A Week Well-Spent

What a week we have had!

We can back up to July 4, which we spent very pleasantly at a friend's cottage down the lake from us. Their summer home doesn't really qualify as a "cottage", as it is larger and more beautiful than many people's year-round residences. Anyway, they had invited a large group to celebrate the 4th with them, so we went by boat, and had a great time giving everyone tours of the boat, swimming, eating, etc. We ended with a bonfire, and we then cruised home in the dark under a canopy of fireworks that were being launched over the lake from many sites, guided by the annual "flares around the lake" . It was great!

Erika arrived on Saturday, and immediately went to work organizing the dismantling of our home. We had moved everything out of our attic already, but Erika helped us look through every box and bag and sort all our belongings into "sell", "store", or "take" piles. She also had pre-wedding bridesmaid duties to attend to during this time, having managed to convince her friend to get married at the same time we were preparing to move! She also managed to keep in touch with her office.....

On Tuesday we hosted the Hollister side of the family, who met at the lake for a bit of sun and sustenance before going to the house to reclaim some of the ancestral treasures I have been holding.

On Wednesday & Thursday we prepared for a massive garage sale, filling the entire porch and the two front rooms of the house with items for sale. Erika was the driving force in organizing everything, as I was tending to pick up an item and then walk in circles trying to decide what to do with it. She got us on course, and created the layout of our impromptu store. Here we are, hard at work!

Oops - wrong pic!

Mike arrived on Friday, but we didn't have much time to enjoy his company as he was needed for the actual wedding events, beginning with the rehearsal dinner Friday evening and the wedding itself on Saturday evening. He did bring our grandpuppies, and it was fun to have dogs in the house again. They were very well-behaved towards all our customers, and willingly remained upstairs most of the time we had the sale open.

Karen & Denny stopped by to pick up a Victorian etagere from Tom's family, and we had an opportunity to apologize for missing Denny's 50th birthday bash. Seems Tom told me the wrong weekend! Tom told me it was July 12, so I planned the sale so that we could shut it down & have time to get to the party - but we missed it by a week!

Rich & Diane gallently came again on Sunday to take some of our items for storing, and also took some items to sell in Diane's store. Susan & Rob are offering storage space as well, which we will take them up on next week, and we have plans for all who said they would help us move! We just need to settle on a moving date, see who will be available, and we will be one step closer to to our goal!

THANKS AGAIN TO ALL!!