Selling Stuff

We had a LOT of stuff to sell in preparation for our move. Clearing out 50% of the items in our home meant not one but FIVE yard sales. Don't forget, I had an entire business to sell as well.

I could never have gotten through it all without the help of our ward. I had people lending me tables and hanging racks, the youth came to help with pricing and getting the yard ready for the move, my home teachers went through all of the tools in the garage and told me what to keep and priced the rest, friends came to help me transport everything over to a neighborhood sale one weekend, and lots and lots of friends came to help me run the sales or drop off dinner as I was also running the daycare simultaneously. A good portion of the daycare toys/puzzles/games were purchased by daycare families and I sold some of the larger items on craigslist.

I look back and cannot believe how much we accomplished in that last month. The sales brought in about $3,000.00 which turned out to be roughly half of the cost of the move to Oregon (2 PODS and storage for one month). It was a huge blessing to have so much help and I cannot say thank you enough to the members of the Eagan Ward and to our neighbors next door who helped me set up and take down about a half dozen times in the course of a month! I love you guys!


This is what kept the kids entertained during the yard sales. At first I had a small TV/VCR combo TV out there, but it sold along with all of our VHS movies (goodbye Disney collection). My neighbor Karen kindly brought over one of her TVs and a couple of videos for the kids to watch in the garage (out of the sun).

These Faces

These photos are from a month ago as I continue to weed my way through the bazillions of photos I snapped right before we moved. I miss these kids.

During the last few weeks in Minnesota, I was still working full-time, but also trying to prepare the house for our move. Since my youngest is six, I had a ridiculous amount of toys to get rid of from the Daycare. Most of the outdoor toys went to daycare families including our wooden swing-set in the back yard. when it was removed, the kids rediscovered the sandbox underneath.


Doesn't the back yard look empty?


It was really HOT a few of the days before we left. We went through a lot of Popsicles.


Calvin is such a ham these days. Did I mention how much I miss him?

Crafty Fail

I'm posting this one to save you some time. This craft is NOT a good one for younger kids. The beads are pretty and colorful, but the are difficult for little fingers to grasp and it is very easy to knock over the beads you have already placed which results in frustrated children. I'm sure Sophie would love this kind of thing, but she is nine.

A Farewell to the Barfed Up Lung

When I was in High School I had two best friends - Greg and Maria. Greg went to school with me at South Burlington High, and Maria went to school across town. I know some people did not enjoy High School, but I loved it - primarily because of these two. Let's not discuss Middle School because it was horrid.

I was a drama/choir nerd in High School and Greg was a band/art nerd with a little bit of preppy thrown in. One day after art, he proudly showed me this creation he had made. I looked it over and said "I think it looks like a barfed up lung". After he got over the insult and the mad laughter, he decided to give it to me as a gift - and for the last twenty years, we have been passing this thing back and forth.

Whenever one of us visits the other, whoever has the barfed up lung brings it and tries to get rid of it in the other persons home. We are usually nice and fill it with candy first. It has been in my house ever since Greg flew in for a visit and a Christmas cookie bake--a-thon.

Now, we are moving and though I threatened to send Greg the lung through the mail, he pleaded for me not to as he recently moved into a tiny little NYC apartment. So, I took some photos . . .


. . . bid it farewell and added it to the piles of stuff going off to the discerning patrons of our local Goodwill.


Maybe someone will recognize the signature of this now successful interior designer and snatch up this piece of pottery for their very own. Or, perhaps it is even now precariously perched on the coffee table of someone who should be on the show Hoarders and is being used as an ashtray. We'll never know.

Thanks for the memories, barfed up lung.


(puffy face due to aforementioned surgery)

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

A few weeks before leaving Minnesota, we welcomed a visitor from New York - my friend Peter. He drove into town with his car loaded with moving blankets to help with the move and stayed for the long weekend with some friends of ours.

The Monday before he arrived, I spent 4 1/2 hours having oral surgery on a root canal gone very bad. Four and a half hours of surgery left me looking like someone had beaten me on the side of my mouth and I was in A LOT OF PAIN. I managed to take just Tylenol with Codeine at night and lots of Advil and Tylenol during the day, but by the weekend, I was dying. Dying! By Sunday I was on Percocet which makes me completely useless - I can't even keep my eyes open, much less function. So, poor Peter came right before we moved - the house was filled with moving boxes and chaos - and I was a puffy, drugged painful mess. Nice. Very nice - but you know what? That's just reality.

Despite my drugged state, we managed to see some fun places for the last time and have a great weekend. On Saturday we took a picnic up to Lake Harriet and then went over to Sebastian Joe's for ice cream. Max's friend Greg came and spent the day with us as well.


After ice cream, we said our goodbyes to the sculpture garden in Minneapolis. I love this place!


This photo cracks me up.


Sophie found a beautiful robin egg on the ground.


After the Sculpture Garden, we headed over to the new Target Field to watch a Twins game. I had never been to Target field or for that matter to a professional baseball game so it was quite a treat to get to go before leaving Minnesota!


We brought some treats (LOVE Calvin in this photo) and the kids all wore their Twins shirts.


The game was kind of awesome - not a single run until overtime . . . is it called overtime? Extra inning? Clearly I am not a sporty kind of girl.


The kids got to buy some very expensive little snacks which they loved. Snacks at the ball field are kind of like snacks at the fair - super fun and so overpriced!


Somehow, the Twins actually won the game! From what I understand, they had been having a rotten season, so it was amazing that the one game we watched - they won! Much cheering ensued. Thank you Peter, for taking us out to the ball game. It was so much fun!

By the way, it took another two weeks for my mouth to start really feeling better. I switched to Vicodin at night for a few days which also knocked me flat but did not leave me feeling nauseous and fuzzy and then went back to Advil. That was a mean surgery and I am grateful that I am no longer swollen and miserable. Nice timing on that huh?

Project Max

This was part of a huge project Max completed at the end of the year. He researched Stephen Hawling and actually read a couple of his books. In typical Max fashion, he told me about the poster the night before it was due which meant a very late night for all of us. Special thanks to Uncle Isaac who happened to be in town and helped Max get this done on time (which turned out to be early as Max had the due date wrong - ugh).

Craft: Rainbow Shakers

I think I am reaching the end of the crafts we completed before moving. This was a simple little craft we made using paper towel rolls.

Start by taping up one end - I found this fun tape in the dollar bin at Michaels.


Have the children add about a cup of dried pasta, beans or rice - we had leftover pasta from another project.


Tape up the other end and paint!