Saturday, May 22, 2010

The Yard Sale

Earning $150 is never a bad thing! We had hoped to do better, but there were a lot of other yard sales going on, including at least one other charity one. We also priced things low compared to the one we had four years ago because people complained about prices last time. So, we did alright. There was a lot of left over stuff, but we donated it all to Good Will (except for the books which I'll be using on the Goodreads book swap to get free book credits).

Here's how the day played out ... ('cause I know a yard sale is so exciting that you have to hear about it in detail).

Actually, we have to go back to last night. My former student Sarah came over last night to help us sort and price the items. Most of the things we had were junk Mike and I had collected over the last four years, but there was some donated items and some things from Sarah's grandmother. Mike and I did most of the sorting and digging through the pile, but it was good to have Sarah there to help us decided what to price something as a third vote. Our fourth helper bailed on coming to price because of other plans.

This morning, I got up around 615 so that I could shower before Natalie got up. She woke up just as I was finishing up getting myself ready. Mike did her diaper and handed her off to me to nurse while he had breakfast. I then put her in the play pen so that I could have breakfast. But, here is where we hit our only snag of the day. Sarah was running late (and our fourth helper decided to bail on the whole yard sale). So, Mike had everything upstairs and started setting up, meanwhile, I got Natalie dressed in her awesome yard sale outfit, which was intended as a secret weapon to get people to donate money (her chubby cheeks are part of that weapon and usually work on old ladies, who just happen to be the types of people who frequent yard sales).


I put Natalie back in the play pen and its about ten minutes to 8 and still no Sarah and we aren't even half way set up yet. So, I went outside and helped, Sarah got there, and Mike helps us, too. Meanwhile, Natalie is crying in the play pen. I was outside and didn't know until Mike said he had to go get her. I felt bad about it, but really, we had people showing up looking through the stuff, so what were we going to do?

After the little rush of people at 8, it became a pretty steady trickle of people for the rest of the morning. Natalie was rather crabby for the beginning of the day. She didn't like the change to her routine and that we had left her alone and crying. We tried to put her down for her nap at the usual time, and that was also a disaster. Mike tried to feed her at 930, but she wasn't having it for him. But was happy to eat when I fed her. This is something she's never done before. But, at 1030 I brought her in to nurse and she napped happily on me for an hour or so. After that, she was much more cheerful for the rest of the day (with on exception I'll get to).

Mike and Sarah had just gotten pizza for lunch when Natalie and I came back outside. Natalie played happily for most of the rest of the yard sale. Meanwhile, I got to talk with Sarah off and on in between customers. It was nice to hear some about how the old gang of kids who ate lunch in my room are doing as well as how she is doing in college. She is planning on being a teacher, too, and is worried about student teaching. I would have liked to talk to her for longer.

At 2, we started to pack up. Sarah was so nice to bring all the left over stuff to Good Will in her Jeep right then and there. We stuck the desk we had that no one wanted out in the yard for free and it was gone in half an hour. Mike and I worked on cleaning up the rest the yard while Sarah was at Good Will.

After Sarah left for the day, we tried to put Natalie down for a nap again. Disaster again. This time, it was totally my fault. I had smelled a poop smell when I put her down, but I thought it was left over from when Mike had changed her a couple hours before. Nope. She'd had a big poop. No wonder she didn't want to sleep! I felt like a jerk letting her cry in her crib when I wasn't taking care of one of her basic needs, but I didn't know! After a diaper change, I nursed her again and let her sleep on me. She was like violently sucking and breathing rough in her sleep at first. Poor little thing!

But, when she got up, again she was happy. We took her for a walk around 4, but she wasn't too keen on that, kept fussing, so we cut it short. The rest of the night was pretty usual. Mike watched a bunch so I could get some more straightening up done, prep for bed, and pack for a little day trip tomorrow.

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