Labor Day weekend was great! Mike wasn't on call for the first weekend since I can't even remember when. He had to reintroduce himself. I didn't even recognize him without the computer attached.
Friday, our new dining room furniture was delivered (see below). Ooh-la-la!
Saturday, we went to dinner and movies with Jeff, Crystal and Valerie. We saw "All About Steve." I really don't understand the bad ratings this movie received. I laughed and laughed. I really believed Sandra Bullock to be a kooky nerd. Way cute. We went to the Inwood Theatre that one of my friends has been trying to get me to go to for ages. I'm glad we did. The seats were A+. You know how usually you go to the movies and the weird fabric is all creepy from previous soda spills and you don't wanna know what else? Not these! They were vinyl I think. And clean. Imagine that? No creepy stains. You don't have to squint in the dim lighting or do a test brush off with the palm of your hand to make sure it's soda free. AND they didn't lean back at a weird angle or have a bump for a headrest that never quite sits at the right place and causes you to get a crick in the neck. Crick free! (In case you're wondering, I'm really not that picky when I go to the movies. However, after experiencing such a comfortable seating arrangement at said theatre, I couldn't help noticing the difference.)
Sunday, we did some shopping for the house - picture frames, new vacuum, etc. I will never again question whether or not my vacuum is sufficient. I will just go buy a new one. After vacuuming and wondering "Is this working like it should?" we finally just went and got a new one. I was excited to use it and even though I had just vacuumed that morning, I decided to use my new one. What was hanging out on our carpet despite the vacuuming done just hours prior was frightening! Pet fur=necessity for fully functioning question-free vacuum.
Our friend, Chris, came over later and the boys hit the xbox while I spent HOURS trying to print out some wedding photos from Walgreens. What a nightmare. Load. Drive to Walgreens. Images too small. Drive back. Reload. Drive to Walgreens. Half of images too small. Drive back. Rinse and repeat until 3 AM. I was determined to get some photos printed. I ended up with a beautiful wedding album. All worked out nicely. :) Eventually.
Monday, we did more shopping for the house! We found a wrought iron patio set at Academy on sale. You must note that we drove everywhere to try and find patio furniture. What's with no one having furniture? Is it the wrong season? Did they all sell out? It was mind boggling. Home Depot, Target, Walmart...you all let us down. We did end up with a killer deal at Academy with a way nicer set than we expected, though so take that other stores that wasted our time!
You know what's funny about buying things like patio furniture? When you're standing there in the isle looking at a round table with four chairs, you think "Oh yeah, that'll totally fit in my car." Then, your husband stands in line to pay and you swing the car around to load it and the Academy store worker says "it won't fit" and you think "OK, Mr. Academy-store-worker. You don't have to help us load it if you really don't want to but you don't have to lie about it." And then you and your husband try to shove in a round, unforgiving, wrought iron table top that just doesn't seem to budge into the backseat of your Civic and it hits you. You are that couple. Parked at the entrance of Academy, pushing on a tabletop so hard that you are sweating. And it's going nowhere. Everyone can see that it doesn't fit except you. But you keep pushing. And you keep hoping that people walk by you fast enough not to notice that it doesn't fit and it never will. Then you set the tabletop aside hoping that you can somehow strap it to the roof of your car and you focus on putting the four patio chairs in there. Somehow...
Don't worry folks. An hour later...success! Then you get that "See, I told you it would fit" smile on your face even though you really shouldn't because in reality, you had no clue that it was actually going to work and there for a while you were pretty certain that it wouldn't. Not to mention your husband had to go back in the store for rope to tie down the tabletop to the roof of your Civic while you drive down back roads with the windows down and your hazzards on acting like it's a totally normal occurance that you completely planned. Perseverance, my friends. Perseverance.
With our new patio furniture, we really wanted to enjoy dinner outside. Since we live in a condo, we can't have a grill on our patio and there's no space downstairs which is a pretty sad situation considering how good Mike is at grilling and how much fun it is to change up the pace from cooking in a hot kitchen. Mike decided this didn't have to be so. He wanted to get a huge George Foreman grill and cook out on our new patio table. So we did and it was a success! What great ingenuity my husband has. You never would have known that our steak fajitas weren't prepared on a gas grill (unless you noticed the extension cord running outside. Hehe). He is an excellent cook!
Something about spending the evening outside listening to music on the patio, or maybe it was just that neither Mike nor I had to worry about work or schedules, I'm not sure, but the greatest thing about Labor Day weekend was just being. Really enjoying Mike's company. Pure bliss.
Jeff dressed as Dad
Little Val all dressed up. You should have seen her pink cowgirl boots!
Cowboy Mike
Dad seeing us dressed up
