Yard Sale Weekend

I woke up two Friday mornings ago with a great deal of excitement mixed with trepidation. It was yard sale day, and I had a lot to do before I would be ready. My tagging plans were derailed from the get-go, when Nick dropped my keys into the main pocket of the diaper bag instead of the small pocket on the front (and since searching for anything smaller than the Titanic in the big pocket is akin to trying to find a blue crayon in a bucket full of office supplies in the dark with your hands tied behind your back, I naturally assumed that he had left them on the credenza the night before since that was the last place I saw him set them), and I spent all day Monday locked out of my own house. The rest of the week went in a similar fashion, and by Friday morning I had only managed to tag one small box of items. But the happy news was that I had managed to get all of the yard sale junk over to my sister-in-law's house the previous evening, so while I still had to set everything up and finish tagging a bazillion things, at least all the hauling was already done.

Serenity woke up, her usual cheerful self, and promptly pooped like the end of the world for a solid 10 minutes while giggling and talking to herself. After 4 nights leak-free, Serenity managed to soak through my favorite of her sleepers (Oh, the poomanity, will the stains ever come out?), and was extremely amused by the whole thing. Jerry, her faithful and soggy giraffe friend, looked at me with something like resignation in his beady little eyes as she snarked on his nose and screamed happily at him.

Butters is always happy to see his baby in the mornings, and this morning he surprised her (and me) with a sneak attack ear bath and had to be chased off the bed. (Butters has a tendency to try and steal Jerry, so we keep a close eye on the two of them, otherwise we end up having to fish Jerry out from under the bed or the coffee table and wash him off so he's baby-safe again.)

Once Ren was dressed, and my lunch and the diaper bag packed, Butters went in his crate and Serenity and I took off in her new stroller I picked up for a steal at the Happy Kids Consignment Sale, run by my friend Tonja. Unfortunately, one of the front wheels fell off in route, and while my mother-in-law, Cindy, found it, it keeps falling off and we're back to needing a good stroller again. *sigh* Thankfully, we made it the last few blocks to my sister-in-law, Kristine's house with no trouble, and in time to set up for our yard sale!

Both Kristine and I thought we each had just a small amount of clothing and household goods to contribute to the sale, but we were a little off. Between the two of us (mostly me, I admit), we covered her entire front yard with stuff to sell!

Our first day, we only had 5 customers, and sold almost nothing. It turned out that both of our signs had blown down, and while her house is central it is off the beaten path a bit and no one knew we were having a sale! It was also a blistering hot day, and both of us got too much sun.

That night, we all had dinner down at Nick and Kristine's mom's house, which is only a few blocks down the street from Kris's place. Despite the heat, it was nice to take a walk together, and I always enjoy watching Cinda "help" her mommy push Nico in his stroller. Soon enough, they are going to need a double stroller! I can only imagine that next summer will be crazy-fun, wrangling all these kids together! *smiles*

Poor Cinda had a bit of a freak out on the way; she encountered a little girl with a Chihuahua, and when the dog saw Cinda it pulled it's leash out of it's owner's hands and started sniffing Cinda all over and jumping up. Cinda is little bit scared of dogs, and was crying and screaming, trying to get away from it! Kristine was able to snag the leash and the little girl too her dog in hand, and everything was fine. Cinda calmed down as soon as the dog was gone. I think she picks up on her mommy's mistrust of animals...

Serenity and Grama Cindy had a fun time talking to each other, and taking goofy pictures with the iPad (which horrified her poor Daddy, lol). It was nice relaxing after a long day in the sun, and not having to cook dinner.

Kristine and I ended up running down to my friend's 2nd baby sale of the season, and I picked up a really nice Baby Bjorn baby front pack, and was really excited about it until I found out that they're referred to as "crotch danglers" and are not good for the health of little baby hips. *bummer* On the bright side, a good percentage of the stuff I included in that sale sold!

The final day of our yard sale went much better, and we ended up selling a good chunk of stuff before packing the rest of it up and donating it to a local resale shop in a neighboring town. A couple of things came back home with me, that I know I can sell online, but from an entire room full of junk all the way down to a single half empty box is a big win in my book! Kristine and I decided that if we do another sale together next year, we'll host it at my house (huge shade trees and a covered porch!!), and much earlier in the season. Even though our sale ended fairly well, we still didn't get nearly the traffic we had expected, and while I'm glad all the rummage is gone, I do wish more of it had sold and less donated. All in all, though, a great weekend *smiles*