Ok, this weekend simultaneously sucked and rocked. Friday after work, we had to stop at the evil Walmart for a couple things, and we picked up pumpkins (4 of them in sizes relative to our family members) and carving kits. Darra came up on Friday night after the kids had gone to bed. I tried to wait up for her. Really I did. But I was on the newly cleaned off laundry couch and just couldn't keep my eyes open. I'm so pathetic that I couldn't stay awake until... like 10:30. Instead, I just about shit myself when Rob threw the remote on my legs to wake me up when she got there. I was in the middle of some DEEP sleep. Then we stayed up talking until around 12:30... 12:30 AM. What the hell was I thinking? Of course, I had to get up and feed Anya about an hour after going to bed, which made me very tired on Saturday.
My original plan was to go to the pumpkin patch on Saturday and meet my Mom. It was supposed to be a fun and games type place that we would spend some time in and let Ally run. Then, Saturday morning, I called Mom and she was sick. I asked her for directions to the place, but she really didn't know where she was going either. Plus, the weather channel said it was going to rain. So we decided to just go to a place a lot closer to us called the Apple Barn. It's a little orchard type place with pumpkins and apples and local vendor stuff like apple butter and salsa etc. Very quaint. it didn't rain and Ally had a lot of fun looking around and helping Grandma Darra pick out a pumpkin for herself. I'm very glad we got our pumpkins at the evil Walmart the night bfore though, because Darra's was $7. Mine was $2.98.
Then I wanted to go look at chairs. You see, our kitchen chairs are very nasty. They are this ugly old green color that is stained with various different things over the years. They have crossbars across the back that aren't very comfortable and are quite difficult to clean peanut butter off of. And that's also why those bars are all raggety and scratchy. The dog or should I say puppy (Yay, I won), chewed them all to hell. Plus, we only have 3. Now that Anya is eating some solids, it would be nice to be able to have another chair. I hate our highchair and would like to use a booster seat, but don't have enough chairs for everybody in the house, much less anyone who visits us.
So anyway...chairs. We looked a couple places and saw people (insane people. or very very poor to need money enough to be out in the cold like that) standing out in the very cold wind holding up signs saying that K's Merchandise was going out of business. I love K's. It's the only place that we've been able to find cheap furniture that wasn't actually cheaply made over the years. Our couches, entertainment center, curio cabinet, cd shelves, and car seats came from K's. I've looked for chairs there before but couldn't find what I was looking for. I want a padded seat on a wooden chair that isn't uncomfortable. They actually had some I liked! :) But only 2. :( So they checked the computer and said there weren't any near by at other stores, but I was free to call stores farther away. So I called one and they told me they had 3. Dilema... Do I buy the 2 and go drive an hour and a half to get more? Do I drive and then come back and get these 2 just in case they someone else buys the 3 before I get there? Do I give up and look for something else? What if I drive over and get the 3 and come back and the 2 are gone?
So I bought 2 chairs and off we went. The other store didn't have any. None! They didn't sell them Saturday or anything: the computer was just wrong. I specifically asked on the phone twice for them to look for me and they told me they had them. They didn't look, just trusted the computer. Bastards. So now it looks as if they don't exist. And I have 2 chairs that I can't match. And I'm out $86. GRR!
So I talked to a couple managers and stuff. I finally found out that it's possible that there are a bunch in a warehouse in Fort Wayne, In. I'm not driving to Fort Wayne. No way. So I got the number for the corporate office and they are going to see if I can get special permission to have them shipped to the local store. I need special permission because of the whole store going out of business thing. Giant pain in the ass. And a giant waste of the ertire afternoon/evening. Ally napped in the car and not long enough, so she wasn't the paragon of obedience, and Anya was cranky because she didn't get a lot of time down on the floor. I was upset because I actually liked the chair and spent all day on it and still do not have chairs for my kitchen.
To make a long story short (Too late!) Saturday morning = good. Saturday afternoon/evening = bad
I was determined not to think about it Sunday at all lest I get pissed off again. So after we all got breakfast, we cleared out the kitchen and plastic-ed the floor. We figured it was easier to sit on the floor to carve pumpkins than to try and clean up the table and floor afterward, so with the plastic, all we had to do was roll it up and throw it away. We made a huge mess and had much fun. Ally wouldn't even consider touching the insides. No sir. Wouldn't want to get all slimy or anything. She had a great time watching all of us and coloring "faces" on her and Anya's pumpkins though. She wandered about carrying tools back and forth between all of us. The best part of that was I didn't even have to clean her up when we were done.
Anya, however was a completely different story. She sat up on her knees holding onto a pumpkin for the longest time. She was having a ball with all the pumpkins. She played with a little bitty one that we got Ally for a long time too. She was all over the floor. Then we let her play in the goo. And oh how she played. She had a great time. She leaned over and smacked it and squished it between her fingers and picked up handfuls and accidentally flung them around when she flailed her arms around. She kept picking up big handfuls and sucking her thumb trying to taste them. She barely got any of it in her mouth - mostly she just ended up with a handful of goo running out of her hand and down her chin. It was so much fun. She went straight to the bath (in the kitchen sink) where she proceeded to splash everything within 3 feet of us. Her first Halloween has been a raging success, even before Halloween gets here.
Then when it got dark, we lit them all up and they were just gorgeous. So much fun! And Ally loved that part.
Of course we took a lot of pictures, and I'm working on getting them organized. Check the little updates below the kids' age tickers up there at the top to see when I've got new pictures uploaded. I've got some videos already on youTube, but haven't finished renaming and downloading everything, but should have more soon.