The Third Yard Sale

Well folks, I participated in yet another yard sale this past weekend; only this time it was at my own house. I think I mentioned that after the yard sale at my grandmother's house at the beginning of the month, we brought most all of my things and some of my grandmother's things back to my house to see if we could sell them in my neck of the woods. We planned for June 27 and I was more than anxious to clean all those boxes out of my guest bedroom. 

Friday after work I went over to my parents' house to pick up some tables to use and while I was there, my dad and I ended up cleaning out the closet in his office. It was completely a last minute decision but it worked out to be a good decision as the items from the closet brought $48.50 on Saturday morning. One of the items from the closet was a Keebler picnic basket which had not been unpacked since we moved to Birmingham in 1994. I opened it up and inside was a bag of Keebler snacks that expired in 1986. I cannot make this stuff up, y'all!

My co-worker and friend Maria also decided to participate. Both of her parents recently passed away and she has been cleaning out their house and had quite a few items she wanted to try to sell. She came over on Friday night and we unloaded her car and for the next four hours we worked on pricing her items and getting things organized for Saturday morning. 

I set my alarm for 5:00 a.m. which is what time I normally get up each day so it wasn't that big of a deal. For whatever reason (nerves, excitement, etc.) I ended up waking up at 4:30 a.m. and just decided to go ahead and get up and start getting things ready. I loaded up Pippa and my signs and we set out to tape up the signs on this intersection and that. I also made a stop by Dunkin' Doughnuts to get some breakfast for the gang. 

Pip and I soon made it back to the house and I began to set up tables and drag things out from the bedroom. Rain was forecast for Saturday morning and I had been praying all week that the rain would hold off for our yard sale. It rained all throughout Friday night, but for the most part the rain stayed away on Saturday morning. It drizzled on occasion and drops of water sometimes fell from the trees, but all in all it was mostly dry. Prayer works, people! 

We had quite a few people stop by - probably three or four times as many as showed up at the sale at my grandmother's house. A little before noon it looked like the rain was coming in again and so we started packing things away. I kept a lot of the nicer items that I thought might sell as we have at least one more sale to go this year. We are planning on a sale at my parents' house this fall and then I'm done for a while, y'all! My cousin Jessica and I packed up the things we were tired of dealing with and took them down to The Saving Way Thrift Store. 

When it was all said and done, I made $107, my grandmother made $39, Maria made $59, and as mentioned the haul from the closet in my dad's office brought in $48.50. Not bad for a few hours worth of hosting a yard sale. It was a fun, exhausting and adventurous morning and I'm glad to be done with yard sales for a little while. 

Cancelled in the Park

The 2015 season of Concerts in the Park kicked off at the beginning of June with a really great group called Unknown Lyric. I had big plans to go but all my friends backed out on me and I didn't want to look like a loser sitting by myself so I didn't go. That particular night it rained and the concert got pushed back by 30 minuted because of a quick rain shower that passed through. 

The next week I had other plans which got cancelled because of rain and was going to head down to the park instead, but the concert got cancelled too...and it never rained downtown. The third week I was in Boston, in a coat in the middle of June and that was just fine by me. 

Finally, this past Monday, I made it to the park for the concert. This particular night was the one I was looking forward to the most because it was military night and the US Army Materiel Command Band was playing and there were going to be fireworks after the concert. I met my dad at the park, we set up our chairs and went and got some dinner from the food trucks. 

As soon as we got our food, and sat down in our chairs, a lady from the Arts Council came onto the stage and said that the National Weather Service has issued a thunderstorm warning and that it was supposed to rain at the park in the next 15 minutes and so everyone needed to pack up and head home in the interest of safety. Y'all, I was so disappointed!

Instead of leaving, my dad and I just sat in our seats and ate our dinner and talked about this, that and the other. We actually ended up sitting there talking until about 8:30 p.m. That's right folks, we sat under a tree, in the park, in the nice cool summer night and not one drop of rain fell in the park. The concert was cancelled for no reason at all, but at least I got in some good conversation and quality time with my daddy. 

Around 8:30 p.m. we parted ways and about 15 minutes after I got home as I was cleaning up yet another mess made by Pippa, the doorbell rang. It was my dad and he had lost his phone and wanted to know if it was in the chair he had been sitting in. It wasn't. So, we headed back to the park with my big lantern in tow to look for the phone. Thankfully, I spotted it right away, without the help of the lantern I might add. Just call me eagle eye! 

Concerts in the Park supposedly continues on Monday nights through July and August. Maybe one day this summer I'll make it to the park and the show won't get cancelled. 

Father's Day 2015

I'm sure you know this past Sunday was Father's Day and as we do each year, we gathered at my parents' house for a meal cooked by yours truly. I made my meatloaf, at the request of my dad, who only gets meatloaf once a year on Father's Day because no one else likes it. We also had macaroni and cheese, green beans, coleslaw, rolls, and two pies - chocolate and raspberry cream.

I spent Saturday preparing most of the dishes and finished up on Sunday morning and then after church on Sunday afternoon. When I got to my parents' house, my dad had invited some visitors to eat with us which was fine because I somehow end up making more than we ever need. I told my brother it's like the five loaves and two fishes, we always seems to have enough for whoever gets invited.

The couple was an African-American couple and I only point this out because in the wake of last week's shootings in Charleston, it seemed that much more meaningful that my family opened their home to these people, strangers, and fellow Christians and it made me even more thankful to have the dad that I have.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal and I think everyone had a full belly and there was still food left over. It was a nice afternoon celebrating a great daddy!

Much Needed Rest

I can more or less sum up the majority of my weekend in one sentence. I watched four movies and rested. Really, I did a little bit more than that, but just a little more, not a lot, as I was exhausted from the previous week and didn't want to do much of anything. 

Friday I intended to leave work at 4:00 p.m., but as luck would have it I didn't end up leaving until a little after five. I picked up something for dinner, and got two movies from Redbox and then went home. I ate the dinner, popped in one of the movies and immediately started falling asleep. That's how tired I was, people. So, I paused the movie and slept for a little over an hour before waking up and actually making it through the movie without dozing off. It wasn't that the movie was bad, I was just tired. In fact all four movies I rented were great. 

Saturday morning I was supposed to have a haircut, but I had received a text from my hairdresser on Friday night saying he was sick and wouldn't be at work and that I should call and reschedule. I was super bummed about it, but also understood because no one wants to work when they are sick and I also didn't want to get whatever kind of sickness he had. So, I called in as soon as they opened to reschedule, knowing there was no way I would get in any time soon. I was right, there were no appointments available for the next month or so and so I ended up scheduling something for June 30 with my hairdresser's wife. 

I still got an early start to my day, going to Target first thing to get a lampshade. Last week, I brought home a lamp from my grandparents' house and I decided to use it in my den in place of the one I've used for the last nine and a half years; but, it didn't have a shade so that was needed. I wanted a black shade, but couldn't find one so I settled on grey. It's still got the plastic on it because I can't decide for sure if I love it. It looks fine but I think I was so set on black that the grey is taking me some time to adjust. It's growing on me though and I like it a little more each day. 

After Target, I went to Publix and knocked out the grocery shopping for the week. It was Father's Day weekend which meant that I would be cooking meatloaf and the fixings so I had to make sure I had all the things I needed for the meal. I also returned the two movies I had rented on Friday and got two more. Then I went home for the rest of the day where I enjoyed the air conditioning, watched those two movies, and cooked for the Father's Day luncheon. I also spent some time cursing Ticketmaster that morning. Dolly Parton is playing at The Ryman on July 30 and my cousin Lauren loves Dolly. The tickets went on sale at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday morning and since Lauren wasn't going to be near a computer, I told her I would try and get tickets for her. I tried two computers and the Ticketmaster ap and never made it past the first screen. Here's the thing that drives me nuts (among many other things), the people who really want to go to these types of shows can never get tickets because of people who are buying tickets only to resale them. On Saturday afternoon, there were already a ton of tickets listed on eBay for $700 each. Ticketmaster is such a racket. It makes me want to start my own ticket company! 

So, that was my Friday and Saturday. Like I said, not very eventful, but so worth the laziness. I've been running on non-stop/empty for weeks now and really needed some down time and I am beyond thankful that I got it this past weekend. 

Boston and Beyond

My last day in Boston was Tuesday and we once again got an early start and headed into our customer site at 8:00 a.m. My flight was leaving at 2:40 p.m. so one of my customers arranged a cab to pick me up at noon. The traffic in Boston is ridiculous so everyone said it would be best to leave at noon to make sure I got to the airport with plenty of time remaining.

The cab ride was uneventful. The driver talked a lot and asked a lot of questions and kept referring to his girlfriend (or maybe wife) as his sweetheart which made me smile to myself. I got the the airport about 12:30 and had thankfully already printed out my boarding passes so I basically just had to jump in the ever-growing line to get into the terminal. It took about 30-45 minutes to get through security, after which I went straight to the Legal Sea Foods located in the terminal for some lunch. I had clam chowder and a lobster roll and it was all delicious.

I spent the next little while returning a few calls and browsing through my phone and finally it was time to board the plane. I was so lucky because on both flights home I had the exit row. On the flight from Boston to Atlanta I was on the row where the seat in front of me was a good four feet away and it was grand. I sat next to Cliff, the CFO of Boston Mutual and he told me about the endurance race he just finished and then told me about how he came to know Jesus. We spent most of the flight talking about faith. Well, he mostly talked and I occasionally got a word in which made me laugh because Cliff mentioned multiple times he was not a people person but he could have fooled me. We also talked about math. Cliff loves math and math is/was my favorite subject in school and so we had some common ground there on which to have a conversation. Cliff was visiting his mom and step-dad in Atlanta and so after the plane landed, we parted ways.

I had a bit of a layover in Atlanta so I walked around and watched people and called my dad and the next thing I knew it was time to board the plane. On this flight, not only did I have the exit row, but the middle seat was empty as well so there was lots of room to spread out. I spoke to the gentleman sitting next to me and we started talking and ended up talking from take off to touch down. His name was Melvin Adams and he once played for the San Antonio Spurs and the Harlem Globetrotters. He was coming to Huntsville to put on a basketball camp and he also works as a motivational speaker. He had me laughing the whole flight home. It was great. We are now Twitter and Instagram buddies and I hope our paths cross again some day because I really enjoyed talking with him. I finally made it home a little before 8:00 p.m. where I basically went to straight to bed and to sleep. I will never for the life of me understand why travelling is so exhausting.

The next day I had a different customer in house and went in to to work at my normal time of 6:30 a.m. and by the time the day was over (work and then dinner with the customer), it was 10:00 p.m. My clock was literally chiming 10:00 p.m. when I walked in. So, again ti was straight to bed for me. I don't think Pippa enjoyed me much last week.

The rest of the week was somewhat normal, work, gym, sleep and back to work. I think it was one of the busiest work weeks I've ever had and I'm very much looking forward to a somewhat more normal week this next week.

While In Boston

Monday morning in Boston I woke up, got ready for the day, ate some breakfast and headed out the door. My co-worker Andy and I drove the one mile or so up the road to our customer site to begin our work day. It was raining outside and Andy was kind enough to pick me up under the portico at the hotel and drop me off at the front door of our customer site.

We spent the day working and having meetings with various people who we work with on a daily basis but from a distance. It was refreshing to meet all the people we talk to on the phone so often. I think it makes a huge difference to put a face with a name and I was so glad to meet people who I've talked to for years but had no idea what they looked like in person.

Our customer took us out to lunch at a local spot and Andy and I both had the Lobster Roll, or should I say Lobstah Roll, which was really good. We enjoyed visiting with our customers on a casual environment and getting to know them a little better. After lunch we had more meetings and Andy did some more work on his project and around 4:30 p.m. we called it a day. We were planning to leave at 5:00 p.m., but we had plans to go to the Red Sox game and our customer told us we should probably hit the road.

So, we went back to the hotel and changed clothes and then went to the train station so we could catch the train/subway into the city. It was Andy's first time on a train or subway and he was really excited. What can I say? He's young. It took us a good hour or longer to get to our subway stop because of the vast number of people trying to get to the game. The trains were running slow and we were often stopped on the tracks not moving at all which was supremely annoying considering there were hundreds of people on each car and I was starting to feel claustrophobic.

We finally made it to Fenway Park, bought some tickets on the first base line under the upper deck (it was raining and we wanted to stay dry) and walked around outside the park for while before going in. We finally went in and I was planning to get a hot dog and soda, but Andy decided to buy a whole pizza for us to split and so I just went with it because at this point I was ready to sit down and start watching the game. We made our way to our seats and practically needed a third seat for our gigantic pizza.

The game was fun, the atmosphere was more fun. The weather was cold. I had on a coat and a beanie and by the time the game was over, I was freezing. The Sox played the Braves and despite a rally in the bottom of the ninth, the Sox lost (their seventh loss in a row). We still had a great time and I'm so glad we were able to catch a game while in town.

After the game, we made our way to the train station which was backed up to the street to get in. They apparently haven't caught on to the DC method of just let everyone in on game night. After waiting in line to get into the station, we finally made it onto a train and began the long journey back to our car. We made it back to the hotel around midnight where I promptly went to sleep. It was a productive day and a fun night!

​A Trip To Boston

I spent the last couple of days in Boston, one of my favorite cities in the good ole United States of America. I've been quite a few times before, but this time around I went for work rather than pleasure. As long as I've worked for my current employer, I've never traveled for my job; so, this was an unexpected surprise. Since the week ahead is jam packed for work, I had to fly out on Sunday so that I could be back in town for a big meeting and audit on Wednesday. 

My flight was scheduled to leave Huntsville a little after 11:00 a.m. on Sunday and so, I got up at 5:00 a.m., did a bit of laundry ​and then went to the 6:00 a.m. worship service at church where I'm pretty sure I was the only visitor that day. I was completely surprised when most of the people there were talking amongst themselves and you could tell they were regulars at the early service. I had no idea the 6:00 a.m. service had regulars. After church I went home and finished up some cleaning and changing of the sheets and actually packed a bag for my trip. 

I left for the airport around 10:00 a.m., parked in long term parking, grabbed a bite to eat, ate, and got on the plane. A co-worker, Andy, went on the trip as well, but we were not sitting beside each other on the flight. We were a few rows apart. I sat between two men who I assume were also both headed out of town on business. One was going to Baltimore, the other was just grumpy. We had pretty much no layover in Atlanta, which was great. I had time to buy a bottle of water and get on the plane. On the flight from Atlanta to Boston, I had an exit row seat and there wasn't a seat in front of me so my legs were able to stretch out the whole flight and it was absolutely delightful! I watched a movie I had downloaded to my Kindle and just generally enjoyed the whole flight. I have exit row seats on the return flights home too, or at least I'm supposed to; so, I'm pretty pumped about that.


When we arrived in Boston, it was a little after 4:00 p.m. and we took the bus to the rental car location. Poor Andy, he's so young and innocent. The rental car was in his name because he s staying a day longer than I. He said he couldn't find on his reservation who the rental was with, but that he thought it was Hertz. So, into the Hertz line we go. Andy, bless him, keeps looking at his reservation and doesn't understand why he can't find which company the car is with. I ask to see it and it says Budget and I point that out and say we need to be in another (longer) line on the other end of the room. He thought that Budget meant that it was a budget, or cheap, car, not that it was the name of the company. He's young, people, he's young.


We went to dinner at Legal Sea Foods and had a great spread of delicious seafood items, including Lobster Bisque and stuffed shrimp. My only request was that we be back at the hotel by 9:00 p.m. which is when the season finale of Game of Thrones was coming on. We made it back with about 10 minutes to spare and would have gotten back sooner if not for the terrible waitress we had. She hardly ever checked on our table, we were often without drinks, and it took her three tries to get our checks split up correctly. If you ever go to the Legal Sea Foods in Braintree, be sure that Amanda is not your server.


I watched the Game of Thrones finale and then attempted to go to sleep. I did not sleep well at all - for the second night in a row. It was either the ginormous bed, the lack of Pippa, the fact I was distraught over the Game of Thrones finale or a combination of the three. Who knows? Whatever the case, it made for a very tired Monday which is when the actual work portion of the trip began.

We finally made it to the rental car around 6:00 p.m. and headed out on the road. At first Andy told me he wanted me to drive, but then decided to drive himself. I think he was a little nervous, but he did great. He wasn't as aggressive as I would have been, but he still did a good job. We made it to the hotel and got checked in, dropped our things off in our respective rooms and then left to get some dinner. 

I Just Keep Going and Going and Going

Y'all, I'm so tired. I think my constant going and going has caught up with me and I'm ready for my 40-year nap, but I don't really have time to nap for 40-years so I'll just keep on trucking and hope for the best. 

 

Last Friday I had a few invites for Movies in the Park, but I responsibly stayed home and didn't go. My original plan was to meet some friends there around 6:00 p.m. and eat and head home but when I was still a work a few minutes after 5:00 and needed to pick up some prescriptions and run another errand or two, I decided it would probably be best if I kept myself at home and took care of things around the house because my Saturday was going to be busy and Sunday I was leaving for Boston. So, I stayed home and actually got a lot accomplished. I cleaned the bathroom and did a lot of laundry and did some dusting and went to bed at a decent hour and was quite pleased with my productivity for the evening.

 

Saturday morning I was up before 6:00 a.m. and finished up a good majority of the inside the house chores before I had to leave to go to my granddad's house. We had a "garage sale", really it should probably be called a moving sale which started at 10:00 a.m. and was supposed to last until 2:00 p.m. I wanted to start earlier for a couple of reasons. One, most people who go to garage sales go in the wee hours of the morning and two, I wanted to be finished by noon and back home to finish my chores and get packed for Boston. The first people who came were people we knew and they actually bought quite a few things. A few others trickled in from time to time, but overall it was a slow go. I don't think we had anyone show up after noon. A little before 2:00 p.m. the movers showed up which was a complete surprise to me because I had no idea they were coming that day. I thought they were coming later in the week. There was some miscommunication between us and the movers through because the guys that came thought they were moving only and we thought they were packing up the rest of the stuff and then moving. Long story, short, the movers moved the furniture to the place where my granddad is going to be staying and we made other arrangements for the packing up of the rest of the stuff. 

 

After the adventures at my granddad's house, I finally made it home close to 4:00 p.m. I was going to lie down and rest for a minute, but then remembered that Pippa's nails were more like talons and I needed to take her to have them trimmed. So, I loaded her up and we headed to the pet store in Five Points for a nail trim. She was not on her best behavior that particular day, but at least she isn't going to claw anyone to death. When we got home from that adventure, I started on the yard work. It was miserable hot and I feel like I probably sweat off about five pounds. There was some out of control brush along the fence line that I cleared and that probably needs to be cleared some more, but for now it looks better than it did. I finally finished up with everything a little after 6:00 p.m. and got a shower to wash all the filth from mowing off before crashing on the couch to watch hockey. Sadly, I did not sleep well that night, undoubtedly because I was leaving the next morning. This seems to be my pattern the night before a trip. 

 

So, that was my weekend, or my half-weekend as I've been calling it since I left on a business trip Sunday. I guess it's the time of year when things don't seem to slow down and all I want to do is rest. I guess I can do that in January when there's nothing going on. 

Garage Sale Number One

We had our first garage sale of the year this past weekend at my grandmother's house. My cousin Jessica posted an ad on Craig's List and facebook and also made some signs so that we could get the word out. She did a great job of advertising, but the turnout wasn't as great as we expected.

I got there a little after 6:00 a.m. and Jessica wasn't up yet. So, I called the house phone and she came out and we soon started pulling things out of the garage. It wasn't long before we had our first customers. We had a few people trickle in throughout the morning and sold a hand full of things. We had more moments of no customers at all than we did customers. We had a few people that we knew stop by, but mostly strangers.

My grandmother had a riding mower to sell and Jessica had listed it on the ads as well. One man seemed very interested in it and pulled it out of the garage and probably spent an hour or so looking over it and tinkering with it. He had a pick up truck but no way of getting the mower into the bed and so he finally told us he wanted to buy the mower and that he was going to run to Lowe's and pick up some planks so he could load the mower onto the truck. After a couple of hours, I told Jessica I didn't think he was coming back. His wife was with him and I'm pretty sure she talked him out of buying it. So, we took the sold sign off it, but unfortunately didn't have any more offers. I think she sold it this week though, thank goodness.

Around lunch time we sent Nathan (Jessica's husband) off to Chick-fil-A to get us some lunch and after we ate we decided to start packing up for the day. We still had so many items we had not sold and earlier in the day made the decision that we would have another sale at my house at the end of the month. My house gets more traffic and we hated to just give everything away when we might could make a few dollars. So, Nathan and I started loading up our vehicles and two or three trips later, most everything was in my guest bedroom ready for a sale in Five Points at the end of the month.

At the end of the day I made about $60 and my grandmother made about $130. So, we are hoping for some better results at the end of the month. I'll be sure and let you know how it goes.

Home on a Monday

I doubt anyone has ever used the term, "suffered through the weekend," but that's exactly the term I would use to describe my weekend thanks to my stomach which started giving me problems on Friday.

Friday morning I woke up with some stomach pain which I thought was just hunger; but, throughout the day the pain continued to get worse, I had so much to do at work that I didn't want to leave early, but I finally decided to leave a little before 3:00 p.m. I had a car full of stuff to take to my grandmother's for our garage sale. By the time I got there it was pouring down rain and I was about to go to the bathroom on myself. So, I ran inside barely speaking with anyone making a dash for the toilet. My cousin Jessica and I managed to get the car unloaded and I then darted home and immediately took a Phenergan and slept for the next 13 hours.

Saturday morning I got up and still did not feel great. I took a shower and laid back down for a while to wait and see if I felt like going to the garage sale. I mustered up the strength to get out of bed. I made a stop by Starbucks for a Frappucino and then went to my grandmother's. I managed to make it through the day at the sale though how I will never know. I'll write more about the actual sale in a separate post.

After the sale was over and I finally made it home for the day, I was feeling worse than I had that morning. The yard, however, absolutely had to be mowed because I had now mowed the week before and it was too high for my taste. So, I spent the next two and a half hours mowing and working in the yard and coming in to cool off periodically. I was so miserable and was ready to vomit at any moment but thankfully never did. By the time I went to bed that night, I woke up an hour or so later and needed to take another Phenrgan because of how bad I felt.

Sunday was a big day with lots of planned activities. I got up and went to church and felt a little better. I even managed to eat some tacos for lunch and thought everything was going to be okay. I went to see a play that afternoon and then to my cousin's engagement party that evening. After about two hours at the party, I thought I might get sick all over the place and as much as I didn't want to leave, I was in intense pain and had to say my farewells.  By the time I got home I thought I would spend the rest of the evening beside the toilet. I took more medicine and went to bed and woke up every couple of hours with acute pain in my stomach.

I stayed home from work today (Monday) and , or course, feel guilty about taking a sick day - that's the American way, I suppose. After waking up every couple of hours doubled over in pain, I just didn't think I could stand to be at work and try to concentrate on my work while dealing with the pain. This morning I had pretty intense pain every hour on the hour, but this afternoon seems to be better. I have no idea what's causing it, but I'm ready for it to pass because I've been pretty miserable for four days now.

I don't think it's s virus of any sort and am leaning towards and ulcer or something along those lines. If it doesn't improve soon I'll be headed to the doctor, but I'm hoping it will be much better soon because I'm ready to return to normal, or as normal as I can be anyway.

Another Iron in the Fire

Y'all, I really don't know when I've been so busy as I am right now at work. I have so much going on that some days it's hard to even know where to start. To say it's a wee bit stressful is an understatement. I'm pretty sure my whole head is going to be gray before too long. I just keep telling myself that this will soon pass and I'll be back to a normal pace soon... fingers crossed. 

As if I don't already have enough going on between work and serving on the board of directors at Agape and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life, I also recently applied to graduate school. I've wanted to get a MBA for a long time but just haven't done it. For whatever reason, a flame burned inside me recently and I finally pulled all the required documents together and applied and this past Friday I got my acceptance letter! I applied to the program at the University of North Alabama for a couple of reasons - one, it has a good reputation and two, it's affordable, or as affordable as an advanced degree can be I suppose. It's not Harvard, but it will do and all the classes are online which fits my schedule and doesn't require me to have to drive to Florence which is an added bonus. 

The program is designed to take one to two years (depending on if you go full or part time); but, I fully intend on taking two to three years. I know myself, people and I know that I love TV and concerts and hanging out with my friends and heaven forbid schoolwork get in the way of any of that. Priorities, my friends, priorities. I'm really excited about going back to school and also a little nervous. It's been 15 years since I've been in school and I'm sure a lot has changed, including the fact that these classes will be online as opposed to a classroom. So, I'm going to have to stay disciplined and stay the course and pray that I'm able to handle it all. Here's to hoping it all goes well.

More Garage Sale Prep

Apparently garage sales and cleaning out houses is the way of life for my family these days and this past weekend was no exception. Saturday some friends from my Bible school class and I met my mother and dad over at my granddad's house to do some packing for an upcoming move. It was not nearly as organized as I hoped it would be and we got off to a late start but other than that I suppose it went as well as could be expected. 

I arrived at 8:00 a.m. and sat in the driveway for about 30 minutes until my granddad decided to get up and open the garage door. My granddad is an avid gun-lover and I didn't want to risk getting shot that morning so I stayed put until I saw some movement from within. I taped up some boxes in anticipation of everyone getting there at the projected start time of 9:00 a.m. A couple of friends showed up about 9:30 and another about 9:45 and finally our boss for the day, my mother, arrived a little after 10:00 a.m. We got to work packing when mother started telling us what needed to be packed, only it didn't really go like I thought because my dad said pack up everything and it was rather obvious that the majority of the stuff we packed up needs to be put in the upcoming garage sale.

We worked for a couple of hours and then the girls left and Erika came by. We decided we would price some things for the garage sale when Erika got there only we were tired of being there and didn't get much pricing done. We basically made the executive decision that when we have the sale, we will have someone stationed in each room so that nothing gets stolen and we will just tell people what the price of things are. I've decided I'll have a little notebook for everyone and they can give the person a receipt for each room and then they can cash out before leaving. At least this is how I've got it worked out in my head. I'm quite sure I'll have to go by and do some organizing before the sale which is currently slated for June 13.

When I got home from my granddad's I took a nap and then was apparently moved by the moment of the day and began cleaning out even more things from my own house to put in my grandmother's garage sale which is this coming Saturday, June 6. My house looked like total chaos before the night was over and I basically left it like that when going to bed and dealt with the aftermath on Sunday. Y'all, I seriously cannot believe how much stuff I have purged to put in this upcoming garage sale. You would think with all the stuff I've priced that I would have nothing left, but of course, I have plenty because that's the way we do it here in America. My original goal was to make $100 at this sale, I'm upping that to $200 now based on all the stuff I've got a price on. It's crazy how much stuff I'm getting rid of and could probably get rid of more if only I would. The sad thing is there's not that much extra room in the closets even with this stuff gone - the joys of an old house. 

So, my extra bedroom is full of stuff to take over to my grandmother's which I hope to do Friday after work and then the big sale will be this Saturday. It looks like the next project will be purging at my parent's house for a garage sale for them. Mother asked Erika and I if we could purge her house. I'm quite sure we can. I figure we (or just me) can take the whole summer and do a little bit at a time and price as we go and then have a sale in the fall. In other words, by the time 2015 is over, I'm taking a year or so off from organizing yard sales.