The Best Twenty Dollars I've Ever Spent

Over the weekend I happened across a small purchase, that carried a huge reward.  While driving into town, I passed a garage sale, and instinctively looked over at it. I spotted a swing set in the yard, and did an immiediate u-turn.  It turned out that they were not selling the swing set, but a woman at the garage sale overheard me asking, and said she had a swing set for sale. Never one to pass up a fortuitous turn of events, I asked her about it. She said it was old, but still in fairly good shape, and she would let it go for twenty dollars. What??!! Twenty dollars for a wooden swing set? I was extremely skeptcal, but I found myself getting her number and promising to call so I could come check it out.

We made arrangements fore to come by the following morning, and although I told  myself it was probably too good to be true, I was excited. When I pulled onto the woman's driveway yesterday morning, I saw the swing set right away, and man, did it look funky. It was weathered and worn, and at some time in its life it had been used as a chicken coop. There was still chicken wire surrounding the bottom of the tower. But I didn't write it off. I examined it closely, shook it, checked the wood, then handed its former owner a twenty dollar bill. An hour later I was back with my neighbor, loading onto his trailer, and driving it home. 

This morning I got to work. I started by removing the chicken wire, and about a million staples. Then the power tools came out. I started sanding, and kept sanding for hours. Nick came home early from work, and we teamed up. By the early evening we had it looking pretty good. Nick had picked up some stain on the way home, and we soaked the whole thing. We let it dry while we had dinner, but were too excited to let it sit over night. Somewhat akeardly, we carried it to its new home in the backyard, and reassembled it. I couldn't believe the transformation! It was beautiful. 

The kids couldn't wait to try it put, and we couldn't wait to let them. Christian screamed in delight as he swung high onto the air, and Tessie cried out "I love this!" My heart swelled, and I felt pretty proud of myself. With twenty dollars, and a lot of luck and elbow grease, I gave my kids something that will bring them joy for years to come. Now that is a beautiful purchase.