James and I have strange personalities.  Both of us have gotten progressively more laid back since having children.  I remember when I first started dating him, he despised change.  Things folded exactly the same in his dorm dresser.  Furniture always in the same place–it would really bother him if one of his roommates moved things around.  Always the same meal choices at the dining hall.  I wasn’t much better, especially when we were first married.  Labels of can and shampoos and stuff always needed to be facing out.  We had a cleaning list where we checked off things every week when they were completed.

Now, we just go with the flow.  And we’re both okay with that.

So last Wednesday, when I looked at our calendar, and saw that we had nothing important to do for four days, for the first time in MONTHS, we decided to go on a trip.  We called to book an overnight stay for Splash Lagoon at 10:30 on Wednesday morning, and we were on the road, all packed up before noon.  We threw things in suitcases and were on our merry way.  On Thursday, at about 3 pm, we made a decision to continue south and drove a couple more hours to Pittsburgh.  We called and booked a hotel on the ride.  Truly, it was because I was dying to go to Ikea. . . and if we were already three hours from home, what was another hour and forty five minutes?  So to Ikea we went.  And the following day too.  I spent about three hours in the glorious store, and I wish I lived down the street from one.  We shoved as many things as we could into the car, leaving barely any room for our kids, but that’s what you do when you can’t order things online from them and want to bring the whole store home with you.

Also, a super shout out to Mary, the membership person at Strong Museum of Play.  I called her at 8:30 am on Friday morning to explain our situation–we wanted to upgrade to the membership where we can visit other museums for free.  Usually they mail you the new card which has the “special” sticker on it that gets you into the other museums.  There would be no time for that. Not only did she skip us ahead of the other things she needed to do, she processed our upgrade immediately, and then got ahold of the Children’s Museum in Pittsburgh personally to make sure we wouldn’t have an issue getting us in without the new cards.  The lady who she talked to in Pittsburgh let everyone at the admissions desk know of the situation, and when we walked in the door at 10 am, they were expecting us and let us right in without any issues.  It was seriously amazing.  And impressive.  And so nice to know that there are still efficient, caring people in the world who pride themselves on good customer service!

Now we’re home.  And it did dawn on me just yesterday that all that amazing stuff I got at Ikea will be sitting in boxes until I take the time to put it all together.  Boo Hiss!