Jaymes and the yard sale

Yesterday we had the neighborhood yard sale... By Neighborhood, I mean 3 people, myself included. It would seem that despite the fact that I was only selling junk, mostly, I made a lot more than anyone else. The one family made $15, another $40. I made $80. I attribute this mainly to the fact that we were selling a few good items: Brand new printer/copier/scanner in the box that's $55 at Walmart right now... The laptop Jaymes spilled juice on that only needed $75 of repairs to work again, the nice TV Jason tossed in the laundry room after he went Flat Screen... The rest was a ton of baby junk, books and videos (who watches videos, anyway?), my old bike with blown tires... And a mountain of baby clothes, half with tags still attached.

Since Jason worked yesterday, it was entirely up to me to set up and handle the yard sale. How convenient that the sale ended just an hour prior to the end of his work day, huh? So I was up at 5am, got my horse chores done, the pasture clean and water bucket filled, skinny old horse fed.... Took about 2 hours to do all that and set out the sale stuff. Of course we're the only ones without nifty fold out tables. Blankets work for me.

Around 8:15 I asked one of the neighbors to watch the stuff for me so I could go inside and get the kids up and about. I'm pleased to say that i do believe I may have broken the record for fastest diapering/dressing/breakfast cooking/and out the door. Go me. 5 minutes later we were out in the yard, having a picnic while a vanload of Mexicans dug through our stuff. One little kid snuck off with one of Jason's video game guides without paying, but I figured if he wanted it so bad that he couldn't pay a dollar for it, he may as well have it. Probably doesn't have much to call his own anyway.

We were also selling brownies, though almost no one bought them. Jaymes, on the other hand, ate his weight in the sticky, sugary things and was like a little rocketship all day. He never paid for the brownies, either. Fiend.

The kids were, for the most part, quite good. They sat amongst the toys for sale and played. Jaymes would occasionally get up and grab someone's hand and I'd have to run over and remove him. He spent a lot of time trying to open things that I was trying to sell, and of course dragging him away from whatever it was would incite a screaming fit that drove anyone who might have bought anything away to the other sales.

After awhile, Jaymes decided he preferred the next door neighbor's sale to ours, and sat himself down in their folding chairs and would not budge. Moments like this are awkward. The neighbor says "It's fine, he can sit here" but you can't help but wonder if she's just saying it to be nice and my letting him stay there might just be furthering the hatred most of the neighborhood already has for our family. When he started trying to take things, I hauled his little butt back to our yard, where he went off on me in a fury.

It was a hot, hot, hot day. I forgot to give Jaymes his meds that morning. All things considered, he did quite well for the chaos and insanity that yard sale day brings. I'm proud of him for keeping it together to the extent he did.

In other news... I've decided that every Sunday I will think of three goals I'd like to accomplish with Jaymes. Each day I will reflect on what we may or may not have accomplished, and by the end of the week hopefully at least one goal will be met. I'm also thinking I should make some goals for me too. After all, he's not the only one who needs to improve on things.

So... Goals.

1. Jaymes will wear his lap belt in the car (in conjunction with his safety harness, of course) without unbuckling it. We managed a whole car ride yesterday to Sonic, but it required me to bellow the word "NO" everytime he moved to unbuckle. I'd like to see him do it without such an extreme reprimand.

2. Jaymes will sit on the potty at least once daily, even if he doesn't do anything in it.

3. Jaymes will learn 3 letters of the alphabet witgh his new alphabet singing super annoying toy.

And for mommy....

1. Mommy will not yell so much
2. Mommy will take the kids for one walk a day- may not be able to do this one if it's as ridiculously hot as it has been.. But I need to anyway, I'm a bit rounder than I want to be and the kids love their walks.
3. Mommy will be more tolerant of Daddy, so the kids don't have to hear us screaming at each other.