Music boxes

Music boxes
Music boxes have within melodies they carry in them, once they're open music feels the air;
Every person you have known has a song of their own, once they open up you'll hear whats there;
Every person longs to find who they are deep inside, every person yearns to know their place..."

Friday, June 30, 2006

The hawks srike again.

Unstopable dreamer

Today we decided to outsmart them. We didn't open the garage doors while we were fixing things inside. It almost worked... at 7:30 we hear this banging on the door. My first instinct was to ignore it; come on! If you're gonna knock, at least knock, don't bang! Not to mention we do have a doorbell, very much like a regular doorbell, it's not like you don't know what that round button with a yellow light does. But I digress...
I'm still in the garage putting more things up, and determined that I will not give in, no siree. It's my sale and my house, and I'll have it my way... until I realize that we already sold the house, and we'll have to replace the door if we don't stop that insane banging. So I go and peek outside, and see a lady that was here yesterday already...a returning hawk! There's four types after all, I think to myself.
When she sees me she yells: "Are you open yet?" Like I'm some kind of retail store.
"No", I say. We open the store at 9:00".
"But I have to go to work!"

:

OK, I think, glancing at the driveway and spotting about a dozen hands waving at me. Who am I kidding? They win, they always win. So much for our ingenious plan...I smile a half faked smile and open the garage doors, or should I say, my little store. I know they have money and want to buy, and I want their money, so, let them flood your house for goodness sake!

The day went pretty much like yesterday's, except for this one returning hawk. I lost count of how many times she came in and tried to buy a silly five cent nick nack for half the price. There was a time that another lady was asking me the price for my nice clothes hamper. I was sure I marked all my stuff; but sure enough, the price tag wasn't there. I told her it was ten dollars, and that the sticker probably felt on he floor or something... until I heard my favorite hawk at the check out register with a nice battery charger displaying a shine pink ten dollar sticker. My husband labels all "his" type of stuff, so he knew I would never put a price on anything that I don't know what it is. He looked at me, I looked at him, we looked at the clothes hamper... and he says:"I't 30 dollars, m'am." "Thirty!?" replies the innocent voice. "Yes, I remember labeling that with a green sticker that read $30.00. I'm sorry, someone put this wrong tag in here".
Oh, dog'gon'it. She couldn't afford that, so back it went to the table.

She came back a couple more times, and the last time she brought her daughter to look at my little boy's bedroom set. The daughter really liked it, but even at the ridiculous price we're selling stuff for, she couldn't afford it. But what are moms for, if not to help their children? My sweet lady quickly jumps to the rescue, and tells her daughter she'll help with a $100.00 check. Hmmmm... a check... ok, sure.
They call someone to bring a truck and haul the stuff out, and my husband suddenly needs to go "out". He goes by the bank and asks the teller if the check will clear... "It will if you cash it now, sir, there'll be only a couple of dollars left on that account if you do it now. I'm not sure it will clear by Monday if you wait".
So he comes back home, cash in his pocket, and helps them load up the truck with a smile on his face.

Ahhhh...all is well when it ends well...

But it hasn't ended yet. We'll be out there again tomorrow, and goodness, a Saturday, can't wait! My hawk promised to come back to look at some more stuff... a friend of mine will be helping us out. Hopefully, almost everything will be gone, and we can donate the rest to the salvation army.

Tomorrow promises to be a nice, hot, humid day. We're all ready with the gatorades in the refrigerator, and of course, the alarm clock set up for 5:00 a.m. After all, it's the weekend, and the store needs to open earlier to accomodate the needs of or faithful clients.


Calgon, take me away!...

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Yard sales and hawks

We all love them. We go hunting for bargains, and get so excited when we find just what we were looking for, for less than we would ever think paying. I love yard sales; it doesn't matter if they're in the yard, driveway, garage, who cares. This is a great way to find tresures .

I thought it would be as fun to have our own big moving sale. Ya know, when you go shopping at these you always see the people sitting down in comfy chairs, talking and eating MacDonalds chicken biscuits. What a great time to relax! Right? WRONG! yard sales are a big ordeal. Especially if you want to sell all the furniture in your house and all the millions of toys you never dreamed your children had, until you actually get them out.

We had people from Church and other friends come in before the ad ran in the paper. That was good, we sold a lot like that. But after that, well, let's see... 12 straight hours sorting through all you have and dividing into piles. 12 more hours bringing the stuff down, and another 12 putting them where they should go, and labeling. Ohhhh... labeling... what fun...

Then comes the great day; and after those 36 hours of work, (which if we combine them with my husband's 36, they'te really 72), we're ready to sit down and see some money coming in while relaxing.

This is where the hawks come in the picture.
I've found out there's 3 groups of hawks.

First, the early birds. They get up at 6: 00 am and read the paper while drinking their coffee. At 6:30 they're calling each other, and deciding to come at the same time... well, just for the fun. I can picture them laughing at the idea. The paper says, 9:00. But they have selective reading. They're all here at 7:00. I almost see them wink at each other. They flood the house, and we start to panick! I'm not ready yet!!! But they don't care. These type of hawks go through each station of the house at the same time; like, they all want dishes at the same time, so there I am wrapping fragile stuff franticly. They then go to the basememt, and all want the tools at the same time, and there's my husband taking care of them all. They also can't read signs like "do not open cabinets", or "SOLD" on pieces of furniture. "m'am, is that leaf table for sale?" huh... "it was sir, but it's SOLD, like the sign says!"

By now I'm on the phone with mother in law. "Please come help us!!!!!" But sure enough, when she gets here, the hawks are gone. Mother and father in law bring us the famous MacDonald's chicken biscuits, and hang out for a couple of hours. Nothing. Not a living soul. That's when father in law decides to leave, assuring us that the crowd will be here Saturday, not to dispair. I just give him the look, and let them go. Five minutes later, there they are again...

...the late birds. They were all hidding to see when our help was leaving, and as they see them drive away, they whistle the secret whistle and come in marching down the driveway. The late hawks are tricky. This lady was buying a tin can that she "LOVED" for 25 cents. Good. What I didn't know when I marked it, was that the can was full of pennies, probably 4 bucks worth. She insists that she didn't see the money, she really just like the can. OK, lady, you can take the can, but the pennies stay. All of the sudden, the can is not as cute anymore. It goes back where it was found.
Then there's the other older lady buying children's book's, 25 cents each. And what do you know? She finds my "Childrens song book" from church, who was NOT cheap at all, and there she goes with it for 25 cents....
We need to watch these hawks like hawks!

The third group is the one where everyone comes looking for the same thing. They want a chest of drawers... they're all gone, I'm sorry. After 15 people ask for that, they all want the same table. And then they all want the same bookshelf, and then the washer and dryer.
I believe this third group is the worst; they totally drive us nuts. I think they're out there with a mission... to make us insane, at a time of the day that we are ready to colapse.

Oh, how fun it is to see our sweet home invaded by alliens; they come in flocks, they leave in flocks...

And so here we are, trying to make the house presentable for the next crowd tomorrow. We're full of energy, as you can image. We're looking forward to it...

One day down, two more to go...
Oy! Can hardly wait for hawk invasion, part 2.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Panick

Unstopable dreamer

We are closing on our house in 3 weeks. Time just creeps on us like that, and before we know it, Boom!
I still have tons of boxes to pack, donate a lot of stuff, and prepare for an estate sale we'll have before the closing on the house. We decided to sell everything and start from scratch there. The main reason being, we can't take any electronics with us, since they have a new system there and everything that needs to be plugged, won't work there.
So, we are mailing our books, winter clothes and photo albums, and that will be all we'll have when we get there. I'm excited; it will be fun to go and look for a new bed, new cute covers for the kids, utensils, all the basic stuff. It will be fun to eat on the floor again. We really are excited about being there! It's the GETTING there that is setting all this panick in me. There's so much to be done in this house, I feel like a chicken with her head cut off, running and running without knowing where to go and what to do first. I'm still boxing clothes and books; I need to go to UPS and have them package and mail a couple of picture frames I want to take. Then the estate sale... labeling all the stuff will be a lot of work! We have gotten lots of people that want to help, but I need to get organized so I'll know what they can do and what I need to do myself. After that, the cleaning the house will actually be ok, since we have a wonderful circle of friends.
I also worry about the kids when we get to Portugal; they will be fine, they know the language and love my family, but it's the school that worries me. My daughter can speak fluently, but can she go to third grade and be at the same level as the other kids? She'll have to read a lot, and her spelling won't be good. She is a smart cookie, she was a star student, averaging 98% in second grade. But it will be tough in the beginning. I need to go and find her a good school.

I'm excited, scared, happy, concerned, all at the same time. This was such a quick decision, one that shocked a lot of people, including us. I could never even begin to imagine to leave the US; we have the best school system, our schools here are on the top 1% nationwide. We have a wonderful branch at church, family and friends, a beautiful home and the best doctors that help my daughter with her Tourette's. I can't explain why we're doing it. I can only say that we heard a voice and are following it. This explanation is not enough for most people, but that's all we have. Who was it that said once, "when God speaks and a man obeys, that man will always be right". That's what we are doing, and we have peace and are happy.

I will miss living here, of course I will! When I look at the walls that I painted, the stenceling on the kids' rooms, the curtains I made for each room in the house, the furniture I recovered, the garden I planted, the frames that I carefully hung on the walls... And I think about the day we got a new dryer, then the couches... the day we went shopping for bunkbeds for my daughter... and the day we got the furniture for our big boy's bedroom... I can still remember when I got little silly things like a nice rubber spatula from pampered cheff. Everything has a memory. Yes, it will be hard, and it will be heart wrenching to say goodbye to the people at church, friends and family. I'm dreading that day, but it's getting close...

But we are so looking forward to start over, so excited to be close to my family, and in the Country where I was born and raised, which I dearly love!... We are happy! And we are doing what is right.

And to all of you that once said, "we would love to go to Portugal someday", there you have it!
Now you'll have a place to stay! :)

Monday, June 05, 2006

Great!

Unstopable dreamer

I wrote this huge blog a while ago and it vanished in cyberspace. Gotta love it when that happens!

The very small version, we are moving to Portugal by the end of July. It's been a busy couple of months, spiritual and emotional draining.
We're excited! I'll get back to you when I have more time, and hoppefuly I'll remember to SAVE what I write before I try to publish, huh?
:p