A good turn out

Saturday's yard sale was a ton of work (we're all still recovering, I think), but it ended up being pretty successful -- we raised over $400 for Padma! A huge thank you to my cousin Stacy and her family for letting us use their yard. We had more stuff to sale then we realized, and there was still a lot left at the end of the day, but we were very glad to clear out quite a bit. And we learned some valuable lessons:

1. No matter how early you set up, people will start coming before you are ready for them.

2. Don't count on the weather for anything. If it's cold and windy in the morning and you decide to change into long jeans, it will be 80 degrees in two hours, and then when you change back into shorts, it will rain.

3. Impending rain makes cleaning up a yard sale go really quickly.

4. If you decide to sell just the set of chairs that go with a kitchen table, inevitably you will get at least two people offering to buy the whole set five minutes later.

5. People say they will come back for stuff, but they don't always do that.

6. But sometimes they do. (And then they come back again.)

7. No matter how cheaply you are selling stuff, people will always ask for cheaper, even when it's a fundraiser.

8. When someone asks, "How much?" don't respond with a question. ("Uh, a dollar..?")

9. One person's junk is another person's treasure.

10. It's possible to actually make money off a yard sale even when most everything is $1 or less.

And some pictures:

Stuff


More stuff


And even more stuff (there was so much!)


Our Nepal prayer flag


Jazz hands in the shade


The whole group towards the end of the day


This is the photo we displayed of the children at the Padma house when Rachel was there. (Can you spot Rachel in this picture?)