How we came to buy the big thing that was NOT on our list...

The list.  Okay, so the list is currently imaginary.  I mentioned it a while ago - maybe because we were painting Ammon's room?  We used to have an actual, physical list.  When John and I bought this little house five years ago we had a list.  This is our first home and we had some serious DREAMS for it.  Shortly after moving in we got out a notebook and scribbled down improvements, decorations, ideas we had to make this place a castle!  Our castle. It was a VERY LONG LIST. Front and back every line filled - college ruled paper.

We completed one or two projects on the list and then put it away until we could save up for more.  Somehow the list got misplaced for awhile - lost and neglected - hardly thought about in the expensive poorness of life. I found it a year or two later.  I read it.  I LAUGHED. I threw it away.

During the past few months, those dreams have been seeping out of the woodwork again (oooh, we need new woodwork). But I hesitate to make another list.  I know the list would again be unending and would render our bank account non existent. I hate the thought of knowing where the next $50,000 of budgeted spending money we make is going to go (you know I'm exaggerating, right?). That's like the next 20 years of our lives - already spent. UGH.

Back to the point.  Allie had a little accident with the table this week.  It wasn't really very little to me.  I am about the calmest person in the world during an emergency (or so I thought) and I was 2 seconds - so not dramatizing - from calling 911. If she hadn't have come to almost immediately she would have been on the short ride to Primary's. She was sitting up to the dining table finishing her work book (coming in another post) and leaned (or crawled?) on the table.  The round glass table supported by metal legs.  The glass slipped off and pinned her to the floor.  She hit her head on the floor. The glass is HEAVY - at LEAST 100 lbs pressing on her diaphragm at about a 45 degree angle plus the force of impact.  I won't go into watching her pass out.  I thought it was from hitting her head, but as John pointed out (because he's seen what I saw before) her reaction (which I WILL NOT horrify you with) was most likely due to both the shock (that's what amazing neighbor Angela's sister, nurse Amy, thinks) and the fact that she couldn't breathe until she passed out (for 5 seconds).  I am soooo glad I was only 5 feet from her and not upstairs - and I'm absolutely AMAZED at her tiny little bruise.  SERIOUS DIVINE INTERVENTION - I'm positive of it.  And I love it and I am VERY thankful for it.

So.  I spent a short time that afternoon looking on KSL for a hand-me-down.  I didn't find anything that fit.  Well, not true - there are plenty of nice tables there, but they don't match my house or they are too much money.  I kind of forgot about it.

But then I didn't. Then I started to think about what if that had happened while I was babysitting?  Or when one of the neighbors were over?  Or if she had been on the side right by Ammon's play mat?  And what if Ammon is two and tries to hang on the side of the table?  He wouldn't be the first to try that.

So last night we went to a furniture store to LOOK.  I expect a large Labor Day sale is coming and thought we should get some prices - just in case.  We have a friend.  I'm not going to out the friend because I don't want a bunch of people calling that friend for a favor.  The friend gets a nice discount at the furniture store and can use it once a year to buy something for someone else.  The friend offered to let us use the discount - WOW.  Between John and the sales lady (while I was in the bathroom with the girls) we found the perfect table.  Unfortunately, it was way out of my price range.  So we called the friend.  The friend immediately came to our rescue.  (Thank you friend's wife for letting him abandon you during put-the-kids-to-bed time).  The friend cut the price of the set enough for us to be able to purchase a table that very well better last us the rest of our lives.  Then the friend mounted the white horse and sped away to his castle.

On the way home I was a little sick.  I believe it was a good purchase, but I don't just drop cash on a semi-impulse buy.  I DON'T DO THAT.  At least not very often. And then I thought, well, if we would have just bought a less expensive set and then applied the discount it would have cost us almost nothing! And then I thought if I knew what was best for me I would just jump off of that train of thought before it left the station.  No sense in torturing myself.  Regrettably, the train was moving a little before I got off,  but so far it appears I may have escaped unscathed (pretty cool that I can jump from a moving vehicle).

I am grateful for the table, really, I AM.  But it was not on THE LIST.  Not even in my radar.  I like the table we have had for the past 6 years.   Its cute, functional, fits, matches the decor.....but it also has the power to slay my four-year-old. Who knew?

So its a bit of a setback on the road to saving up for the first item on the list (which is different depending on who you ask - John or me). Ahhh well, as Kylie's kindergarten teacher taught us all, you have to put first things first.

And that is how we came to buy the big thing that was NOT on our list.

Post note with pictures:

 John and Steve figuring out where the 50 screws (for each chair) go.

What do you think?  I'm thinking we should start dropin' more cash on semi impulse buys! Okay, I know we got a lot of chairs - this baby can seat 9 comfortably - but we had to take advantage of the price cut while we could.  Now the kids' friends can all come over for lunch and I don't have to referee a fight over the barstools - nice! (Ooooh, barstools.... maybe we will add those to THE LIST.... just kidding...kind of) Anyone want to come over for dinner?

Now... what should I use for a centerpiece?