still pretending....

 April, you say?  86 and sunny, not a cloud in the sky? The birds singing, the splash pool filled on the deck?  Bare feet and sunburnt?  Pitchers of cold brew coffee, and buying bags of ice?  hmmm.  Sounds like a dream come true, a dream that we're all going to wake up from tomorrow...when the sun hides back where it belongs, in April in Central New York, and the rain comes back.  Oh, it'll get warm again.  But not THIS warm, for a while. We just skipped spring and went right to summer, like a little gift.

There's this thing called Marketplace.   It's like Craigslist, but better. It's addictive to scroll through, and anything you ever consider buying,  you can check there first.  If you buy something new in the store, you buy it knowing you could've gotten it cheaper on Marketplace.  When something good goes on, you had better claim it quickly, too.   I think to say that I haunt Marketplace would be just a tiny bit of an exaggeration, but I do scroll through it frequently.  I'd love new living room furniture, but it's so expensive, and I'm super picky, and it's something I hesitate to buy used.  It has to be just right, not very old, not very used.  Our coffee table is from Marketplace, I really like it.  Anyway...

On Friday, Paul was up in Oswego working on the house we are fixing up.  He had to meet the guy from the power company for an inspection.  I was home scrolling through Marketplace, and lo and behold, a patio furniture set, for $75!  Now, in Real Life, aka in stores, you'd pay that for just one of the cushions.  A loveseat, two chairs, and two ottomans.  It's hard to tell in pics if it's really nice or not, but for $75, go for it, right?  So I sent Paul to go for it.  I asked him, ever so nicely, to drop everything and go pick this up, it just happened to be a few roads down from where he was.  The owner had several-everal interested people, but so nicely said she'd hold it for me.

Anyway.  I hosed it down, sprayed it with Dawn, hosed it down again, sprayed it with carpet stain removal, hosed it down, then scrubbed it with Arm and Hammer detergent, hosed it down again.  It isn't perfect, but the frames are really nice and in good condition.  I think I'll try to steam clean it to get the rest of the stains out.  It's totally usable though.  I like it, and it's comfortable. And there, that's how you write a mini-novel about acquiring patio furniture from Marketplace. Well, I was so excited! And, I'm sitting out on the deck now instead of in my comfy chair! 

(the shadows of the trees, not stains)

  It actually came out quite clean!  And it's SO comfy!

Kathryn needed a few things from Target yesterday, and would I like to go?  um, yeah?   Camille and I accompanied her.  I pushed the cart with Rhys in the front, and baby Jamison in the back...we took him out of the car seat and carried him. He's so sweet.   Then Rhys fell asleep in the cart!

(In Target I also got some Cadbury eggs, those little candy coated chocolate Easter ones...70% off...)

(I was in the middle of hosing off the "new" patio furniture, and Paul said, "Let's go get ice cream!"  I ran in and grabbed a dress, quickest thing to change into, ha )(Going to get ice cream with Paul is also driving along the back roads, so fun!)

Char drove us there, but Paul decided she wasn't driving home with her ice cream, but I think he also wanted to meander a bit)

Sonja was at the hospital all day Friday and Saturday, so it was just the four of us.

The newborn baby leaves, just unfurled, love that color green against the sky.

And so for today, we're going to keep pretending it's summer.