http://www.timhortons.com/
We got off to somewhat of a late start, and the fact that Ohio is on Eastern Time landed us there about 11:00 pm. We were on an exit with a Tim Horton's AND a Outlet Mall, so we were happy.
This is how Cincy looks at about 70 mph.
In the morning, of course we got our bagels and iced capps from good ol' Tim's, and we headed to the Outlet Mall first. They had a JCrew outlet, and the dress I want for the wedding is from JCrew, so I thought there might be a chance they had it there. They did, although not in white. But it was nice to try one on, even if it was black, so I could see how it fit and all that. I will order the white one online.
The Bip lucked out, finding a white linen shirt for the wedding.... it was on sale, too, and after his student discount, it only ended up costing about $20! We went to the Banana Republic outlet, too, and everything was marked down wonderfully low. Josh found some great shirts, AND right before we were going to check out, he found some drawstring linen pants for the wedding - 40% off! So, he ended up spending just around $50 or so for his total wedding outfit. Not bad.
From there we headed to IKEA. I've been to IKEA a good handful of times, and I usually enjoy myself. However, I usually don't buy any furniture, just decorative stuff from the Marketplace. Buying the furniture was no fun at all. First of all, I had checked online to make sure the couch was in stock. It said they had 7. But when we got to where they were supposed to be, there were none there. Wild goose chase ensued, but we did eventually find it set up elsewhere, which was a blessing. Because to drive 4 and half hours for a couch only to come home couchless would have made us pretty grumpy indeed. We also grabbed our ottoman, slipcovers, an expedit unit for the tv, a rug (though I think we need the next size up), curtains (for four rooms of the house - only $40 total!), shelves, some placemats and a few other odds and ends. Unfortunately, we had to come home without the chairs we wanted. They are not big chairs by any means, but the boxes were HUGE.
We are supposed to be heading to Ohio one month from today to get my stuff out of storage that is up there. We're going to sell as much of it as possible at a yard sale at my mom's. While we're up there, we're going to hit IKEA again (there's one about 40 minutes from her house) so we'll grab the chairs there and possibly (hopefully) several expedit units for the third bedroom/library.
Here's our new couch and ottoman (silk feather pillows were a steal at Target for $9 on clearance. The room is eventually going to have blue/grey walls. Couch is brown, chairs will be cream, accents will be yellow):
Since we couldn't get chairs or agree on a side table, we snagged our sexy chairs out of Bip's storage unit and are using a trunk and old lamp to finish out the living room for now and help it feel kind of like a living room...
And here is our little TV unit. There is another door that goes in the top-left corner, but the Bip has to cut out a notch in the back for the cords to go through. The fact that it's white will make sense once the trim is all painted.
The TV is temporary, too, until we get another. But it works fine for now. Even with all the 'temporary' things going on, the living room feels and looks 100x better than it has since I moved in. I feel so grateful to finally feel peace when I walk in the door instead of stress!
However, IKEA stressed me out enough. It was not as fun as usual, and I was so frazzled I left without buying my usual exit cinnamon roll! And then, when I was outside holding a parking spot for Josh so we could load up the truck, some toothless old man cussed me out for holding the spot. Let's just say what he called me rhymed with "Clucking Pitch". Maybe it's wrong to hold spots? I don't know. All I know is Josh told me to stand there and not let anyone in it, so I did. It was only for 60 seconds or so, but the longest 60 seconds of my life, and next time, HE can stand in place while *I* go get the vehicle!
Our drive home was pretty eventful. We had to tarp everything down because we knew we were going to hit rain. Well, the tarp kept flapping up and Josh kept stopping every 20 minutes to re-situate everything, and then I realized somewhere in KY that we missed our exit to get on 71, so we were heading to Lexington instead of Louisville! Luckily, we had only gone about 20 miles out of our way, but still. We got turned around and back on track. We hit some rain here and there but for the most part, all was clear. When we got to Louisville there was a lot of traffic stopped and heading north. We assumed it was from the Derby, drunk drivers being stopped and such... then we passed a car on it's side on the interstate, and people lying on the road. It was backed up for miles that way. So terrible.
South of Elizabethtown we finally got rained on.... and rained on, and rained on. It was so heavy! We knew there were supposed to be storms, but we really had no idea how bad it was going to be. It stopped raining around Franklin, KY, and was still dry when we got home (although our tarp was shredded, all our purchases made it home dry). About 15 minutes after we got everything in the house it started again. HARD. Lightning, thunder, tornado warnings. We luckily didn't lose any power, but I was afraid to go to sleep. It continued raining and storming all through Sunday and places were flooding, people were losing their homes, all interstates were shut down, lives were lost. It was such chaos. We just kept staring at the TV, unable to comprehend our city in such distress. Our neighborhood was pretty unscathed. Some people had some flooded basements, but that was about the worst of it. The only thing we lost was several of our sunflowers. Very small price to pay.
Monday, Josh's exams were cancelled as was work for me. It seemed so strange, to be home on such a sunny, beautiful day, but it wasn't so beautiful once you ventured too far. Roads were still flooded, and are still flooded today. I had a heck of a time getting on 40 today.
Just say a little prayer for this city I love, and the people in it who have lost so much. Count your blessings.
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