Stepping Out of the Boat

This is only the last half of the post on the garage sale since I can't figure out how to get more picture to publish. It's a work in progress. The following pictures are all from the second half of our huge garage sale last weekend in which we sold half of the things we own - or owned. It was a lot of work, but it was sure good to get it out of the way. Now our apartment is looking empty, and it even echoes in certain places. I suppose that's good, though, because we'll be ready to leave when it's time.


Gramma Verch came to hang out for a while. We tried to stay in the garage when the sun got too hot. We tried not to look intimidating to the people looking at stuff. Occasionally, one of us would try to be a salesman. It worked 25% of the time.


This is how Carole and John spent most of the garage sale: money origami. Now, John and I leave little shirts and pants as tips. This picture has a Canadian dollar for the shirt - so fashionable - and a green US dollar for the pants.


In one day, we sold about half of our belongings. Everything was pretty much gone by 2:00 pm.


After a long hot day at the garage sale, we counted up the earnings.



John is messing with the TV here - something he absolutely HATES to do.

Now with all of our stuff gone, it doesn't look so much like home anymore. Bare white walls and temporary furniture (card tables) have taken the place of the things that were so familiar. But to be cliche and cheesy all at once, I must say I feel at home where ever John is when all is said and done. I believe he'd say the same about me.

Now that we have a blog, we thought we would use pictures to document our last trip up north to see John's family. We had a blast!



This is the whole gang: Roland and Mary Jo, Joe and Narissa, and John and me.


We brought a truckload of stuff with us to store in their basement. THANK GOODNESS FOR PARENTS WITH BIG HOUSES!!





This is the Roth's lovely log home. It's like they're on vacation every day of their lives. One of my favorite things about our stays there is sipping coffee in the chilly morning out on the deck that overlooks the lake.


This is Stuart, and let me tell you, he sure makes every day interesting. We like to tease Mary Jo about how bad of a dog he is - he never does as he is told and always gets his way. He is cute occasionally, but only for a few seconds at a time. He sure is the life of the party.


Roland, Mary Jo, John and I went to play golf one beautiful sunny day. We had a wonderful time, although Mary Jo and I decided it would be best to stop keeping score halfway through the first hole. We laughed a lot and were sore the next day. Roland and John both had great games and inexhaustible patience.

We've decided that instead of saying "goodbye" to the people we love here in the North America, we are going to be saying "see you later." It's just so sad to say goodbye. It seems so final.
As we prepare to take off for the Dominican Republic, we'll be bidding farewell to so many people that we might be overwhelmed with sadness if we think about it too much. The truth is, though, we'll be back in two years, and in the grand scheme of things, that's not very long. We just need to remember that.
Today I said "see you later" to my college roommate, Carole, who drove down from Toronto to see me. My best childhood friend, Jamie, Carole, and I had a lovely weekend filled with girl talk. We had a grand ole' time, and we will yet again.



Carole, Claire, and Jamie after church on Sunday

This is the very first experimental picture and post on our very first blog. If all goes as planned, this text will appear on our blog. If disaster strikes, I assume everything will float off into cyber-space never to be seen again.

The picture is of John and I this morning at church. We did not color coordinate on purpose.