What a full day I had today! We sprang into action first thing this morning, on a hunt for our GPS unit to loan to Michael’s mother. Even though we didn’t find the GPS, we did sort through a lot of boxes and got lots of things straightened up. Then I decided to take advantage of Michael being home today so I could visit my grandmother. I invited Isaac to go with me, and we headed out. I dropped several boxes off at the local mission (for their second-hand store), dropped my wedding dress off at the cleaners (only 15 years after the wedding), and then headed to see Grandma. But on the way we stopped at a garage sale or two and had fun looking around. Isaac spent some of his money on a pogo stick that caught his eye. He couldn’t try it out properly since he can’t really bounce up and down right now, so I hopped around a little on the pogo stick to make sure it really worked. I must have been quite the sight, because the lady running the sale couldn’t stop giggling at her odd customers.

We had a nice visit with my grandmother and then hurried on to our next stop. We discovered that our old neighborhood (containing the Bobwhite house) was having “subdivision sales”, so we decided to explore there. Isaac needed to use the bathroom, so we stopped at the Bobwhite house to say hello and take advantage of the hospitality there. We got there just in time to say goodbye to Michael’s sister, Natalie, as she and her children headed back to Georgia.

We continued on our way, trying to direct ourselves toward a McDonalds (at Isaac’s request), but we kept getting delayed by garage sales. At one sale I asked if the lady had a dresser for sale, and she did! She lowered her price a little to $25, and that was good enough for me. While we were there at her sale, one of her dogs chewed through is leash and ran off. When we left, I told the lady I would be back later to get the dresser, since it wouldn’t fit into our car. She said that was fine, and she jokingly said that if I found her dog to bring him back too. Much to our surprise, as we drove away, we did see her dog! So I pulled over and attempted to coax the dog to come to me. He wasn’t interested in me in the least, but when the homeowner whose yard I was invading came out to see what I was doing, I explained and he helped catch the dog. I told him that it belonged to a lady around the corner whose sale I had just been at, and that the dog had chewed through his leash. When the guy heard that, he asked me to wait a minute while he grabbed something from his truck. He came back with a tie-out of vinyl-covered cable and he told me that his Boxer puppy was getting too big for such a short tie-out, and that I could give it to the lady so her dog couldn’t escape again. I thought that was such a generous thing for him to do! So we drove back to the sale and delivered the dog, along with his new tie-out, back to his very surprised mistress.

Then we were off again to get a snack at McDonalds. Both Isaac and I purchased the 2-for-a-dollar pies, and I handed Isaac his pain pills at the same time. Then we were off again in pursuit of a certain sale I had heard about that had lots of wonderful children’s books. We found it, and I spent a long time looking through all the books, being as careful as possible to only purchase books that would really be appreciated on our shelves at home. I’m trying so hard to not acquire too many books, while at the same time having a nice selection of books available to the children.

After that I was down to my last dollar, so I decided it was time to head home. When we got there, Michael was napping, so I left him asleep, told Isaac to take a rest for a while, and then invited Luke and Miguel to go back with me to get the dresser. We tootled back across town where Luke helped me load up the dresser. Back home again we went, and it was time to head to the county fair to see the bird rescue folks at their display table.

I encouraged Isaac to stay home again, since we had been out for so long earlier in the day, and I took Laura, Luke, Amelia and Miguel, along with two parrots (Chico & Bambi) off to the fair. We had tickets given to us to get in for free, so that was nice. The folks at the bird rescue table were happy to see us, and the birds seemed happy to see them, too.

After visiting there for a while, we wandered around looking at the interesting animals, but finally we had seen enough and we went home to eat corn-on-the-cob for our supper. After supper Michael and Isaac went to see the latest “Mummy” movie. While they were gone, I worked hard, doing miscellaneous things, but also worked specifically on getting all of my clothes out of the laundry baskets I’ve been using for the last month and into a much better situation. By the time Michael and Isaac got home, our room looked so much more tidy, and I was ready to stop working.

Now I’m heading to bed, and I have a great feeling of accomplishment. What a busy day!

But before I go, I want to say that I’ve really enjoyed the comments people have left recently. I feel like I should answer some of them. So here goes:

First, I made sure to take Isaac to see his great-grandmother so she could stop worrying about his appendix troubles. Thank you to Aunt Pat for letting me know Grandma was worried!

Karin, has it really been ten years since I came to visit you in the Netherlands??? I think of that trip often. Thank you for keeping in touch here on the blog. I’m flattered to think that I have an international audience!

Mother Dear, even though we live in the same town, it’s nice to have this forum for keeping you updated on our family details.

Chris, I’ll try to get the camera out and take some photos. I’ve gotten out of the habit since it was gone to the cleaning and repair shop for so long.

Lisa, thank you for praying for Isaac!

The Other Lisa, you’re right! Pineapple and brownies are wonderful remedies, as are fresh strawberries, blueberries and oranges.  Yum, yum!

Amy, I got some of that non-slip stuff and will try it in the high chair.  Lilly keeps sliding around!

Aunt Barbara, how generous of you to send a card and ten dollars to Isaac!  He used that money that came from you in today’s mail to pay for his movie ticket tonight.  It was a movie he really wanted to see, so it was a treat to have the extra money for it.

And to all of you who read but don’t post comments very often, thank you for reading! (I’m thinking of you, Aunt Carol!)  Thank you for caring about our family enough to make us part of your day.

Love, Christie