Spring in Virginia

After contemplating going to visit family in Virginia for a few weeks, I bought a plane ticket on a spur of the moment two days before I left. One of the big reasons I wanted to go this particular weekend (the second weekend in May) was because of a yard sale. I told Jason that I wanted to go because I was a little bit nosy, and wanted to see what everyone was getting rid of! I had been getting emails about several of my sisters "purging" their houses, cleaning out storage rooms, and putting it all into one big yard sale. Another good reason to go was to see two nieces that I had not seen yet. And one more good reason to go was to see everyone else on the East Coast that I hadn't seen in almost a year. So after buying a ticket (which was still really cheap) on Monday, Jason drove me to the airport to catch my flight on Thursday morning.

The night before it had rained, froze, and then snowed, so when I left, I was bundled up for the cold. The flight seemed to take extra long this time, but everything was on time. When I landed in Charlotte, NC for my flight change, I was instantly hit with extremely hot weather. I'm thinking it was probably in the 80's at least. I had to shed my coat and wished I could shed a shirt and socks as well. I didn't have a long wait until I got the short flight to Washington D.C. where Peewee was going to pick me up. By the time I had to go outside and catch my ride, it was evening and wasn't quite as hot. Peewee, Bobby, and Sam very kindly picked me up and gave me a ride to Sally's house where I was going to reside. As soon as
I hopped in the van, Bobby immediately asked me to operate his camera to get a good picture of the Washington National Monument. I tried a couple of times on the way down the road, and I hope at least one of the pictures turned out to his liking.

After an emergency stop for the bathroom, and a stop at Jul and Linden's place to pick up Glen, we finally arrived at Sally's around 10pm. Everyone was tired and ready to be home, so after picking up some things from Sally, Peewee took her van load on down the road. I went ahead and had Andrew connect my computer to their trusty internet so that I could check in on my classes, which were drawing to a close. I had one project left to complete by Friday night, and I needed to work on it diligently. The next day, Friday, I spent the entire day in my pajamas working on this project and finally getting it finished and submitted on time. At least three times during the day, either Paul or Hannah would come ask me when I was going to put on real clothes! Thanks to Andrew's help, I was able to fix a few things right at the end and saved the project from getting points docked. I believe I did take a break to put on some "real clothes" and run an errand for Sally at one point, and I took a few pictures of the kids, too.

Marie and Hannah during a very thorough enactment of "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!"

Rachel Anne

Paul

I think this was Hannah's distressed look for when the "Mama called the doctor and the doctor said..."

Marie

(Don't let her sweet, innocent face fool you - there's plenty of mischief inside her pretty little head!)

After finishing up my project and completing all of my classes, I was free to do whatever I wanted. Friday night, Miriam and her three girls arrived to spend the night at Sally's house, so I got to sleep on the couch. The advantage to that was hearing Marie calling out in the middle of the night for her mom. Andrew got to her before I did, but I did meet Hannah in the hallway who told me that someone was hollering in the next room, and she thought it was Marie, so could I please go get her mom? Then shortly after 5am, I again woke up to see Marie and Susannah walking down the hall with their blankets towards the living room. Marie had this mischievous glint in her eyes as she said, "Someone called my name?" I told her no, no one called her name and that they were to go back to bed. As I turned them around to go back to bed, she declared that someone had called her name and that is why they were awake. On our way to the bedroom we met Sylvia who was coming to join the party, so I put all three of them back in the bed and told them that they still needed sleep. By the time I got back out to the couch, I heard whispers and giggles coming from their room. So I went to visit them once more, and then decided it was pointless for me to go back to sleep at that time. Since I had decided to go help Rachel and Jul set up for the big yard sale, I got myself ready and left as quietly as I could at about 5:45am. Rach and Jul had already been pricing and putting items out since 5am, so I was a little late to the party. I got to make a couple signs to hang on the street corners, and then I was given stickers, a pen, and told to put stuff out and price it however I wanted.

I don't remember when Andrew arrived with Paul, Hannah, and Marie to set up their bake sale. I think we had gotten most everything put out and priced by that time. Sally had helped the kids bake some super delicious things to sell, along with sodas.

They were pretty cute salesmen!

It wasn't too long after that Avery joined the yard sale in her Jumperoo.

Marie decided to have one of her own cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

(It was delicious! I sampled some of hers.)

Atlas joined us every now and then and took naps in the sun.

I think Hannah enjoyed her cinnamon roll for brunch.

Morgan and Charity hung out on the porch and helped to attract customers.

(Miriam and Charity had shown up shortly after the bake sale crew.)

Miss Morgan didn't really want to have her picture taken.

Miss Charity

It was towards the end of the yard sale when Morgan decided that she could acknowledge me.

After a very successful morning, for both the yard sale and the bake sale, it was time for the party to end. It started to rain soon after lunch time, so we (Rachel, Jul, Miriam, and myself) piled everything onto the nice, big, covered porch and went inside to rest for a bit. After the rain let up, we went back outside and sorted through the leftovers to determine what was going to be held for the next yard sale, and what was going to Goodwill. It was impressive the amount of stuff that had been sold, and even more impressive the amount of stuff that Rachel, Jul, and Miriam, decided to send to Goodwill. (The yard sale goods were a compilation of Sally, Rachel, Jul, and Miriam purging and cleaning out their houses.) Rachel took the load to Goodwill, Jul loaded up the stuff for the next yard sale, and Morgan, Avery, and Charity, took naps. 

After the work was done, we visited in the kitchen for a bit. Sally called to invite us all to dinner at her house and to ask me to invite some of the others that weren't at the yard sale. In light of the upcoming evening festivities, it was decided that we should get moving again. Miriam and Charity headed back to Sally's, I went to run some errands, and Rachel and Jul finished up their work. Everyone except for Dad and Laura was able to come to Sally's for supper. (Well, none of the in-laws were able to come.) It was a good time: lots of food, lots of people, lots of talking, and lots of little cousins. After supper, we somehow managed to get a decent picture of the siblings and the little cousins. I had forgotten my camera at Rachel's, so I didn't get any pictures that evening.

I have a lot more pictures from the next three days that I was in Virginia, but I will have to post a sequel. Stay tuned!