Yard Sale, Hershey Park, and......Swine Flu?

I'll start out with saying that the end is near. The end of summer that is. And it's had me thinking about my lack of blog posting and how I just don't really have an excuse for it. I mean, it's not like the blog police comes to my door if I don't keep up with it, but I made it a goal to write at least on Thursday's about what I'm thankful for, and that just hasn't happened. In my defense, and I think you'll all agree with me, this summer has gone by at lightening speed, but is that REALLY a defense? C'mon Heather, focus!
So, anyway, two weeks ago mom and I had our big yard sale. (Well, okay, it wasn't that big, but it felt big to us) I'm surprised it didn't kill us. Mom made some very cute signs (which I neglected to take a picture of) and it was very well attended. The only thing was the hagglers. At eight in the morning, this lady is buying my old TV, and, ok, it does have a red tinge to the picture, but ten bucks is a deal, right? THEN she wants my VCR-fabulous! I'm not kidding, the woman kept haggling with me for 45 minutes about giving them both to her for ten dollars. I'm sorry, I think fifteen is a good deal. I told her 13 was the lowest I'd go. It went on and on and she wouldn't leave. She finally took it for thirteen, but it was so not worth the effort. I know she was thinking that if she just pushed hard enough I'd give it to her for the price she wanted. Nope. I didn't. And the worst thing is she didn't really speak english. Altogether, though, we made $230 and we didn't even sell our big stuff like the bookshelfs and my day bed, so another one might be in the works. That evening I took a four hour nap and woke up with a little sore throat. By the nighttime, I was completely full-blown sick. And I mean sick. I was achy and sniffly and all of those lovely flu symptoms for four straight days. Skip ahead a week and I took Mel to the Infectious Disease Doctor. We're talking about how we all got sick since we last saw him (my case was definitely the worst) and he casually mentions, "Oh, you probably had Swine Flu". Umm, 'scuse me? I didn't know it was that common but he seemed pretty sure. It wasn't ever diagnosed, but that's a pretty scary thought, don't you think? And I never knew.
So anyway, after I spent a week recovering, Amanda B and I went to Hershey Park! We'd been planning this all summer, and so I was really excited. For those of you not in this neck of the woods-Hershey Park is not only where they make the famous chocolate, but it's also a theme park and water park. Amanda's husband works for Hershey so we got free tickets. We hit the water park first, but there was so many people that we waited in line 99.9% of the time (for one ride, we waited for two hours) that we decided to go to the coaster rides. We rode one (SOOO much fun!) and when we got off, we were told the rides were all shutting down because a storm was coming. So we went to the factory and took a little ride that shows how they make the chocolate. At the end, you come to this huge chocolate store where everything Hershey's is available. YUMMY! We went back to get the rest of our things and got caught in a MAJOR downpour. We tried to wait it out, but it didn't work out so we called it a day. It was a ton of fun, though, despite the roadblocks.
Too bad summer's coming to a close. I might have to spend Labor Day in the mountains just so I can make summer last that much longer...
Enjoying a little shade.


Getting ready to ride "Farenheit". I wasn't smiling, I was biting my lip.

Amanda's husband subjects her to enough of these rides that she wasn't nervous at all..

I summoned up enough courage for a little smile...

NOW do you see why I was panicking? (the photo is sideways, by the way)

These are the LOOOOOONG lines we had to contend with all day long. And this is not even the whole line.

I don't really have any words for this one.

Can't blame us for enjoying a little chocolate, can't you?


The massive rainstorm that cut our day a little short.