Ladybugs & Stinkbugs

I hate garage sales. No, to quote my sister, Leanne, "I don't just hate garage sales. I loathe them." Me, too, Leanne.

My son, however, does not share my disdain for this American ritual. He is saving for Nintendo DS, and wanted to supplement his "income" by selling some of his toys. So, he wrote 13 flyers (I counted) and duct-taped them up around the neighborhood. They said, "Downs Toy Shop. Opening Saturday, 8-12, All Toys $1." THEN, he decided to tell me what he had done.

What the heck, I thought. They're already up. So I put an ad up on www.southeasttexas.com, and we pulled out a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to take to Goodwill anyway. I told the kids if they would 'work' then they could split the profits.

It's hilarious to me how kids view the world. The things that they cherish are the things the world calls "worthless", but, since they don't know this, they assume that everyone puts as much value on their treasures as they do. They also don't mind sharing this information. The combination is great fun to watch.

As they are pulling out things for the garage sale, there is an interesting mix of junk (trash that they don't want anymore, but, hey, maybe we can make some money off of it!) and things that they think are valuable and are SURE will sell for hundreds of dollars (a baseball bat, all the pictures they have drawn in the last 400 years, etc.). They think these things are valuable because Mom and Dad have told them they are valuable for the last 6-8 years. Who knew they took us seriously? :)

Annie even made a card for Granny, and put it in the pile. She said, "Granny won't even have to pay for it," but it was still going in the garage sale pile. She wanted Granny to find something for free!

I have TONS more stories, and I'll be sharing them over the next few posts. Stay tuned!