Who goes there?!?

It's amazing what happens when you don't live in southern hell! I got a phone call from our good friend Erin this last week. She, Jaime and their kids had a free weekend and were wondering if we were going to be free. I've been talking with her about coming down, so this was a great opportunity because Buddy was actually off on Saturday. So, down they came!

We were really wondering if that was going to happen at first because we've been having some very disagreeable weather the last few days. Ok, by "days" I mean "weeks". There has been so much rain the past 9-10 days. Granted, I'm not that upset because I'd gone through a bit of "rain withdrawl" in our two years in Brownsville, but after the first 8 days of rain it just got a bit miserable.

So, with all the rain falling and reports of tornadoes and flooded roads and whatnot, we weren't sure they were going to come down. But, by some miracle, the rains let up in Houston at about 5:45 and they got on the road. That's when I had to begin to scurry.

You see, two weeks before Friday when Buddy and I had collected one of my last guaranteed bonuses, we bought the last of our necessary furniture. I needed a new recliner, we desperately needed a dining room table and we needed a book shelf of some kind to display some books and memorabilia. Well, it had arrived but was not going to be able to be delivered until Tuesday. That wasn't really good enough for me, especially with the probability of company arriving in a few short hours. So, I decided to rent a U-Haul van and we would take all of this home and put it together ourselves. And by "ourselves" I mean "Buddy". This also got us a $75 refund on the delivery fee of the furniture, which was double the cost of the U-Haul.

I up and left work about 3:30 after getting everything done Friday afternoon (I'd gone in at 7). We had to go to the U-Haul place and spent almost an hour renting the van. They aren't the brightest bunch there at U-Haul. We got over to Furniture Row to pick up the furniture and immediately got the refund on the delivery charge. They prepared everything but we found we'd have to make two trips because the chairs weren't put together. Apparently, we wouldn't get to do that, which was fine by us.

So, two trips there and returning the van and we were home. Buddy immediately got to work putting things together (he's like that) and I left to go get stuff to put on the table. In hindsight, I shouldn't have gone alone. I had a creative spurt and ended up leaving with WAY more than I intended. But, I found some great stuff and we LOVE how the table looks!

Also, having company come into town was a catalyst for us to do a few other things around the house we've been meaning to do. We got some mirrors that Buddy has had since he worked at Office Depot hung up. We were able to not only put books but some of our Hawaii memorabilia on our bookshelf. We got a few more pictures hung up. Oh, and we moved an old Ikea bookshelf that no longer matches our decorum moved out of the room. All of those are things we've been thinking of doing but it seems that we never had a reason compelling enough to get us off our buts.

Anyway, Erin, Jaime and the kids got here and we've had a great time. A short thunderstorm yesterday ruined the outing we were going to have, but we made up for it with some fun times in the apartment. I stayed home with the kids while Erin, Jaime and Buddy went shopping for dinner. Buddy, of course, had to show off his culinary skills for our guests who had never had the opportunity to have his cooking.

I must say, Buddy was quite the little entertainer. We had pre-dinner snacks galore. Buddy had bought some really smoky Gouda and paired that with some black-pepper & olive oil triscuts. Those tastes paired REALLY well together. He also got some Brie cheese and fig preserves, which was very light in comparison. I went back and forth a lot. For dinner itself we had a butternut squash risotto with melted parmesean cheese. He also made a grand marnier roasted chicken that was quite tasty.

It was so nice to break in our table with good food and good company. We stayed up late watching TV and laughed and laughed. Unfortunately Buddy had to go to work early this morning so he went to bed earlier than the rest of us. But we've had a good time despite the rain and whatnot.

Today I think the guests are going to the USS Lexington and I'm gonna do housework. Buddy is coming home from work soon so I'm gonna go after the dishes and laundry. I'm so happy having company!