First of all, thank you to everyone for your sweet comments on my Patriotic doll dresses on yesterday’s post. I read them all, but this time I’m just going to do one big thank you… THANK YOU!
Tonight was the first time that I almost decided to skip doing a post for this blog. I know you would all say, “oh you should have….” but I just don’t want to break my record of not missing a post since I started writing last August… so I’m doing it. But as of my writing right now, I have one any pictures… just a story…about the yard sale today.
My hubby got there at 7:00 a.m. this morning and I arrived a little before 8:00 a.m. Things were in full motion when I arrived! Lots of people, lots of sales going on, lots of customers hauling boxes of “goodies” to their cars, so it looked like the first day of the yard sale was going to be a successful one. By noon lots of stuff had cleared out and a few of us began organizing the tables to utilize the most of our space. It was still another incredibly hot and very humid day today. Another girl and I noticed some dark clouds and thought maybe we should cover things with the tarps and painters drop cloths. But we didn’t. I turned out to be a short shower and nothing was hurt too much…just a few sprinkles… We wiped things off and carried on.
As more things began to disappear we began consolidating tables and organizing again. Then a few hours later that same girl and I noticed again that the clouds were looking pretty dark. So we began getting the sheets and blankets and some “soft” items in tubs and covered. But before we could shout out “Here comes the rain…” it hit with a punch! It went from nothing to an absolute downpour for probably 20 minutes. There were about 7 of us working frantically and as fast as we could possibly move… and soaking wet. My jeans were so heavy I could hardly move my legs. I might as well have jumped in a lake! Not just me…everyone! The wind whipped through (I saw tonight on the news we had a 45 mile an hour wind gust…and I know right when it happened!) and knocked over things breaking glass items, ruining picture frames and doing lots more damage. The tarps that we had managed to put over things were whipping wildly in the wind! There was no time to think of anything except to try and get as much as we could off the tables and into the tubs and shove them under the tables. Fortunately the electronics were under a tent, but it was still dripped on. The clothes hanging on racks were wet, the shoes, the furniture, (The books did get covered!) the kids toys spread out on a tarp on the ground, anyway it was just a disaster, so I wanted to know who forgot to pray for the rain to go away? You know I’m only kidding…
After the 20-25 minutes that it was pouring ended, we looked in some containers and it looks like we got 1/2″ at least. I just know it was a LOT and it came hard and fast! It ended and the sun came out, we had blue skies and white fluffy clouds. You would never have guessed that it had just poured. My hubby found a rainbow in the sky and we all began laughing at what a sight it all was now for us to clean up. We got the broom and boxes and began sorting through things and pitching the things that were beyond fixable and actually decided to do a really good purge of what we thought everyone would be interested in tomorrow. So it turned out to be a good thing…not too fun, but a good thing, because it forced us to get rid of things that we “secretly” knew nobody wanted to buy anyway.
My hubby ran to the store to get some large size yard trash bags for us to put all the trashy stuff in. When he came back he had bought a huge box of tortilla chips and a big jug of salsa. We had some paper plates from lunch so we all had a snack… in our soaking wet clothes, our filthy dirty feet, and our hair all curled up in little ringlets. We had the best time visiting, standing there with our plates! We would have missed that if it hadn’t rained! It was 9:30 p.m. when I left to come home…
But….don’t forget to pray for no rain tomorrow… we certainly can’t pack up wet stuff… so when we see dark clouds… this sale is over!
We took a silly selfie of all of us as soon as it stopped raining…
I just remembered… I DO have a picture to share. You remember my little friend Sara, who was learning to sew? Well my hubby was helping someone clean out their house and they had a sewing machine they didn’t want. My hubby brought it home for me to see if it worked… it did, so I asked Sara’s mom if she might want it for her… Let this picture give you your answer. Sara is watching a video on how to sew and having a blast…
Oh, just one more little tidbit… I wear a fitbit activity tracker to see how many steps I take in a day. It’s very motivational and I compete against my sister and sister in law to see who can get the most steps in…my goal is 10,000 steps a day. I think I won today, hands down… 20,012 steps today! Yippee!!
See you tomorrow… if I can get out of bed!
Blessings, Jeanne
Jeanne, I believe I mentioned yesterday that it was kind of darkish and dreary looking in St. Louis, and hoped it was better in Carbondale! I guess not! We had a few of those downpours too, but it was mostly just sticky, and hot all day. You just never know when a downpour will happen! What a mess things must have been! Was it muddy too? Well, at least it was an experience to remember for years to come! You have my prayers today!
What a great idea to give Sara the opportunity to have her very own sewing machine! Looks like there will be another Jeanne Marie in the future for sure!
HI Linda,
Well, I have survived the yard sale and we had sunny and hot weather almost all day. We even had a few clouds give us a break a few times.
Yes, we had mud too yesterday. The rain came so hard and so fast it washed the ground dirt onto the driveway and made about an inch of slippery mud. I just about lost it on it once when it was over and we were picking things up. Fortunately I didn’t fall.
Sara is super excited to have the sewing machine, but she and her parents were helping at the yard sale this morning and she asked me if I could help her figure out the bobbin.. so I told her we’d have a sewing lesson soon.
Thanks Linda,
blessings, Jeanne
Jeanne you are one of the hardest workers! What a story! Hope you have clear skies today.
HI Marsha,
Thank you for your very kind words… and YES, we did have clear skies today…hot and humid and sunny!
Done till next year!
Blessings, Jeanne
I hope the weather holds out for the day. 🙂 Sara looks wonderful with her new sewing machine. 🙂
HI Christine,
The weather was hot, humid but dry today. Only a few sprinkles for maybe 2 minutes!
Sara and I have a sewing lesson soon… she’s very excited about learning to use it.
Blessings, Jeanne
I wish you all a good day and I pray for NO RAIN today. You all sound like you have worked very hard. Still it sounds like fun!! Excellent on your walking steps with the tracker! Wow!
That is wonderful that Sara has a sewing machine. She looks very serious!
Blessings.
HI Paula,
I AM exhausted but we did have a nice dry day today for the yard sale. It’s funny, yesterday there was a 20% chance of rain and it poured like crazy and today it was a 40-50% of rain and we got a few sprinkles for a few minutes… ???
I checked my tracker a little while ago and I was at 19,200 something… I’d like to hit that 20,000 mark again, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen tonight…
Sara is very serious about learning how to sew… she’s truly a little girl who wants to learn how to use this machine so we have a sewing lesson coming soon…
Thanks Paula,
blessings, Jeanne
Jeanne, do you ever rest? You are always the one there doing more than your share to help the church and friends and family. You probably don’t think of it as ‘more than your share’, but 20,012 steps?!?!? This is not a political statement, so don’t anyone jump on me, but I remember when Donald Rumsfeldt (sp!) was Sec. of Defense and he had one of those gadgets that you have and he also worked for 10,000 steps a day. He had a desk that was standing height so he didn’t sit down at a desk. Perhaps you could get one of those for your sewing machine so that you don’t have to jump up and down like we do.
I am so happy for Sara to have her own sewing machine! Would it be ok with you if I send her some fabric at your address? Doll clothes or little girl clothes?
I am praying for no rain. It is finally sunny in NW Indiana but the water level in the pond is higher than I’ve seen it.
HI Jevne,
I’m planning on resting as soon as I get all your wonderful comments answered an a blog post written! I thought I was tired last night but I’m exhausted tonight. We got there at 8 this morning and got away a little earlier tonight…7:00… There is so much that has to be done to get all the details taken care of… trash piled up. signs taken down, tables loaded back on the trucks, everything boxed up and taken to Goodwill and a church that takes used furniture, plus lots more… I’m glad it’s over with! I’ll let you know how it went when I find out…
Jevne, that would be the sweetest thing…to send Sara some fabric… Of course you may do that! I’ll keep it a secret and not tell her till it arrives. She’s doing doll clothes for now…
Thanks for your prayers… we had no rain today… hot, humid, and sunny skies today.
Blessings, Jeanne
Hi Jeanne,
That’s a shame about the rain at your church yard sale. We have one each year as well, but always indoors in the school gym/ cafeteria rooms. We never have a problem with the rain except for people to get the large furniture etc. to their cars.
We had a absolute downpour here in Ohio last evening for about 20 minutes as well.
It is so nice that Sara has her own machine now. i have many fond memories of choosing fabric and sewing with my grandmother on doll clothes for my one special doll.
HI Laura,
It was pretty awful to clean up all the mess, but we did a really good purge and got rid of lots of stuff was needed to be tossed. I wish we had an indoor place where we could have it… That would be awesome!
Sara is really excited to find out that I’m going to show her how to use the machine more. She’s figured out how to thread the top but she was telling me today at the yard sale, she can’t figure out the bobbin. It’s the kind under the machine and those are a little trickier…
Once I show her how to do it, there’ll be no stopping her.
Thanks so much Laura,
blessings, Jeanne
Oh, Jeanne, you must be EXHAUSTED!!! The sunburn only makes it worse too. I hope you raised a good amount of money; you worked so hard. Our sale is coming up, but thankfully it is in the school, so it can rain all it wants to, and it will. We are going on day 3 of dreary yuck.
That picture of Sara is great. She is so into sewing, it is precious. What a sweet little girl!
HI Cindy,
I am totally exhausted and sunburned and it feels like the tendon in the back of my heels up to my ankle has been stretched. I can hardly flex my foot. Also where sweat was running in my eyes, it has caused my eyes to be chapped or something. I have these little red marks coming down from the outside corners of my eyes and they just sting like fire. Maybe a good nights rest will help…
I don’t know how much we did, but I’ll certainly let everyone know when I find out. We sold a LOT of stuff.
Yes, Sara is super excited about her new machine. We’ll have a lesson soon and she’ll really take off I bet!
Thanks Cindy,
Blessings, Jeanne
Sara and her machine makes the disappointment of the downpour fade away. How sweet it is to see the beginning seamstress at work. Hope the weather brings no problems for you today.
HI Jan,
It is wonderful to see a little girl so excited about her new “toy” and she can’t wait until I can show her how to do the bobbin… she is anxious to give her machine a spin!
The weather cooperated today and we had a dry day! Hot and humid but dry!
Thanks Jan,
blessings, Jeanne
Awesome…someone to use the little machine!
You poor baby! I hope a nights rest will cure your sunburn and aches!
Good luck!!
Hi Kathie,
Yes, it is awesome that Sara is going to have her own machine…while other little 10 year olds are playing with their electronic gadgets, she’s learning to sew.
I am going to bed as soon as I got my post done… and sorry, but it will be a short one I’m afraid!
Thanks Kathie,
Blessings, Jeanne