Day 172 - Birthday Card (Give Back) and 1975 Cincinnati Reds Program (Give)

I embarassed my niece by returning this birthday card in front of a class of her peers.  Fortunately, she's got a good sense of humor AND she's come a long way as an artist, so she was able to laugh about it - along with everyone else. 

But she wasn't able to tell me if those things were supposed to be hearts or flowers.

I don't have a picture, but my second Give was a Cincinnati Reds "Scorecard" program from 1975!  Pete Rose was on the cover! 

Apparently, my packratting started early.  In '75, I would have been 7 years old!  My brothers and I went to a few Reds games with Dad when we were kids.  I always enjoyed the atmosphere more than the game itself.  I remember one game where a drunk fan kept yelling random, slurred "insults" at Pete Rose like "Pete Rose is a hamburger!"

I gave the 1975 scorecard to a co-worker who I know is a big Reds fan because I always see him commenting on the Reds on Facebook.

Then I looked it up on-line and found it could have been sold for 30 to 40 dollars.  It didn't occur to me that anyone would pay for it. 

C'est la vie!  (I believe that's French for @#$%!!!)

Day 171 - Scottish Map and Postcards (Give)

Gave my map from Scotland and some Colin Baxter postcards to my little Scottish enthusiast student.  No pics to show.  I wanted to pull a picture by Baxter to place here, but he's apparently pretty particular about copyrighting and has figured out how to protect his photos on-line.  So I'll just give a link.  He's one of the most famous photographers in Scotland. Some Scots love his work and others think his images are overworked and overly romanticized.

Personally, I like 'em.

His pictures are about as close as any camera can come to capturing the stunning beauty of Scotland.

Day 170 - Shopping Bag Collection and Assorted Papers (Throw)

Sorted through a whole bunch of old papers to put in recycling...

Among the papers:
Numerous Brochures -
     Epcot Center
     Kennedy Space Center (1984)
     Wall Drug
     Mammoth Cave
     Badlands
     Faneuil Hall (Summer 1987)
     Coca-Cola Museum
     Various Summer Camp brochures from  
             camps I worked  
Also:

Flight Itineraries (Saudi Arabia and Scotland)
Easter cards from Grandma Gross
Various Photos
Thank You Cards
Newspaper Clippings
Wedding Announcements and Programs
Church Bulletins
Obituaries
Cats Playbill
A Kwanzaa Card ... from Luke and Gavin

And just to show that my pack-rat tendencies also have a romantic side, here are some of the hearts I found on the floor of my house on Valentine's Day of 2000, when Melissa and I were dating.  She let herself into my house (I left it unlocked - she didn't have a key.  Just sayin'.) and spread hearts all over. 

Now that I think about it, it's a good thing I was head over heals in love with her already (we'd only been together for a month and a half) or I probably would have thought, "PSYCHO!!"  Ha!


And then there was my shopping bag collection.  I actually used to collect bags from various places I visited.  You might be thinking, "Psycho!!", but they are truly the perfect souvenir for tight wads!  On some of them, I thought ahead and recorded the year right on the bag and I have included some of those dates here.

Bags:

Cactus Jack's, Keystone, S.D.
Conner Prairie
Epcot Center
World's Only Corn Palace (June 1988)
Norman Rockwell Museum
Brookfield Zoo of Chicago (1983)
Orange Ring of Florida (1980)
Major Hospital (Probably the clothing bag from my hernia operation over spring break of my sophomore year at Wabash!)
Urbana Missions Conference of 1987
Sea World
King's Island
Mt. Rushmore
The Big Apple (in Al-khobar, Saudi Arabia!)
Golden Gate Bridge
Georgia's Stone Mountain Park
The Luxor Hotel of Las Vegas
Warner Bros.

Day 169 - Last Century's Jeans and Tie-Dye Pants (Throw)

I've been exploring one of the boxes I pulled from the back of the storage shed as we prepared for last weekend's garage sale...

Bizarre stuff.

Like these jeans from pre-2000.  They were signed by several youth and adults - some from Indiana and some from Iowa.  I must have worn them last on a joint mission trip between my LeMars (Iowa) group and my Shelbyville (Indiana) youth. 

Melissa was jealous because I still fit in these jeans. 

In fact, I had a bit of extra room!

Just sayin'.







But here are the pants I was really tempted to keep:

But Melissa wouldn't let me!



(I went through a tie-dye phase that lasted a few years... but I'm over it now.)

Seriously, though, I don't want you thinking that I actually wore these thing out in public - it was more of a summer camp gag outfit.

Really.


Sadly, they are on their way to the landfill.

Other Bloggers in the Family...

I just found out that I'm not the only one in my family who is blogging (but I was THE FIRST).  I've mentioned my "little" brother Russ a few times here.  He's the one who has had quite the physical and spiritual transformation over the past two years or so.  Russ is learning bunches about God right now - and he's learning it the best way possible:  firsthand. 

I have to admit to being a bit jealous of his most recent post:  Russ wrote about how he and his fiancee won a raffle over the weekend...

... to the tune of $10,000!!

That's awesome.

But why can't I write about winning ten thousand dollars sometime, God?

Day 168 - LeMars Bulldog Mug, Saudi Arabian Necktie and Dead Seahorses (Throw ... though Melissa may take the seahorses to school to do who-knows-what with)

Here's an oddball assortment of treasures I uncovered as I brought tubs out of the storage barn for this weekend's garage sale (and, believe me, I am just getting started on the oddball treasures here).

The seahorses were from my summers in Saudi Arabia ... I think (darn lousy memory!).  I found them scattered up and down a beach one morning.  Thousands upon thousands of them drying in the sun.  They are perfectly preserved little exoskeletons.  And you know what?  Surprisingly, they don't smell bad.

The necktie is obviously from Saudi Arabia - no memory skills needed for that one.  It's the same pattern as the "headscarves" worn by the Saudi men. (Ummmm... don't remember what they really call those headscarves, but I have one of those too, out in the garage.)

(OK... just googled it and that "headscarf" is called a "shumagg" and I feel a bit better about my memory because I never knew that in the first place.)

And the mug was from my time as youth pastor is LeMars, Iowa.  That was my first youth ministry position after my training with Tentmakers (which was just after graduating from Wabash College).  Yup, I was a LeMartian for about 3 and a half years!  I loved LeMars.  And I loved the LeMartians.  But I have no need for another plastic cup...

Day 167 - Five Tubs of STUFF (Sell)

Today was the garage sale and Steve and Keri's house. 

They made over $500!  YAY!

We made $80.30!

BOOOOOOOO!

Oh, well.  On the bright side, we got rid of 5 tubs of stuff.  (I will spare you an itemized list - but just this once!)  That lightens the load.  And improves the appearance of the garage.

Hopefully this week we will be listing our house with our realtor friend, Robyn.

Here's how it plays out ideally:  The house sells mid-May.  The prospective owners offer several thousand over the asking price.  Once school ends, we take a week and clear everything out and move in with my mother-in-law.  We have a giant moving sale and make a couple more thousand dollars.  Now we've got enough cash on hand to pay for our exploratory trip to Haiti this summer with the kids. 

Perfect.

I have already informed God of this plan and our timeline... just in case He doesn't have a better plan.