Bless Your Heart

Isn’t that loverly? That’s the faux panting the prev. homeowner did on the slate tiles around the fireplace. Here’s the whole thing:

Blech! So today I was removing scuff marks on the mantle with my Mr. Clean magic eraser and thought I’d try it on the painting. It worked! So I grabbed a bottle of Goop off and a brush and went to work. I’m so excited! It all came off! We were convinced we’d have to tile over it! Check out our “new” fireplace:

After.

Ok, I’m going to sound really nerdy for a minute, but I have to share this. I love the new Mr. Clean Magic Erasers! They are miracles in a box I tell you! We thought we’d have to paint the baseboards along the stairs where the movers scuffed them up so badly, but the eraser took the marks off so fast! You’d never know they were there! I ran around the house looking for marks to clean. I’m a little obsessed, no?

Today I had a dentist appointment (excruciating with the metal stick thing and the scraping! but no new cavities) then Ike and I ran some errands. I tried to zip him up in a tote bag but he’d have none of that. So I just carried him on my arm. I’m trying to see how many places will let me take him in with me. The library was cool with it, but the post office wasn’t convinced he was a seeing eye dog. We stopped by the pottery store to pick up his pottery from a couple of weeks ago. It turned out great! Here’s his coaster and here’s his

ornament. I didn’t think Target, Michael’s and World Market would want me carrying a pup around their store, so he had to stay home for a while. I’m still going to try and get him into a bag though!

Today Sara and I took Jake to see Santa at the Southern Christmas Show. He looked so cute in his Santa hat. As far as the show goes… you’re paying to shop. That’s it. Not much “show” about it. We didn’t buy anything really, I only spent about $5 on merchandise. Much less than the price of the ticket and parking! Oh well, at least now we know!

As we were leaving we noticed the gorgeous sunset, so I snapped this picture of our city’s skyline.

I meant to post a pic or two so you’d get an idea of how successful our Ikea shopping trip was last weekend. Jade loved it and suggested we go back with a semi. She agrees that you have to actually go to the store to get the full experience- the catalog and website, while fabulous, just aren’t the same. This was the condition of my car on the way home: yikes! can’t see the rear view! Trunkview

*Here are Lisa, Brian, and Rachel outside of Hometown Girl across from Cafe Hon.

*Morgan on her scooter.

*Sara looking like a crazed old woman on Morgan’s scooter.

*Look who’s crawling now!

*And look who knows how to sit up on his knees!

*Ike’s bat ears in motion!

*Ike and meplaying.

*Ike’s such a chewer.

Today I slept pretty late then Sara and Jake came to visit. Sara showed me her new grown up car- a very nice Saturn wagon. We went to get a little something to eat then stopped by my mom’s to check out our youngest sister Morgan’s new electric scooter! So cute! Man, kids these days! When I was her age we just rode a bike or walked!

When I got home Jon and I unloaded all of the Ikea stuff and I showed him all the loot. He was pretty psyched about everything. And so am I. I’m finished with our Christmas shopping now! Well, except for his stuff. But that’s not bad huh?! All done before Thanksgiving!

And while I was gone Ike learned how to climb stairs! So cute watching him scamper up. Now going downstairs is a whole other story!

* weekend pictures to come later once they’re uploaded.

Today we woke up and checked out of the hotel then met up with Rachel and Brian for lunch at Cafe Zen. We got lost on the way (got lost on the way to most places this weekend), but we finally made it there and it was great. It’s always good to see Rachel and Brian, and I love hearing all the stories about their students. After lunch Jade and I stopped by the College Park Ikea. We shopped for what we thought was a little while, but when we got in line to pay we saw that it was dark out! Doh! I’d told Jon I’d be home by 10pm! So we loaded up the car and jumped on 95. I had to stop for gas in Woodbridge, and since we were already running so late we figured it wouldn’t hurt to stop in that Ikea too. So we had dinner there and picked up some more goodies. Finally with an extra full car we hit the road for home…..and didn’t get home til 4am Sunday!!

We got in at about 4am to Baltimore. Slept for a bit then shopped the Baltimore Ikea. After shopping we met up with Lisa, Rachel, and Brian at Cafe Hon. We went to Lisa’s after dinner for a fabulous dessert and to hang out a bit then back to the hotel to crash. I got to see their knitting- they really have the hang of it. I want to learn!

Tonight after work I’m hitting the road to Baltimore. Jon can’t get off work this weekend like he’d planned, but my friend Jade has graciously agreed to ride along with me. She’s always wanted to go to Ikea and this trip was planned as an Ikea Christmas shopping/ Rachel & Lisa visiting trip a long time ago, so it works out. We won’t be staying as long as I’d hoped (we’re driving back Saturday afternoon, but it will still be a lot of fun. I’ll just be missing my boys at home though =(. I’m determined to talk Ikea into letting my little Ike come visit and have his picture taken at his namesake retail establishment. It would be good marketing on their part to make Ike their mascot, no?