I've really gotten into yard sales since we've moved out here. Basically ever Saturday, well actually everyday, is a perfect yard sale weather day. I'm wondering if they don't have yard sales year round here. I guess we'll see. Anyways, yard sales here start at like 6 or 7 AM (because it's bright as day by 5:30-6am), so by the time I usually am out and about by 7:30-8 all the big ticket items are gone. I'd really love to find a small desk for our bedroom and we could still use a ton of bookshelves. So I often don't find much, but I still like to look and today I was so proud of myself because I had 2 awesome finds.
The first I happened upon a bunch of like-new board games. Ramona's teacher had passed out a classroom wish list at meet the teacher night and board games were on it. So I bought 4 games that I thought were age and classroom appropriate and appeared to have all the pieces. $10 total, I know I'm not a great haggler, but I think they would've been at least $50 new.
Then when I was about to go home, I swung by one last sale and saw this beauty of a playhouse sitting there. I figured it was already sold or they were asking way too much, but I thought I'd check anyhow.... and I bought it! We disassembled it, shoved it in the van and brought it home for Dr. Gore to reassemble. Yeah, now the kids are finally playing outside! Vote over in the sidebar I'm curious, how much would you have been willing to pay for it?

Oh yes, and more about River. He's such a sweetie. So the story is we've been thinking about getting a dog for a long time, well mostly ramona has been begging for one. We always said once we got in a house so here we are in a house. We had gone to the pound a couple of times, but it was kind of overwhelming and scary not knowing anything about the animals. So we sent an adoption application to a pug rescue organization. Rescues are nice because the animals have been in foster care, so the people taking care of them can actually tell you something about the dog. Like do they get along with kids, are they housebroken, bark all the time, etc. About a week after we sent off the application we got an email can we bring a dog by tonight? Wow, that was fast and they showed up with River, hung out with us all for a couple of hours and said they thought we would all be a great match together. And we adopted him that night. That was all so fast for me, never ever really having had a dog before, so I was taking their 3 day trial basis very seriously but it's come and gone and he's still here.
The rescue had found River wandering in the desert, near a place called Salt River Project, hence his name. Obviously abandoned, his ribs were showing and he was in bad shape. The rescue had him a couple of weeks before they brought him to us. They said he still needed to gain another pound and I think he's already gained some weight being with us. He very good with the kids, perfect size, barely ever barks, and is just a gentle sweet dog. He's still deathly afraid to go out in the heat of the day. From about 10am-5pm I cannot get him to go outside. Like we literally have to drag him and he's still hard to get out. It's just so hot during those times and I think he must still be very afraid of being abandoned again. Sad, I'm glad he's here with us now.

I must run, a very early morning tomorrow. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!