So I say this 4 hours was worse than labor, but when I get to labor again I may just have to take this statement back.
When we got back from Idaho, we had Jennett and her 2 girls at our house with no way home. We decided to meet Dave in Indy and transfer our stow-aways there. I'm still quite sure how I did it, but I managed to convince Nate that we NEEDED a BRAND new dining table. (I'll have to try it on a couch next:) So we decided on a table from Costco (no Costco here, but one in Indy - see where we're going here?)
We drove to Costco, thinking we were taking a short cut (the straighter path) and not taking the freeway. We got there about 15 minutes after Costco closed. Jennett, being such a great sister, walked right up to the store and asked if she could go in. She rehearsed our sob story of driving 3 1/2 hours there and we only needed one thing, we knew exactly what and where it was. He asked his manager and they finally let her and Nate in. They went in and bought the table.
Now, having done a little research, I knew that the table and 8 chairs came in 5 boxes. Our wonderful mini-van has served us well as a truck also lately with all the hauling we've been doing. We can fit the three kids in the front row and then just put the back seat down and have the whole back of the van to haul. Well, we got the van ready for the boxes and they brought out 5 HUGE boxes. I knew from first sight that there was NO WAY these 5 boxes were fitting in our van. We got 2 of the boxes in and Nate and Dave drove to the Lowe's down the street to buy some rope. They worked their magic and tied the other 3 boxes on top of our van.
As we got in the van to drive somewhere to eat dinner (9:30 at night) Nate was rounding the first corner. I told him to take it really, really slow and then got nervous when he went too fast. He quickly informed me that if he couldn't take that corner at 5 miles an hour, there was no way we'd get those boxes home. We stopped at Steak and Shake where I looked out the window at our van every 30 seconds to make sure no one had stolen my very first piece of brand new furniture.
The boxes were still there when we finished and we began our journey home. We took the freeways this time, but the should have been 3 1/2 hour journey took a little over 4 hours. I wouldn't let Nate drive over 55 the whole way home. And I was a NERVOUS WRECK the entire 4+ hours. Normally starting a trip at 10:30 p.m. I would have been alseep in 1 minute and not woken up until we pulled into the driveway. I think I did manage to sleep for literally 2 whole minutes the whole way home.
I just stared out the side mirror at the boxes the WHOLE way home. I couldn't sleep or talk about anything else, I just watched the boxes the whole time. The box with the table was on the bottom. I pictured getting home and having a broken table, I pictured the boxes flying off the roof and thinking well at least we'd get home with 4 nice chairs (the 2 boxes inside the van.) This was by far the longest 4 hours of my life and all for a table and chairs. We finally did make it home though and Nate's tying job was AMAZING. I've never doubted his opinion or ideas with most things, but these 3 HUGE boxes almost drew the line for me. Hats off for sure to Nate for his wonderful knowledge of rope tieing and pulling into our driveway had NEVER felt better. (And not only because we had only pulled into that driveway a handful of times so far.)
Sorry, Nate...this one is for you Kirsten. So, here is our kitchen table. Sorry, no cute decorations on it yet, still trying to figure out paint colors in the kitchen, but this is the table. It made it home in just the right number of pieces and we have LOVED it. No more bright yellow Subway table in my kitchen, finally a place where all 5 of us can sit at one time and even have our food right there to dish up without even having to stand up. I feel very spoiled!!!
Nate introducing Ethan to Ant Lions under the trampoline.
Nathan's Grandpa and Grandma Huckstep
