Monday, February 7, 2011

Monkey Business

A couple of weeks ago we had a "One Day Only" Garage Sale.  In theory it sounded like a fantastic idea.  I must have been in a sleep deprived state when this decision was made.  It felt great to go through all the nooks and crannies of our house and take mounds of things we didn't need anymore to the garage.  It wasn't until we had to actually clean out the garage that this fantastic idea seemed like the worst decision ever!  We were now faced with a garage filled with boxes, bags, and who know what else piled as high as possible and on the brink of an avalanche.  And there it stayed until finally one day Papa Z and I took on the task of going through the mess to organize it for the garage sale.  I'd like to say it was smooth sailing once we got started, but as our supposedly "sleeping children" stomped up and down the hallway above us, we knew we were in for more of a challenge than we had bargained for.  Voices may have raised, choice words may have slipped, and at one point Papa Z sentenced all three kids and myself to the house.  If truth be told, I was kinda happy to have a break from the chaos.

We had put off the task of pricing everything until the night before the sale, which looking back was not such a great idea.  By the end of the night I could care less if we sold the CD player for 5 cents or $5, just put the stinkin' sticker on it and move on!

After a very short night, the day had finally arrived!  We woke up very early and started putting everything out.  We had over 500 pieces of baby clothes that I wanted arranged neatly.  "Why?" you may ask.  I don't know, it seemed like such a good idea.  A good idea until I walked out and could barely see what I was doing because it was too early for the sun to even think about rising!  A good idea until I found myself crawling on the ground in the wee hours of the morning in 38 degree weather!  A good idea until the coyotes decided to make a kill in the hills around us sounding like they were just across the street...

But I'll let you be the judge:


We actually ended up doing well and made even more money than anticipated, thanks to my monkey collection!  Oh, didn't I tell you about my monkey collection?  I don't even know when or how this strange collection started, but at some point in my life I decided my life could not be complete until I had a monkey collection-doesn't everyone go through that phase?  I collected them for several years and had accumulated enough monkey stuffed animals, candles, plates, cookie jars, tables, and knick-knacks to overtake our house.  I'm not kidding, at our old house we had lots of monkey things in every room!  Once we moved into our new house I decided I would pack away the monkeys and only leave the precious few treasured monkeys out.  The boxes sat in our garage for 3 years and I decided to sell them in the garage sale.  I thought I would finally be rid of the monkey phase until I started noticing them multiply in our house!  The stuffed animals that didn't sell somehow kept making their way into our house.  Zany Janie and Wacky Zacky now EACH have at least 10 of those monkeys.  Silly Jilly even has a couple of monkeys for her collection. 


I guess the monkey collecting gene has been passed down!  Let's just hope they grow out of it sooner rather than later!

Zany thought of the day:  Have you ever collected anything your friends considered odd?

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