The storm came on the heels of loading the car with a bunch of stuff for a garage sale. I'd spend a good portion of the afternoon sorting and pricing the bags of stuff that have been accumulating in the garage - mostly toys and clothes that have been outgrown by the kids. I have to say, I wondered if the garage sale would go on as planned since the ground was thoroughly soaked. But - go on it did!
I loaded the kids into the car early Friday morning and went over to my friend and fellow PTO board member's house. Ingrid lives on a great street for garage sales - no ads or tons of signs needed - which is perfect! Ingrid invites all her friends to participate in the sale which meant there was TONS of stuff. I put Kelton on the school bus that Ingrid's kids take and then continued with the setting up. Before we were even half way ready the people started streaming in. The traffic was crazy all day even though it sprinkled on and off the entire time.
By the end of the day I had sold almost all the stuff I had brought and I was completely exhausted. Too tired to deal with dinner and since the kids were asking to go out, I agreed. Only....they couldn't agree on where to go. I let them hammer it out for close to an hour before the decision of McDonald's was reached. They have a play land and that seemed to win out over Red Robin. I was ok with it because it meant I could take a book and read while they played.
Saturday morning I was up and at it again. Dakota had to go into the law school for her bar review class and shortly after she left, the kids and I headed over to Ingrid's to help set up. We stayed a couple hours and then I brought them home to have lunch. I scrambled around cleaning the house and getting it ready for company. Once the bathrooms where shining, the floors were swept, mopped and vacuumed and surfaces dusted I loaded the kids back into the car and we went to Game Stop so Kelton could spend his take of the garage sale proceeds. (Make no mistake - my kids have the "If I agree to sell my stuff then I get the money." down pat. Which is ok because it does help lighten the toy load around here.) Kelton, of course, opted for yet another Pokemon game for his DS. I even tried having the guy who worked there explain that the games are all pretty much he same. I lost my footing though when the oh-so-helpful guy explained that what was great is that you can transfer all the Pokemon that you catch from game to game which gives you a HUGE collection of Pokemon. (Are your eyes glazed over? Yeah - mine too.) I lost the battle on that one and Kelton very happily made his purchase.
Back to the garage sale we headed. I stopped at a couple sales along the way and quickly realized that hitting garage sales this year will be unlike years past. This year I will be hearing "Hey! Don't you work at Crestline? MOM! She works at my school!" a good time more than in years gone by. It was startling the first couple times - I'm so used to going through life without often seeing people I know or who know me - but then it got to the point where it was just downright funny. I even passed a couple kids playing in their yard who recognized me and waved and yelled "Kelton's mom! Hey Kelton's mom! HI!!!". It's actually kind of fun. :) I guess that's what happens when you practically live at an elementary school. :)
We arrived back at Ingrid's and stayed another hour or so before it was time to pack up my unsold things and get home to meet our niece and her kids who were coming over for an evening of fun. It didn't take long to pack up - more than 3/4 of my stuff had been sold.
Soon Dakota arrived home from school and, not to long after her, Amy and her kids arrived. We had pizza and drinks while the kids played and played and played. Not to be left out, the adults started a game of bowling on the Wii. :)
Bailey, our 8 year old great-niece, and Kelton thought it would be fun to have a sleep over so we said goodnight to Amy and Alise and got busy settling in the kids. It was late and settling down didn't come all that easy. The older kids wanted to sleep in a tent. I couldn't arrange that but came up with shoving the couches together to make a fort (or sorts). They loved it! I got Kaylen to sleep but thanks to Dakota's silliness and stories, the older two were still awake at 10.
Morning came early - like at 4:30 when Kelton stood beside me and said "Mom! Can I get up now?" to which Dakota and I both said "Uhhhhh....NO! It's 4:30!" He headed back to the living room but I stopped him in his tracks when I said "And don't you dare wake up Bailey!" He turned around and came back to our room. I moved into Kaylen's room to sleep and Kelton took my spot. He never did go back to sleep. Bailey was up at 5:30 so Dakota let them go in and watch TV for a while. Kaylen joined them at 6am. At 7am Dakota and I were treated to breakfast in bed - complete with coffee! It was Bailey's idea and she and our two worked together to put together breakfast trays. It was really sweet.
We had all been up for about an hour when Amy and Alise knocked on the door. We all hung out for about an hour before sending Amy and family on their way. We've made plans for Bailey to spend some time here this summer and, hopefully, Kelton will want to go to their house for a couple days. They live about 2 hours away so I'm not sure Kelton will go for it but we'll see. At least I know Bailey will be good for coming here.
A couple hours later found Dakota and the kids heading out to see "Up" and me having the entire house to myself! Trust me, after the week I had I really, really wanted family-free time. I just hung out and watched TV. I am ashamed to admit that I got sucked into The Real Housewives of New Jersey but I did and it was great mindless entertainment. Oh the drama of it all! :)
The rest of the afternoon and evening where low key. We hung out in the yard and then the kids and I played some Wii. It was a nice way to end one week and start another. Hopefully this week will be more low key and less stressful than last. And for those of you who are counting, we just started week the of bar review. We're getting there.....slowly.
(Mel and Jeri: These two photos are for you. Now get off my back! :) )
1 comment:
Ah drinks...yum.
Garage sales on Friday? I dont' think we have much of that here. Saturday is the big day, and Sunday is the day to go if you aren't picky, at all, about what you get, as long as you can just pay a buck for it.
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