Humble

Read this super sweet email from my brother in law Jared, to his family- I was really touched that he would do this for us:

Hey there family. This is an email to enlist your help. Next weekend we are taking part in a fast for Catherine's sister and Brother in law. They are trying to adopt and have been on the LDS family services waiting list for 6 months. They live in Raleigh North Carolina and will make awesome parents. They really are great people. Anyway, I just thought I would spread the word that if you know of any mother wanting to give up her baby, Daron and Elisa would make great parents. They are open to White or Asian, boy or girl. If you would like to see them they have a blog for birth mothers and anyone else interested: DaronandElisa.blogspot.com Anyway, I hope all is well, and thanks for taking the time to read this email.

Take care, Jared

P.S. Feel free to forward this to any other family members or persons you feel inspired to send it too. Thanks again.

Now I'm terrified. Not to expand the search, but because I just realized that my last post was of Daron clutching his stomach outside of the decrepit toilet. Not exactly what you want your family's extended family seeing first.

Here's a plea of my own:

Dear Jared's family,

PLEASE READ FURTHER, AND DON'T LET THAT ONE POST PAINT TOO MUCH OF A PICTURE. We're really not that bad, I promise. (inject big sigh by author)

Love, The Barnes Family

For Your Weekend Entertainment...

A picture is worth a thousand words. Send me a comment and tell me what you think is happening in this picture... I'll post later with the results!

Adventures in Yard Sales

We play a game with our Young Women called High/Low. Each girl has to tell one “high” point of their day, and one “low” point of their day. I thought it would be fun to play High/Low as I tell you about the horrendous yard sale we hosted on Saturday.

High: Cleaning out the house, getting a room prepared for a nursery.

Low: Selling your hard earned possessions for pennies on the dollar. Or just literally, pennies.

High: The look on someone’s face when they find a treasure in your pile of random junk

Low: Parting with items that hold certain good memories for you.

High: Making $400+ dollars to add to the adoption fund

Low: 96 degrees, and the hottest day of the summer so far

High: Conning people to take your worthless junk, just because you have a “free” pile. Why is that item suddenly attractive, now that you’ve moved it from the .25 cent pile to the free pile?

Low: Expert yardsalers that think they can trick you by counting backwards in Spanish. Quince does not come after Diecisiete. HELLO. GREW UP 30 MILES FROM THE BORDER people… I’m just sayin.

High: Helping the YW earn money for camp by selling snacks and cold drinks to parched travelers. Unfortunately, I think our biggest customers were my nephews. Thanks Sue for bringing them, and for the deep pockets.

Low: Watching people paw through your possessions, and then throw them carelessly back on the ground. Yes, I understand that it’s sitting on a piece of cardboard in my driveway, but until i have your $1 in my hot little hand, it’s still MINE. Be respectful!

High: Moving most of our merchandise in the first hour. (7-8am) Weird and astonishing that people get up that early for yard sales. But not really, because I’ll get up earlier than that for Black Friday, or a really good sale.

Low: The irritation of what I call the yard sale “vultures.” These are the people that know you start at 7am, but park on your lawn at 6am so they can watch you put stuff out. They don’t play by the rules, and they don’t care that they are bothering you. If any of my readers are guilty of this crime, STOP NOW!!

High: The excellent response we got by posting on Craigslist.

Low: The excellent response we got by posting on Craigslist. I.E., Don’t email me about specific items. If I wanted to barter with you over email, I would have just POSTED IT ON CRAIGSLIST in the first place. Duh. (See vultures comment above)

High: Watching the fella drive up on his riding lawn mower to shop. See picture.

Low: Waiting for the phone call from my neighbor, asking me why I allowed her sons to carry off 3 shopping bags of “free” items. These items included (no joke) 1 cat figurine, a ceramic pumpkin, 6 obsolete D&D games for Windows 95, two CD towers, Christmas garland, and my personal favorite: the SL Temple cake topper. Those kids were the best.

Our biggest thanks to everyone that helped, donated, contributed, or stopped by to give moral support- The good news is that we've decided never to do this again!!! From now on it will be Craigslist, Goodwill, or the Raleigh landfill. HOORAY.

Mullis Family Reunion

Last Saturday, we had the opportunity to travel as a family to Taylorsville, NC for the Mullis Family Reunion. Daron’s dad grew up in this mountain town, and a lot of his extended family on his mother’s side never left. It was a good chance to meet a lot of really nice people, and have a LOT of food. It was really beautiful up there, and the reunion was held across the street from the Baptist church where a lot of the family is buried. We strolled through the cemetery, and it didn’t escape my notice that there were only about 7 names in the whole cemetery. When families grow up and never leave, there tends to be some mingling of the bloodlines. Not that there’s anything bad about that, but it must make doing genealogy a nightmare. Just something that I’d never thought of before. We didn’t know many people, but Daron’s parents had a ball showing off the assorted grandchildren, and “oh yeah, this is my son/daughter Sherri/Daron/Randy.” Little known fact: Adult children are not as brag-worthy as beautiful grandchildren.

Even better was taking a ride through the hills with Daron’s dad, and him showing us all the places he used to play and fish, and get into mischief.

Strolling through the cemetery...

The house where Grady was born.

It's amazing that it's been sitting there undisturbed for all these years.