The Never Ending Search

Sure, it seems like a great idea at the time, but I am here to assure you that not all garage sale "deals" are indeed deals. For instance, the "complete" $10 desk/computer/chair/laptop set may seem complete, but how much 'bang for your buck' can someone really give you before you've been taken advantage of?

Case in point: Some of our furniture is breaking. We are in desperate need of a new coffee table and end tables (a $5 deal for all three, by the way). So far, after visiting five furniture stores and dozens of online blowouts, we are still left with wobbly table legs and the equivalent of a 6 year old's first hammer, nails, and wood experience.

There have, of course, been several front runners. There is the beautiful wooden masterpiece that did not stand up to the test of the wobbles (simulating an earthquake in the middle of Nebraska Furniture Mart is really not as hard as it sounds), the gorgeous dark wood ensamble that we could not lift, and the ivory beauty that dared us not to whisper her name. In all, we have been faced with a few difficult decisions and some that have not been so hard.

One of the things complicating our decisions is the layout. The ways in which the stores display the furniture has been troublesome. You see, every furniture store so far has had their living room display set up like a... well, living room. The coffee table is found in front of the sofa with a chair and endtable to the side. The stores are myriads of miniature living rooms, one after another, as far as the eye can see. This is great for shoppers looking to visualize complimentary pieces or for those looking to fill/replace entire areas of furniture. This is a horrible idea for shoppers looking for one or two specific pieces of furniture.

Imagine the hours spent weaving in and out of the mock living rooms, competing with each of the shoppers to find the elusive "perfect" set. The problem of finding more than one piece that you like at opposite ends of the store is complicated by having to walk by at least 90 other pieces, causing you to forget what and why you were comparing in the first place. This has been our last week.

There have been a few bright spots in what seems like our never ending search. We have become very efficient at simulating natural disasters, dismantling several pieces of furniture in under a minute, and are now able to navigate hundreds of fake living room sets without losing our point of reference. Oh, and our directions have expanded to include descriptors of "the one over there with the thing I like" with both of us understanding and able to react accordingly.

Needless to say, the moral of the story is if you go furniture shopping, take a camera for comparison purposes and even though garage sales may seem like the best place to fill your every furniture need, they may not be the best decision in the long run.

Brand New!!!

Meet the newest addition to our family!!! :)

Fast Cars and Sushi

Wow! Here we are with the first weekend in two months were we didn't travel out of town and/or have a wedding which required our participation. We celebrated a little by going out with our friends Carrie and Joe to I-70 Speedway for some good, old-fashioned dirt-track racing on Friday.

We also saw many things while we were there that we hadn't seen for a long time. You know like mullets, Coors, and cars that go real fast on dirt (and are actually built for that purpose!). We had a wonderful time watching the race, especially the last heat. There was a wreck on turn four of the first lap that took out half of the field. Horrible for the drivers. Fun for us to watch. After the wreck cleared, we watched some of the best racing I've seen recently.

The sushi comes in on Saturday when we met Heather's friend Aimee and her husband John for dinner at Sakura, a Japanese steak house and sushi bar. The really unique thing about Sakura is that they serve their sushi on a train that goes around an island in the middle of the restaurant. The chefs prepare the sushi right in front of you and then place it on the train. It's a unique dining experience.

On Sunday, we went down to meet Heather's mom before Heather's softball game. After pounding the opposing team into submission, Heather's mom came to stay at our apartment for the first half of the week. We were sad to see her leave, but know the next time she comes she will be bringing Heather's dad with her.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Congrats!

This last weekend we went down to Spearville, which is my hometown. It's a very small town located in southwest Kansas. We made the 6 hour drive Thursday night after Jeff got off work, and after stopping to get out and walk a few times, finally got home between 130 and 2.

Our original reason of the journey was to attend the wedding of 2 high school sweethearts I went to school with, but because we were a day early we decided to take in the other sites of Dodge. This particular weekend was the kick off of Dodge City Days, which is an Old West themed city festival. While the rest of the city was at the kick off concert and rodeo, we went to see the Boot Hill museum, gun fight re-enactment, and Miss Kitty's Variety show with my Mom, brother, and niece. Talk about an interesting evening! After the shows, we went to a friend's house and caught up on life.

The next day's agenda included Megan and Justin's wedding. The festivities started around 230 with the wedding, and continued into the wee hours of the morning. We left exhausted at around midnight. I had forgotten how much the community comes together to celebrate the newly wedded couple.

Sunday included our goodbyes and LONG drive home. It was wonderful to see everyone again, and even better to hear about where their journeys have taken them.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Megan and Justin (and all the newly wedded couples), and shamelessly plug Dodge City and Boot Hill (a wonderful journey into the Old West, complete with live gun fights between the Marshals of Dodge and cowboys looking for trouble, followed by Miss Kitty and her famous Can-Can Dancers).

God bless. :)

Everyone in Oklahoma is pregnant

Ok, so probably not really, but we were amazed by the massive amount of 12-60 year old women sporting a baby belly last weekend.

This last weekend we went to Oklahoma City. We met up with members of Jeff's family for a tour of the town, hit up the National Cowboy Museum, Kid Rock's club, walked Bricktown, and saw the OK City bombing memorial. We also surprised Jeff's Aunt Patty with a surprise party for her retirement from teaching... it was a very nice and classy party (good job putting it together Cassie and Laura!!!).

Our favorite part had to be walking around and acting like tourists. We were able to see all the wonderful sights of Oklahoma City (and stop to enjoy them). It was great spending time with Jeff's family, and even more wonderful seeing the beautiful people they have grown into.

Needless to say, we had a great time and enjoyed our time in Oklahoma. Seriously, though, I need to see some evidence before I believe that everyone in Oklahoma is NOT pregnant.

Hope all is well with you and yours. :)

Commenting

Taken directly from another blog:

I appreciate everyone's comments on the blog and I've heard some people say they weren't sure how to do it without signing up for blogger. Here's what you do: click on the "comments" at the bottom of the post. Type your comment and enter in the verification letters. Then under the "choose your identity" click on "name/URL". You can enter your name and leave the URL blank. Hope that helps.

:)

Cheers to 2 years

For those of you who don't know, yesterday we celebrated the 2 year anniversary of our first date.

Our first date comprised of eating dinner at J Alexanders and hitting golf balls. Because we showed up just as the driving range was closing, Jeff had to convince the owners to stay open for a young couple beginning their journey into love (I believe those were the exact words he used). He also sweet talked the same people into letting us use clubs they had found trashed and forgotten by another customer because we didn't have any clubs with us. We spent hours hitting balls, talking about our goals for the future, little details of our lives, telling stories, and pondering the universe.

This year for our anniversary, we went to hit golf balls at a driving range, ponder the universe, and reminisce on the past 2 years. I was able to procure free lessons for us from the owner of the club by using my patented softball batter's swing with a slight scoop at the end to catch the golf ball. The owner was so...um, impressed with my skill he stopped what he was doing and gave us free lessons right then and there.

After our wonderful golf lesson (that somehow changed my swing dramatically and without cause) we returned home to barbecue on our comically small grill and enjoy each other's company. We toasted to the past 2 years and the many to follow with champagne, which put me to sleep a short 20 minutes later.

We want to thank everyone who has supported us in these past 2 years. It wouldn't have been as much fun without you. :)