How to Have a Successful Garage Sale!

 I have been helping my parents with Garage Sales my whole life so when I got my own house, I was an expert! And even back 6 years to Matt and I's first garage sale we were successful! Every Garage Sale I have had we have made over $1,000 in just 2 days. And today I am going to give you a few tips on what works for us!
* Advertise!
FUN signs!! This worked really well for us (until someone stole them) but.... people loved them and everyone commented on the signs when they showed up! Make sure you put them out 1 full day ahead so people can plan for your sale!
There are really only 2 websites you need to advertise on and I got a ton of traffic from Both!
1. Craigslist, make sure you re-post your Ad each morning so it is fresh for people to find!
2. www.nextdoor.com this is a neighborhood website to connect to your neighbors and this worked out great and it is nice to a member of anyways!

 You have to invest a little, I got 2 cheap garment rack and a lot of neon paper! The tables we already had! Think of it this way, set up like a store... so people will enjoy shopping and feel like they are at something more than a Garage Sale!

Label EVERYTHING! It might take a few hours but it is well worth it and customers don't like to speak up and haggle. Also give yourself plenty of set-up time. I started 2 weeks early... unloading boxes, setting up tables, making signs.... it's a ton of work but can be worth it!

 Low Prices is also a key.... we had nothing over $5! And ya, it sucked selling name brands at $2 but if it doesn't sell it gets donated so anything is something!

 Keep a calculator and scratch pad handy for tallying up your customers... this was super helpful for me!

 I got this cute coupon organizer and used it to organize our change. And we priced NOTHING under $1... we did;t want to deal with .50 or .25 and that was a huge help also!

 Make a FREE box... people loved it! And make sure you place it where people can see it from your street.... this will get them in and yes, people will take anything as long as it's FREE!

 Lastly, use what you have around the house... we had moving boxes which worked out great for shirts and when it was done I just had to close it back up again!

Next week Salvation Army is coming to get the rest of our stuff and I highly recommend donating everything you don't sell!
Happy Garage Selling friends!!!

3rd Times the Charm

Don't you all just LOVE how I enjoy starting off all my infertility posts with a little sarcasm? But for real, Thank you to everyone who tells me this is in "Gods Plan" I feel much better about being poked by needles every week, having ultrasound sticks shoved up me and taking medicine that makes me crazy. BUT I digress.....

We have been trying to have a baby for over a year now as you know and have been working with our wonderful fertility team since July! No really, I LOVE my fertility team... the doctor and all the nurses are amazing. It's weird calling in or showing up at a doctors office and everyone knowing your name and story without looking.
Last month was our second try via IUI and sadly about 30minutes before everyone came over on Saturday for Matt's Birthday party I found out it didn't work. So that was disappointing and I didn't tell Matt until Sunday because I didn't want anything to ruin his party. Now... I know people try for years and it can take a TON of tries, so I am doing relatively well compared to some. So I am aware that I am not the only person who is and has gone thru this but like I always say this is my story and my feelings.

What happens now? We start all over again.... I go today for my Day 3 ultrasound, get my new prescription of drugs and this month we are adding in something really exciting... HOME SHOTS! No really, I am scared too death. I don't do needles and the thought of Matt giving me shots in my ass every night makes me want to cry! YAY me! Then in about 10 days or so we will go for round 3. 3rd Times the Charm, huh? This time I took the news better than last month, I think I was just trying to prepare myself this time so I wouldn't experience the sadness I did last month. But do you want to now what I think is the WORST side effect of all of this??? Not me giving blood (which use to make me pass out) but it is the Hot Flashes! They are so severe I don't sleep... All night every 30 minutes I wake up covered in sweat and kick everything off then 30 minutes later wake up freezing and this happens ALL NIGHT LONG! That is the worst thing for me so far!

Brats & Beer

Matt officially turns 35 this Friday, yes he is a Halloweenie Baby or close enough BUT with that being said I have already thrown him a Halloween themed party before so I wanted to do something else! After much brain-storming I decided on Beers and Cheers and Brats! And wouldn't ya know someone on Etsy had the perfect invite! This is the invite I had custom made and I mailed em out old school style!

I am going to walk you thru what I did for Matt's party so you can do this for your hubby.... I promise, he will LOVE it!
Matt is finally seeing the AWESOMENESS that is our entire chalkboard wall in the formal dining room.... case in point.......
I set up the Dessert and the Sangria in the dining room and did a little chalk design to match!

 Since this wasn't a Halloween party but it is still Fall it was easy to find all the matching party supplies for this Oktoberfest Celebration Party! All the party supplies came from Target!

 This Fall Apple Sangria was DELISH! And the recipe is from that new fun Facebook page TASTY run by Buzzfeed! Here is the quick easy recipe...

I finally got to put our cute Pottery barn Mason Jar drink dispenser to good use.....

I used 3 crockpots, 1 pot, 1 sheet pan and a partridge in a pear tree to put together this Brat Buffet! And I labeled everything with cute chalkboard signs that perfectly tied into the theme! And the popcorn containers were my utensil and fixins "holders"!

Here is what we had on the Menu, everything served 24 people!
Brats, Beers and Cheers Party Menu
Brats
Beer Cheese Dip, Chips
Gourmet Pretzels
Trisha Yearwood Crockpot Mac and Cheese
Kraut, Fixins
Beer, Fall Apple Sangria
Guiness Cupcakes with Baileys Icing!

I had this sign hanging in the kitchen to greet everyone......

On our Patio Table was my Party Favor I made homemade for everyone: Spicy Buffalo Chex Mix! And I got the cute windowed food bags and chalkboard labels all on Amazon!

Beer, we had and HAVE Beer for days! But the good news is, is that in 3 weeks we are hosting a HUGE Broncos tailgate at the Kansas City game and that is less Beer I have to buy for that! ha!

The last and finale component to a GREAT party for your man is FOOTBALL! We had College football on ALL night!

We had a great night and a great turn out, everyone complimented me on all the details and called me Martha Stewart/Pinterest Queen and hey.. I'll Gladly take that!

I don't think that from the moment I got up at like 8am that day that I sat down once and then at midnight I was up cleaning the entire party up... I was spent!

Matt had a GREAT time, everyone loved the food and the drinks as you can tell! haha!

You guys this is great party to throw whether it's a Birthday or just for Game day! Brats and Beer was a HIT!

Eight & Always

You know it is hard to remember our wedding day, do you find that to be true? 8 Years ago today we were married and it is all a blur. I do remember when we were walking back down the isle my cathedral veil got caught on a pew decoration but other than that the night only lives in my pictures.

During these 8 years it also seems like time flies, the good, the bad and all the in-between have come and gone. Matt and I have had our fair share of trails and we are in a stressful time right now with Infertility and our sick dog Oscar. But we have made it thru everything and we will do the same with this valley.

Tonight we are headed out to dinner to celebrate our marriage and 8 years and I am excited about that. Cheers to our future! Happy 8 Years Love!

NO Win Situation

I want to start this blog post off with a CRAZY disclaimer, it might sound harsh BUT I mean every word. IF you are going to tell me any of these phrases then please delete yourself from my life.
Examples:
1. He is only a dog, you can get a new one
2. I know you love him but just wait until you have a "real" baby
3. I would never spend that on a animal, it's just a animal
4. I know you love him but you will know real love when you have a baby of your own.

So I think that pretty much covers that and anything around those examples I will NOT tolerate. Ok? Thanks.

Now, I have the update on my boy Oscar and it's a lot so forgive me if I jump around or get lost in a sentence. Thanks!
At the beginning of last week Oscar had his CT Scan and his Biopsy of whatever is in his eye. We got the results on Saturday during our garage sale ....In his left eye socket is a 1 1/2 inch Cancerous tumor. It is Cancer and it is severe. The Ophthalmologist immediately referred us to the Oncology department and we had our consultation yesterday! The picture above is us yesterday.... we put Matt's red pocket square in his collar and told him he is "SUPER Weenie"!
Here are all the options that are in front of us, I will do my best to explain......

1. If we move forward to treat this he will have surgery to remove the tumor as well as a little of the bone of his eye socket that has been touched with the Cancer as well. He will 110% loose his eye. This option will run us around $5,000. And we have already spent $4,000 last week just to get this far.
NOW that is the BEST case scenario. But IF the surgeon cannot get ALL the cancer and his margins do not come out clean he will have to have Radiation.

2. Moving forward with Radiation, the doctor tells us that it is ONLY bad for a month. Since essentially he will be getting awful "burns" and will likely loose all his hair on that side of his head. She tells us that dogs bounce back. But doing my own research on this, it looks awful. And we would be going everyday for treatment and everyday he would be put under light sedation and then go home to recover.  This will cost us around $5,800 for just this treatment alone. BUT we will not know until after the surgery IF this is needed.

3. We do nothing, and the tumor will continue to grow and it will make him go blind. The tumor will then press on his optic nerve causing him severe pain and will eventually push his left eye completely out. So this would be constantly monitoring him to manage his pain until it is time to say goodbye.

4. And this option that has been thrown out by family member is that we pick a date and say goodbye. We never let him get to that level of pain or the trauma of him loosing his eyesight.

You see, looking at these options can make you crazy. The doctor tells us that IF we go thru Options #1 and #2 ... he could live several more years. But WHERE are we going to get $10,000? We didn't know this was coming and we bought this home and there went all our money and the money we spent on Oscar last week was IT. But even beyond the money..... do we want to put him thru that? He is ONLY 8 but he also has heart disease and has already been thru back surgery. Can he make it? Is it worth it? We have a doctor telling us it isn't "that bad" but it is invasive surgery AND Radiation on a little guy who will NOT understand what is happening. 
BUT then we don't do anything, we don't "save his life" and we are killing him. Right now he is completely normal... he has no idea what the road ahead lies so the thought of this option is unbearable. Looking at our dog and aside from his eye he is his normal self and thinking about putting him down? My brain cannot comprehend this.

When I found all this out Saturday I had my first panic attack in 2 years, to say that I am broken is not enough. Part of me is going to die with Oscar. I literally cannot express how I wish this was me, I would loose my eye gladly is that meant Oscar would be back to normal. I love my animals more than I love myself. I mean what do we do? WHAT DO WE DO?
I didn't even want to get out of bed this morning. And this weekend I am throwing Matt his 35th birthday party, we are going thru our 2nd cycle of Fertility treatments and next Tuesday I start Jury Duty.... it's too much. I know people are going thru so much worse than I am right now, I am not stupid. But this is MY life, this is my heart and how I feel is valid. My heart is completely broken.......

BELIEF

Let me just start off by saying that if you are not watching BELIEF this week, the new 1 week long series by Oprah then you are missing out. Run, right now to your DVR and watch the past 3 nights OnDemand and then watch these last 4 nights with your family. I cannot express to you how much this series has touched me and in fact this series has managed in just 3 nights to do SO much for me and it can for you too.
Here is what BELIEF is all about:

* This series manages to show what people Believe ALL around the world and it 100% shows that we are all the same. We all believe in something and the basis of that BELIEF is so similar. We all believe in Love, Faith, Doing Good..... etc

* This Series has managed to show me incredible examples of Christian Love, the story of Larissa and Ian is so touching there really are no words to explain how this couple is a true testament to Christ. You can watch a video on this couple by clicking HERE!

* This series in just 3 nights has showed me faiths and cultures I didn't even know existed, like this small tribe on an island and how untouched by the modern world they are. AND at the same time they too have Faith in a higher power.

* This series makes me want to seek God more, these examples of faith make me want to become a better person. I watch these stories and think.... would I do that? Could I?

* This series has already taught us the importance of forgiveness and turing your life towards God. 

I could go on and on but I still have 4 more nights to watch! Really you guys, find your local OWN channel and watch this series. And this website includes Study Guides, Ideas and Resources this would make a GREAT group study material! Click HERE! For real, Thanks Oprah! 

Crimson Peak

Is it just me or do you feel like you spend more time getting excited for the month of October then actually doing anything Fall/Halloween related? It's sad, but this month just flies by. So Saturday after our garage sale I wanted to see Crimson Peak and have some scares to get me into the Holiday Mood.... ha! But sadly Crimson Peak was much more Crimson Bleak!!!! Let me say that the sets are stunning, it is a true gothic movie but that is where the excitement ends. I am a scary movie baby and even I wasn't the least bit scared of this movie at all. It is a romance but that story line also left us flat. Now, with all that being said... RENT THIS! This will be great to watch curled up on your own couch but don't waste your money this was a HUGE disappointment!!!!!! Check out the trailer here and you can see the promise of a great movie... a great movie that wasn't. Not even the big names could save it.....

In a Dark, Dark Wood

What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware’s suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller.

Leonora, known to some as Lee and others as Nora, is a reclusive crime writer, unwilling to leave her “nest” of an apartment unless it is absolutely necessary. When a friend she hasn’t seen or spoken to in years unexpectedly invites Nora (Lee?) to a weekend away in an eerie glass house deep in the English countryside, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. Forty-eight hours later, she wakes up in a hospital bed injured but alive, with the knowledge that someone is dead. Wondering not “what happened?” but “what have I done?”, Nora (Lee?) tries to piece together the events of the past weekend. Working to uncover secrets, reveal motives, and find answers, Nora (Lee?) must revisit parts of herself that she would much rather leave buried where they belong: in the past.

I started this book last week after Reese Whitherspoon talked about it on her Instagram, no I am not a stalker! ha! She described it as scary and I was in the mood since it is October and all!
SO was it scary? No, I don't think it was BUT it was a thriller for sure. This is a Bachelorette party gone wrong but then again it didn't start off right to begin with either. This book did keep me guessing.... What happened? Who did it? What will happen next? And since I was anxious to find out all the answer I read it in 3 days!
I do recommend this book, it's a great fun, easy read!! Happy Reading!

Fall!!

I thought I would share some of my Fall decor with you guys today and this year I really took it easy. On the 24th I am throwing Matt a 35th birthday party here at the house and in a sense it is like a house warming because it will be the first time we are having people over. So... I didn't want to decorate too much because I want the house to shine as it is! HA! BUT, I had to add some subtle Fall touches!

 Just a few fun Pumpkins placed around the house and the gingham one below is my favorite! And the black and white placemats above not only match the kitchen but are a little Halloween touch.

 I found that cute Give Thanks wooden sign at Hobby Lobby and it really matches perfectly... it might live on the front porch long past Fall!

I planted Mums in my front porch containers but since I have a black thumb they are not doing so well but my fun Football sign looks cute!

 I 

 How cute is the metal Pumpkin I found at Home Goods? It's the perfect little set-up for our eat-in kitchen table!

So there it is folks, not too much but just enough to make me smile!

Entertain ME

An unforgettable story about true love, real life, and second chances…
Rachel Blum and Andy Landis are just eight years old when they meet one night in an ER waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, and she’s intrigued by the boy who shows up alone with a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After Andy’s taken back to a doctor and Rachel’s sent back to her bed, they think they’ll never see each other again.
Rachel grows up in an affluent Florida suburb, the popular and protected daughter of two doting parents. Andy grows up poor in Philadelphia with a single mom and a rare talent for running.
Yet, over the next three decades, Andy and Rachel will meet again and again—linked by chance, history, and the memory of the first time they met, a night that changed the course of both of their lives.
A sweeping, warmhearted, and intimate tale, Who Do You Love is an extraordinary novel about the passage of time, the way people change and change each other, and how the measure of a life is who you love

I LOVED Who Do You Love, this was an easy read that always had me on my toes. This is a book about love and about the reality of love... and at times you will be disappointed by both leads. You will spend most of the book begging them to get back on the right path again. I just loved this book, it was a great read!

SO far out of ALL the new TV shows Blindspot has me hooked the most! Don't get me wrong I am loving The Bastard Executioner, Homeland is back and last night debuted American Horror Story but Blindspot has really pulled us in. You should really find it OnDemand and catch up if you can, it is fast paced, full of action and each week they unveil a new clue to real you back in for the next week! Way to go NBC!

 Here is the trailer for Blindspot if you don't know what it is.....


Ever since I first saw the trailer for Sicario I was excited, this sounds so weird but I am into the whole cartel stuff. I just finished the Netflix series Narcos which I LOVED loved!!! SO this was added to my must see list, not to mention all the glowing reviews it was getting. BUT, Matt and I were both disappointed. I felt like I was watching an episode of True Detective in that they want you to be completely confused. Then after watching for over 2 hours, it ends and you are not sure why or what just happened. Emily Blunt is incredible and I liked all the actors but this is a renter. Here is the jest.... The add Emily's character to a task force NEVER telling her why, they track the cartel in Mexico, are they who they say they are, they kill people, the end. Wah Wah!

I saved the BEST for last, I knew this would be good... I read the book and even with small changes this is a GREAT movie. It's crazy how this movie is so realistic you feel like you are watching a true story... I had to remind myself that we in fact have not landed on Mars or left a man there. SO, I think that is a sign of a great movie. This is a smart movie, you will leave the theater thinking.... what would it be like to be so smart? Matt Damon is incredible, surprisingly funny and relatable. This is a must see at the theater! DO IT!

Lately,

I hoard so many pictures on my phone, I take photos everyday and then never do a thing with them... so I thought I would share a few of them today and tell you some things we have done lately!

Oscar is feeling well, he is a bit more of a "Mommies boy" lately because I think he knows something is up with eye. But he doesn't seem to be in any pain and of course I have happily obliged to his snuggly demands.....

 Matts Birthday is the 30th and its a BIG one.... 35!!! SO of course this boy couldn't wait to go pick out his BIG gift.... and he is now a proud owner of a Apple Watch! He's happy as you can see and he is also happy because I am throwing him a Birthday Party here at the house.... the theme is "Brats and Beer"!!!! SO just add that to the list of things on my plate! haha!

 Last weekend I made Matt breakfast and I made homemade Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls, so easy I tell you! I got the recipe from Pinterest of course and you can see the recipe by clicking HERE!

 Last weekend we started moving up all the garage sale boxes from the basement and started setting up. I have been working in the garage a few hours each day, we have so much you just can't do this in a day! The BIG weekend is NEXT weekend.... 16 & 17! And anything that doesn't sell will be donated to Salvation Army!

 Also last weekend after working in the garage all morning Matt and I went to check out the Castle Rock Octoberfest and had lunch! It was fun and nice to check out an event in our new city!

 For Sunday Supper I made a few things and you MUST make them too!!! I have linked up all the recipes......
Pioneer Woman Caramel Apple Pie 

Tuscan Kale Salad which is our FAV go to salad!!!

Chicken Meatballs over Garlic Bread!!

SO as you can see we have been pretty chill which has been nice because we are about to be real busy again, Oscar has his CT scan and Biopsy on Tuesday so the waiting for that is hard.