Gifts for me, furniture from heaven, and pelvic rest

The Christmas season is finally here!  Yes, I know it's been here for a while for most of you, but for me it doesn't officially feel like Christmas until I gift myself with a brand new Moleskine planner.

I'm all about using my computer and my phone for most stuff but when it comes to scheduling, notes and lists, I like a good old fashioned planner that I can write in, scribble on, and cram full of receipts and little pieces of paper that seemed important at the time.
I also need to gift myself with a new one of these but I'm trying to hold off for a while since I've heard rumors of a MacBook Pro upgrade happening in early 2011.

My current laptop belongs to my employer and my job will be coming to an end in the middle of  January so that I can get my house on the market and get us officially moved to Houston.  We're not gonna talk about that leaving the job thing because it could cause me to emote and I am morally opposed to that.

I think the last time I mentioned the Houston house, I had resigned myself to go with the shabby chic urban cottage look.  My version of it will have clean, modern lines...with pink flowers.  We'll see how that goes.  We got off to a good start last weekend by picking up a few necessary furniture items that Jayson needs to live comfortably until our real furniture gets moved.  Fortunately, these are things that needed to be replaced anyway so that worked out well.

As we shopped for furniture, Jayson and I came to the conclusion that after we move we will buy a 17' UHaul truck to use as our everyday family car.  Okay, so you sacrifice a little convenience and a lot of miles per gallon, BUT...people will get out of your way, merging onto the freeway is a breeze and no one ever cuts you off.  It made for quite a pleasant traffic experience.

I can't tell you how many hours I've spent trolling Craig's List for the best prices on the best appliances that we need.  It was tedious but worth it.  We scored a nice fridge and washer/dryer set that are all about a year old and for all of it we paid less than what the washer by itself would cost new.

We bought the washer and dryer from a guy who manufactures silicone wristbands and silly bands.  I was more fascinated with his warehouse than with his appliances.

The fridge came from this adorable gay couple in North Houston.  We made the deal with one guy and while he and Jayson got the fridge loaded into the truck and secured, I visited with the other guy about cleaning tips, recipes and the awesomeness of Williams Sonoma.  We were best friends within about 10 minutes.

The rest of our purchases came from IKEA.  I have come to look upon a shopping trip to IKEA as sort of like getting into heaven.  The journey is long and winding and your feet will be made to ache by unforgiving concrete floors.  You must stay on the path, lest you be tempted by kitchen gadgets you really don't need.  At the end of the journey you will be rewarded with many efficiently packed cardboard boxes that you got for not a lot of money.  Then, the words from your spouse that made the whole journey worthwhile: Well done good and faithful shopper.  Amen.

During our exhausting 4 hour journey (the real journey to heaven is usually slightly longer) we got a king size bed, a mattress, a dresser, 2 night stands, a kitchen table, 4 chairs, 2 Poang chairs with footstools, a set of dishes, a set of pots and pans, a set of silverware, a set of glasses,  and some other assorted kitchen utensils all for about the price of one good king sized mattress at a mattress store.
I really thought that assembling all the stuff would be a week in purgatory because I know that years ago all the assembly instructions were written in Swedish or whatever language they speak in the country of IKEA.  But now, there are no written instructions at all.  It's just pictures.  There's not a single word on any of the instruction sheets.  This worked out well for Jayson and Taylor since they are both visual thinkers.  Everything was assembled within 2 days, there were no missing screws, and we now have a lovely set of allen wrenches.

Well, okay, I guess there was one little problem.  The very last item Jayson assembled was the dresser and when he pulled the dresser top out of the box, there was a long crack in the wood.  I've heard all the horror stories about trying to get replacement parts at IKEA so I instantly developed a headache and couldn't go with him to exchange it.

As it turns out, it was a simple process.  He took in the defective piece along with the receipt and the instructions and they ripped open a new box and gave him the piece he needed.  It helped that he told them the part was in box 2 and if you turn it this way and open it from that end, the piece would be on top.  The customer service people were very appreciative for that information since it made the process quick and simple.

I'm really excited about our new bed because we've never actually had a bed before.  We have a mattress and frame, of course, but we've never had a headboard.  Ignore the ratty bedspread I pulled out of the back of the linen closet, it's temporary.

The furniture isn't arranged in its proper place yet because we still have Taylor's blow up bed in our room for when we're there on the weekends.  Her room is just down the hall but she says it's creepy to be in there by herself and really I don't blame her.

The breakfast nook.

We have our first kitchen table here as well.  We have formal dining room furniture that we've always used as our kitchen table (when we're not eating on the couch) but we've never had a separate kitchen table...or breakfast table or whatever you call it.  Now that we have a breakfast nook, does that mean I have to start making breakfast?  Or eating breakfast??  There may be some implications I need to be aware of.

I'm still marveling at all the space this house has and how we're going to fill it.  Our bedroom has our king size bed, night stands, dresser, Taylor's queen size blow up bed and a Poang chair and there's still room for us all to do cartwheels.  We'll just have to make do with what we have for the time being.

The living room.

The family room (keeping room).

We have one whole chair in the family room that I'm trying to get everyone to call the keeping room.  Hopefully we'll find some things to add to that since it's probably the room where we'll spend the most time.  It's next to the kitchen and it has that little cubby for the TV.

I've also included a picture of our formal living room furniture.  It's one folding chair.  When we move, I have a desk I can add to that.  I'm open for suggestions as to what to do with this space since I have absolutely no use for a formal anything.  I was think of maybe using it as a reading area with book shelves, comfy chairs and lamps.  Other than that, I dunno.  I'm not buying formal furniture that we'll never use.

Master bathroom doors.

This is the bathroom door that we shut when we want some privacy.  I'm talking about the stepping out of the shower kind of privacy.  There's a separate little potty room inside the bathroom that has a real door you can shut.  In order to keep distractions to a minimum, I thought I'd try to find some nice fabric and make a little curtain for the doors.  Then I remembered this fabric that I bought on clearance at Hobby Lobby years ago.  This picture is bad because Jayson has the good camera with him, but the fabric has muted blues and a wheat color that scream urban cottage.  I have 2 full bolts that I bought intending to make something fabulous that never got made.  Now I know why.  It's perfect for the new house.  I love it when stuff like that happens.

This is Jayson's fancy dressing room furniture.  I'm hoping this will encourage him to put his shoes on (and most importantly, take them off) in the closet.  Seeing shoes strung out all over the house makes me unreasonably violent.

We now have cable and internet hooked up which greatly reduces Jayson's chances of going insane while waiting for Taylor and I to join him.  We have a little work to do on the house before we sell it so it will be a couple more months at least.

We'll be spending Christmas in Houston this weekend and I'm thinking about leaving the dog there this time.  Jayson sent me a text yesterday saying he was lonely and wanted to go buy a dog.  I have already declared that we are through with pets.  They have a nasty habit of dying which tears me up and I can't take it anymore. We've never had any plants in the house because my cat (God rest his soul) would pee in them.  I'm thinking about switching from animals to plants.  I know, plants still die, but I don't think I could get as emotionally attached to a ficus tree as I have to a certain big, furry, brown-eyed foot warmer.  Snappy...not Jayson.  He has green eyes and hates when my cold feet touch him.

Today I'm heading back to the doctor for my post surgical check-up which should be good.  This was by far the easiest surgery I've ever had.  Part of my post-surgical instructions included 2 weeks of "pelvic rest".  The nurse had to explain to me what that meant.  Okay, I could pretty much guess what it meant, I just wanted to make her tell me the embarrassing details, which she recited with all the emotion of a turnip.  Things have been going so well that I'm sure my pelvis will be able to resume its normal activities.