Monday, October 23, 2006

450 and rising

The garage sale and online sales have been a great success. All together I have raised $450. Can you believe it? And the garage is finally getting cleaned up. I still have several other items I am selling so the total could still go up. My mom worked SO hard with me to get this going. She is my hero. And another year to go live it up at the "Big D" as it is known to us.
As suspected, all kinds crawled out of the woodwork to come to the sale. I'm not sure exactly why but I guess it is a big cultural thing for people to come up from Mexico and clear out the garage sales of electronics and such. They would come screeching around the corner in these huge vans or trucks. One or two men would jump out of the truck and scout out the loot. If they liked anything they grabbed it, negotiated just a little and left with their new found treasures. If they didn't see anything at all, they would wave on their friends and the mass exodus of battered vehicles would take place.
Some people thought my gorgeous almost never worn suit from Ann Taylor was way overpriced at $3. Others thought everything I had was a steal. There are all kinds.
I can't even tell you how overwhelming the crowds were. I barely had a chance to sit down. Until about 11 am. The crowds just halted. Weird.
The worst part of it all is I turned around at one point in the day and didn't see Vincent. Mom was feeding Brady and Savannah was inside. No Vincent. I bolted through the house screaming his name. I ran to the end of the cul de sac. No Vincent. At this point I am feeling nausiated and dizzy. I just kept screaming his name. Flashes of strange people in their dirty vans snatching him from the crowd kept popping into my head. It was one of the worst moments of my life. I looked at my mom and said, "You need to call 911"
My friend Stephanie pulled up in her car just then and offered to scour the neighborhood for him. Everyone at the garage sale put down their stuff and started looking up and down the street. "What was he wearing? What does he look like? How old is he?" I couldn't think. Several minutes passed. It felt like everything was spinning. How could I lose my son?
Suddenly one of the neighbors garage doors opened and her comes that little Stinky toddling out and laughing. Somehow he got into the garage and let himself back out. He knows how to open our garage door so maybe he went in, closed himself in and then let himself back out. I have no idea. But I just grabbed him and held on for dear life.
I was amazed at how helpful everyone was. Without question nothing seemed to matter but this little lost boy. Even to strangers. I guess they weren't all weirdos after all.

11 comments:

Miss Kelly said...

Oh my gosh - how freaky! I'm glad it turned out well, otherwise.
Wow - $450, that's awesome!

Christina_the_wench said...

Kids! I tell you! I am glad he was ok.

Amber decided at the age of three to go into the men's bathroom at a Discovery Zone family fun place. Scared the CRAP out of me! I can appreciate your crisis.

Mz.Elle said...

How horrid!
I lost Ciari once and it was the WORST feeling.
I'm so glad he was found,safe and sound!!
I'm slowly discovering that people are generally good and kind. There are more good people than bad. It's nice to feel that:)

I'm so impressed with your success!
You did a damn fine job!

The Domesticator said...

That is so frightening! What a sickening feeling that must have been. I am glad he turned up unharmed.

Congrats on the successful garage sale! Once, we had one ourselves, and we actually sold old clothes that my husband's old roomate left abandoned in the basement...for YEARS. Many of them said "Brown Swim Club" on them. People actually bought them, moldy smell and all. The scary thing was, the same group who bought the stinky shirts came back several times with more friends....wearing the clothes! *LOL*

Catch said...

I can imagine the terror you felt when you couldnt find Vincent. Thank the good Lord it had a happy ending! Especially with all the strangers around!

WOW, you are doing great!!!!! 450 bucks??? Thats super. Congratulations!!!! I bet hubby is proud of you!

B.R.L said...

I am so very glad that you found your child and he was O k. that was a terrifying time. Your sale went great. We have been asked if we will have another one. We say loudly no way.

Anonymous said...

You've inspired me-we're having a yard sale in December-to fund our own Annual passes. We had already planned the yard sale, but I LOVE the goal-we haven't had passes since I was pregnant with our second son. I miss going to DL with passes. It's so much more relaxed...

Cristina said...

How completely terrifying. OMG. I'm so glad it turned out OK. Phew. That is totally one of my worst fears.

Caro said...

I have lost my daughter in a store before so I know how scary that is.

Reading your post made my heart pound.

I'm glad you found him safely.

Yes, some strange people come to garage sales!

Unknown said...

I've heard that it's had to happen to all us mothers atleast once....loosing a child. I lost Josh at Chiba Mother Farm . It's a farm/amusement park here. Really big place. Anyway, it was right by the duck pond murky waters and all the horrific pictures start flashing in my head and same as you, getting dizzy and frantic...shaky. He had ran up this really big hill and was playing in the sprinklers laughing. I had run up that thing. He just looked at me and said, "Mommy, I want some Ice Cream" I hugged him and said that he could have whatever he wanted. It was the longest 2-5 minutes in my life.

Dr.John said...

Glad you found both your son and how kind people can be. When my son Peter was about a year and a half he figured out how to open the front door and we didn't know it. While Betty was changing Pat's diaper Peter took off. By the time she realised he was gone panic set in. He was in his underwaer and it was raining. She looked and then a car came driving slowly around the block and seeing her it stoped. It seems the nice guy had found Peter next to the highway and was looking for the bad parents that let him loose. We were so thankful for that man's kindness. We put a music box on the door that played when it was opened so he couldn't pull taht again.