As weekends go for me, it was a very busy one! Martin worked all day on Saturday--9am until about 11:30pm, with a short 1 1/2 hour break in the evening. But we need the money, so it's a good thing. But there was a car boot sale, England's answer to the yard sale, and Martin wanted me to try and sell some more of our baby stuff and a few other bits and pieces. Then, after the car boot sale we went to a ward activity at the church in Scunthorpe.
First, the car boot...
Martin loaded the stuff in the car for me, and we dropped him off at work on our way to Ulceby (the car boot sale was being held in the car park of the Brocklesby Ox, one of the local pubs). Christine was the organizer, and Cathy was selling a bunch of stuff as well. We got there and got set up, paid our entrance fee, and the fun started. I made a profit of £2.50--sold £7.50 worth of stuff, but the entrance fee was a fiver. I was only planning on staying until the kids' lunch and nap time, but some people set up their stuff in the narrow car park exit (in the grand tradition of English parking lots, there's only one way in and out) and so I was trapped in car boot hell until 2 pm. SO not worth the effort. When you figure in the cost of petrol to get to Ulceby, I think we broke even. But we got to visit with the girl in-laws and all of the stuff was in the car and convenient to drop off at our local charity shop.
So we came home, and almost immediately left again. It was the one year anniversary of the ward boundary change, and we had a party to celebrate. I made brownies, which were a big hit, but it was kind of a strange party. A full year on and the same cliques exist. Plus I was exhausted and Dylan was being high maintenence and Edith was demanding to be fed. We left early, with almost no socializing done by me. I was too busy feeding Edith and taking Dylan to the toilet and making sure he didn't nose dive off the stage. In the end, it just wasn't worth the effort. We came home so that we would be able to see Martin for a few minutes before he had to go back to work.
So yeah, super busy and exhausting day! And I'm sure it was equally exhausting for Martin. The private function he worked that evening was a 13th birthday party, and he had 15 screaming teenage girls to cater to all evening.
Sunday was better. Martin gave a talk in sacrament meeting, so Christine came to help with the kids. Church was really good, and Martin did an excellent job on his talk. We had a quick picnic on the grass together, and afterwards we drove to Caenby Corner to pick up a wooden bench with storage that I got on Freecycle. The drive was beautiful!
We got there and tried to load the bench in the car, but it wouldn't fit. We needed an allen key to dismantle it and didn't have one, but we were really close to Hemswell Cliff, where they hold the mother of all car boot sales every Sunday. We popped in to get some tools, and did something aweful and awesome at the same time. Most of the car booters had left already, and had abandoned the stuff that they didn't manage to sell. So we wandered around the field and sifted through the stuff that people had left behind. We got some pretty nice stuff and it was totally free, but I felt so dirty--like I had just been dumpster diving or something. It felt shameful, yet good, too. It must be my scrupulous nature combined with the love of a good deal that I inherited from my mother!
Anyway, we dismantled the bench and brought it home--it's going to look amazing on my upstairs landing and will provide even MORE much needed storage.
Incidentally, we have finished scraping the wallpaper on the top landing and have started painting. What a difference that makes! It has been nasty and dirty, with peeling wallpaper and a few bare walls, for over two years now. I still need to patch the plaster in a few places, but seriously--wow! I'll have to get some pictures so that everyone who saw it "before" can appreciate the "after."
I should have some fun stuff to post about tomorrow, so stay tuned!
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