Christmas in July

Between inspiration on Pinterest and blogs,

I began stalking the IKEA website.

I made my (not-so) little shopping list,

started adding things to my cart...

until I noticed the shipping charges.

YIKES!

Of course, I wanted to order

large, heavy wall units

so naturally, the shipping was more than average.

Then I realized Marc's hotel for his conference 

was only 10 miles away from 

IKEA in Atlanta!

I had it all planned out, all mapped out...

I was going shopping!!!!

And then...

Zelda got sick (again),

and I stayed home to take her to the vet 

(3rd time in 5 weeks!)

 I was not happy...

not happy she wasn't feeling better yet,

not happy I had to go back to vet's office,

not happy to know Zelda had been in pain,

not happy to miss my shopping trip!

Marc knew how disappointed I was,

and promised me he would take me to IKEA 

before our summer vacation was over!

(Not sure if I brag on him enough...but he spoils me rotten!

We will call little Z Princess Zelda

and I remind Marc that makes me the QUEEN!

And 95% of the time...

he treats me just like that!)

So Tuesday was the BIG DAY!

(After he helped move furniture

 into the PS classrooms on Monday!)

We got to IKEA shortly after they opened...

and nothing could have prepared me for how big it is!
(336,000 sq ft according to an employee!)

 The "Markus" chair...

 Swedish meatballs at lunch

(smart people to put a restaurant inside...

strategically placed at the end of the "Showroom" upstairs. 

Everyone is starving after 

covering that whole floor of shopping!)

No pictures of us shopping...

it's serious business, people!

Here we are in line...Marc with his cart...

 and me with mine.

(You can't tell from here 

just how much is shoved in that cart!)

It's a miracle it all fit in the car!

 But we still made room for a pit-stop at Target!

We couldn't resist a 2 story Target...

but it turns out the store is all one floor.

The bottom floor is a parking deck.

But we did pick up 

a birthday gift,

 a baby shower gift,

and got Marc a few back-to-school essentials!

Thankfully, they were all small!

And then...

(exhausted yet? We sure were!)

...it was time for Harry!

Marc wanted to see the final 

Harry Potter in 3D at the IMAX.

We were both grateful to sit down for a while.

(we were in IKEA for 4 hours!)

Harry was great...I cried several times!

On the way home, 

we stopped at Stonecrest 

to return an item to Best Buy.

We decided to eat dinner at Smokey Bones.

They had funny sayings throughout the restaurant,

even in the bathrooms!

 Like Marc's graduation cap?

That's a lot of sweet potato fries!

We took some home in a doggy bag for Zelda! hahaha

On Wednesday, Marc spent about 5 hours 

putting together all my IKEA purchases!

I didn't plan for him to do it all in one day,

but he said once he'd gotten started, 

he wanted to finish!

The room's not quite ready for it's big reveal,

but I definitely got a room full of furniture!

I'm excited about decorating,

since I finally picked my color theme.

I still need to paint,

(see the paint chips taped the wall behind me?)

buy and hang curtains,

and I am finally going to paint a canvas for myself!

Here's a sneak peek of me at my new desk...

Thank you, Marcus for my Christmas in July!

Thank you, VISA for paying for my purchases...

you are now retired!