to bring Tizita home.

There was a lot of excitement that weekend,

first a big wedding celebration

and

then the waiting for my granddaughter.

I wish them a long and happy life

as they walk off into the future together.

Hot Summer Days, Bring on the Fall/School starting weather

After our day at the Circus World Museum

John took me and Tizita to Oshkosh on his way to Iron Mountain.

It will be his last week up there, then he starts in Pewaukee.

The six weeks have gone fast and it was not as bad as I thought it could be.

Anyway when we got up to Oshkosh, Soliana wanted to go to ride the merry go round at the park, so John and I took Tiz and Soli to do just that.

We all rode the train, then the girls rode the merry go round, and we all enjoyed slushies and a snow cone for Tiz.

It was a good afternoon.

The heat had already set in.

We have not had heat like this all summer and now that school is starting it is in the high nineties and very humid.

John left around five for Michigan.

Courtney made us sweet corns and hot dogs for dinner.

She almost died from heat over the boiling pan.

We ate on their porch, it was hot.

They live in an big, old house that does not have air conditioning.

Most of the time it is fine, but when this summer heat sets in, it is HOT!

As much as I love being there, I was missing my AC on this visit.

Sleeping was hard on Sunday night due to the heat, but they do have ceiling fans and the little hot breeze there was coming in the windows flows through the upstairs.

We did survive, but Courtney and I decided that we needed to go somewhere with some AC on Monday.

We decided on Monkey Joe's.

The admission is all inclusive except for food and we knew we could kill a few hours there easily.

We pulled up to an empty parking lot, wow, we would be the only people there, great!

No, guess again, it was closed for remodeling.

Now what?

Well, we decided on Chuck E. Cheese.

Of course, Tiz was fine with that, Soli didn't care, and Courtney and I sucked it up.

It cost about three times what Monkey Joe's would have cost.

Doesn't help that Tiz goes through the tokens like they are free.

While we were eating our small over priced lunch, there was an announcement that Chuck E. himself would be making an appearance in five minutes.

They counted it down like it was some huge deal.

Well, he appeared for at most five minutes, led a lame dance, and threw out some free tickets that grown ups grabbed from little ones.

It was quite comical.

We finished our visit there by spending our 280 tickets (which cost us at least $30.00) on four rubber bracelets, two rolls of smarties, and one peace sign bracelet.

 

We headed back to Oshkosh, still too hot to go home, so we went to TJ Maxx.  Tried on lots of clothes, bought little, but stayed cool.

After that we picked up Paul and went to Glass Nickel for pizza.

It was there at Glass Nickel that I was totally ignored when I could not get my Miller Lite.

The waitress was all over Courtney and Paul and their fancy beers, but could care less about my Miller Lite.

Paul had to go get it off the bar at one point.

She also forgot to put in our pizza order, but that did work to our advantage since she did not charge us for it.

Needless to say, she did not get a very big tip.

Here I am with the girls at the restaurant.  As you can see, I have no Miller Lite to speak of.

After we got home, we all tried to sleep in spite of the sweat.

We did manage somehow.

Sometimes I don't know how we survived back in the day when no one had air in their homes.

Somehow we all did survive.

Now, it is not so much fun when it gets so hot.

We are spoiled I guess.

Today, it is still as hot.

Courtney brought me home.

I love the AC.

Soli came to visit my classroom because she will be starting in my class one day a week this year.

I feel so blessed to be able to be my granddaughters' first Preschool teacher. 

Soli has a lot of spunk, so ask me in about a month just how blessed I am feeling then.

 

At any rate, even with the heat, it was a fun few days.

It was a nice way to end the summer.

Now bring on the fall weather and school.

I am ready!

May All you Days Be Circus Days-Baraboo Circus World Museum

Yesterday we may have found the best value for a full day of family fun in Wisconsin.

We have an annual "before school starts" outing with Tizita.

Last year we all enjoyed Little Amerika and the year before that we did Monkey Joe's, Build a Bear, and Mini golf.

This year we chose Circus World Museum in Barboo.

It was the best choice ever.

I had been to Circus World as a child and our we had taken our girls there, too, but this was our first return trip there in about 30 years or so.

The admission for the three of us was $33.00, not bad for a day full of fun activities.

We began our day with the magic of Tristan Crist.

Tiz is an apprentice magician and loves all things magic so this was right up her alley.

Here Tristan is signing her magic wand after the show.

Of course, there are lots of these fun signs all over to stick  your head through.

After the magic show, we headed to the big top for the circus performance.

It included dog acts, monkey acts, an elephant, unicyclists, trampoline acts, clowns, and a few other fun things.

It lasted an hour and was enjoyed by all.

We felt the circus alone was worth the admission price.

And we enjoyed  cotton candy and soda and popcorn during the performance.

Tizita's favorite part of the performance was the contortionist who got himself not only through a tennis racket but into this little box as well.

The only extra charge besides our food was face painting.

Tiz chose to be tiger.



Tiz the Tiger!

There was a time for the kids to all come out and try the different acts.

Hula hooping,

Walking on a big ball,

And trying the tightrope, plus juggling.

It was a lot of fun for the kids.

Tiz felt she could have walked that rope without help, but I am not so sure.

Next on our agenda was a kids circus.

Tiz was chosen to be a pony.

The ponies came out and performed for all the audience.

It was so cute.

There was a grand finale parade of all the performers in the kids circus.

This sums up our day at the circus.

I am ready to join the circus, I think.

We took the Merrimac ferry home.

Something else we had done many times as a family.



 

And we ended our perfect outing we pizza at the Blue Moon in Lake Mills.

May all your days be circus days!