The birthday girl.. Aunt Beverly is more than just an aunt to us.. she's my mom's sister, who never married and lived with my grandfather until he passed in 1989. She's done so much for us and never asks for anything in return. She watched us when we were growing up whenever mom and dad went out for dinner or were away for the weekend. Lisa and I gave her the nickname "The Warden".. what we thought was strict back then, we now know was loving concern for our safety while she was on watch..

She lives a simple life. She worked in the textile mills until they shut down, then moved onto assembly line work at the cardboard plant. She retired five years ago and stayed retired for about three months.. she hated it. she went back to assemply line work, but now at a plastics plant, working third shift. She's a night owl and actually prefers the third shift.

She comes to our house almost every day to have coffee with mom.. she stocks Lisa and me up with anything and everything that is on sale at Stop & Shop.. I never go back to DC with an empty trunk.. She sends me notes with a five dollar bill folded inside as well as coupons she thinks I will use. She takes good care of us.. She's always there when we need her..

Dakota adores her.. Every single time she comes into our house, Dakota goes beserk.. aunt beverly always has treats in her pocket for him.. she also babysits him while mom and dad are away.. she buys him a new toy weekly.

We love her dearly. Happy Birthday Aunt Beverly.

we had a garage sale today.. one of those community ones. during ashton's nap i walked around our own neighborhood and found some things. a tape cassette player/recorder/karaoke ($1), a vintage (1970) playskool wooden hour glass(50 cents), and a wooden insect puzzle (25 cents). can't beat that right? ashton loves them all, especially that hourglass. that was an unexpected hit.

we had hoped to sell some of our large appliances that have been sitting in our garage since we moved in (we updated). no takers but we still managed to score $65 on random junk lol! i guess next step is craigslist.

i also listed my 24-70L and 15mm fish eye on craigslist and only got one hit. he never called back after i sent images taken with the lenses so i guess i will have to ebay them. i didn't want to. i hate ebay and paypal fees. oh well. lol. i'm this much closer to getting my 35L back!