Anniversary Shopping Haul (Ikea and the Container Store)

While on our Anniversary get-away we made a couple of stops at The Container Store, Ikea, Sam's Club and Target. The blind duster was a recommendation from Clean Mama whom I have been following for a while on Instagram as well as her blog. The Clip is my second one and I love that it holds my earbuds neatly in place when I store them with my Ipod. The soap dish is self explanatory. LOL . The small blue thing is a laundry bag for when we are traveling. I had one from the Dollar Store but it didn't hold up well. I am hoping this one which was recommended by Jennifer Ross will do better. 

This was a complete impulse buy. Although I have looked at them every time that we go to Ikea I have never picked them up. I just thought this time they would be cute in my ice tea or lemonade. I can't tell you when the last time I used a ice tray! 

We already have these in navy blue, but most of the time I use them to pack Marc's toiletries and our meds (in the small one). Since I had already picked up a pink packing set (same as the one below) I thought I should go all the way in and buy and additional set so that now Marc and I each have a set of our own.

This may not be the famous packing cubes from The Container Store but they have been great for helping me organize our bags when we travel. 

This was the whole reason I wanted to go to Ikea in the first place. I have been wanting to switch out our bedding in the summer for something lighter in color as well as lighter in weight. 

These are from Target. Marc looked at me like I was crazy but how do you not buy plastic versions of the famous paper plate? I can't wait to put them in some wicker trays. LOL

These were at Sam's club and I had been debating back and forth on whether to buy them. I am slowly purging my wardrobe and have picked up some new things here and there. I finally bit the bullet and tried them on (they are very comfortable) and they will be a good change from sandals or tennis shoes. 

National Cathedral

In honor of our 32nd wedding anniversary Marc and I booked an overnight stay near Washington DC to do a bit of shopping and to visit The National Catherdral. Every since Marc's professor mentioned it as a place that everyone should visit he had talked about it so I started doing some research so that we could visit during our anniversary week! Of course since we were going to Northern VA I knew I would try to make a stop at my two favorite stores in the area. We don't have an Ikea or Container Store nearby so when I get a chance I have to drop in! lol

When we booked our hotel I didn't notice that the address was directly across the street from the Container Store. Funny thing is that I didn't actually notice until the next day when I looked out the window. 

We also did a bit of shopping at the local Target which was accessed from a garage and then from there you took escalators up to the 3rd floor. 

I will be doing an Ikea, Container Store and Target store haul within the next few days.

Marc's favorite part of the tour was the view from the observation tower.

Mine was the little garden area next door to the cafe and Bishops Garden.

If I didn't already know where I was I could have easily imagined I was in England! 

I also loved visiting the shops because each section had an area that also reminded me of England. I don't have a lot of things on my bucket list but a trip to England  and Paris is definitely at the top of my list! 

The last few weeks have been tough ministry wise and Marc and I have been reflecting on how much time we have actually got to spend as a couple and with family and friends. We are not getting any younger and we are starting to realize we have to start taking out some time for us or we will look up one day and life will have passed us by! 

The National Cathedral is breath taking and I would recommend visiting it at least once. In the next few days I should have a mini trip report up on my travel page along with the shopping haul. I also have an Ipsy bag due in the next few days! 

So where is anyone else headed for vacation? 

Grad party guest

Some of our family, church family and friends who were at the Grad party. 

Longtime BFF of mine Teresa and her hubby Tyran.

Marc's only first cousin! 

Church friends who over the years have become family. 

My mom and her road dog Josie. Mom is always there whatever we are celebrating! I love that she cheers for Marc just like she cheers for me! 

My best buddies!!

Marc's buddy Kyle. They have been there for each other through some good and not so good times! Now that's true friendship!

Some of Marcs family members. Including his twin sister. 

The chairman of WABC pastors aid and the vision behind the party! 

Marc and a few of the young men of WABC. I love that we have been able to watch the youth at a WABC grow up and mature before our eyes! 

This was such a blessing to Marc. Again our smell church amazes me with the lice and care they have for my husband and for me and the rest of my family. I'm speechless at Gods grace and his mercy towards us! 

Grad party

This weekend the church held a grad party for Marcus at one of the local rec centers. Here are a few pics from the day! 

I spent a few weeks working on a memory book for Marc that I'm very proud of! Maybe I will share some of it on my treasured creations page. It's as close as I've come to scrapping in a while! lol 

Friends and Family gathering to celebrate! 

We used Marcs grad books as part of the decorations. This pic cracks me up because it's some of the youth from WABC trying to read some of them!! This pic is priceless to me because Marc said from the start one of the biggest reasons he went back to school was so that he could encourage the youth that it's never to late to further your education! 

Some of Marc's family.

I know for a fact Marc was humbled and surprised by all if the love shown him that day! He was so excited that morning that he was up and dressed at 6:30 AM. Keeping in mind the party was not until 1 pm. lol I'm so proud of him and I'm do appreciative of all the people who have offered him congrats and who showed up on Saturday to show him some love!! 

Home improvements bargain style!!

Most people spent Memorial Day weekend barbecuing. We spent it making home improvements! lol

Marc actually brought this faucet months ago but didn't have the time to work on it. This weekend he had no choice because the old one (that really wasn't that old) literally came apart at the sink!

It's bad enough we had just replaced our old washer and dryer a few weeks ago.

By Thursday our fan of 29 plus years just stopped spinning!! 

Thankfully we had one of those in storage with the idea of remodeling the Familyroom anyway but again that process had not actually started because of obligations to school and church. 

The good thing about Marc is that he's a handy man and a bargain shopper ( hence where I learned it from). So most of these items were not full price. He has a tendency to pick up things when he sees them on clearance and worries about where they will go later!! lol

Take for instance our new sofa recliner and chair. The man had been wanting to turn our Familyroom into his "movie" room for a while. But we could not afford the 1,000 dollar sofas sets we kept seeing in the stores. But a double recliner was always on his list for down the road. Imagine our surprise while in Richmond one weekend seeing a double recliner sofa with a turn down seat for drinks and your electric devices for a whopping $300! It had only been a few weeks before that he had walked into the same store and got the leather recliner for $99. Needles to say he jumped on it!! Our poor family room set had been holding on by a thread literally after nearly 17 years of abuse so it was definitely time for a change. 

Now I just need some lamps and a new rug. Eventually we will have to pull the twenty year old carpet up but again that will require some time and knowing my hubby a really good bargain on some new carpet or wood flooring. By the way did I mention we noticed warped boards on our foyer? 

Do the house projects ever end? 

The final project yesterday was the fan in our master bedroom. I won't even tell you how long that thing has been out!! But for now at least we have been able to check quite a few things off the honey do list! At least until something else breaks down!! 

Of course I have not even mentioned the fact that both Nicki and Marc's cars decided to take a sabbatical. Nicki finally gave in and joined the world of car payment owners. 

Marc is of course looking for a bargain!! lol The best part of this story is that none of this is on credit!! That's a reason to shout hallelujah!!! What do you think of that Mr. Dave Ramsey?? 

How a laundry dilemma became a testimony!

So the last few weeks have been exciting to say the least. I've celebrated my 51st birthday, Marc graduated from VUU with his masters degree and Nicki got a chance to see what life is like in the world  of YouTube. This summer Quisha is planning a cross country trip with friends and Marc and I will celebrate 32 years of marriage in June! We also have a big wedding to plan, and several more trips in the next couple of months. Not to mention the fact that May and June are some of our most busiest months in ministry. 

But as usual everyday living has a way of bringing you back to reality real fast!! lol In the middle of all the fun stuff we had some chaotic stuff going on behind the scenes. I had some major health issues to deal with, Marc's poor car seemed to have hit its shutdown mark after three years back and forth on the road to school and after nearly 25 yrs in our home we have had to accept the fact that some home projects could no longer be put off. This Included the firstmajor appliance we ever brought...our dryer of over 27 years.

 So last weekend just before we headed to Richmond for all of the festivities Marc went on Craig's list and found us a new washer and dryer for the price it would have probably cost us to get just a dryer. Now buying the set was the easy part. It was getting those bad boys upstairs that was the true test! That and swapping our the new for the old. Not only did Marc and my son (along with his brother) have to get the old set out in order to get the new set in they had to navigate the front porch steps, and all the twist and turns of our hallway. This turned out to be there biggest hurdle. 

But somehow the laundry story got me thinking about the twist and turns of daily life. Every day we navigate through life's good and bad moments. Some days the travel is smooth sailing then other days the mountain we have to climb seems impossible. But the whole time we are doing this we have to remember that God is always there leading the way. Some days the test will be a breeze and other days it will take everything in us to kept moving forward. But if we just keep plugging along sooner or later our test becomes our testimony! 

YouTube meet up

Life is never dull when I hang out with Nicki. Last week we found out that some of her favorite youtubers would be having a meet up in Richmond of all places. Now that Marc has graduated I thought it would be a while before I made that trip again but the moment I sent Nicki the info I knew we were going. lol 

The original meet up spot was at Short Pump Mall in front of California Kitchen. 

Nicki and I were one of the first ones there. 

Nicki waiting to meet Tiffany. 

Selfie time!! It wasn't long after I took this shot that the security at the mall made them leave the property and since Jerry and Dee were running late they had to scramble to find another location to continue the meet up. 

We ended up grabbing a bite to eat and then headed to the new location at a park about 15 minutes from the mall. 

Group pictures after the meet up got moved to a different location! 

TJ was so nice and spent a lot of time talking to us about YouTube and some of the struggles and triumphs of being in the business. 

Tiffany was a great encouragement to Nicki to not give up her goals. 

Jerry was hilarious!! You can definitely see why he's good at this. He kept the crowd going!! Dee is just a sweet girl all around. I loved how they interacted with one another. You can tell how much both couples love one another and you can tell how important it was to them that the people who came out to see them had a great experience. They spent a lot of one on one time talking with each person that came. That's a sign of a person who's not just in it for the money and fame!