Daddy's home!

Chad is finally home from West Virginia! Hooray! Avery seemed excited to see him. She's been talking (babbling) up a storm. Since he's been away from her for a few days, he says that she seems so much bigger and older. At this stage in her life, it seems like she's doing something new and different every day. I don't want to miss anything.

The mommy club went to Chili's today after the walk in the park. It's almost embarrassing to ask for a table for such a large crowd. "Five adults and six children, please. I'm so sorry." We always have to apologize beforehand. We get lots of stares. At least we're brave enough to venture out now and then. Pretty soon we're only going to be able to frequent places like McDonald's. Heaven forbid.

I've been painting the bathroom while Chad has been out of town. It wasn't bad before. Just not my taste. It was standard issue white, but the previous owners added a wallpaper fence border around the chairrail height and birdhouse wallpaper around the top with stamped ivy around the door and window. Overkill. So I dragged out the can of paint we had intended to use in our study. We were going for Alabama Crimson. (I think the actual color name is Drumbeat Red.) We just got too busy to paint. One can definitely wouldn't have covered the entire study. It has barely covered the tiny little bathroom. It took about 7 coats. What was I thinking? At least I like the color. I need to hand the blinds back up so we can actually use the bathroom.

When I hinted to Chad that I had a surprise for him upon his return, he was afraid that either I was pregnant or I had called the Empire Today carpet people and had new flooring installed. Now which of those do you think would be the lesser of two evils? Yikes! Needless to say, he was relieved to know I had only painted a 4 x 6 room.

International Furniture Market is this week in High Point. It's my dad's big show for the new lines for the coming season. There are two big ones each year plus a pre-market for each one. He's also got a couple of smaller similar events that he preps for, but "Market" is definitely the best. Many of the residents of High Point, NC, move out of their homes during Market and rent them to furniture manufacturers for the week so all the reps can stay together somewhere more comfortable than a Motel 6. Anyway, the showroom is incredible. Dad's company, Fairfield Chair, has a showroom in the old historic post office. It is divided up so they can put their new designs on exhibit and let retailers come in and place orders for their store showrooms. Everything from the upholstery to the accessories to the paint on the walls is carefully chosen so the buyers can see how incredible all the furniture looks. I'm pretty proud of my dad. He works so hard and is so talented.

Mom is in High Point for the weekend to see Daddy and the new lines. And when the showrooms close each day, everyone ends up eating some great food and enjoying the market season nightlife. I think she enjoys catching up with all the reps' wives that she hasn't seen since the previous market, too! It's a mini-vacation for her.

No new pictures today. I'll download them all tomorrow now that we have the computer back. It's nice to be back!