Yard Sale Mania

This post is for those serious garage and yard salers. You are not a truly accomplished garage/yard sale person until you do a city wide sale. Let me tell you, it is an experience beyond description.
Of course everyone wants to get to each garage sale as early as possible so as not to miss any really great stuff they can't live without. However, when you are attempting to hit 40 to 50 of them in the space of a morning you just have to start somewhere and move as quickly as possible. In our small town, it is simply a matter of deciding where you want to start and drive from street to street. While there is a map to follow, you find that it is not accurate. There are those folks who, for whatever reason, have decided not to have their name or number put on the map and take the chance by just putting their "goodies" out, knowing that if you are driving down the street, and you will, that you will stop. Treasures abound for sure. We witnessed antique everything, the likes of which I have never seen in any one place at one time. People drive miles to come and try to find that perfect item. I believe you could have found just about anything your heart desired. This was the big sale of the year and is always well attended by hundreds.
Some people were very organized, having all of their items neatly arranged, catagorized and individually priced, and others, well let's say, it was a basic free for all, make me an offer, kind of deal. Most were somewhere in between, meaning it has a price but nothing is set in stone. A few places even were selling hot dogs, hamburgers and cold beverages. A lesson we learned here was that if you want to eat, don't wait too long. Every place we went to find that hot dog, was sold out by noon.
What great things did we find you ask? Well some great clothes and toys for the kids, canning jars for our produce efforts later this summer, a great little kitchen table for me, some cabinets for toys, Christmas village pieces, little bottles for a craft project, an antigue treadle sewing machine and a few other odd and ends.
By one o'clock we were exhausted and called it a day. We missed a few sales but I do believe we were able to visit the vast majority. So until next year our visits to yard sales will probably be limited to 10 or less at any one time. We have truly entered the realm of the serious garage sale junkies.

Babies

We are the proud parents of some new babies. No not exactly the cute, cuddly, pinch their little cheeks kind. No no. We have veggie babies. Ok eat your hearts out Ketchikanians. It is May 18th and we have baby zucchinis, tomatoes, strawberries and lettuce. The amazing thing is that I have not had to fight the slugs for them either. The pumpkin plants are looking fabulous as well as the peppers. Some of our seeds were a little displaced a couple of weeks ago with our huge storm but some survived. Other things like the garlic and onions were a little displaced but are also coming along. We are excited about our gardening efforts. I can't say as I have ever grown a pumpkin in my life so the prospect is kind of like expecting a baby I suppose. We will keep you updated on the "nursery" here.
The real kids are growing like little weeds as well. Kyran recovered from his surgery beautifully and seems to be healthy and his eyes seems to sparkle more than before. He loves to help water plants and he like to cook. Kegan is "happy go lucky" and marches to his own beat. Kaylin is losing the baby look and turning into a little girl. She loves to sing happy birthday but she only knows the one line so far. They all love the water and play in their little pool often on our hot days. They also like to play with bugs and try to catch butterflies. Of course we are all missing the Army guy but we try to keep order as best we can. We manage to keep busy without any trouble. Oh and by the way, the mosquitoes are terrible down here and we get dive bombed by June bugs if you leave the porch light on. I guess you take the good with the bad as it is any place you live.

Thunder

Tornado season is officially upon us. When the weatherman says "severe thunderstorm warning", they don't mess around and you better pay attention. After an entire day of warm temperature close to 80 degrees and high winds, the thunder and lightning final hit last night. My experience with thunderstorms has usually been quick, hard rain, thunder and lightning, with a duration of 20 to 30 minutes and not usually more than an hour in length. Well I have to say things are different in Kansas as have been many other things. Last night, we had an all nighter. That is absolutely no stretch. I believe it begain around 8 pm and I was still hearing thunder at around 5:30 this morning. This was not the mild gentle rolls followed by a few streaks of lightning mind you. This was house rattling, entire sky lighting stuff. As if that wasn't enough, tonight on the way home from church, we encounter a huge, almost black cloud in the direction we were driving. The rain came down and in a matter of a few moments we were in a rain storm so hard, we literally could not see the road and could only barely make out the white side line. After a brief pause to decide if we should just sit and wait it out, we chose to make a run for it and made it home safely. A tornado did touch down on Friday and again on Saturday in the same town, which caused a lot of distruction and some loss of life so it is serious business, even though we sometimes laugh and joke about being in Kansas. Our little garden that we planted last week, looked like a puddle so we hope it all survives. So for now, we are all tucked in for the night safe and sound.