THREE CHEERS...

...for some good old-fashioned productivity. Last weekend was awesome - I had given into my sleepiness the weekend before that, but this time I had an agenda and just kept with it.

Last Saturday I was on a mission to clean. After sleeping in and a nice brunch of egg + cheese sandwiches, I cleaned up the kitchen, threw in some loads of laundry, rounded up my cleaning supplies and went at the bathrooms. All three of them. I got down to the teeny bits... vacuumed the floors... rocked and rolled. Dan actually got to take a nap that day.

Last Sunday was the Sunday to top all Sundays. We started out with the normal morning church routine, and then decided to take a trip up to the new IKEA in West Chester. There are no words for this place. It's a crazy experience - and hard to believe that I can go back and shop there again. For some reason, I have this idea that it's a "one time only" place...almost like a home show that comes to town once a year. If you go maybe you'll see what I mean. It was full of inspiration and cool things to see.

We got a few things and they are making me smile...

One thing we got - the big thing - was a dresser (aka: a chest of drawers). Up until now we were using night stands and closet shelves to take care of folded things, and that worked great. This house has thrown a little kink into our system because we can't fit our same shelves into the walk-in closet, and things just didn't seem to have a tidy home. Chest: enter stage left. Dan was really impressed with the quality of the piece. There are eight drawers and I'm glad we spent the money for it - we almost talked ourselves out of it.


After we moved in, I had this fabulous idea of some type of board that I could put grocery lists on, and would also hold our keys as we come in the garage door (see left). I wasn't sure if something like that existed or if I would have to make it. Well, what do you know - IKEA had just what I was looking for. And it's magnetic, so I can stick things on it as well. It's already graced with Dan's artwork, and it looks great with our cabinets. I knew it was meant to be when I saw the little galvanized buckets for holding chalk. Swoon...

NEXT - another decoration we're trying. We have one of these on each side of the fireplace. I guess the technical term here would be "ceramic vases with twigs." So far we're really digging them.

Almost three hours later we were done shopping, headed to dinner at Buca, and then downtown for Dan's surprise date night. He was able to get free tickets to The Aronoff for a production of The Color Purple. We're tempted to check out the movie now, just to see how they differ. It's definitely a touching story. And I was able to mark #32 off my 101 in 1001 list - going to dinner and seeing a play.

This past week was chock full o' stuff.

Monday we had some leftover business with our Consumed small group. We also decided to sign up in the moment for GO Cincinnati. It's a city-wide blanket of love where a whole bunch of people get together to do good things and good work. We're talking hundreds thousands of people. Dan and I haven't been able to do it the past couple years because of our engagement and wedding stuff, but this time is it. We noticed a flyer about our neighborhood yard sale on the same day, so we're a little bummed to miss that. We really wanted to include some of our stuff and check it out, but we'll see what happens.

Wednesday we went to visit my older brother who had surgery last week. He had to have heart surgery out of the blue when a chest x-ray showed an enlarged aorta. The doctors say it was most likely genetic, so now my mom wants everyone to be checked. You just never know about these things - he had no symptoms at all and was very healthy. A week after the surgery he is up and doing well, following orders for recovery.

Thursday was my dad's birthday (and mom's next week), so we celebrated at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse. Delicious and good times.

Friday was the last day of training my replacement. I found out where my new cubical home will be (with a wall of windows), I filed and cleaned up my stuff for the move across the building, and I'm due for a computer loaded with all sorts of Adobe Creative Suite 3 goodies. I know that the days of training my replacement aren't over because she'll have questions during her transition, but I'm glad that the patience-testing, wanna-rip-my-hair-out days are over. Now I know why I taught communication courses and not computer courses. Amen. These were well appreciated this week. Just the smell of the Pina Colada was enough for me...


This weekend is a chance to get this place cleaned up more before we move in more things from the garage. Oy-yoy-yoy. Dan's visiting his family today and I have intentions to get a shower, get some groceries, continue the laundry, daydream as I look out the window, feel the breeze, work on three initial website designs, and jam to the music.