It's over...the bazzar

The building when I got there at 9:40 A.M.

....except for Kathy L's flower stand, all setup. The truck was there at six o'clock. ouch, that's early for unloading flowers.

Last night was the bazaar and auction for JCS school, the school where my children go. WOW, what a night. I was out the door shortly after nine, dropped off the two oldest girls at a friend's, and brought a load to the place where we were having the fun, then back to pick up some more big things, weed eater, hockey tree, and lattices. (there really was something for everyone) The lattices were a big disappointment as I think only a couple sold, so now I will see if I can sell them a different way. If any of you need one...give me a call. So in the morning it was setting up the tables and labeling everything with the proper number and in the proper order. Sounds less time-consuming than it is. If I would do it again next time ( WHAT am I thinking, next time) it would be better to write the numbers on the paper, rather than have to find the items to match the master paper. (makes no sense to anyone else, but it might jog my memory for next time) I did have Danielle with me, who still was not back to her happy, healthy self. I always say work is easy, it is trying to do it with kids. She just had to be pushed and carried a lot. When she started shaking a bit I knew it was time to go and load up on Tylenol and Advil again. There were tons of items for the silent and live auctions, which was great. We did our job and the rest of the community did too. After a yummy dinner and one game with the kids, it was already 6:45 and the auction closed at 7:00 yikes! but I guess a lot of people were having the same thing, as most of the papers were still blank. That was a bit of a disappointment...maybe next time (here I go again with the next time) I will make a friendly little sign that says "Want deals...garage sailing is tomorrow". But the silent auction went a little longer and things ended up going pretty good. It's funny how you don't really notice these things until you are involved. Of the gift certificates, if I think of my time in terms of loading up the kids, going there, phoning again, loading up the kids to pick something up ... that only sold for under ten $.... then again I know it is not all about making lots of money as someone said this week, it is also a community (church) event that gets us together doing something fun. Then maybe I'll just do games because then it is not worth my time and energy for a couple bucks. Fundraising can bring lots of questions about the effective use of time ( after all everybody is busy nowadays or thinks they are) So after that was putting on receipts what everybody bought, wow the night was just starting for me. It was fast-paced and so many people were impatient coming up asking if we could find out what they bought because they wanted to go or did they ended up winning this or that you got to be kidding me, bidding was done by numbers and there were a couple hundred of those, so sorry, don't know. Because the silent auction went longer than expected Gerard was right away off to the live auction, and I had to finish off the silent auction, so the time in between that we were counting on where he would take care of the kids didn't happen. Like I said anything is easy without trying to do it with kids. The oldest three were pretty much on their own all night. At one point Sharllen came glowing up to me and said "I wasted all my tickets can I have more?"(she had SO much fun) In the end, it all works out and there is a deep satisfaction in helping out. It was a good group of people to work with ( I did not do nearly as much as some of the others, but then I never really signed up either. It would have been hard for just the males to of gotten it all done, I would say it would have been impossible, I guess that's where working together for a common cause comes in) Everybody should take a turn to see what is all involved. And I have also come to realize that you will never have time to help out, you just have to do it.

Gerard looked great doing his job, writing down for the live auction, what # bought something for how much.( I was going to tell the auctioneer to make sure he didn't auction him off, lol) I am so glad that was him (not me) because he has a really good verbal memory for remembering #. And he even found it very challenging, the auctioneer would say # 187 for $673 and now we have a .... and go to the next thing, and just having all the auction going on ( give me a 678 who has a 678 ...know what I mean) all the numbers are going through your head so it is very easy to question what you thought you heard last. So he found it a lot easier to stand at the podium and then get the visual for remembering the bidders # and the verbal for remembering the amount. Another idea might be to have one person remember the amount and another bidder's. He came home with a headache that was soon soothed with his purchase of a surround-sound speaker system. It is quite the system! He stayed up late taking it out of the box and looking at everything and telling me what it all was. No, they are not just "speakers" as I thought ... one is called a woofer, another a tweeter, etc. The important new knowledge I learn every day. lol. He is almost 34 and just bought his first brand-new speakers. He has talked about it many times over the years and would often point them out in the store...it was just never a necessity. (it still isn't)(although he claims it is when our kids start having their strobe light parties, WHAT!!!, I am putting them in organ lessons lol) but he is VERY happy with his purchase and I don't have to buy him a Christmas or birthday present for, let's see, how many speakers were there... By the way, right now we have his Opa's speakers and the rest he bought at Value Village about seventeen years ago. (ahh contentment)

This morning the kids had so many stories to tell us, as we were not there to share any of it last night. Here the two of them are going over the new hockey cards that Timothy bought last night. The girls were adorned with tons of plastic rings, plastic beaded necklaces, and bracelets. Yup, they had a great time. (I wish I could have been a bit more a part of it.

The last couple of days Danielle had been getting worse. On Tues I took her to the Doctor, Wed. for a urinalysis and blood work, she did GREAT! She fusses and cries more at dinner the she did getting her blood work done. Did not make a sound. Just calmly watched her blood come out of her arm. I walked into the lab and it was completely full, standing room only, which gets tiring really fast when your sick babe wants to be held. We had #10 and the # they were helping was 84. And of course, there still are no toys because of the swine flu scare, so once I got a chair I got creative with the other two and played eye spy with my little eye for a LONG time, there is not a lot of color in a waiting room unless you start counting what everybody else is wearing, and I kinda stayed away from that. Then Thursday I was supposed to babysit Cody V so his mom could go make food for the bazaar, but she decided to take him with which turned out well since I ended up taking Danielle back to the doctor as she woke up shaking and blue around the lips. (we still have our heat on since I have been so cold, so there's no way that it's hypothermia) I asked them to dipstick her urine since I was sure she had a UTI, and I couldn't wait for Monday for the results. (she had a ton of "accidents" up to three in 45 min. She never even had that many even in a couple of days I was actually toilet training her, so I knew something was up.) The Doctor said on Tues that it was probably not a UTI because she would be old enough to tell me it hurts when she pees. But through the next couple of days of worrying and thinking, I remembered Sharleen NEVER said it hurt when she peed, she would have a sore lower back, major fevers, etc. and she has had a ton of nasty UTIs. So anyway she has a UTI and is on antibiotics and I think she is getting better. My niece has been in the hospital for the last couple of days since she has a UTI, and needed to be on I.V. antibiotics (it had progressed to her kidneys, Mel had a rough couple of days) and my neighbor went to the hospital in an ambulance on Sunday after passing out for over half an hour due to a UTI. (what's in the air right now, careful, don't breathe, lol)