Funky Junk in My Trunk: EASTER WEEKEND 2010

Last weekend, I had a yard sale. It started on Friday, March 26. Thursday night is snowed a few inches....and it was freezing cold. I thought there is no way people will come out in this weather. I get up Friday morning and shovel the driveway and put salt down to melt away the ice. I had previously posted the ad on Craigslist along with pictures of the bigger items I was selling.

I had been outside for awhile with only one person stop by. So I asked Blossom to come in the house and post another ad saying that the "SNOW SALE IS STILL ON!" Within a half hour people started coming. I was getting phone calls and emails on the big items. Because I didn't sell much and Saturday was supposed to be a nice warm day, I decided to do it again on Saturday. I posted yet another ad on Craigslist and went to work downstairs in the storage to pull out other things that were on my list to get rid of. Saturday morning rolls around and my driveway is completely full of stuff. I mean, embarassingly full.

The yard sale ended with $1149 in sales. I cleaned out almost everything!

Then we head down to the dealership to finalize our deal on our new "used" 2007 Honda Odyssey.

Since I had a great weekend of yard sales, i decided to put my Sienna on Craigslist too. We had already made a deal on a car at the dealership, so i thought, let's just put the ad in and see what happens...

My car is a 1999 Toyota Sienna XLE (fully loaded) it has 220k miles on it. In excellent condition. But every couple of months, there is something that needs to be repaired. Blossom was 2 months old when we bought it...I posted the ad for $3999 (hoping to get $3000). I posted the ad late Saturday night. We went to church Sunday and I took my cell phone and left it in the car. I didn't want to miss a call, ya know, just in case! When we got out of church, I had a message. It was an asian man wanting to look at the car. I called him right back and left a message. It was about 10:30. He calls me back about 12 and says he wants to come over asap to see the car. I said great, 2:00. I hang up the phone and frantically convice Bradley to come help me clean it out and vacuum...so Bradley and I get going on the detail job. I have q-tips, armor all, and windex.

Then I get a second call. This was a young man. Wanted to see the car today, after the first man. I said great 3:30. Brad and I are thinking that we have the car priced too low...and are thinking maybe we should change the ad.Then we get another call, this man, Barbados, offers $3,000 over the phone. I told him we have two people coming to look at it. If I don't like their offer i will call him back.

Bradley has the vaccum going. I am frantically q-tipping all the crevices.....It took us about 1 1/2 hrs to do the complete job. At 1:30 Brad takes the Sienna to the car wash. The potential buyer comes right at 2...and a few minutes later here comes Brad pulling around the corner with the newly detailed Sienna. I have to say, that it looks great. Nice and clean. "Jack" and I take the car on a test drive. We get back and he offers $3,000. We countered at $3,300. He said "no." We told him we would think about it.

So Mark comes over at 4:30ish (they lived kinda far away and he called to let me know they were running behind)...they also offer $3,000. We countered at $3,300. They said "no." We told them they have to come up a little or we will have to take the other man's offer. They offered $3,100...we took it. Less than 24 hours on Craigslist and my car is sold! yay!

Tuesday, i delivered my car to the new owner. Honda is courteous enough to let me borrow a courtesy car till my car is ready...(we were having accessories added and they weren't completed yet)...

Saturday, i picked up my new car....I didn't like it at first because i truly loved my Sienna...and so many memories in that car. I had driven that car to many, many places...but now, after haviing my new Odyssey for two days...I LOVE IT. I feel so privileged that Brad bought it for me. He is such a wonderful person and provider!...look at him popping his gorgeous head into this pic!

Saturday afternoon, Bradley and Blossom told me that she and Bradley had a big surprise for me, but I had to leave the house for a couple hours...wow...i get to go somewhere...I decided to go to the dollar theater and watch a movie...not a G or PG movie!...I decided to go see "It's Complicated" - I loved this movie. Better than my two all-time favorites. (Monster-In-Law and The Break-Up) - I can't wat for "It's Complicated" to come out on DVD. I will buy it for sure....love, love, love it. YOU HAVE TO SEE IT!

The children's Easter baskets were arranged so perfectly on the front porch. John had one with all his favorite things in it. He had an Alvin & the Chipmunks movie and some Toy Story & Toy Story 2 books, and a few other little things thrown in. Bradley and Blossom's had candy, digital photo key chain, a photo album with some of the best photos from the past few months, and money. I put them on the porch before church...

After church, Brad made reservations to have lunch!..Wow, i didn't have to cook...We ate at one of Ohio's largest restaurants, The Spaghetti Warehouse. It seats 800. They even do dinner theaters there. Which Brad and I plan on going to on one of our date nights! We head home to have our special dessert that Bradley and Blossom made for us. It was a huge frosted cookie. It was decorated beautifully. They made the whole thing from scratch. Even down to the frosting. We sing have light the candles and sing Happy Easter. John blows out the candles and we start to cut it. I said "hmm, Blossom the cookies looks to be a little uncooked" she says, but i baked it according to what the recipe said, 9-11 minutes." I said Blossom, go get the recipe and let me see it." She does. I had to explain to her that the 9-11 minutes was for one cookie, not on the big round cookie. We had to scrape all her beautifully decorated frosting off the cookie and clean as much off as we could. We popped it back in the oven and re-baked it. It turned out perfect after that...they did an excellent job on it!

The yard had small, large, and extra large eggs strewn all over...some of the eggs apparently made ther way over to the neighbors yard - and their children were so excited that the Easter bunny left eggs in their yard too!...(Oops)

We went to church and came home. John didn't even notice the eggs in the yard. He was just too busy playing with the iPod Touch.

Bradley and Blossom go in the house and I ring the door bell...As I am standing there, i notice one of them was turned around backwards, which I thougth was strange, but didn't think much else of it. They all three come running out...and John was so excited!

He picks up his Easter basket and says "Simone" (Chipmunks) and he says "Lalala" (Woody from Toy Story. He was so excited...(I am going to try to post the video of it, but i don't have much luck with it, we'll see.)

GOSH, I LOVE THESE PEOPLE MORE THAN YOU KNOW!

We had a wonderful Easter here in Columbus. The weather was so warm and beautiful. Normally we have to wear jackets to church. But not this year. It was beautifully warm.

We live next to this family who has three small children. The little boy, Griffin, is 3. He likes to borrow things without asking! Last week we were missing Bradley lacrosse helmet - which would have been very ugly if Bradley had a game that day! Thursday we were missing one of John's special toys! Griffin came to the door to see if John could come out to play and he was standing there holding the toy. I asked him if this was John's and he said "I don't know" - but i asked him to put it back. Later that day, I was in the back yard and just wanted to bring it to the parent's attention. I mean, Griffin could get hurt going into our garage; and 2) what if he were to take something (like the lacrosse helmet) and we were going to a game and Bradley wouldn't be able to play...that wouldn't go over so well! I knew they were going to be up in Marion for Easter so I knew our Easter baskets would be safe from Griffin on the front porch because they were gone.

Later in the day we played around the house and went outside to play. We were over at the neighbors house and Rod (the dad) was telling me that they had an extra Easter basket in his car that morning. I said "what do you mean?" He said "Griffin wanted to come over and see all the eggs the Easter bunny left in your yard, then he saw that the Easter bunny left baskets on the front porch. Griffin took John's and put it in the back of the Escalade. I normally don't put anything in the back, but just so happens I had to put something in there today." Can you imagine how mad I would have been if we came home from lunch and the baskets were gone!...

I am so happy the baskets were all still here and in tact!

Hope you have a great Easter!

(my goal is to update the blog every Monday now that the computer is in the kitchen and it is a little more convenient)