Just sit right back...

and you'll hear a tale....a tale of a fateful trip....

So, I've been trolling for dining tables for a few months now. My poor supper club has balanced plates on their knees, enjoyed "picnics" in every form that I could think of, and just flat ate in shifts for the past seven years now. When we shopped for our new house two years ago, a true dining room was a must on my list.

I've been on Craigslist several times a day and have gone antiquing too. I wanted it to be able to seat eight and not be something so pristine that I would want to put velvet ropes around it. In addition to being a dining table, I wanted the girls to do crafts and homework here, and I had hopes of putting my sewing machine out in plain sight for some much needed encouragment. If the kitchen is the heart of the home, then I figured the room adjoining it could be used more practically too.

I found the above set this morning at 7:30 am and a mere twelve hours later it now resides in my house. A meeting was set up for this evening at 5pm and we all of us tromped out to investigate. The seller's home was about 30 minutes away and we elected to go without cash in hand so as to avoid an impulse purchase. Supposedly it is from the 1940's and is a Bassett from Virginia. We sat in all the chairs (8!) and inspected the table and 3 leaves. The table folds down to a mere 28 inches in width and extends all the way to 108 inches when fully loaded. It has some scratches and spots, but nothing that couldn't be refinished or painted. We agreed on a price and then drove to find the closest ATM. Two ATMs later and a 10 minute drive back to the house, we loaded up 3 of the chairs with Jeff to return for the rest of it.

So, I'm driving, Jeff's next to me with a chair upside down on his lap, and the girls are in the back. By this time, it is 6 pm and Sara is hungry. Madeline has been appeased the whole ride with pretzels and juice, but Sara is sick of being strapped in and furious. She cries, red faced, the whole way home. With exactly two miles to go to our street, there is a big wreck and we are forced to turn around and add 10 more minutes to our trip. I start to laugh, b/c what else can you do, and remind Jeff of what a great story we will have about buying our dining table. We get home, and I take the girls upstairs to eat while Jeff makes the return trip in his rental car. His normal mode of transportation is a truck, but it is on it's 4th week at the collision center being repaired from April's hail storm. So, he's driving a Ford Edge, powered by Microsoft, and everything is touch screen right down to the turn signals. It has ambient lighting around the door handles, floor carpets, and controls. You can change the colors to one of twelve choices and then decide on it's saturation point. I prefer deep purple myself. Um....sorry for the rabbit trail, it really is hilarious compared to our ultra basic vehicles.

So off he goes on the return 30 minute trip and somehow manages to stuff everything in there with only a mere inch to spare. We unload everything and really the table is just perfect. There are a few more marks we didn't notice originally (like the dogs preference of chew toys :) , but that just makes me more happy and at ease for the life we will bring - and spill- to it.

I am

finally fully integrated into the mobile/texting/app happy world.

Shock. Eyes bugging out. Disbelief. Perhaps even an eye roll or two. Go ahead. I'll wait....

Better? Want to know how I've gone this long?

Cell phone days began for me in my first professional job out of college. I had a commercial real estate license and began showing property. Okay, I was only 22, and was showing property on behalf of another agent who didn't want to drive out to this one particular dud of a property. He gave me the safety talk and I bought my first prepaid cellphone. To be fair, I had thus far taken pride in the fact that I hadn't had one.

A few years go by; I get married, change jobs, and work part time as a rep covering the greater Knoxville (think Oneida) territory. I am thankful for this phone and dub it my "I'm in a ditch, come and get me phone". I had it in the car at all times and rarely used it. I'm not one for talking on the phone in general and really didn't understand the need to have one out and about to talk about .... well, I truly don't know what.

I used a company called Tracfone and for a mere $95 a year had service with 300 minutes, text, caller ID, and voicemail. I never texted or used voicemail. Only my mom, husband, and sister had the number. It was for emergencies...... only. I do distinctly remember talking to my husband after the September 11th attacks.

Fast forward to pregnancy (about 4 years ago). I upgraded my phone so that I could be found via GPS. All was well. Although cell phones were certainly every day life and standard equipment, I didn't understand the need for texting vs. e-mail. Plus, I couldn't give up my no hidden fees cell phone plan with rollover minutes; which, at this point were in the thousands.

Fast forward again to last summer. I was taking prenatal yoga classes and my teacher asked if I texted b/c that was how she communicated about the class. I began to feel a little silly about not texting. I told her no, and got these really drawn out messages about class with requests to call her back to confirm class being cancelled or postponed, etc. Apps were more than prolific and my old way of organizing my time/thoughts/dates was becoming tedious. I realized by not texting I was causing more work for other people to get in touch with me, and that BOTHERED me.

I hate causing people to work harder than necessary. I am the person who will walk across the store to reshelve an item properly. I always stack my dishes to make it easier on those that clear my plate at a restaurant. I figure with these service jobs in particular, people have a hard enough time as it is and you never know what kind of situation or conversation they have just walked away from. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything...

This past spring a friend called me to give me the rainy day plans for her son's party. She said, "I'm not sure what the weather will do by the time of the party, so I'll just text you." I had to tell her that I didn't text, but that I wouldn't be leaving until the party anyways, so I'd be around for the (voice) message. That really did it. Here was this poor girl trying to organize a party for a 1 year old and I just added to her stress by mandating a voice call.

Last month a good friend came over and did some batch cooking with me. She showed me her Droid phone and my jaw dropped. I knew that such wonderful capabilities were out there, but I had always kept my distance knowing that I would want one if I really knew how great they were. We had just scaled our budget back for other purposes and I couldn't find a way to come up with the monthly payment.

As timing would have it, my old Tracfone was up for renewal over the 4th of July holiday. If I had to renew it anyways, maybe I could at least get a fancier phone. I did a lot of online researching and found Virgin mobile. Prepaid. As in $25 a month for 300 minutes of talk, unlimited texting, web, data, blah, blah, blah. TA and DA!! I thought I'd try it and if worse came to worse, at least I wasn't committed to a contract.

One month in, and I truly LOVE my phone. I went antiquing over the weekend, got lost, and pulled up the GPS map to find my way. I have an app that gives me "sticky note" capability,and GLORY BE, the whole thing syncs up with my google account.

Hooray and happy day.

(Ashley writes for the column "True Confessions of a slow-acceptor" and is exploring something called a Blue-Ray while she wrestles the phone out of the hands of a 3 year old playing "mad birds mama!")

The Fourth! Lakeside!

Off to NC for the 4th! First things first,

picking blueberries at Mr. Cline's.



I brought my best blueberry picker and; about 10 minutes in, she smartly discovered the best picking came from Mom's basket.




Fishing at the lake with Daddy; early Sunday morning.






"Do you want to touch the fish?"
"Ummmm.... no thanks..."








Bathing al fresco- a Beckett baby tradition. Fun, easy, and avoids that horrific tub in the cabin.

I was pretty bummed to not see the fireworks lakeside this year. The spot on the dock cannot be beat! But, with a family of a 3 year old, 9 month old, and a senior dog afraid of the BOOMS!- coupled with no AC and spiders everywhere you look, we only had the energy for two nights. Ah, maybe next year.