It's Finally Over! And What the Heck?

The yard sale is finally over and I am so glad it is! I sold the sectional (whoo hoo!) We did pretty good, I made enough to put a down payment on some furniture for the family room, still not sure it was worth it though. It seems as though I have one of these every 5 years or so just to remind myself why I hate them so much! I must forget just how much of a pain they are to even contemplate having another one! For one the dickering drives me crazy... I know that it is all part of the game but please people, if you are the first customer of a 2 day sale don't ask me if I will take $.25 for an item that is marked $2.00! Saturday afternoon I have no problem making deals, heck even Friday afternoon for that matter but not right out of the gate! I don't even go to yard sales, I just don't have the patience for sifting through all of the junk to find the real treasures plus they start way too early in the morning for me! There are people around here who have them every weekend... Are they crazy or am I just not seeing the fun and excitement in it all?

Now that the sale is over I have to get on with getting my basement put back together. But before I can do that I still have to paint my scrapbook room and before that can happen the guy needs to come and fix the dang dry wall and he isn't calling us back which means all my scrapbook stuff is still all over the family room! GRRR!

So now on to "What the Heck?" Do all men have to go through a phase when they think they are Peter Fonda in "Easy Rider" or in my Husband's case Tim Allen in "Wild Hogs"? Lately my hubby has been hem hawing around about wanting a street bike, now know that we have already been through the dirt bike and four wheeler phase and we are still paying on it. Finally he drug me to the two local bike shops to show me what he was on about, hoping I am assuming, that I would fall all over the idea and insist that he sign the papers right away so that we could ride off into the sunset with new leathers and maybe a tattoo. When he caught on that I was not nearly as enthusiastic about this whole idea as he had hoped I got a disgruntled look and was asked just exactly what my problem was. Ummm, do you want a list? Poor economy, not quite stable job situation, uncertain future not to mention the whole Motorcycles Scare the Crap Outta Me thing! Road Pizza anyone? So we left. The rest of the night I felt bad about dashing his dreams but for once one of us had to have a little sense. Next thing I know guess what is sitting in my driveway? Well if you said a motorcycle you would be wrong.... there were 2 motorcycles in my driveway! Don't get the wrong idea, he didn't go out and buy one (or two), he had just borrowed them from his cousin. They worked out some sort of deal where he can keep one of them to ride in exchange for helping him get the rest of his running. Yes I said rest, the man has 7 motorcycles and said it would be silly for Gary to go out and buy one when he could just use one of his. Well that gets me partly off the hook but now I actually have to get on one of those beasts and hope like heck that I don't end up leaving my hind end on some long stretch of black top! So I ride with him and it is not entirely unpleasant so if it makes him happy and we don't have to incur another payment then I guess I can just deal with the smelly thing sharing the garage with my favorite car and the pure terror I feel everytime he rounds a corner with me on the back. Now how do I get out of the road trip he wants to take? Ideas anyone? Please!

Flooded basements and other fun stuff!

OK, I know I am really bad at this blog thing..... I just have a hard time writing about my wonderful, fun filled life! Actually I have a hard time believing that anyone would really want to read it! So what has been going on lately... Well our basement flooded 2 Sundays ago. Gary and I decided that this year we would try to have a garden. We tried years ago and having married a farmer I thought it would be easy to raise some corn and tomatoes and such but as it turns out those things need water... regularly! Who would have thunk it! My husband and "former" farmer was now working in the oil field and not home much to water said garden. Needless to say it did not work out too well and we gave up on the gardening. Anyway back to the present... we (meaning Gary) tilled our little 10x12 garden spot to get it ready for planting, we (meaning me) soaked the peas overnight to help them come up faster according to my father in law, then we (meaning Gary) went about planting them all in a tidy little row. It had been raining lightly off and on all day but Gary just had to water the little beggars so he put the hose on them for about an hour and a half. It being Sunday we were all (meaning everyone BUT Gary) being lazy and no one had gone downstairs until later that afternoon. Gary...of course...goes downstairs to watch some TV (finally, that man makes me tired just watching him do all that work! LOL!) and made a splash at the bottom of the stairs! After some swearing and mild freaking out (that was me!) He called his sister and I called the water extraction people. We had about 2 inches of water in the basement that had come in through the outside faucet that he had used to water the peas with. Apparently the copper pipe part of the faucet had frozen during the winter and when he turned it on it leaked in through the bathroom vent in the ceiling. Crazy! Anyway... have you heard that commercial for the ambulance chasing lawyer that says "One call, that's all"? Well that is all it took, one call. Gary's call to his sister initiated a phone tree and within a half an hour we had all the help we needed getting the furniture and everything else out of the basement. This is no small feat either. My sectional couch is very bulky and heavy and my stairs are steep with a very sharp turn at the bottom! The same people that helped us get that couch down there are the ones that helped us get it out and they don't want to have to do it again so as a courtesy to them I have decided to sell that monstrosity and get something a little more managable for the space. I suppose that the basement flooding was a blessing in disguise as it has forced me to take care of some things that I have been putting off. It is going to take some time to get it all done but in the end it will be worth it. The insurance is going to pay for the carpet being restretched and cleaned and the part of the ceiling in the bathroom to be fixed. I am going to get new couches that actually fit the room. I am going to paint my Scrapbook and bead rooms and I am going to have a HUGE yard sale! Everything must go!

Jake and Gary are out in the yard thatching so I should go see if I can help!

Barb