Garage Sale Season Has Started

These exact signs were all over the place this morning

AJ was here this morning and able to take care of breakfast and getting MJ ready for school. He has gone straight to work from seminary every other day this week, and it was nice to have a reprieve. I was content to languish in bed for a while, puzzling over the mysteries and craziness of the Lost season finale that was on last night.

When I finally got up, I went downstairs and was immediately cranky. Baby Z has left messes everywhere. The Cadoo game with all its cards was scattered through the book room. Q-Tips and other bathroom stuff cover my bathroom floor. And in the office? He dumped over a random basket of AJ's with spare change, ticket stubs, collar stays, etc. He is now tall enough to reach up and into drawers, including where I put my makeup and hair stuff in my bathroom. I knew I would have to spend more time than I wanted cleaning up after him. I told him that he would have to stay in a playpen because I can't handle the constant messes. And, indeed, when he threw a fit that I wouldn't let him pull out my boxes of contacts from the bathroom cupboard, I put him in his crib with some toys. He was not pleased. Happily, big brother T jumped in his crib and they had a great time playing together while I cleaned my room.

We needed to get out of the house. I didn't want to spend the morning picking up, with baby Z underfoot and undoing behind me. I got them into the car and off we went. As soon as we drove out of our neighborhood, I remembered it was a garage sale day. Around here, they do them Thursday-Saturday for some reason. And there were signs everywhere. So, we just drove around for a while, listening to Stockard Channing's great rendition of Ramona the Brave, stopping to look whenever we saw a garage sale.

I immediately started to perk up, for who doesn't like to get great deals on stuff you need? This is what we ended up with.


2 booster seats for the kids in AJ's car (he almost bought one at Target last weekend, so this was perfect), $6
Gymboree swim trunks for T, $1
A fun baseball hat for Z, thrown in for free
Sweatshirt for T, 50 cents, in our favorite color orange
Shorts for T, 25 cents
Brand new pair of Keen shoes for T, $4
For $5, books, of course, and they all looked like they hadn't been cracked open, including:

• 6 Boxcar Children books for MJ
• Hardback of Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes--We have long loved Lilly, but who knew he also has novels to his name? And it's a Newbery Honor book, too.
  
• Another brand new hardback book, published at the end of 2008--Good Girls, Bad Girls: The Enduring Lessons of Twelve Women of the Old Testament, written by T.J. Wray, a professor of religious studies
• A board book for Z--Hey! Wake Up! by Sandra Boyton

And best of all--a bike for T, $7. I was ready to send him out with AJ to buy a bike.

Total spent: $23.75.

We went over to the library after I ran out of cash.