Tom and I were staring at our bank account the other day, wondering how to slide through until the beginning of the next month.

Like a lot of you out there, we’re definitely a paycheck to paycheck household. Sometimes we don’t quite make it from one check to the next, but we always survive.

This last time, though, Tom softly suggested, “Well, maybe I should sell my guitar.”

When he said that, I felt my heart drop.

Tom has three guitars, actually.

One he’s had for as long as I’ve been alive, literally. Its his 6 string acoustic that has been through every step of his life with him. His dad made a beautiful wooden case not too long ago so Betsy (his guitar) can proudly be displayed.

Another is a 12 string electric / acoustic. I bought Tom this one for Christmas a couple years before the accident. I think Tom pretty much freaked out when I gave it to him… and, if I do say so myself, it was a pretty awesome gift.

The third guitar is a black 6 string electric / acoustic that Tom bought himself shortly after he and I moved in together. Since he bought this one himself, he feels it is the most ‘disposable’ of the three.

“We could use the money, Sheila,” he said to me.

I shook my head no. “We’ll make it just fine till next payday. Don’t worry about it.”

“But, I can’t play it anymore. Its just taking up space.”

After a couple more exchanges similar to the ones above, I finally said, “I’m just not ready to do that.”

I can’t imagine selling Tom’s guitars. Ever, really. I know that they’re taking space. I know that he won’t be able to play them again. But, they’re memories – tangible, touchable memories. I can’t imagine just selling them to some stranger or something like that… Who knows how they would treat them!

I know this may not be completely logical to some people.

I mean, I understand its only a guitar.

But, its Tom’s guitar.

And, its meant to be Tom’s guitar.

And, I’m not ready to be done with it yet.

Needless to say, I ended that discussion promptly.

The guitar will not be sold yet.

Because I’m not ready.

I think Tom is actually relieved that I’m not ready.

I could tell he wasn’t really ready either.

I gotta lot of crap.

Tons, I tell you.

Can I get rid of any of it?

No. (That’s the simple answer.)

So, I finally thought of an idea to help create a little extra space in my tiny little world.

Okay, I didn’t think up the idea. Otherwise, I’d be a millionaire. No, instead, I helped the inventor become a millionaire by buying this:

vacuum bag sucker thingee that makes things smaller to store

to make these easier to store:

heavy thick blankets that we love but take up too much room

and these too:

even more blankets, cuz we need 132091238 of them

So, you gotta cram your blankets into the bags, and then ya gotta find the hole, like so:

the hole to suck out all the air in the bag

And, then this happens:

you are now witnessing the sucking action

Finally, it ends up like this:

airless sucked bags - mucho smaller-o

Which, makes Sheila’s small little world a little more spacier. Okay, notsomuch. But, it did help with some of the storage issues I was having.

Final product?

130123098123 sucked up blankets

Now I wanna put everything into vacuum bags and suck all the air out!! Its entertaining, I promise you!

PS – Sponsored post? Really? Not at all. Not enough people read this blog for someone to pay me to post about this crap!

So, obviously, I had to try it out. I think its blurry, though. Oh well. Its not exciting anyway…
more…

Okay, so I know I totally promised to write here at least once a week.

It was my bad planning which set up that time frame during one of the busiest months of my year.

The week after the Fourth of July was Cub Scout Day Camp. This is quite the family affair, if I’ve not mentioned it before. My mom has been the Director for our District’s Day Camp for a long long time. So, naturally, my sister and I have always been around to help her out.

This year, my sister was suckered asked to be the Program Director. Her job required her to find 24 different activities for these Cub Scouts to do, and make sure all the supplies were available before camp began.

I helped my sister pull things together months before camp started. But, the month before July 6th (our first day of camp) was spent living and breathing preparation.

What did she end up scheduling, you ask? Lets see if I can remember them all:

1. Wooden candy dispenser for gumballs
2. Leather working / stamping
3. Water bottle rocket launcher
4. BB guns
5. Bucking Bronco
6. Archery
7. Nature Trail
8. Obstacle Course
9. Trading Post / Team working
10. Solar Cookers
11. Lava Lamps
12. Marbles
13. Pet Rocks
14. Sling Shots
15. Earth ball soccer
16. Human Checkers
17. Constellation Projectors
18. Fishing
19. Wheel of Misfortune (First Aid)
20. Monkey Bridge
21. Parachute games
22. water ball ‘Lacrosse’
23. tin rubbing
24. soap carving

I think that’s the jist of it all.

Sound like a fun time to you?

I will see about getting back around this place sooner than the last time. If you super miss me, find me on twitter or facebook. If you don’t super miss me… well, uhm, why wouldn’t you super miss me?!