Things That Make Me Happy

Today was much more productive and fun than we had anticipated! Our IKEA trip went well -somehow we had really calm and helpful people on hand today. The consensus is that the shipping company only sent one pallet and still has the other one at the warehouse. A really wonderful manager (who helped me in the end last visit) is following up for us. We hope to have the rest of our kitchen shipped this week. We also got our 10% off that we should have gotten when we originally made our purchase, so that's always nice to have money back on the credit card. We made a day of it - had lunch at the store and shopped around for bookcases and desks while we were there. I had no idea they had such great food - I had salmon - yes I said salmon - yes at IKEA - and it was excellent! Peanut enjoyed her fruit cup at luch and listened to a Santa looking guy play the guitar.

When we got home, Honey hit the yard - and really seemed to make no headway with his little rake. It was a little distressing to watch, but we went out to join him and play. Peanut LOVED walking and jumping in the leaves - her smiles were ear to ear and the piles were way bigger than her! Our neighbors couldn't help but notice our plight - first one came by and loaned us a leaf blower. Then our next door neighbor came with his huge leaf vac/chipper/shredding machine and just tore it up! It was amazing - in an hour or so the whole yard was cleaned up! By tomorrow morning I'm sure we'll have a new leaf carpet though - one of the trees has yet to lose all of its leaves.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - our neighbors are great. We hung out at one of their houses for a while this evening around a fire pit while folks roasted marshmallows. We had another neighbor stop by yesterday to introduce herself and bring us a little cake! How sweet! And she has a daughter who babysits - I've already got her number:). I'm looking forward to getting to know all these people better and having them here when we are more put together.

This evening, we finished another section of the cork flooring by the stairs. It looks so warm and it feels so nice to stand on. We hope to have the whole lower level floor done by Tuesday. Speaking of which - Honey has off on Veterans Day! This new company really does things right.

So my favorite thing of late is my new washer. We got a high efficiency top loading washer and we have done several loads of regular wash in it which have been fine - easier than before but nothing earth shattering. I like that you can choose your settings and times and all - really customize it. Washing diapers in this washer has been a gift from heaven! Peanut uses cloth diapers and we have always washed them at home - never used a service. Well - I think it has never been easier or cleaner to do this! I can set it up to do a soak, and then it does a "super wash" with a sanitation cycle and an extra rinse. I used to have to do three separate wash cycles to get this all done, and now I can do it in only one or two AND they are cleaner, AND we are using way less water! The things that make me happy - sometimes I wonder...