IKEA-fest!

The middle of October, Jason looked at me and said he was at the point where he just really wanted to spend some money decorating and furnishing the house.  A few trips to stores around Raleigh, and we got discouraged.  $1000 for a chair?!?  Dining room chairs (don't even get me started on the dining tables!) for $150 a piece?!?  Then, a four-letter words came out of Jason's mouth that made me start cheering... IKEA.

If you've never been to IKEA, go.  I don't care if you don't need furniture, go.  I don't care if Charlotte's a long way for you to drive, go.  It's awesome.  Cool stuff (way different than anything here), cheap stuff, showrooms set up for you to see what it would look like in a room, and Swedish meatballs.

Oh IKEA, the smartest part of your business plan is having delicious, cheap food for people to eat at your store.  It keeps people there for more hours than they would otherwise, and at least for the Selfs, serves as extra motivation to visit you.  I think if I lived in Charlotte, I'd go to IKEA solely for the food.

I've heard a rumor that there's other food at IKEA, but why anyone would buy that food when there's meatballs is beyond me.  For $4 (yes, four dollars!), you get Swedish meatballs, gravy, mashed potatoes , and ligonberry sauce.  It is so delicious!

Oh yeah, we also bought some furniture while we were there (but don't let this downplay the highlight of the day -- the meatballs).  We bought a TON of furniture while we were there.  We're talking one full cart and TWO flatbed carts (I have no idea what to call them other than that, but it's so you can load up all the boxes of put-together furniture).  We're talking get-stuff-delivered-to-our-house-and-we're-still-not-done amount of stuff.

Bless Jason, he's been hard at work putting together furniture.  It got delivered to our house on Halloween, and he's built four large pieces of furniture and two chairs so far.  His back will probably never be the same, poor thing.  I'll post some pictures once everything gets built and once I get books arranged on the bookcase and stuff.

Also, a special shout-out to Jill who joined us halfway through the shopping trip (just in time to eat meatballs with us), talked us into/out of certain items, and helped us lug stuff around the store and load things into our car.  She also went a bit crazy in the kids section, and we already knocked out Addison's Christmas (she's getting an easel and art supplies, shh, don't tell her!) while we were there.  Double score!