Brad & Noelle Koosmann & Family: Garage Sale and Playset Setup (and Mishap!)

I have been planning on having a garage sale for the past three years...and thus have pack-ratted everything I would normally give away into my various basements (the garage sale stuff has followed us as we moved from the cities to Gene and Mary's to the rental house, and finally, to our permanent home.) I prepared for the sale slowly through the previous winter and spring, and then more urgently through July. Thank the good Lord for my mom, who came out several times to watch the kids while I organized and cleaned and priced the piles that filled my basement. I also was blessed with the give-aways of my parents and sisters, so there was plenty of variety for the sale. On the week of the sale (Friday all day, and Saturday half-day) my mom came out early, bringing extra tables and a canopy (thank you, thank you!!) and between Brad, my mom, and I, we hauled a basement full of "stuff" up and organized it in our garage. No matter how much I prepared, I still pulled an all-nighter (which I hadn't done since college, and probably won't do again for a long, long time!) and at six in the morning we set up the canopy and opened shop (many thanks to the early "customer" who helped set up the canopy, and NO thanks to the other "customer" who decided to dig through boxes and browse around 45 minutes early.) Brad's mom was a savior and showed up to watch the kids during the sale, and she and the Nelson's ended up taking Brendan back to Madison to play for the day Friday. The sale was a huge success and a basement full of stuff was condensed down to nine boxes and a few odds and ends, which, for the most part, made their way to the local thrift store.
My dad and two of my sisters, Liz and Cathy, also came out for the weekend and helped on Saturday with the sale, and afterwards, helped with the setting up of our new playset. My dad and Brad were able to get the fort portion of the playset completed on Sunday. We did have one unfortunate mishap involving Brendan. The guys had inadvertently left the electric drill plugged in and laying on the ground. Brendan had been trying to get Brad's attention and, failing that, decided he wanted to play with the drill. Brad was busy putting together the fort and he didn't notice Brendan pick up the drill and put it to Brad's head and pull the trigger (unfortunately, I never really made a big deal out of Brendan playing with his pretend drill like that...mistake on my part!) Thank God Brad was wearing a baseball cap...instead of going into his skull (!!!!!!....sick to my stomach just thinking of it....) it twisted the hat, which caught his hair underneath and pulled it out. I had been in the kitchen with Megan, my mom, and sister, and all I heard was screaming...so I raced outside to find Brad yelling and Brendan wailing. It was scary (although now it's a tiny bit funny) and we ALL learned a very important lesson. (P.S. it's now 1 1/2 months later, and Brad's hair still hasn't grown back in!)

It's about 10:30pm and my mom is helping water-proof the signs with masking tape. What a wonderful mom!

At 1:30 am my living room is still full of boxes for me to price. Good thing I had tons of energy (and a little caffeine) to get me through the night!

My garage sale. Not too pretty, but it got the job done!

We only had two bouts of 5 minutes where we didn't have at least one person at the sale...I couldn't believe how busy it stayed all day!

All that was left (minus the chairs, wheelbarrow, and tables) from a basement FULL of stuff. Yay!

Brendan helped pick up sticks with his new wheelbarrow. He LOVED it!

We started setup for the playset bright and early Sunday morning. It was definitely more than a one-person job!

How many people does it take to screw two boards together?.... (and I was obviously a lot of help!)

Brad and my dad (and Brendan!) working on the fort portion of the playset. I swear that the longest part of this whole project was us deciding where we wanted to put it!