Garage Sale

Hi!  Remember me?  It's Mello!  I'm back!

No, I didn't go anywhere.  I just haven't really had anything to say over the last week or two.  I've been feeling kind of like what I imagine a rock might feel like.....just sits there, stagnant, no original thoughts...just....blah.  Don't necessarily believe anyone who says that not being in school will make you less busy!  This has been a rather exhausting week.

Most of the week has been spent getting ready for a HUMONGOUS garage sale.  I usually want nothing to do with garage sales.  I used to shop them occasionally when the kids were little.  It's a good way to get clothes for them when they're at an age when they outgrow their clothes way faster than they wear them out.  These days, I just don't want to take the time to go to garage sales.  Most of them open on Fridays, when I'm at work - and I'm not about to sacrifice the only day I can sleep in (Saturday) to go look through someone's picked-over junk.

So why did I have a garage sale when I hate them?  Well, a bunch of us from my church decided to do it as a fundraiser to help raise money for gas to get all of the kids to and from camp this summer.  The math goes something like this:

2-3 large vehicles/camp session   X   400 mile round trip for 3-4 camps   X   gas prices over $3.50/gal   =   EXPENSIVE!!!

For the last several weeks we've solicited donations from the church body and we got a TON of stuff.  It just so happens that my friend Patty lives across the street from me and also attends my church.  The sale took place in both of our garages.  Patty had the household & furniture-type stuff, and I had toys as well as kids' and adults' clothes.  On Friday we planned to start at 7 am, but actually ended up opening the doors around 6:50 because there were people sitting outside at 6:30!!  There are some hard-core garage salers out there! 

There was a 90% chance of rain on Friday, but thanks to a LOT of praying, it only rained lightly & intermittently throughout the day.....and poured literally ten minutes after we closed up shop for the day. Today it was c-c-c-cold out there at 7 am, and business was quite slow.  It was rather miserable, actually.  We made a few sales, but stuff really started to fly off the shelves after we declared around 11:00 that everything was free.  :)  We figured the more they took, the less we'd have to pack up.  We'd declared from the start that anything that didn't sell was going to be brought to the Salvation Army, so we figured we'd make our lives easier.

At the end of the day, we'd made $969.00!!!!  If that doesn't pay for all of the gas, it'll come darn close.  And as a bonus, I didn't have to help clean up since I had to take Bailey to her soccer game (a very cold, ridiculously windy experience.  Bailey twisted her foot but was back in play by the second half).

In other news, we're getting DirecTV installed today!  We've been toying with the idea for years, but ever since we got the big HD TV, Brian's really been chomping at the bit and the other day finally just bit the bullet.  We currently have a bundle deal for internet, phone & cable through Charter, so we were a little afraid that cancelling part of that would cause the other components to skyrocket.  But Brian called and actually it'll cost about the same overall, so there was no reason not to do it.  The guys just got here, and I had to call Brian to get his butt home so he can "make sure they know what they're doing."  He wanted me to do it but I refuse to micromanage professionals.  Really, the only thing I care about is that it works and that it's done by the time the race starts tonight.  Woo-hoo - short track racing at night in HD!  I can hardly wait!