Day 1

Day one of our yard sale went well. Roughly $40 made! One more to go, and I think the last few hours tomorrow will be half price! I'll keep you posted.

Yard Sale at our Abode

Yes, we are succumbing to the neighborhood pressure (about 5 other houses ), and have decided to have a yard sale. I think we both need to plead momentary insanity. As we cleared out the garage and set up tables last night, all I could think was "what is wrong with us?". Not only am I pregnant (which means no lifting), but how am I going to entertain a not yet two year old in our driveway for 7 hours on Friday AND Saturday! Much less deal with the ninety degree weather!


And looking at our track record, we are not the greatest yard sale sellers! I've held two in my lifetime--

once in high school, where I made about $20, mostly from my Grandma, and

once with friends near our old home. Josh and I made negative $11 that time, as we bought more of their items than we sold. So what is my strategy this time? How am I staying upbeat and motivated?


Here's my rules for yard sale attempt number 3: (I'll let you know how they turn out)

1. Keep the prices low! If we sell it for more than ten cents, that is ten cents we didn't have before! Price low, negotiate low! Just please take our junk!

2. Afterwards, set all the leftovers on the curb and post to Craig's List a curb alert. At least it is out of our house, and we didn't need to bother carting it away.

3. Use cute little Madi to our advantage. Teach her the ways of selling, and send her out to greet people. Maybe make a sign for her to carry--all proceeds benefit my college fund! Hey, every time we GO TO a yard sale, she ends up with a free toy or stuffed animal because she's "oh too cute". For example, (it doesn't even have to be a yard sale) Josh took her to a local diner for ice cream two evenings ago, and they returned home with a stuffed dolphin that the restaurant owners had given her because she was sooo cute. I've had happy meal toys given to us too--by employees and other customers. So I'm hoping to use this to our advantage!

Book # 23: The Mother Tongue

English and How it Got that Way
by Bill Bryson

I am an avid Bill Bryson reader. I have read at least 5 of his books. This would be my least favorite so far. This was mainly due to the subject matter, and well, reading about the English language is hard to make exciting. However, if you are interested in reading about English, then Mr. Bryson makes a good attempt at keeping your attention. I did learn some interesting things, but it is definitely not one that I would buy or reread. However, I will recommend Bill Bryson's book "A Walk in the Woods", where he hikes the Appalachian Trail or any of his travel books. They are worth reading.

Next book: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam

Officially Arranged

The family room is officially arranged. The furniture all fit and looks cozy in its new locations. There are a few pictures to be hung and a few clutter spots awaiting removal, but the major work is done.

The baby room is officially arranged. Crib is set up, complete with bedding. Dresser has clothing organized, and the changing table is ready to go. Nothing is hung on the walls, but that just requires a hammer and some nails. Well, and a phone call, and an internet order, and me making 3 antique toy airplanes into a mobile (don't ask--I'll share pictures if it works out). But I'm still counting it as complete; it's less stressful that way.

Madi's room is half done. She is moved into a big bed (no problem at all), and loving it. The stuffed animal population that sleeps with her has doubled, but she has successfully stayed in bed after every night and nap until I go in to tell her she can get down. Her desk and dresser is painted and filled. I still have to seal her shelves and night stand, and then arrange the furniture. But it is getting there.

We are a little behind because we had a small flood. The plastic tubing running to an auxiliary kitchen faucet sprung a leak in our basement. This was discovered by our cat, as her litter box is located directly under that plastic tubing. The water was spraying all over, and like most cats, Izzy does not want to get wet. Consequently, she really needed to pee (excuse my bluntness), and began doing laps around our house, meowing as loud as she could. This caused Josh to investigate (well, try to dispose of her in the basement). Luckily, our basement is slanted, so the water ran away from the colossal stack of memorabilia, precious treasures, and junk that we had "stored" on the floor in the center of our basement. Only a few items of little importance (except my 9th grade yearbook) got wet. But the clean up process (which is still underway) took some time from the arranging that was to be done upstairs.

And now Izzy is avoiding the basement. It felt like I was potty training a child, as I had to keep taking her into the basement to use her litter box. And as I am sort of potty training Madi, two learners were too much to handle, especially when one has claws and can hide under beds. So Izzy's litter box has taken its place back in our downstairs shower. They say that a little bit of regression is supposed to take place with the arrival of a new baby. I just expected the regression to be done by Madi, and for it to take place AFTER the baby was born.

Book # 22: Cymbeline

By William Shakespeare

This is one of Shakespeare's later plays. I switched to reading it as we thought we were going to get to go see it. Every year they have a local Shakespeare Festival, and they have a Shakespeare in the Park performance, which is outside and free. That's right--outside and FREE! This year's performance just happened to take place during our 5th anniversary weekend away. So we did not need to even find a babysitter as we already had Nana standing by. Well, guess what? It rained. So when it rains, there is no performance. Oh, well. It motivated me to read a Shakespeare play I had not previously heard of.

It wouldn't be one of my favorite Shakespeare plays (I tend to like the comedies best--Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, and Twelfth Night), but it is also not my least favorite. If you like Shakespeare, it is not bad. It is in between a comedy and a tragedy. Less death, more romance.

I am currently reading a Bill Bryson book and am halfway through Catch-22.

Furniture Frenzy

Currently, our house is overrun with furniture out of place and awaiting a new home. We are in the process of setting up or resetting up three rooms in our home.

First, of course, is the baby's room which was our guest room. But to fully set this room up, we need the following to happen:

-paint the accent wall
-get Madi into a big bed
-remove a shelf and relocate it to the office corner in the family room
-figure out what to do with our queen guest room mattress & box spring

Our basement is too musty, and there is no other spot in our house to store it. It was newly purchased as a gift, so it's not something we can just discard or sell. Any ideas on how to store it in the basement without messing it up?

Second, is Madi's bedroom. Because she is being moved to a big bed, all of her furniture is being moved with the crib into the baby's room as it is a matching set. Therefore, Madi gets all new furniture. But first, I need to sand and repaint the craig's list dresser, mirror, desk, and shelves that I found.

Third, is our family room. My grandmother is downsizing, and therefore, getting rid of some nice furniture pieces. Our family room was currently empty and awaiting the money for the furniture. So good timing. Half of the furniture arrived today, but we weren't able to fit the love seat and chair into the trailer. And those are pretty key pieces to finish off the room.

Consequently, the garage, guest room, and family room all look like a jumble of mix matched furniture awaiting some major organizing.

And well, I'm a little bit anal retentive, and the disorder is really starting to get to me.