My Very First Go At Blogging

So, this is how it all began. My husband and I are planning a trip to Hawaii in October to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. I came up with this novel idea to create a blog to journal our travels while we were there. Now, I fancy myself pretty computer literate but figured it might be best to take a practice run at blogging before actually getting in Hawaii. It shouldn't be that difficult - yeah right! Well, with camera in hand, my youngest son, my sister, and my niece and nephews set out on our quarterly trip to IKEA to see what was new. Taking the pictures was the easy part (except trying to get a decent photo of my son). When we came home, I jumped right to it setting up my very first blog. My dear, sweet daughter-in-law started me off with the basics before leaving out for an event. I assured her that I would have the blog completed up and running before she returned. HA!! Everything was going fine until we got to the part about loading the pictures. I made several attempts at loading multiple pictures up in a single post and then adding text under, around, or to the side of each photo. Problem #1 - you can only load five pictures at a time. Problem #2 - it was uploading my photos in the reverse order of what I wanted. My sister and I were not ones to give up easily though. We went to You Tube for help and searched for Blogger Tutorials. The first one we chose was pretty good. That is of course until his computer started giving him grief as he started loading up pictures. Great! That's the part we were looking for. No problem. He said he was going to put together another m0re advanced tutorial and get more in depth with uploading pictures. Wrong! I guess he never got around to it because we sure didn't find it! The next video we listened to was by an Indian speaking gentleman. No problem. I've gotten pretty good at understanding the heavy accent through my job. No luck there either. S0, after a couple of hours we decided that it was best to just put it to the side for a while and order some dinner (Chinese if you were wondering). Afterwards, my sister decided to create her own blog about her upcoming school year teaching Science. We set that up and came up with a cool blog name with the help of my sons - It Ain't Rocket Science...but it's close. Just when I had given up on ever figuring this stuff out it hit me like a ton of bricks. Do a separate post for each picture!!! Duh! I said I was new to this stuff. So, below begins the adventure that is IKEA. Enjoy.

The Good - And The Down Right Ugly

Happy Faces

Not So Happy Face

(Uhm, back of face)

No, he was not a happy participant but he came along nonetheless. Why you might ask - because in The Council House, "We do for family"!

First Things First

Before we started on our IKEA journey, we decided to feed the masses at IKEA Food. They have a pretty decent variety of food and the prices aren't bad either. I like getting the Open Face Shrimp & Egg Sandwich. It's very refreshing. They often have specials offering free breakfast and .99 meals. My sister and I have a tradition of hitting IKEA first on Black Friday for their free breakfast. It's a great way to start off a day full of shopping.

Oh Yeah - It's a Pepsi Thing

Oh joy of joys! IKEA is a Pepsi establishment. Yes, it really, really matters to me!

A Wonderful Addition To The Food Court

When I first saw these I kinda wondered what they were. I was trying to make them into shopping carts. But as we looked around, we saw that they were tray carrier for the meals! Novel idea. It came in very handy when my sister was trying to get condiments for the children's meals. They didn't have the little containers we were use to seeing so you just put the trays on the cart, take them over to the condiment counter, and put the condiments on the plate. Wow!

Let The Shopping Begin!

If you've never shopped at IKEA (shame on you), this is how

it works. They have stands that give you a pencil, a measuring tape, and a handout to mark down items. As you go through the store and see something you like, you write down the information and then pick up the merchandise at the end of the store in the warehouse. They also have a Marketplace where you can find lots and lots of stuff like kitchenware, curtains, lighting, carpets, candles, glassware, plants, and much, much more.

The Perfect Desk

When I get my dream job that allows me to work from home, this will be my desk. It has a glass top with the word love written in several different languages. It will keep me in my Happy Place all day long.

Deal of the Day

For $19.99 they had a table top WITH legs. This would be great for students.

My Dream Kitchen

When I hit the lottery (and I will) my dream kitchen will have a gas stove just like this one.

Family Time

Of course, right when you get the part of the store that we REALLY wanted to see, "someone" decided they needed to use the bathroom. And of course, once we got there (see caption below), everyone had to go. IKEA does get kudos for having a family bathroom. They got a little too comfortable in there though.

Lost Child Aisle 7!

Okay, my youngest child is 15. I don't have to remind him of the shopping rule - You see me, you follow me! My nephew, on the other hand, needed constant reminding. This cart solved that problem. Hey! I'm too young to be chasing behind children!

The Bachelor Pad

Our son asked for a new bed for his birthday. I showed him this nice full loft with space underneath for a couch and his whole "wish list" changed. Now he wants us to give him the bed, a TEMPURE PEDIC mattress, a sofa, a mini fridge, and a microwave! Dream on dear son, dream on!

The Marketplace

They have these neat light fixtures in the Marketplace. I saw a design that I really, really liked but never bought. Needless to say they discontinued it and I missed out. I did find another design that I liked and bought the glass right away. I'll figure out where to put it soon enough (smile).

The As Is Section

This is a MUST STOP before heading to the check out lines. One Christmas we found a great deal on gifts. They had gift boxes containing a candle, a votive cup, and a vase for .99! Everyone in the office got a gift that year! We left the children on the couch while we browsed. As you can see, they found ways to entertain themselves.

Let Them Eat Cake! (or ice cream in this case)

So after a long afternoon of shopping (and only spending 10 bucks!) we treated the lovely children to some ice cream. We'll do it all over again next month!