Tardy ADHD Weekend Update (it jumps all over, folks!)

Yeehaaaaaaaaaaaaw!! My parents bought a townhouse! It is l-o-v-e-l-y! And it is one mile from our house. God. Is. Good. Considering my Mom came home from the hospital on May 7, this is pretty fast action on their part, no? It has everything that they need on one level, but has a good-sized lower level for their 5 kids and their spouses, 16 grand-kids, 2 grand-kids-in-law, and 3 great grand-kids or any combination thereof.


When yet another run to Home Depot was required for all the projects at my parent's house, I grabbed my nephew's keys and his kids and we got the emergency stash (Jenny was teaching flute lessons). Here are the kids in the "CARt". The girls had a fun time "driving" while Isaac played with something I dug out of my purse. I had a lot of fun, too!


One of my favorite things to do is to go garage-saling. To survive the long Minnesota winters I hit the thrift stores, but that only addresses the chick who likes a good bargain. The garage sale is more...it is a bit of Americana, a glimpse into other's lives, and my favorite part - the people. People are always nicer at garage sales. If the same people were shopping next to each other in Target, no one would be chatting! (pausing to lament over how long my hair was in this picture...GROW, HAIR! GROW!)


So when my friend (and former neighbor), Carla, called and asked me to go to the area-wide garage sale day in my old neighborhood I had to go. I was a bit conflicted since both of my sisters were in to help work on my folks' house, but I just decided I needed to take a couple of hours and GO! It is sooo fun. It looks life a county fair there are so many people walking around. In years past I have tried driving, but you only get stuck in the alleys waiting for other pedestrians or cars. I tried to walk it one year. Too slow! Too much ground to cover!! So, last year, I rode my bike. And I ran into Carla. On her way somewhere. This year she decided that she would like to go, too, so off we rode and had a GREAT time (I always have fun with Carla!) and it was such a lovely day. I have a basket on my bike (I have the most beeee-u-tiful bike...) and I also brought a backpack. I left my camera at my parent's house, so no pics of the event :(, but I did take a picture of a couple of the things that I got!


We found twin bedding for Philippe's bunkbeds (that we ordered last weekend while furniture shopping for my parent's furniture at the fabulous Becker Furniture World). I got beige and burgundy soft canvas-y duvet covers with shams. I was kind of bummed because I really had wanted plaid but couldn't argue with the praticality of the price. For some reason, I had pictured plaid in my head for his room. Then, at another sale, there was a plaid queen duvet for $5! So I am going to make curtains and pillows for the beds, and I think that will be better than if I had plaid bedding - too much PLAID!! Plus, Curtains, bed covers, and pillows all for $13. I just need to get duvets at IKEA sometime.

Ok, so switching back to the existing parental home - if I was really smaht I would have taken before pictures, but alas, I am not so smaht, so here are just a few after pictures. These are all the main rooms on the upper two levels. The lower two are, well, not done yet!!



Cleaned off walls, mudded holes, fresh paint...


This is actually Patricia's new bedding that we are using to "stage" the small bedroom that I lived in from 1979-1986, before I moved downstairs to the big bedroom. Looks different now...I had Granny Smith apple green shag!!



After almost 60 years of marriage they bought a queen-sized bed for their new house - I told them they are gonna wish they had done that sooner!


This is the most wonderful view from the deck. In high school and college we would set up a volleyball net "down the hill" and had a blast!! One really hot day we filled water balloons and played volleyball with them - never really knowing when they were going to pop!


Ok, so my last random ramble...we have had a lot of severe weather lately. I haven't been in a tornado warning in years, and then I was in two in less than a week. Unfortunately, there were two deaths when a tornado touched down in Hugo. I take the warnings seriously and it drives me crazy to see my husband watching out the window!! Here is the sky after the last warning in our area. There were no touchdowns, thankfully.



Ok, I shutty uppy now :)