what a week (the final chapter).

Now that three weeks have passed, I thought I'd finish my update.  And perhaps get on to something more current.  I would end the saga, except I have a good story to tell you.

Saturday morning my parents and I drove down to Burbank to see Lindsay with two of the chairs we got at the garage sale, still not sure if they were going to match.  We got there, did a couple of quick things at her apartment, then drove to a little restaurant called Eat in North Hollywood.  At least I think it's in NoHo, but all of those towns run together, so... Anyway, we had a yummy lunch, dropped some boxes off that were at Lindsay's apartment at her boyfriend's apartment for when he moves.  We then set off on the mission that was the real reason we went down: buy furniture.  As you might recall, but probably don't, we spent Saturday afternoon the previous weekend furniture shopping.  Lindsay decided she wanted to get the sofa we found at Ashley furniture, but since there is one about four blocks from her apartment, we decided it made more sense to buy it down there where they would deliver it rather than have to haul it all ourselves.  So into Ashley we went, on a mission, knowing exactly what we wanted.  Only problems: they didn't actually have that sofa at that store and we had the worst saleswoman on the planet helping us.  Sounds the the making of a fun two (TWO!) hours we spent in the store.  And we went in knowing what we were going to buy!

It all began with us scouring the store.  When we didn't see the couch, my dad found a saleswoman to help us, which proved to be a mistake he would later regret.  We can blame him for finding her.  Probably the only bonus point she got was that she did know the couch Lindsay was referring to, having seen it in another store.  She puts the sofa in the computer, as well as the chair, since they were having a buy one get one item half off sale.  We had measured Lindsay's apartment and decided there was room for both.  We just wanted to double check the dimensions.  Sue, our oh-so-helpful saleswoman, looked in the computer system but said they weren't listed.  We told her we weren't buying the furniture without them, so could she call a store or something.  We meandered around, looking at TV units with storage underneath, which we were also in the market for.  About 10 minutes later, Sue came to find us, telling us she called the store in West LA, but they were busy and she couldn't get an answer.  We again told her we weren't going to buy without them, so she wandered off to call again.  We decided to take matters into our own hands and call the Bakersfield store.  When she came back 10 minutes later, we told her we had already gotten them.  We knew they would fit, so we were going to go ahead with the sale.  In that waiting period, Lindsay had found a TV stand she liked, but didn't really want to buy a third item without a fourth (because of the sale).  We talked about an end table and asked if they had a matching one.  Sue told us they had them, but you had to buy it as a set of two endtables and a coffeetable.  Ok, nevermind.  Then we ask if we bought the third item if we could get any sort of deal on it.  (It never hurts to ask.)  As if she hadn't already been exhausting, this is where she turned condescending.  She proceeded to "explain" to us how buy one, get one half off worked.  "So if you buy the sofa, you'll get the chair half off.  If you buy the TV stand, you get another item half off."  Um, ok.  I'm pretty sure we grasp that concept, Sue.  Totally not what we were asking.  We gave in on that, but as she was working on the paperwork, suddenly the delivery charge went up from what she originally quoted us.  Oh, and somewhere in this process, we found the end table that matched on the floor and you could buy it separately.  "Oh," she said, "I was thinking of something else."  Yeah, like I wonder if I'm going to make this sale because I'm a moron?  Anyway, she collected Lindsay's pertinent information, then started to fill out the paperwork on the computer.  Lindsay and I conversed some more and decided it might be better to wait on TV stand because the end table was just too big and she wasn't totally in love with it.  After all that, back to square one.  Ha!  There was just one thing standing between us and making it a done deal: the price they had in this store for the sofa was $100 more than it was in Bakersfield.  She told us the manager would match it since they didn't actually have it on their floor.  Ok, perfect.  But, when it came to approving it, the manager said no.  And we walked out.  We had had it.  We all piled in the car, exhausted from the experience and more than a little annoyed.  We decided to drive to the West LA store, even if they wouldn't match the price, we would figure it out and be done.  Before we got far, we saw another eclectic-type furniture store that we decided to stop and look in.  As we were crossing the street, Lindsay's phone rang.  Guess who?  Sue.  She told us that we didn't give her a chance to explain.  We told her she was crazy (Ok, no we didn't, but I, at least, wanted to).  After my mom talked to her a few minutes, she said the manager wanted to have us buy the chair full price and give us the sofa half price.  Funny, that wasn't the deal she gave us when we were in the store.  We're guessing a little negotiation happened after we walked out those doors.  We reluctantly went back, knowing we couldn't do better at another store.  But Lindsay and I couldn't handle another minute of dear Sue, so we waited in the car.  Good thing.  My parents had to wait as she had to reenter the order three or four times because of "technical difficulties."  (Operator error?)  It was exhausting.

We ran some more errands after this, which included Target, Lowe's, BevMo, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Krispy Kreme.  It was dinner time after this and we decided to try an Italian restaurant Lindsay had been to before.  Let's just say, for the sake of brevity since you already read one long story, when they tell you they have a nice booth "in the back," that means they are putting you in the back booth where they forget about you.  Dinner took about two hours, most of which was spent waiting for something...our order to taken, drinks, bread, food, the check, for them to take the check.  It was good food, but I don't think we would go back.  By now it was about 9:00, and we still had to drive Lindsay back to her apartment and head home.  We didn't get home that night until 11:30 or 11:45. 

In short: It was a long day.  Quite the ending to a busy, busy week.

what a week (part two).

Sorry for the slow updates.  Between work and life in general, I've been staying pretty busy.  I was in the middle of telling you about my crazy week a couple of weeks ago...

Tuesday morning was the second day of VBS, which meant another early morning, some quick morning preparations, and an ever growing list of students in my class.  It was hot, too!  If I remember correctly, this was the day we hit 107 degrees.   After a busy morning, I met my mom for lunch.  Ran a couple of errands.  Got home and got the house ready for company.  Planned what I would teach Wednesday and did those preparations.  Had company over for about 3 hours that evening.  Did the last VBS prep.  Fell into bed.

Wednesday morning was basically a repeat of all the other mornings spent at VBS.  Enough craziness that allowed the morning to fly by.  Couple of errands.  Lunch.  Home to plan for Thursday.  Had company again for dinner and fun afterward.  This time it was my cousins from Oregon.  They have two little boys, with another on the way, so they definitely had to utilize our pool in the heat.  They had fun swimming, we had fun watching them swim.  After dessert, they headed back to Gramma's house.  Fell into bed.

Thursday morning, repeat.  I had a few errands to run again.  I was making little goodie bags for the kids in my class, so I had to get the finishing pieces to get them done.  I then spent the afternoon assembling the bags, as well as prepping for Friday.  My cousins came over again after dinner to swim for a little while.  They only stayed for about an hour or so, but it was fun to get to see them again.  Fell into bed.

Friday morning was, again, a repeat of the rest of the days in VBS, with the addition of the general excitement that the last day always brings.  After the morning, I had to stick around and clean up all of the decorations in my classroom.  We didn't put up a ton, really, but it still took me awhile to tear down all by my lonesome.  I noticed how quickly my helpers ditched out of there on that day.  Since I was by myself, it was up to me to climb up on a table to use as a ladder so I could reach the decorations hanging from the ceiling.  After pushing the table around, climbing on a chair, climbing on a table, reaching up, climbing down on the chair, climbing down on the floor about fifteen times, I was tired.  I had just pulled down the last bit of decorations and was stepping onto the chair for the last time, when the chair tipped.  I seemed to suspend mid-air for much longer than I should have and managed to get my feet under me.  All seemed well enough, with the exception of my back getting a bit jarred.  I really felt it a few hours later!  I went home and just did nothing for about an hour.  Then I got a call from my mom letting my know that we were going out to a friend's house who was having a garage sale the following day.  They had called us, letting us know that they had some Polish pottery for sale, which we collect.  We were headed out of town the next day (more on that later), so we wanted to know if we could come by Friday afternoon.  It is quite a trek to their house from ours (more than 30 minutes to the other side of town), but we ended up finding some great treasures.  The pottery was great, which we got some of, but the bigger find was the table and chairs that they had for sale.  My sister has my mom's parents' old dining table, but no chairs.  The table and chairs they were selling were made by the same manufacturer and ended up being a perfect match to Lindsay's table.  Score!  We headed back to town, picked up my dad for dinner, dropped him back off to his car, dropped my mom off to her car, then I headed back to church for the VBS finale night.  After practicing our songs all week, the kids get a chance to share them with the parents.  It was a stifling heat, so I ditched out of there as soon as I got rid of all my kids, not stopping to take part in the cookies and punch treats.  I don't remember what I did that night, but I do know it wasn't much :)

Congrats if you made it this far.  I'll finish the update later...

a fourth of july alternative.

Fourth of July.  Day of barbecues, parades, picnics, fireworks, and everything red, white, and blue.  An exciting day to celebrate our country and the freedoms we have. 

The celebrations were a little more low-key than all of that at our house this year.  I worked during a good portion of the late morning and afternoon.  (Always exciting, I know.)  We had an early dinner planned, Aunt Jerre and Uncle Cliff were here, and Gramma was on her way over.  Mom had decided that we would do somewhat of an experiment and cook ribs for dinner.  My dad especially enjoys ribs, but it's something that we've never really made at home.  Dad was looking online for cooking tips, the first one saying to marinate the meat overnight.  Since we missed that deadline, Mom was going to scrap the project for that day.  But Dad kept searching and it was decided that we would bake the ribs for and hour and fifteen minutes, then barbecue them for about ten minutes after that.  It would delay dinner, but we were all fine.  So, in the oven they went.  Other food prep was done, but it was pretty much a waiting game.  Dad went out to preheat the grill as we waited the last fifteen minutes or so.  As we were pulling them out of the oven I heard a fairly loud popping noise.  It sounded to me like it came from outside.  It wasn't exactly the noise from fireworks, and sounded a lot closer than any of our neighbors.  Well, after about 30 seconds of inspection, we realized that fireworks of a different sort had happened - the barbecue released some heat, causing the window to crack.

The black area on the wall isn't just shadow...it was part of the "explosion."

The crack is hard to see in the first one, so here's a close up.  It extends across the window.

(By the way, the ribs turned out great for a first attempt.  After dinner, we enjoyed some homemade peach cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream.  After dessert, most of my evening was spent sitting in the laundry room with the dogs with the box fan on.  When I wasn't in there, we listened to one or more dogs whimpering, knowing we were out there.  I didn't even watch the fireworks on TV...)

Hope your 4th of July went out with a bang!