In the past week we have stimulated the West Michigan economy in some significant (for us) ways. No LCD TVs or luxury cars, but some things we’ve needed/desired for a while. I’m so thankful to have a husband who isn’t impulsive in his buying but saves until we are able to pay cash for things we need. So, what’s been on the shopping list?
A New Mattress --After nearly 11 1/2 years of marriage and 4 1/2 pregnancies, our mattress was sagging badly. We tried to be diligent with flipping and rotating, but the troughs were evident. I haven’t been sleeping well for a while and Ray has had trouble with upper back/shoulder/neck pain. With the New Years mattress sales, we decided to brave the sales pitches and look for a new mattress. We’ve been happy with our mattress and so naively believed we could just walk into the store and say, we want one of these. Ha! Like everything else in the past 10 years, mattress technology has changed. They first asked us to undergo a sleep position/body type analysis. Talk about selling to men vs. women! When Ray was lying on the test mattress, the voice was telling him about all the scientific studies that had contributed to their findings and analysis. While I was lying there, the voice asked me if I remembered my favorite pair of shoes and reminded me that I spend more time in bed than in any other item I might purchase (obviously not aware that I am a mother of 4!). In the end, we discovered that I was a green and Ray was a blue (or was it the other way around?) They never told us exactly what that meant, except that I might prefer a softer mattress and Ray might prefer a more firm mattress. When I looked at the print out, green and blue were right next to each other on the spectrum and our individual lines were as close as they could be to one another without making us both teal (or would it be turquoise?!) Despite all that nonsense, we finally were assigned a sales man that explained how mattresses had changed, and then he took us to three that were actually in our budget range and as close to what we had before. The first guy had started us out on a $2500 mattress! Seriously…? It was delivered yesterday at 10:15. Unfortunately, my day’s schedule included taking down all the Christmas stuff and then babysitting for friends (with 7 kids), so I didn’t get to give it a trial run until almost midnight. Ahhhh, it was wonderful and worth enduring the sales pitch. And while we were looking for the mattress, we found…
Bunk Beds for the Kids—When we moved last year, we expected to set up the one set of bunk beds we had and then buy another one. Low ceilings and ceiling fans got in the way, and we’ve been looking ever since for something that will allow us to get Ben out of the crib and Katie out of the toddler bed, freeing up more room in their rooms. As I walked into the kids’ section at the furniture store, what greeted me but a special sale on a set of bunks that were just over 5 feet! Hooray!!! “I’ll take two please…” The boxes are sitting in the living room, just waiting to be assembled today.
And finally…Ray has wanted a piano since we were married. Space restrictions prevented us from getting one. We’ve kept one wall in the living room open in this new house as a visual reminder and to keep us saving. We went looking in June and were disappointed that we couldn’t quite afford one yet. I kept looking on Craigslist and found some possibilities. Then Thursday, in the midst of a lake effect snow storm, we visited a store that was advertising a piano liquidation. We saw some nice ones but they were still a bit out of our price range. When we got home (after some white-knuckle driving) I went on Craigslist and found one that we had noticed before Christmas. Since it was through a store near Ray’s work, he stopped by after work. To make a long story short—it will be delivered on Wednesday! It’s a 1993 Yamaha console in a dark cherry and has weighted keys and a practice mute pedal. I can’t wait to hear Ray play…
Pictures will come as soon as I have something to shoot.
Praising the Lord for his provision of good things!
