Monday, November 10, 2008

One's trash is another's treasure

This is the most unbelievable thing to happen to me since I was on THE VIEW last year and got hooked up with a million awesome baby prizes.
Last night our friend Jason called. He was so excited that he was out of breath. The conversation went a little like this:
JJ (his initials): JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN! Our neighbors just threw away a bunch of baby stuff!
ME: Oh, cool!
JJ: No, you don't understand, it's a BUNCH of baby stuff!
ME: Oh?
JJ: We just brought up 6 bags for Kate (their daughter) and we aren't going to have to buy clothes for her for 2 years! We pulled out about 60 outfits for Dean. I'm bringing them over!
ME: Holy cow!
JJ: There are also 2 car seats, 2 swings, a diaper genie, a BRAND NEW Graco high chair and some toys!
ME: WHAT!!? They didn't want Salvation Army to come get them? They'll pick it up!
JJ: I KNOW! I asked and they were throwing it out with their trash! I'm coming over!
ME: Why aren't you here yet!??!

Well, it was better than he said. We have over 50 new outfits that Dean can either wear now or grow into. We have like-new stuff in newborn sizes that I can pass along to my friends TJ and Amy who are expecting a girl baby (eeeeek!) in May. We have a NEW GRACO HIGHCHAIR! I mean, look at this:



















My bed is covered with baby clothes! (Please do not judge ugly bedspread---we are waiting for the really cool comforter we like to go on sale...)
And some of these have designer labels on them! I didn't know people bought designer clothes for their children! There is a Polo shirt for a 12 month old! Look!



















It's the Polo horsey! (No idea why this picture will not be right-side up.)
There were also shoes:














Spit rags (and who couldn't use more of those, right?)














This cool swaddling blanket, which will go to TJ and Amy's baby (lotsa luck figuring out how to use this, y'all!)




















And even 3 Halloween costumes of the Elmo, Pumpkin and Tigger variety.
(No idea why Elmo insists on only posting upside down. My pictures have a mind of their own today...espcially the ones of red items...)





















But the best part? THE EXTENDER PACK FOR OUR PLAYARD! We had already planned on buying this next month when the money tree blooms again and were making-do with the playard as a hexagon. ("Playard" still looks misspelled, doesn't it?) We dreamed of a square playard and only needed the two-piece extender pack to make it happend. Jason walked in and said "Here's two weird looking baby gates." And I almost passed out. I screamed for Marcus, who was burning pancakes in the kitchen. He came down and went "Is that the extender pack?" Then we did a little happy dance and now Jason probably thinks we're nuts. (or did until we explained. Then he was totally excited, too. He didn't dance though.)
Behold square baby jail:














Dean is very excited about his new, expanded play space. Perhaps that is why he refused to go down for his nap until 11:19. ELEVEN NINETEEN, PEOPLE! He better sleep for 3 hours...

Anyway, yesterday was certainly an unexpected blessing. It was like Christmas around here. I spent the morning washing all the new baby duds, so the house smells like Dreft. (not a bad thing...better than burned pancakes.)
Hope everyone's having a good Monday!

4 comments:

AJU5's Mom said...

WOW! I am really surprised they just threw all of that GOOD stuff out! We have gotten lots of stuff for free too, and it is great. There is always some stuff you get that you won't use, but you can still give that to a charity!

And what is it with these babies and not sleeping these days?

Heather said...

Good grief!!! You lucked up!! That's crazy!! Okay, that's a lot of exclamation points, so I'll shift to a little less excitement. For real though, who just throws stuff like that away? Amazing...Dean is going to be the sharpest dressed baby on the block. (And the one with the biggest baby jail.)

Anonymous said...

This is truly a blessing, Jen! It's hard to believe that people would throw out all of that. They could have taken it all to a consignment shop and made a lot of money, or given it to someone or to a charity. But, Dean and Kate get to benefit from it. That's wonderful!
J

Amber said...

Okay... you really need to start sharing your good luck! First you were on THE VIEW (!!!) and now all this stuff? You should go buy a lottery ticket or something! :)

And I second the others... I can't imagine throwing all that stuff out. Imagine if it hadn't ended up with someone who could use it... what a shame that would've been. Glad you got it instead!