Of babies, bike races and the birds and the bees!

I think I've hit maximum exhaustion. My friend had a baby this week and I look at her and can see the exhaustion beginning to set in. And I look at myself in the mirror and then wonder where my little 5 pound excuse wrapped in pastel is, for I look like someone who has just had their 13th child.

Jordan and my dad have huge bike races this weekend. Howard's grandpa's 90th birthday party was today and I hosted a baby shower for a friend of mine. 3 major events all in the same day. I have had 3 hrs of sleep each night for the past 2 days and I'm officially getting my butt kicked (again).

Howard is out of town (again). Can you guess why? Yep, didn't have to think too hard. Basketball. He was selected to coach an all star team in Sisters, Oregon this weekend, so off he went to get his weekly fill of basketball. To understand my husband's love for basketball is really indescribable. Just know that if they made basketball shaped breakfast cereal, he would eat it everyday. (Rabbit trail ended here.)

Back to the birds and bees part. Our lovely 7 year old chocolate lab was "altered" this week. He is recovering from surgery and is shaved in a few strategic areas. In addition to this event, the baby shower proved to provide even more brow raising topics in front of my oldest son. I was not in charge of the baby shower games, some else was and she chose a very risque poem/game. I'm sure my days are numbered after this week when it comes to the birds and bees stuff!

So how about those bike races. We are headed 25 miles out and up. To the top of the trees for the gorgeous views tomorrow of the valley we live in. Racers from all over Oregon heading our direction for some serious competition. So I get to man a post at the top of the mountain watching racers and relaxing in the sunny mountaintops. A much needed fresh air moment!

One more week until vacation!

Mandy

Yard Sale, Shmard Sale

Did I mention I hate yard sales? I seem to forget I hate them until I have them. Then ((smack))! Yard sale day is here and I remember that I HATE YARD SALES!

So yesterday was the big day of yard sale hating day, but with a twist. We expected nice warm weather. We expected, in fact, hot weather. After all, it is nearing July and by now we are usually cooking with fire in these parts of Oregon. But someone has a sense of humor and after dressing in shorts, flip flops and a t shirt it chilled off nicely, threatening to rain and the wind blew hard.

Freezing.

All day.

Freezing cold.

People would drive by, look out the window from their warm heated cars and not even get out!

Freezing.

All day.

Freezing cold.

An occasional drive by looker in a warm, heated car.

Still freezing.

And then, a huge group of cars would come, everyone would get out, everyone would run through items on display and then run back to their warm, heated car.

And we...froze!

All day.

The second twisted element of this yard sale is a dear friend that I will introduce here now on my blog. She is my great friend Naomi, we have know each other for a little more than 10 years and our families get along great. This is our friend that we lived with when our own house flooded. Yesterday appeared to be payback. And I'm still contemplating the continuation of our friendship.

Mike and Naomi drove up in their cars on Friday night, dropped off two car loads of crap into our garage. We ate pizza and Naomi returned bright and early the next morning to set up. Their crap scattered out all over our lawn, Noami proceeded to sell one thing after another. The first hour almost half of her wonderful yard sale items were sold at dirt cheap prices. Within the next two hours our whole lot of sale items were reduced to about 25% remaining to sell. 23% still belonged to me. I had sold nothing! Nothing at all. Oh wait, I did sell one $3 item.

Then, to salt the fresh wound, out came the evil side of Naomi. This is the side that comes out on occasion when Howard referrers to her as the "meanest person he knows". Her daughter reached for the money box and asked if she could count it....to which Naomi replies..."No honey, it isn't appropriate to count money in public with people watching. Plus we wouldn't want to make Howard and Mandy feel bad." And shortly after follows up with a comment like this. "We have made so much money, a whole lot more than Howard and Mandy have". Only to follow with "Hey, thanks for offering to have the yard sale at your house. This is a great venue and we really sold a whole lot more than you did!" What a lovely lady she is. I just love her. So much so, I wanted to squeeze her until her head popped off! We ended the day with $40 more than we started with and a whole garage still full of stuff. Noami wouldn't officially disclose how much money she made. She didn't want to make us feel bad, blessed soul of hers.

This is why I hate yard sales. $40 total. Not worth it. Hours of preparing, and the cost of newspaper ads, signs and take out food. $40 minus $5 minus $20 . You do the math people! $15 for about 10 hours of work! And, a messy garage to boot.

But don't worry. Please don't fret.

Noami's garage is clean.

They are probably eating dinner with a banquet table in their garage as you read this.

(And let's not forget, they made more money than we did.)

So this is my vow. And I tell you now, my reader, so you will hold me to it. Next time I mention these two words YARD and SALE in close proximity to each other. Remind me of this: The next yard sale I have, everything will be free! I'm not going to bother negotiating with someone about a price for silk flowers I haven't used in 10 years. Or a puzzle I'm not sure has all the pieces, or a candle that was never even opened.

I'm just going to say, "Here ma'am. Please take it, enjoy this fine candle that doesn't match anything in my house, and by the way ma'am...my friend Naomi, she is a keeper, even if she did make more money than I did".

Mandy

Baseball Boys

Last Saturday wrapped up the baseball season. The boys had two games within an hour of each other so grandma and Aunt Brittany helped in getting everyone to opposite sides of town for their last big games. I think Jordan's team ended in a 3 way tie for 1st place but the verdict is still out on that one. Take a look at my cute kids. Sometimes I could just lick them they're so delicious.

Mandy

We survived, our house did not.

We survived our final week of sheer chaos. Our house on the other hand, suffered like none other. Baseball season, college classes and overtime work hours have finally come to an end. Here's photographic evidence of the bomb that severly destroyed our home, barely leaving survivors behind.

This was my "clean laundry couch". I counted 12 dryer sheets when I was done folding.





A small sample of the homework piles and laptop cords on the living room floor.

No caption needed here.

And lastly, the catch-all kitchen counter top. Obviously not used to prepare any sort of meal!

After my photo session complete with hard hat , I went on a cleaning binge, however the catch-all counter still remains. With different "important" stuff of course. This coming week we will organize the cupboards and garage and get ready for our upcoming yard sale on Saturday. All profit will go to our quickly approaching vacation and hopefully after that I will be able to see all counter tops, the floor of our garage and an empty storage unit that we can vacate!

Until then, I have more cleaning to do. No rest for the wicked.

Mandy

Countdown

I'm continuing in my fashion of blog neglect. Every day is packed full of 12 things that should have 5 things in them. But that's how we roll! The countdown has begun for a few things on our radar. Namely, Howard's college classes end this thursday. For the summer anyway. So the next few days are plumb full of finals for him. Our boys last day of school was Tuesday. They have been out for almost a full week now, and howard's last day of teaching was Thursday. Baseball season is wrapping up with only 2 games left for Jordan and 1 for Grant. I'm still working graveyard about 6 days a week and officially tired of overtime hours. But, we are heading to disneyland in just under a month and I am trying to stash as much cash as possible for the roadtrip to So Cal. Jordan is still racing bikes a few times a week and I actually jumped on a bike with him yesterday and rode to baseball practice with him a few miles down the road.
The kids are enjoying being out of school and I am enjoying the sporting events they participate in. The weather has been georgous with occassional thunderstorms and the kids are enjoying the outdoors as well.
On the radar for the upcoming weeks are two basketball camps for Howard's basketball teams, a yard sale, a bike race in the mountains, a baby shower for a friend, 4th of July celebrations, a two week vacation from work for me that includes a trip to visit all of our family in California, disneyland, legoland, and then in August a camping trip to the beach with some good friends. Somewhere in all that we have Grant and Jordan's birthday's and our 12th anniversary.
Does your summer look like this? I can't wait for the fun to begin! It starts Thursday night with a celebration that the endless homework has ceased (for 2 months at least).
Ok, time to start the day...
Mandy