Laurie Appleby-Williams
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IKEA and FAIL

5/29/2014

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In celebration of our ten year anniversary I'd originally wanted to go back to Hawaii, the most amazing place ever. Alas, things came up and we decided that it was better that we be responsible adults and all that boring stuff. Instead, Heath's parents watched Ruby and this past Saturday we went to see X-Men: Days of Future Past (which was awesome) and to Belle Notte for dinner where I ate way too much bread. 

On Sunday we drove up to Cincinnati for a quick one night get away. We started off by going to IKEA to pick up a few things that we needed for the house. We pulled into the parking lot just after the store opened and we were all like, "We'll just grab what we need and get in and be out in a couple of hours".

We wandered for a bit but then focused on our main purpose in going up- to check out this giant desk/office set-up that they have online. It's pricey so we wanted to see it in person before sinking our tax return into it. Well, they didn't have it set up as it appeared on the website, just its individual pieces. Sigh. We were 2 hours in at this point and both Heath and I were frustrated because we'd hoped that the whole process would have been as simple as us finding the display, poking around it a bit, and decided yes or no. But the prospect of leaving with absolutely nothing in which to cross things off the massive to-do list we have was not cool with both of us so we sucked it up and moved on. We ended up not getting the unit, or rather the bits and pieces that make up the unit, and just getting the desks we needed.

Another thing we bought was a small couch for downstairs, the goal being that we hang out more downstairs working on our hobbies rather than zoning out in front of the TV watching (fill in tv show of your choice) for hours on end. When we got to the aisle and bin where it was located we whipped out the tape measure and found that, alas, the package was a couple inches longer than what my CR-V would hold. I wasn't too sure about getting it but Heath was in "make it work" mode so we went ahead and bought it anyway. 

Getting everything into my car was quite the adventure. There was a lot of shoving, removing couch from packaging, more shoving, moving forward of the seats, even more shoving, cursing the fact that we'd forgot to bring bungee cords or twine (why does IKEA not sell these things?), some more shoving and different angling of things and finally we got the dang trunk to latch enough that the trunk light didn't pop on when we started the car. Sure, I couldn't see out of any windows except the windshield and the two front ones, but that's what mirrors are for, right? I found the whole situation quite amusing but when we got into the car Heath said it smelled like, "IKEA and Fail" lol. Four hours, FOUR, after we'd walked in the door we pulled out of the parking lot. Gotta love the great time-suck that is IKEA.

Our next stop was MadTree Brewing where we spent the next couple of hours sampling beer, talking, and eating yummy food truck pizza. Then we finally headed towards downtown Cinci. We checked into our hotel, chilled for a bit and then went out to experience some food at the Taste of Cincinnati. The clear winner of what we tried was the deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was basically like eating a donut that had pb&j in the middle, covered with powdered sugar. WIN all the way. 

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Afterwards we wandered over to 21C Hotel Museum to check out the gallery. I am not the biggest fan of contemporary art but I at least try to give it the benefit of the doubt, trying to look past the bs to find some appreciation for what it took to make it or something. Heath however is not a fan and I wish I could have made a video montage of his eye rolling and whatnot as we wandered through the gallery.
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He was even skeptical of the floor thingy (see how I use those technical artist terms?) which I just thought was cool and fun even though it surely represented overpopulation or something like that. 

Monday morning we slept in (hells yes), had lunch, and then drove back to Lexington, hoping all the while that the trunk would stay latched. Thankfully it did and while we waited for the return of our child (who was not pleased that we had the audacity to come home again and take her away from her grandparents) we unloaded everything. And guess what? We even got all the stuff put together that night. Every single bit. A couch, desks and file cabinets? (glancing at the play set outside) Psssh! It's nothing.
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Ten Years and Counting

5/23/2014

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Yesterday was mine and Heath's ten year wedding anniversary. Instead of mushy sentiment (okay, there may be some at the end of the post) here are ten random bits of trivia about our wedding day and photos of course. (all photos by Melanie Mauer)
  • Heath spent a crazy amount of time finding a bunch of final fantasy music to use during the processional and recessional. Unfortunately The disc got lost or switched or something and when important people were being escorted to their seats, "This is Promise You" by *Nsync was playing. Not exactly what he had in mind.
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  •  I was a terrible hostess/bride. Heath was the one going around to talk to people at every table and I was the one eating. Not that I completely ignored everyone, I really didn't,  but dammit, I was going to eat some of that pasta bar we paid $2000 for.
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  • The weather was a little all over the place. It started off being a beautiful day. We took photos before the ceremony and as soon as we were finished it started pouring. The rain stopped about thirty minutes before the ceremony and people ran around trying to dry off the chairs in the courtyard. We were married and about fifteen minutes after we all went inside it started raining again. Talk about some good timing! 
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  • I wish I had worn my glasses during the ceremony (I hate pretty much any picture of myself without them) but this photo is probably my favorite photo of myself. Like, ever, with my current Facebook profile pic coming in a close second.
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  • Real flowers were not a priority for me and so I made all of the flowers (and invitations). I was really proud of the boutonnieres but hated the way the bouquets turned out. 
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  • Our cake was homemade and depending on who you ask it was either one of the best tasting cakes anyone had eaten or the worst! I didn't actually get to try it.
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  • This is my favorite of all of my wedding photos. When I see how Heath is looking at me it just makes me happy. Obviously he's totally in love :)
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  • Our ceremony was officiaited by a friend who was ordained on the internet. He started out with, "Mawwage. Mawwage is what bwings us together today." from the Princess Bride. To my recollection I have never seen that movie in its entirety. (and the shunning begins....)

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  • This video was never seen or heard from again. 
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  • After the ceremony we had a bunch of friends over to our house. Even though there are a number of people in this picture that aren't in our lives anymore I loved that we were able to get this big group shot. We all look so young!
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  • Although I wouldn't change anything about the marriage itself, there is a lot that I would redo as far as the actual ceremony itself goes. Mainly I didn't feel like we incorporated our personalities into the ceremony enough plus there were some things I had compromised on that I wished I hadn't (time of ceremony, dress colors, etc.) In the long run, of course that isn't important, and I am so happy with the life that Heath and I have built together in the last ten years. If we had been able to see into the future to now ten years ago, I think we'd both be surprised (we, mainly I, didn't want kids) but sometimes the unexpected things in life are the best. 
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DONE!!!

5/22/2014

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Finally, after who knows how many hours, untold amount of curse words, and a LOT of frustration, we finished putting together Ruby's behemoth of a play set Last weekend. Two weeks ago I would have told you that I wished we had a spare $600 laying around to pay someone else to finish the blasted thing.  Now that it's done, I am proud of the work we've done and feel like it was all totally worth it and I can put together all the things from now on.  But if you have the money, for the luvva god, pay someone to do it for you!

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thanks for the helping hand, basketball hoop!
Parts of it were easier to put together than others, obviously. The main structure took for-friggin'-ever (it's about 12' tall) but once we got to the swing bar it went pretty smoothly...except for this metal part that H had to beat the shit out of and re-drill holes to get everything to line up properly. Yes, there are some extra holes, and yes, we had a couple pieces of extra wood laying around but it's still structurally sound and most importantly, finished!! Now Ruby can stop guilt tripping us (to grandpa: "Mommy and daddy didn't work on my swing set....").
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inaugural slide
Ruby is, of course, thrilled. She mastered the rock wall in an instant and now that the swings are up she is all "PUSH ME!" like a thousand times. This girl has got to learn how to swing herself! Me having to push her defeats the purpose of getting the swing set in the first place. She needs to entertain herself AND just getting pushed does not burn nearly enough of the boundless energy this child has.  
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finally, the part she'd been waiting for...the swings!
The moment we screwed the last screw into that thing I realized how stressed I was about getting it finished. My mood lifted and I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. I was seriously desperate to get the thing done and off of my very full plate. That's even how we spent Mother's Day, working on the play set, followed by sushi. I'm not really into making a huge production of holidays but by mid-afternoon that day, after seeing posts all over Facebook involving flowers and dinner cruises, and whatnot. Well, lets just say that I was a little bitter about how I'd spent my day. But, oh well, such is the life of an adult.  And hey, IT'S DONE!! Woo hoo!! 
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