Big Spending

Whew. We just got back from another marathon length session with our kitchen planner and our cabinets have been ordered!! I call tomorrow and get the delivery date for them (should be 4-6 weeks from now). In about 11-15 weeks we will have an ALL NEW KITCHEN! I'm jazzed, I just wish you got to take SOMETHING home with you from the order besides a 15-page printout of everything you ordered and one very massive charge. And I mean massive. It makes me want to call HGTV and get on one of those "What's my House worth"? shows where they come in and you tell them you spent $1.99 on renovations and your house is suddenly worth $500,000 more. I'm very excited about my new pantry cabinets, the built in desk in the kitchen, our FoodTV island that will have seating so people can watch us cook, and my new razzle dazzle spice rack that flips out and about and spins around. Kick ass people, it's all kick ass.

And why is it that every time we have people over our bedroom furniture ends up in the dining room??? For Christmas Eve with Robb Runner and his family we had the entire bedroom, mattresses and all, as dinner decor. Last night we had a smallish cookout for 12 or so of my former coworkers/Brent's current coworkers. The plan was to cookout and hang out on the deck. Naturally rain was predicted for the EXACT time our party started! AND, our bedroom furniture was ready FIVE weeks EARLIER than promised! So, nothing to do but put the old furniture back in the dining room, but at least this time the mattresses went on the new bed so it wasn't quite as bad! I just wish we had known earlier so we could arrange the return of the old furniture to our families. The new furniture is incredible!! We are so happy with it and the new bedding we bought is delicious. 100% delicious. Our bed is a huge 4-column bed that reaches about 8 feet tall, this is not furniture for a tiny bedroom! With our tall ceilings you just can't have regular furniture, it just gets lost.

So, the furniture came a couple of hours before the party and we were able to have the room reassembled and the old stuff covered with a spring tablecloth and used as a beverage serving area in the dining room! Between the bedroom furniture and ALL the new kitchen appliances our dining room is a wreck. Just as people started arriving it started to sprinkle rain, but by the time everyone got there and got the "grand tour" it was over and we were actually able to stay outside the whole night!! We were so lucky!! It sprinkled from time to time but it really was perfect and we had a great time. I can't wait to have more parties when our kitchen is finished! This is just the start of hopefully a very full, entertaining life we'll have here.

And now the weekend is almost over! I think Pippin had the best time of all last night. He was full on hyper for several hours last night but finally calmed down and took a nap on someone's lap. He literally slept in basically all morning today-instead of checking on us at 6:50 he was out and even when we got up he made it clear he wanted to be left alone on "his" couch. We're all pretty zapped from the weekend but a neighbor gave us some oregano plants I need to put in a pot before they wilt in the 80-degree sunshine outside. It's crazy how lush and green the lawn is already. All the seeds I've planted are springing up big time and the leaves are fully back on our trees. We've already had to mow TWICE!

I promise I'll write the actual Atlanta race report this week. I really don't remember much about the race because I spent most of it being thirsty and hot. I read an article with some of the race director's comments though that really pissed me off so I want to be sure to post that here. She is obviously a piece of work, and a total lier. But all in good time, I've got oregano to plant!