IKEA Marathon trip

Last week we decided we soon needed a trip to IKEA for some household items. We knew Steve's sister Debbie would be here Monday night through Tuesday and that Steve had firefighting school on Tuesday. We decided we'd make the trip on Wednesday. For those of you who do not know...I'm completely in love with IKEA and our store in CA was about 10 minutes from our house so we were there an awful lot. Here in VA, the store is about 3 hours away...almost to DC...so a visit to the store involves a bit more planning.

We left our house around 9:30 in the morning, after a panic (by me) because my cell phone was almost dead (hate cell phones so I have trouble remembering to plug it in at night to keep it charged) and I couldn't find my phone charger. We stopped by the bank to make a deposit and got on down the road. I finally found my charger - it was in the glove box all the time - even though I *did* look there first - so I had to hear it about how I panic over the stupidest stuff and really, I just need to RELAX a bit. Yes, true. The panic caused me to forget the IKEA catalog in which I had marked pages of items we wanted and I also forgot the list of various measurements where we need to fit in new storage solutions. (read cabinets)

We got up to IKEA around 12:30 and had lunch then checked the kids into the play area for about 40 minutes while we shopped. To try to make this story shorter, we didn't get out of IKEA until after 5 pm! Kitchens, bathrooms, questions...what should we do with this new house??? ARRGH!!! I was going nutters by the end of the day and so were the kids. We ended up with a futon, bathroom mirrored cabinet (because our bathroom only had a mirror and no storage for toiletries), a Pello chair for in our bedroom (similar to the Poang in the link but ours has a light frame and natural colour material), and some spare shelving for in a closet in the FROG.

After all of this, the kids started to really melt down and we just needed to get out of there. 5 hours in IKEA!!! I was kind of over it, too. We went to the Silver Diner for dinner. They have the BEST chocolate cake in the world. Wow, I had trouble believing it's been over 6 years since we've been there.

We started on our drive back home a little after 6. We got about an hour away from IKEA and I heard Steve say "SHIT! I don't believe this." and hit the steering wheel....we had forgotten to pick up the bathroom cabinetry in the warehouse area at the store. At first, I couldn't belive we had done such a thing, but seriously, with 3 fussing children and 5 hungry stomachs, it's really no wonder it happened. So...we turned around and drove the hour back up to IKEA to get our cabinetry. By the time we got it, it was almost 9:30 at night.

POOR HENRY.

That was all I could think almost the whole day anyway. Henry sitting at home all alone while we are shopping and peeing as needed. Poor lonely doggie.

But he, in his greatness of being the BEST DOG IN THE WORLD, was absolutely fine. He was very waggy when we arrived home AFTER MIDNIGHT. There were no messes in the house as we had expected. And this morning, he still loves us.

So here we are. Another day of unpacking boxes and building furniture and trying to make the house look presentable. Also, some guy is coming out to test our water. The water here smells like dirt. Steve wants to be sure it is safe, I guess. He didn't tell me he had called the water company...so when the secretary called 30 minutes ago to confirm the appointment, I didn't think she had the right family...but she did so I need to go get dressed!