Those of you who know me know I love to shop, not only shop but get a good deal. For me that is part of the fun of fixing up houses. I get to shop for new paint colors and other necessary fixings for a house. In this house we are redoing our kitchen, and for the first time having a kitchen island. My desire is to have butcher block counter top. If anyone has looked at one of these they know they are expensive. Thanks to my untiring research I know that one of my favorite stores, Ikea, has butcher block counter tops for less than half the price of my "other favorites store". The only problem is that Ikea is 31/2 hrs. away (if you don't take the wrong exit). I probably could have looked into ordering the butcher block online and having it delivered, but really how much fun would that be. Instead, I went with the much more reasonable option of packing up my three children (ages 7, 5, and 2), my mother to join me on what I was sure would be a fun road trip, and making sure I had the car adapter for my portable dvd player . We loaded up and headed for Ikea Conshohocken.
I'm sure some of you have already thought about the gas prices and are wondering how much of a deal this butcher block really is. I did think about gas prices momentarily, and through some very creative math I managed to work out a significant amount of savings even with our bankrupting gas prices. So twenty minutes behind schedule we left our driveway for our little adventure. This is where I made my mistake. I decided against stopping to get some healthy treats at Wegman's (the world's best grocery store). If you read my previous entry you know how important snacks are to my children. I did bring a few things, but they were neither healthy nor filling. It took a full 1 1/2 to deplete our snack bin. This was not a good thing. Having to make this a money making trip there was not room in the budget for convenience store snacks.
After taking the wrong the exit we ended up getting to the store a little later than we first planned. My girls managed to make it without starving to death, but we did have to eat at the cafeteria as soon as we got there. The whole eating experience was so confusing and unsettling I don't remember much of it. I do remember trying to get Olivia to eat her food. Forget that she had been complaining about her tummy hurting her since breakfast that morning. I'm sure some of you already know where this story is going. Yes, she threw up right in the children's section of the store. Luckily, I moved quickly enough so she avoided all of our clothing and retail items in the store. If it had to happen it couldn't have happened in a better place.
I had planned on meeting my friend Shelby at the store. We have a long shopping history together, and she is also an interior decorator. I was happy to be able to bounce some design ideas off of her. We had such a good time looking around and going on a bit of a shopping blitz.
For those of you who have never been to Ikea it is definitely more of an experience than your normal shopping trip. If you want to buy a couch. You get a cart and put your couch on the cart and walk out of the store with it. It's not a store for everyone, but if your looking for fun affordable furniture it is a good place to check out.
We survived the experience and made it home in one piece. Olivia is doing much better and I'm so glad to have a "you threw up in a store" story to tell her when she gets a little bit older.
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