This beautiful, young lady is my Nana. She's pretty much amazing - for lots of reasons - but for the purposes of this post and fund raiser...whoa, did she work hard! She cleaned in her kitchen what I'd sorted, let me compoletelly takeover use her garage, carport, dining room table, and spare bed to keep stuff as it was cleaned and sorted. Then, she and my Denden (that's granddaddy for some of you) opened up their driveway and yard for one amazing fundraiser. I cannot thank her enough...really, I can't do it. She's just so awesome. I want to live like her when I'm as young as she is :)
Next up is one of my 2 cashiers. This is my baby sister (the pretty one with the long, brown hair - boys, I'll cut you if you mess with her) and she not only manned the money bucket and bag all day, she got up at 5:15 to go help my dad and I set up. I'll probably owe her for that one for a long time.
These guys provided lots of muscle leading up to the yard sale. We'd asked for donations from our Tennessee church family and they helped us go around a couple of nights before a load stuff up. And they did it all for a Sonic milkshake...at half price.
It was pretty cool how God took this small pile from my family and turned it into this...
and this...
and this...
This is not an accurate representation of what these 2 did at the sale. That's my uncle on the left and my little sister on the right. She was my other cashier for the second half of the day (boys - same rule applies for her, too). My uncle and my dad helped load stuff throughout the day and carry bags and items to people's cars. They earned a little late-afternoon nap.
On the left is my aunt, then my dad, and on the right is my uncle. My aunt and uncle got up at 4 am and drove 3 hours from Nashville. They brought stuff for the sale, worked their tails off all day, and bought stuff, too. My dad....wow...I can never say enough about him or give the most accurate description of him. He spent his entire birthday watching my kiddos so I could finish stuff up, helped me round up donations most days after work, got up super early on his day off to help set up, work hard, and try to scare off the creepers at the the yard sale. He's always been awesome in my book.
This blank section is where I should insert a picture of my mom and kids since she took care of them all day long....believe me, I know that's not an easy task. Especially considering the yard sale fell on the absolute busiest 2 weeks for her at work....for the whole year!! Thanks for being a team player, mom :) You're the best! Sorry I apparently didn't snap a picture when ya'll stopped by :(
All in all, the yard sale was a blast!! It was hard work collecting donations, sorting through and cleaning them...but it was also just as wonderful to see God blessing this fundraiser through so many people. The first item that sold was my favorite chair...a pompesan chair that I'd waited years for. I cried when the man drove off with it in his truck. Oh well, it was just a chair, right?!!
My original goal for this fundraiser was $1,000...lofty goal for a yard sale, right? At the first of the week, I tried to reevaluate and set a more realistic goal based on what I had and lowered it (in my mind) to $500...still a nice fundraiser!! God completely blew me out of the water when I counted up the final amount. Originally, I'd posted on facebook that God had provided $1,250, but then I came across an apparent mystery/secret donation, coupled with a more precise recount. The "new" grand total is $1,485!! Almost 3 times as much as I what I "thought" was a realistic expectation for a yard sale. And the whole thing was put together in 5 days!!
So incredible. Fantastically, amazingly, INCREDIBLE!!
And God continues to provide in exceptional ways. He fund what He favors, y'all. He really does.
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