The upside.

For all of my lovely readers out there, I thank you for being so understanding and patient with me. I have been rambling on and on and on about being stuck in this (dare I say it) hotel. I'm trying really hard not to complain. And for that reason, I have purposely not posted in several days. I honestly didn't have anything going on that was worthwhile or exciting to share, and I didn't want to bore you with my complaints any further.

So this weekend my husband and I went to explore a new mall. Oh, he knows me too well. If it looks, sounds, and smells like retail then there is a good chance it is going to cheer me up. I mean, the shopping just keeps getting better and better. I'm in love with all of the choices. It's fabulous. Everywhere that you looked, people were hustling along, all carrying more than their fair share of brightly colored bags. I could do this all day. And I really mean every word of that last sentence.

We stumbled into the largest grocery store. Yes. In a mall. I couldn't believe it even, as I had to double check what my eyes were conveying to my brain. The number of check out lanes said 70. Seventy! I was shocked to see that most of them were open. I can't even begin to list all of the items that I saw. If you could think of it, I'm sure that they carried it.Yes, a grocery store. And there is absolutely no wonder at all that it was totally packed. Thankfully the aisles were pretty wide!

Now, like I was saying before, there is an upside to being in this hotel. It's called, "per diem". If you aren't familiar with it, then let me run it down for you. Since we are not in our home yet, we are being paid a daily rate up until the time that we move in. That daily per diem can rack up. Quickly. And I can't even begin to tell you how happy it makes me to spend some of that money.

Today we were on the hunt for a new dining room table. Sadly, our old table had met it's demise upon our departure from the states. It was old. It had a scar. It came from bad blood. Let's just say that I "acquired" the table through marriage. I was happy to see it go. So let me be honest here, I'm glad it's gone. It wasn't that great to begin with.

So back to shopping. We got to look in several of the larger stores that had showrooms. We sat, tested chairs, looked at tables, cabinets and shelves, we walked slowly up and down all of the aisles. We talked, laughed and looked at nearly everything they had. Now, I'm not going to lie either. We had 4 bathroom breaks, a poopy accident, Alexa had a meltdown and somewhere in between there we all had lunch, and a nap. Don't let me fool you, the only one napping was Alexa. Eddie had a blast jumping from one large mound of area rugs to the top of another, as we sat and were rung up for our purchase. We bought a lovely table and chairs, and an entry way table for our new apartment.

I'm so excited that I can barely stand it. I really can't wait until we can move in. We still have a few items that we need to buy, so guess what?????? More shopping!!!! I love it! We also need several rugs since the apartment has mostly hard wood floors.

Here is a look at the table. This is from the store's website. It doesn't really show the table too well. But I have a second picture. Funny thing about this table, we actually saw it in a home that we looked at to rent. I LOVED it when I saw it, and made my husband ask the lady where she bought it so I could get one just like it. I didn't ever find out the name of the store, but we found the table all on our own! The second picture is of her table, but shows it off a little better. We got different chairs, leather chairs, so that they can be wiped down when the kids spill stuff on them, because you know they will!