Random, Pop Up Adventure

If a friend sent you a text message that asked if you could be dressed and ready to go in one hour, could you? Would you? Even if your friend said, "Trust me, you'll like it."? That's what I did to my friend Auntie on Friday. We've both been working really hard lately and haven't had much time for fun, so I decided to go on a spur of the moment adventure, and I invited her along!

She was very brave and trusted me enough to go along for the ride, and I think she had a blast! I had a great time myself, even though I didn't get anywhere near the fun things that she got! You  can see her version of our adventure on her blog.

We ended up visiting some sales in Dearborn, and Dearborn Heights. One of the sales was the best I've been to in a while, and it was the second day. The estate sale company putting the sale on was top-notch. Very helpful, very organized and the prices were reasonable. I'll definitely keep an eye out for more of their sales!

I got a great tablecloth, a couple of hankies, some thread and a couple of tiles for my flower bed. When I was paying for my finds, the cashier told me that she sold 35 tablecloths the day before, like the one I bought! I guess that is what my estate sale will be like when I'm gone-lol! Maybe a few more though.

We've had a busy week around our house. Last Tuesday was the start of our summer sand volleyball nights at our house. I was pretty bummed when only one guy showed up and we couldn't play. The guy that showed up is my oldest son's best friend so it was great to chat with him and catch up on all the details of his upcoming wedding. That part wasn't discouraging. The lack of players was what was discouraging. I asked God if our season for this was over, and if we should turn the sand court back into our yard.

The next morning while I was in a staff meeting, I got a phone call and a voicemail message from my cousin's husband. He NEVER calls me, so I was extremely concerned that something was wrong with one of my family members. I couldn't leave the meeting, so I snuck a quick text to him to tell him I'd call him as soon as the meeting was over.

He texted back asking if we could use 30 yards of pure beach sand for our court---for FREE! I guess that was my answer to whether or not we are done opening up our yard for sand volleyball every week in the summer! The sand was delivered within a half hour. I had no idea how much 30 yards would be! No idea! My best guess was about a third of what we got.

My youngest and I spent about 4 hours trying to haul it with a wheelbarrow and spreading it out over the court. Then I texted my cousin's husband asking for recommendations of people to hire to spread it out. He owns an excavating company and his voicemail says they are booking 4 months out, so I knew he wouldn't be able to do it.

He texted back that he'd have someone there Friday afternoon! Sure enough, Friday afternoon, two guys came and in about 1 hour had it all smoothed out, and the court all squared up. It was incredible to watch the guy in the machine. He was crazy fast and crazy good! Then they raked out the high spots and it was laser leveled-crazy! I would have been happy to have half on one side, half on the other so I could spread it better.

They had extra sand from a job site that needed moving right away, that's how we got it for free, and he asked us to take him and my cousin out to dinner as payment for the guys spreading it out! How cool is that!?!?  So, now I'm eagerly waiting to see how this court is going to be used this summer. We are considering changing it from Tuesdays to Thursdays...a lot of people are telling me Tuesdays aren't good days. We'll see what happens, if we get a small crowd, I'll change it to Thursdays for the rest of the summer.

Here are some pics of my week...


Flowers in the flowerbed that I walk past every day going into work

This is what 30 yards, or 3 dump trucks full of sand look like

This was after 4 hours of shoveling and hauling with the wheelbarrow, plus a little goofing around by the youngest.

This was the first sale Auntie and I visited last Friday!

New in box, never used, only three bowls though.

LOOK at this awesome car!!! We came across it at another sale about 10 minutes away from this sale.

In the basement of the first estate sale

Fishing gear pics sent to my youngest to see what he wanted me to buy for him

Bought this, and then found one the next day at a different sale, close to home, for $3-oops!

Sent this pic to Auntie's son to see which one's he wanted

Bought the middle anchor

This was Auntie's haul-she got some great treasures!

My haul...I should have bought more thread...it was only a quarter a spool and there were hundreds of spools!

Happy mail package--this set now only needs two more to be complete!

This was taken about 5 minutes into the guys spreading it out. I would have been happy to have it just to this level, then I could have spread it out the rest of the way. They insisted on finishing.

It looks pretty much exactly like what we had, minus about 17 years of cracking leather. Can you believe they scheduled us for delivery between 9pm and 12am??? How crazy is that?!?!? They arrived at 10pm, so that wasn't too bad, but I felt bad for the 3 other customers who were scheduled after us!

Saturday was a busy day spreading mulch, and putting down 24"x24" cement pavers at the base of our deck. Sunday we shopped for the new furniture and when we went to move the old stuff out, my back decided it was done with all of the hard work and decided to cramp up and spasm like crazy, and has kept on spasming for the past couple of days. I've spent the last two days on pain meds and a heating pad...getting older stinks! 

Thanks for your prayers for my little cousin, she is doing well! :)