What a day!

My rose decided to have one last bloom before it gets cold. It is the most beautiful it has looked since I planted it this summer. It never had this many blooms all at once until now. I think I'll be in for quite a treat next summer. The pity is that they really fade fast. The blooms on the left of the plant really only opened yesterday. By tomorrow they will have lost all of their petals, but they sure are gorgeous while they're there.



Yesterday I spent my birthday gift card to IKEA on a new sideboard for my dining room. It was tough to choose something from there. It's where I do all of my furniture dream building. In the end the number of drawers on this bad boy won me over. Nine new drawers have now been added to my kitchen! I'm so excited!! Now my table linens, trivets, and other goodies for setting the table and serving will have real homes. And that nasty free shelf will be gone from my dining room.

The only thing left to do is to put up chair rails, paint, and change the chandelier out. Oh, and move the larger table over. It'll be splendiferous!

Patrick and I spent almost all day getting this put together. Neither one of us realized the amount of work that would be needed to finish. I think I counted 14 different things that had to be done to each of those nine drawers before they were completed. The drawers alone made us rethink our policy on having someone else assemble our furniture.



Last, but definitely not least ... The best behaved children in the world! I'm biased, I know. They were all so wonderful today! And Oma told us that last night not a single one of them complained about going to bed. They were all even more delicious today than usual, listening, cooperating, cuddling. I don't think we could have gotten through the six hours of labor on that shelf without these three to keep us smiling. Thank you Gillian, Liam, and Cora for making each day so very special. It's an honor being your parents.