School Starting, Playground Tour, Beachin' and BED...plus a super awesome thing you'll just have to read about :)

Well, hey there, y'all!  Summer vacation is drawing to a close far too quickly in my humble opinion, so we're trying to cram as much outside time in as possible around here.  The Hubbs, as you can imagine, is chomping at the bit for some peace and quiet at this point, though we're both a bit sad that school starts this coming Tuesday.  It seems to get earlier every year, though we are glad The Princess will be remaining with The Fabulous Mrs. G. again this year.  It also doesn't hurt that her new school is about five minutes from home, so the mornings don't have to be super-early (and so my directionally challenged hubby won't have trouble finding his way if/when she needs to be picked up on a moment's notice, which has been known to happen).

Work is still busy, busy, busy.  Since a bud left our company earlier this month, I've taken on some of her responsibilities, which has made me extremely popular all of a sudden.  They've still left the blanket approval on overtime, and I worked something like an extra 13 hours this week, including four yesterday morning.  This makes for some very impressive paychecks, and I figure I'll sock away as much as I can.  That's one of the cool things about being on the closing shift...no matter how much OT I work, I'm still home at the same time for dinner.  I do have to get up awfully early, though.

Piggy is enjoying being spoiled rotten, and I'm happy to report that she seems to be coping well with being an only dog.  I was very worried about her when we lost Bubbles in June, and though she still seems to search for her momster (mom/sister hybrid) from time to time, I think she's adjusted surprisingly well.

Wilson tends to help with that a little, I think.  This girl
loves her rawhide bones.

Yesterday after I got home from work, we decided to grab The Princess a
Happy Meal and head out for a playground tour.  This was our first stop,
where we ate lunch and play-play-played until another group showed up.

My gals and me, waving to The Hubbs.

Just down the street, there's another big park with loads
of fun stuff to do.  This is the first playground there.  The
Princess loved the sand (surprise, surprise).

She really enjoyed checking out all of the neat equipment here.  These
suspended stepping stones were a big hit.

While she played, Piggy explored and The Hubbs kept a watchful eye.  I,
of course, played "mamarazzi."

Happy Piggy, patrolling the playground area.

This is the second playground area in this park.  The Princess was a big
fan of the mulch and a couple of slides here.

And we just had to visit The Big Red Slides!

On the way back to the car from The Big Red Slides, we stopped by that
last playground one more time for good measure.

Once we got home, The Princess was delighted to find that we were
changing into our swimsuits and heading down to the lake for some
choice beachin'.  We must have been in the water for an hour and a
half or so.  I'm going to be sad when the weather gets too cool for this.

About a week or so ago, The Hubbs was playing with The Princess in her room and found that a spring had poked through the side of her mattress.  For some time now, it's also had a Princess-sized divot in the middle where the support is completely blown out.  In all fairness, the mattress is probably closing in on its thirtieth birthday, since it was mine at my parents' house.  Seemed it was time for us to grow up and buy a bed.  Ugh.

Okay, so this is an old picture, but I love it.  This was her
bed, which had seen many, MANY better days.

So...buying a bed.  That's like some grown-up stuff right there.   I started looking around earlier in the week, and I just about spit when I realized the most economical new mattress/box spring sets would set me back well over $100 (and they were probably junk at those prices, too).  Ever the bargain hunter, I hit the classifieds.  There were a few ads for twin sets, so I started emailing sellers.

One of the ads intrigued me: it was for a twin platform bed with three drawers underneath, and it included the mattress and box spring.  There was no way to email the seller, so I called him on my way home from work yesterday morning.  I wasn't very confident that he'd still even have the bed, since the ad was dated 8/5, but I figured it was worth a shot.  Dude was very nice and said the bed was still there, so we talked details for a while.  I have a compact car, so I'd have to arrange transportation.  Dude offered to text me a picture and dimensions, and we ended up texting back and forth quite a bit during the big playground tour.  During this time, he received a lowball offer from a man who would pick the bed up that day (we had discussed going down there - about an hour away - today, because Grumma's truck wasn't available right away...silly grumparents, having a life and junk!).  Dude very nicely told me about it and asked how serious I was.  After a couple more texts back and forth, he declined the other guy's offer, telling him it was already sold.  I could have kissed him.  He certainly didn't have to do that, and I really appreciate him taking the time to talk to me about it...someone else would just as easily have told me it had been sold and I'd have to start all over.

Today was all about the bed, for the most part.  I went over to Grumma and Grumpa's house late in the morning, cleaned out the back of the truck (they're notorious packrats!), and we headed to Dude's house.  In person, it was nicer than in the picture, and I was thrilled.  Thinking it couldn't get any better, he then called his teenage son out and they loaded the whole thing in the back of the truck for us.  It's a sweet little platform with nice drawers, topped with a Serta box spring and mattress with a memory foam pad and one of those pillowtop mattress covers, and it's way more comfy than I every could have imagined.

And this (drumroll, please) is her new, fancy big girl bed!
She loves it, and she's just been tucked in for the very first time.
Gotta say: goodnight kisses are much easier with it being so much higher
than her old one!

With any luck, this piece of furniture will last for a very long time.  Any way you slice it, this was $75 very, very well spent.  Oh, and the icing on the cake?  The Grumps reminded me today that we never took that day trip to the water park they wanted to do for The Princess's seventh birthday, so they picked up the bill.

I also think this will be the kickstarter to a full room overhaul.  It's time to get rid of the baby room colors, the Pooh Bear curtains and the mangled remains of the wallpaper border and make this into a room fit for the big girl she is.

Last, but not least, I have some exciting news.  Friday was pay day, and this was a check with about a squillion hours of OT on it.  Before heading out for work on Friday, I placed my order for the banjolele, and it should be arriving here some time tomorrow.  To say I'm excited would be the understatement of the century.  But more on that later...