that led me straight to you
From my notebook
I’m one of those people who you see singing their hearts out while driving along. I’m not embarrassed or ashamed; I even think I have a pretty decent voice. One of my favorite warm weather activities is driving with the windows down giving free concerts. People stare, sometimes smiling, sometimes in horror…I don’t look away-nope I smile, wave, maybe even wink.
Drops of rain are beading up on the windshield as I wait for Ev. The boys (fast asleep in their car seats) and I drove up to walk around Ikea during Ev’s lunch break. Strange, I know, but I am in love with Ikea-it’s vibrant colors, responsible prices, and kid friendly atmosphere. We did have a purpose for our visit…bamboo shades and a blue rug for the bathroom. Another great aspect about Ikea is their website… I can prepare for our visits. For some reason this makes shopping more fun. We ended up with a rug, the bamboo shades (which ended up being too small-bobo me didn’t measure just guessed) a curtain rod and two desks (the kind you put together yourself). We were “desperately” in need of the desks, but it was just one of those out of sight out of mind things. The ones we had were very sad, jimmy rigged from all the cross country moving, sagging in the center most of the laminate pealing off. So they weren’t the nicest desks to begin with and we definitely got our use out of them. The new desks are so nice, and since they sit in our living room it makes a huge difference. We almost also walked out with various other small items Bub had been shoving in the bottom of the stroller. He is becoming quite the little klepto. I’m sure he doesn’t realize what he’s doing is wrong…he just knows you go in these big houses with lots of stuff. You pick up stuff and carry it around with you…sometimes you put stuff in a cart sometimes in the stroller. Then you give stuff to some stranger who then gives it back. So really he’s just copying us but he’s quick and good at hiding things. Once at World Market we told him to put some gum balls back and he instead tried to stick them down his pants. Then at the Great mall he did a drive by…ran into a dollar store grabbed a ball and ran out-the cashier running out behind him. Ran right up to Ev- very proud of himself. This actually seems to be happening a lot. Maybe laughing at him is the wrong response…
Some may think Ikea too trendy and ya know maybe it is…but I think it’s wonderful. A store full of modern, child friendly things we can afford. A store with a great showroom and inexpensive restaurant-and don’t forget the cinnamon rolls for a buck the size of your head. It’s an adventure in shopping. So what – 30 billion other people can buy the same rug or curtains. Chances are they won’t be putting the rug in the same room or the curtains on the same color wall. I think Ikea is great…bah to all who don’t!
So we got everything home and realized the new shades are the wrong size…darn. Now we have to go back to Ikea…and guess how well paired Ev and I are-without hesitation he suggests we come up again tomorrow and again we’ll go on his lunch break. He loves Ikea as much as I do…which makes me love him even more. It’s moments like these that I am reminded of how wonderful/great/amazing/splendiferous it is to be married to my best friend.