New Desk

A couple weeks ago while on a bowling outing, I decided that I must have a new desk.
My dad had a cool, old desk & when he was packing up to move out of the country, I asked him "You want to take that old thing? You should leave it. Here. With me." He didn't leave it.  He loves his cool, old desk.

Ikea has a nice one that sorta reminds me of my dad's desk... except for how it looks nothing like his.
Also, it was just under $500 (it's a bit less now, but it wasn't when I decided I had to have a new desk). So, I searched Craigslist.
I found this an oak roll top desk listed for $50, and it was conveniently close to us. I emailed the seller, and it was available.  I had to wait for Bernix to get home, because oak roll top desks do not fit in shiny Touaregs.  They totally fit in Town & Country minivans, though.
We went to look at it, and the sellers had removed the drawers & shelves on one side to "make room for a computer".  The lady was excited to let me know that my computer would fit in the desk.  I laughed (nicely) and said my computer is "this big" (picture me holding my hands 15" apart).  So, they knocked $10 off the price because now I had to find a way to cover up the big empty space.
We brought it home & put it in the garage, because I didn't want my oak roll top desk to look like oak.
I searched pinterest for ideas.
The following Sunday, Bernix & the littles stayed home from church because he was a little sick & a lot tired.  I came home from church with Lisa & he was in the garage, sanding the desk.  Isn't he sweet?
Another day, we went to Lowe's to look at paint.  I still had only a vague idea of what I might want.
Lowe's had a sale on sample paint, buy one get one free. They also had some cute colors. I chose Velspar Secluded Garden & Cream In My Coffee.
We were going to start painting, and realized we hadn't bought primer.  We probably needed to prime the desk before painting it.  I went out for primer.  I stopped at ReStore and found a super cute chair for $10.  I didn't find primer (well, they had some cans of tinted primer...).  I went to home depot for primer & found a can of clear coat on the clearance shelf.  I grabbed it, got the primer & went back to find the price of the clear coat.  I didn't want to pay too much for it... and the girl told me "It's your lucky day.  I can't sell it for a penny. So, you can have this for free." Yay! Free!
I came home & Bernix started priming the desk while I sanded the chair.
We stayed out painting until after dark.  Almost everything got a first coat of paint.  It took 3 separate sessions to get everything painted, including one early in the day so we could take advantage of that fancy light source, the sun.
Also, I had to fix the big empty top half of the inside of the desk.  I decided to make a memory board for it.  I failed to buy a piece of wood or foam.  I improvised and used cardboard, fleece I had on hand, the pretty fabric I bought, pretty cream colored ribbon, some old buttons from a giant box of buttons I got at church, and my handy dandy staple gun.  My handy dandy staple gun decided to hate me that day (maybe it hated the cardboard?) and I wasted at least 50 staples.  I finished the memory board and hot glued the buttons on (just for decoration). Bernix helped me glue it inside the desk.
Once everything was dry, we just had to... rearrange half the furniture in the house to make room for the desk.
Bernix did that for me, with very little help from me (I'm not much help when it comes to moving furniture, since I am not very strong).
We got the desk inside around 10pm Sunday night.
I've been enjoying my beautiful new desk & chair all week.

What do you think?

Weird Week

So, this week Bernix worked some crazy weird hours. 

Usually he leaves around 4 or 5 in the morning & gets home around 5 or 8 pm. 

Monday he got home around 8 pm.

Tuesday he went to work super early and was back around 9:30, and went with us to drop off Lisa for her state writing test.  Then we went to Coffee Bean, where we had fancy schmancy drinks and bagels and Lorelei did school work for a whole 30 minutes before I was called to pick up Lisa because she was done. 

We eventually came home & he went to work around 4 or 5. 

Wednesday I finally made it back to my Irvine bible study, and he was home when we got back around 1. We went to get my sister's new phone line/SIM card & went to ChickFilA, and we came home to watch a movie.  I think he was asleep before the movie started, which might have been before 6pm.  He slept until about 6am.  Then he made breakfast, and informed me we only had 3 eggs so only the kids got eggs.  I laughed.  I mentioned the words frittata & french toast, and he was all "Oh... those would have been good ideas." I had coffee so it was okay.  We also had bacon which was good because bacon. 

He swept the floor when I asked why we can't have a robot vacuum to clean the crumbs on the kitchen floor.  Girls started school.  I entered spelling lists on Spelling City.  Answered 20 questions asked by Kevin, 15 of which probably involved cookies or ice cream.  I realized he was here & would leave later for work, so I had to make food (lunch? dinner? Linner?) 

We threw chicken in the crockpot for soup, he peeled potatoes for fries & roasted potatoes.  More school.  He made fresh squeezed orange juice from oranges from the backyard. 

More school. 

He taught Lorelei science because it bores me & he enjoys it.  They had fun with magnets. 

We ate.  I realized the fridge is pretty much empty, and I was even out of flour & sugar (FOR SHAME!) and I didn't want to take the minions to the grocery store. Also, I asked him what we could do about our fridge because a crisper drawer is freezing our produce, and you can't do anything with frozen lettuce.  Carrots & tomatoes, sure.  Soup & salsa. But lettuce? Ruined! *cry cry cry* 

He said we'd probably buy a new fridge "eventually/soon" and I said something about not being my mother & it's only one drawer & I think if he can't fix it (he probably can.  He is very handy.) my aunt Mildred must have a number of a refrigerator repair man.  

I went to the store alone. It was so nice to not have anyone asking for chips or cookies or ice cream!  And I forgot that I wanted to buy myself a tiny ice cream to have later when the kids are in bed. 

I came home, they all helped me unload the groceries & then.... Bernix had to go to work. 

And he usually puts the groceries away! *cry cry cry* 

I hate putting groceries away.  

So here I am, procrastinating the putting away of ALL THE THINGS.  

I might need more coffee. 

completely unrelated chalk art... Lisa made a TARDIS in the driveway