Oh Blessed Day Of Sofas

I landed last night after a fun but grueling week on the road. I checked my voicemail and had a wonderful message from Hope of Cortate Furniture. My couches were ready to be picked up! It was tough sleeping last night as I imagined how they would look in person.

We were lucky enough to borrow an SUV from family (thanks, Andy and Barb!) and a trailer from a favorite neighbor (thanks, Tom and Hope!) to make our journey this morning! It doesn't need to be mentioned that we beat the owners to the store and stood outside waiting for the doors to be opened. I was antsy, after all! I have been dreaming of these couches for years and loving these exact couches several months now. It was time to finally meet them face-to-face.

My glee at first sight was embarrassing. The store manager even asked John if I'm like that all the time (he answered yes). I "supervised" the couches as they were loaded onto the trailer for the trip home! After carrying them unto our house, we returned the truck and trailer and then decided to eat some lunch from the fridge before assembling the couches. Talk about the longest hour of my life! We finally started ripping away plastic covers, and I couldn't be more pleased with the results.

Hope already came over to see how they look. And my sister and her family also visited this evening. I think we should have a party to welcome these beautiful babies to the family, don't you think?

The room is far from done, but it certainly feels like more of a home now that we have the two main pieces of furniture in the first room seen when entering the house. It feels so great saving hard for something, then finally seeing it come to fruition.

John and I are trying to find a good home for our old couch, so please let me know if you are looking!

The Grindstone Is Wonderful

Thanks for being so patient. I have some lovely readers who are willing to wait a few extra days to find a post from me. I really try to blog every other day, sometimes more. I had forgotten, however, how tough it can be to find time on the road to actually sit down and upload some pictures! That may sound silly...how can I possibly be busy all day, every day, to the point I can't sit down and write a few words. Since we are going non-stop from early in the morning until well after midnight each day, the last thing I want to do when I drag myself into the hotel room is fire up my computer. Thanks for being understanding. And for hanging in there!

My alarm clock went off at 2:30 AM on Tuesday morning, and it was actually intentional. The airplane was still at WIlly Gateway Airport from maintenance over the weekend. We needed to take it to Sky Harbor to be ready for a 6:00 AM departure with Big Boss and his team of two others. We arrived early and in style with our beautiful new paint scheme. I still can't quit gawking at this thing. We are certainly the envy of the ramp everywhere we go! And it feels like we are starting with a clean sheet because no one recognizes us when we pull in! It's fun to see their surprise when we open the door (with a big smile on my face, mind you), and they see it's just us.

We flew to Dallas Addison for the first flight. I couldn't nap so eventually went to lunch at Macaroni Grill. Sometimes a girl just needs some pasta. And olive oil. And rosemary sea salt bread to dip. I ordered a Caesar salad and half a chicken sandwich on the lunch menu. It was so yummy! Though I was tired when I returned, I knew sleep was still going to evade me. So I charged up and tried out the new cordless vacuum I bought to carry on board. New carpet fuzzes up and needs to be watched carefully. We have several fans in the cabin that could easily be clogged, so I bring the vacuum with us now as preventive maintenance. It sucks like a charm, and I'm glad we have it.

Big Boss arrived around 3:00 PM for an hour-long flight to Brownsville in south Texas. I watched a bunch of crazy bare-footed people prepare to go skydiving and land on the beach of San Padre Island. Crazies. Who would jump out of a perfectly good airplane?!

Soon we were on our our way again, this time to Atlanta. We first stopped on the south side of town at the Fulton County Airport. Our last flight of the day was to the north side of Atlanta to Peachtree Airport. We landed after 11:30 PM and hitched a ride to the hotel from Epps Aviation. It was a long day...up about twenty-one hours. I was starting to cause alarm on the radios from all my slurring! The bed sure felt nice that night!

Wednesday morning we prepared the airplane for an 11:00 AM flight. I grabbed a quick lunch at my favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory! Big Boss showed up around four hours late for our next flight. We were shortly on our way to Knoxville, Tennessee. What a beautiful state. And they were having a heat wave, so I got to enjoy some lovely weather, too. After waiting in Knoxville most of the afternoon and chatting with some fun pilots from Kentucky, we left for Bedford outside of Boston. We flew over Washington DC and New York City on our way. I usually stop there, so it was fun to see the sites from 37,000 feet! We were soon landing in Bedford and caught a ride to the hotel near the Hanscom Field Airport.

This morning meant making up for lots of sleep debt. I didn't get out of bed until 8:00 AM, which felt great! After getting ready, we went to Jet Aviation to get the airplane prepared for our next flight. We didn't know where or when, but it's always important to be ready for Big Boss. When he called to give us a ten-minute warning, he said he wanted to go to the north side of Detroit. So off we went to Detroit Cole Young field! We had 120-knot headwinds the entire trip but didn't get any icing in the descent.

Detroit was cold, and this part of town was nothing to write home about. We grabbed a crew car to make a quick run to Olive Garden. Big Boss "guesstimates" his time to be back at the airport so we don't dare leave for long. Luckily, we got some food and still made it back in time to be ready for our next flight of the day...to Chicago.

Which is where I'm sitting now as I write this. Still not done for the night. We've decided to challenge a blizzard in Kansas City later tonight. Wish me luck!

Company Breakfast

I've had a lot of people at my house this past week. Fun people. Nice people, even. After several days of making food for them all, I was running out of ideas of what to feed them! When Sunday morning came around, I decided to make Coffee Cake Streusel Muffins from scratch.

For homemade, this was pretty dern good. I love freshly-baked goodies from the oven. It made my entire house smell delicious. The muffins steamed when I broke them open to put some butter on to melt. Butter really does have a positive impact on everything it touches.

These were a hit with the crowd, but I think I need it a little sweeter next time. No surprise there, huh? I have yet to find a better coffee cake than the Krusteaz version found in a baking mix at stores everywhere. Give it a try to see what I mean!

Look At 'Em Go, Pa!

Doing nothing but watering has already brought great results! About three days ago, little seedlings of Better Boy Hybrid Tomatoes started peeking through the dirt. Aren't they lovely? I don't want to eat them yet, but I'm getting closer to that desire...

I've been watering them every day to ensure the soil is moist and prime for letting little seeds flourish. John also cut down some of the bushes (that I want to totally remove) out front, which has provided an unblocked view of the sun for these little guys. Apparently, it's what they really wanted. They are growing like crazy now!

The jalapeno peppers and sweet bell peppers have another few days before they start making their appearances above ground. It has been so fun to talk to them, pet them, and call them George.

The clock is ticking. We now have about four weeks before needing to transplant them into new homes outside. Yesterday, we may have had a breakthrough in discovering a material to make our waist-high garden boxes. We'll see if we can make it work for function and appearance without breaking the bank! Once again, I'm demanding so much!

But I could get used to this farming thing.