I'm baaaaaaaaaack!!!

Crazy crazy crazy! I've been organizing our big yard sale for the club and getting my own "merchandise" ready to sell & looking after planning details for the event itself, on top of my regular household routines & activities. Anyway, that's all over now & the sale went incredibly well! The lineups at the checkouts are usually steady from 9-10am and by 10:30 there's no wait at all. This time the lineup didn't drop off til after 11am and the cashiers worked their little fingers to the bone. I looooooooooove sale weekend! It's definitely a lot of work & I have to delegate some of it before next time as this thing is growing out of control & is no longer manageable by myself.

On Saturday after I got home, Murray asked if it was time to quit/give it up. He was surprised when I looked at him like he was insane! He doesn't understand why I'm willing to work so hard to make $200 selling kids' stuff. I guess I'm not really doing it for the $200 dollars because if you divide that by the number of hours involved, I doubt I'm even making minimum wage. I don't know why he'd want to go out running in the dark in circles for 3 hours either but if that's his idea of a good time, hey, go for it. (at least I come home with cash!) There's quite a thrill to see the event unfold, especially if things go well. So many members come out & I get to visit with friends I hardly see all year. Everyone's psyched up & boy do these moms know how to get a job done! There's no messing around. In 3 hours, we turned a cafeteria into a one day consignment shop filled with 30 families' worth of outgrown/unwanted clothes, toys and equipment and had a good time doing it.

a little hard to see, but there's a pile of people waiting to get past that grille! the maintenance guy told me people started lining up TWO hours before we opened!

I get waaaaaaay too excited about the whole thing. If you've ever seen me at Christmas, it's a little bit like that except there's a healthy dose of stress & pressure thrown in. The night before the sale opens, unmedicated sleep is impossible. The very first sale, I didn't know any better & tossed & turned all night. Since then, I pump in a little gravol when I get home Friday night & then crash out shortly after hitting the sack. This time, I got over confident. Things seemed to be under control, everything was fine, I'd been up a lot the night before with a sick girl & was very tired. I decided to go Gravol free & went to bed a bit before midnight with my alarm set for 6:30. Then my mental list making started. Don't forget the bags. and the extension cord. and the tub for the bottled water on ice. and print out the duty list. and bring the cheatsheets. and make the deposit on my way. and pick up the bagels for breakfast. and what if those volleyball players get there before us & help themselves to everything on our bakesale table??? or ransack the place?? This went on until about 1am and I must have finally fallen asleep shortly after that but only til 4:30 when I must have come out of the deep sleep enough for my nagging to do lists picked up right where they left off. I tried to ignore them. I tried counting to 100, and taking deep breaths and counting backwards from 100 in Spanish which usually requires enough concentration that I can't think about anything else & I get bored and fall asleep before I make it all the way. Nothing worked and I could feel the blood jumping in my veins & my heart pumping the adrenalin. Of course by this time, it was too late for sleep aids, they'd just mess me up at that point. After almost an hour of trying to go back to sleep, I gave up and started checking things off my list & was done & on my way by 7am. As usual, everything was fine but boy was I tired by the time I finished the last chore at 3pm ish.

I'd bought some stuff for the girls on Friday night but put it away before I went to bed. I'd told Murray he could haul it out for entertainment if things got dicey while I was gone. He didn't end up needing any diversions but shortly after I got home, things got cranky. And what cheers a girl up in a hurry??? NEW CLOTHES!! I dragged out the pile and sure enough, it fixed them right up! : ) We got 9 new dresses, 1 pair of kid sized doctor greens, 3 sets of shirts & pants, a short set, 3 T shirts, another pair of shorts (which will hopefully go with something somewhere), 3 gymnastics/ballet bodysuits, a skirt and a pair of pants. Grand total? $70 for all of the above. Grammie's not the only smart shopper around here ya know!

Sweetie & Honey are sporting some of the new duds! Lovey stuck with the old wardrobe for today.

So that's where I've been & what I've been up to. Things should be a little calmer around here now... oh wait a minute, I start teaching a cake decorating class next week! I wouldn't want to get bored now would I??? : ))