Call me crazy, but getting good deals makes for a grrrrrreat weekend around here

We don't tend to have very exciting weekends. Unlike Kate, whose weekends consist of wineries and beaches and date nights to fun places, all while dressed with impeccable style. And while this weekend STILL does not rival wineries and beaches and date nights, it was, by our low standards, exciting. (Y'all know I was wearing my yoga pants the whole time, right?)

Friday afternoon was my Christmas. I found a piano on craigslist, got the price down to where I wanted it (aka super, ridiculously cheap), and arranged to pick it up. This.... was no easy task. It's not like we could just lift it over our heads and stick it in the back of Steve's truck. So we rented a small U-Haul truck with a ramp (and a dolly- that bit of genius (or is that better classified as "common sense"?) was all me) so that we (and by "we" I obviously mean "the men") could lift it onto the dolly and roll it up into the truck. And it went quite smoothly. Until we got home and realized that all of our big, strong neighbor-men weren't home to help us unload it. I HAD FUDGE INCENTIVES AND EVERYTHING. Rats. As I was attempting to help Steve lift up one end (oh AHAHAHAHA it only weighs 9,000 lbs), our attached neighbors pulled up and asked if we were moving. With that tiny little truck. Yes, we're going to move one room at a time. (Funny side story: One of our neighbors moved everything out of his entire house with his MINIVAN. It took him WEEKS, but I'm assuming he was just taking everything to a storage unit somewhere. I thought it was comical to watch him load that thing down. He even pulled up the pavers in his backyard and loaded each individual brick in there.) So luckily our neighbor helped Steve get it inside. It needs a good tuning, but is otherwise in pretty decent shape. The folks we bought it from are Army as well, and it's been moved around quite a bit, so it's showing some wear on the wood. Not that I mind. (You've all seen my house! I like beat up, secondhand things!)

But since I got it so cheap, I'm thinking about doing this to it.

I know at least half of you (probably more) are like, "GACK! Don't paint a piano! That's so TACKY!" But please refer back to my house tour- there are approximately 9 kajillion pieces of furniture that we own now that are wooden. It's just SO MUCH WOOD. And wood is not very bright. Besides a love of solid wood furniture, I hope the other takeaway from my house tour was that I like bright colors. So this makes sense to me. And if it gets beat up post-paint-job (during a move or by an unruly child), I can either touch it up or leave it alone and call it "shabby chic." All of that to say, you're probably not gonna talk me out of this one.

Back to the story here though. Since all of the picking up and moving and dropping off and returning took us right up to 8:30pm, we came straight home and threw Sam in bed (gently, of course), fed Molly again, and ate dinner before crashing into bed ourselves. To say that I was feeling like a kid on Christmas morning the next day would be an understatement. It felt SO GOOD to play again. And I'm so thankful to Steve for giving up his Friday night to do all of that for me. Now as his repayment, I need to learn "Eye of the Tiger." Anyone know where I can find the sheet music for that?

*****

Saturday morning, Steve left EARLY (like, crack o' dawn early) to head down to Auburn. He went there to buy the truck of his dreams. (Why drive to Auburn when you could buy it here in town, you ask? A $10k price difference and a fair trade-in value, that's why.)

This means that he had to part with his trusty Colorado. He's had that truck since I first met him; he used to drive me to class and on dates and to the park and he hid my engagement ring from me under the back seat. So I was a little sad to see it go. (I mean, not so sad that I shed a tear or anything, but sentimental value, right? Unfortunately that does not outweigh real-world dollar value.) His old truck was still running fine but it had this "back seat" made for people with no kneecaps. So TINY. There was no way we were fitting any carseats back there. (And that, my friends, is when you know when the times are a-changin'- when you buy a vehicle based on how the carseats will fit inside. <SIGH>)
Let's have a quick photo recap of some fun times with the Colorado.

The Great Auburn Blizzard of 2008. We had just started dating. And yes, we both lived in trailer parks during college. Laugh it up.

After we got married, we upgraded to a "reel niiice" trailer park. I swear, it really was nice. All college kids, all newer trailers. It was nice. Honest. I bet everyone who lives in a trailer park tells you it's a "reel niiice" trailer park and you probably don't believe me. Just trust me though, it ranks among the classier trailer parks you've seen.

Getting ready to head home after a trip to the park. It was actually another trailer park down the road. Probably the NICEST trailer park in the history of trailer parks. We couldn't afford to live there. But we drove there like we were high-falutin' folks and let our dogs swim in their ponds and run around their fields. My classy points are headed down the toilet, aren't they? Wait, did I even have any after I mentioned the first trailer park?

While I have no photographic evidence of it, the Colorado did make the trip to VA (where we REALLY upgraded to an apartment), then to PA (to transfer all of our belongings to a different truck), then down to TN (where we lived in our first real, attached-to-the-ground-but-only-by-cinderblocks house). We thought this was our last move for a few years...

... but then we moved on-post (to a house that is TRULY attached to the ground. And two stories. We just keep upgrading it seems. WHERE WILL WE MOVE NEXT?! A damn mansion is on the horizon apparently).

This is the last picture of Steve with his truck. It's the end of the road for the Colorado (literally! pun intended!).

He got home around nine last night, so I didn't see it. I wanted to see it in broad daylight, in all of its brand new shiny glory. (Plus I had seen pictures of it and a truck is a truck is a truck in my book.) BUT. I gotta admit that it's pretty amazing. First of all, the air conditioning is awesome. That checked off the major must-have in my book. The back seat could easily fit 3 sumo wrestlers and their respective Big Gulps, while I still have leg room up front! Heaven! Sam's legs can't even reach the back of my seat! So no more seat-kicking whiplash for Mommy when we do not ride tandem next to an 18-wheeler for the duration of our errands and trips, as per his requests. (I'm fluent in grunts and jibber jabber in case you were wondering.) Steve loves that it's BIG and NEW and rides smoothly and I think trucks do something weird and primal to men. Maybe he feels like he can now slay a giant moose and haul it home and be The Ultimate Provider. I dunno.

"Jenn! You didn't get the whole truck in there. You gotta take another one."

This is acceptable. 

But it serves its purpose for our family and we are grateful to have located such an awesome deal. So as far as the excitement factor for our weekend goes, I guess it was mainly exciting in terms of getting good deals. If you're into paying full price for things, this post probably didn't do much for ya..