..."OPERATION FREE FURNITURE UPGRADE" :o) :o) :o) I'm at a loss over how to properly explain to you how tricky it was to pull this thing off without making you read a 20 minute post. So, I shall try to explain how the magic happened as *briefly* as possible. But bear with me...keeping stories short has never been my strong suit!
So there we are sitting on our new (to us) leather loveseat. Cause we love each other. Awww. And because I made Jesse sit for a "blog picture" :o)
We said goodbye to this thing. It was from my grandma's house and smelled ever-so-faintly and suspiciously like pee, so no one will miss it. It was donated to the Airman's Attic...I feel kind of bad about the pee smell...but one man's trash, another man's treasure, right? 
This beauty has replaced it. And now the only thing that smells like pee around here is Lily...
And we removed this one from our living room, but not to the Attic yet, because it's match (our couch) will be going with it when it does leave the house. For now, it's living in our bedroom. The plan is to ditch them both before our next base (and buy a sofa when we relocate)...that way someone gets the set. We don't hate this furniture. It was given to us by a dear friend, and has served us well. But when we were at the Airman's Attic that first time, someone brought these leather ones in (and we've definitely been leaning towards leather when we buy) and we sat in them and longed for them but we couldn't get them because we had no way to transport them. So we left...
...And it broke my heart cause I could tell how bad Jesse wanted them...
...And I just knew that Lily would look so cute playing with them...(well, she actually really likes the pillows...she's recently become obsessed with getting them off the couches and onto the floor so she can climb all over them!)So I worked my magic and surprised Jesse! This is a miracle on many fronts, firstly because I am terrible at keeping secrets in general, but ESPECIALLY with Jesse. And secondly, because there were many ups and downs to this two week process...and like I mentioned earlier, I had thought we were going to get them much sooner than this.
Then plans fell through. Then more plans fell through. And the Attic has weird hours and rules about things.
Then I thought my friends Bethanne and Adam were going to decide they didn't want to be my friends anymore. :o) But I discovered they have endless patience and a great sense of humor about foiled plans. I think they started to secretly want to help me get this dang furniture as much as I did! :o) See, we don't have any friends with an easily accessible truck right now, so Bethanne and Adam were willing to pretend their big car (it's some SUV-sort-of-thing) was a truck. Even though it meant that Jesse and Adam had to take two trips to get this stuff into our living room.
Those are some dedicated new friends we have! :o) The pizza we fed them for lunch *hardly* seems adequate.
Oh, and as icing on the cake of plans not working out the way you want, Jesse came home in the evening to tell me he had to work CQ from 00-0600 again...meaning he'd be up ALL NIGHT. I cringed inside...because I hadn't told him about the surprise yet...and the surprise would mean he wouldn't get to sleep in!
But when I told him at 6:15am this morning that he'd have to be up by 9:30, and why, he was not too upset about it...probably because he half didn't believe me, and half thought this is one of the best surprises I've pulled off for him!
And I ran out and got him an energy drink. Oh, the many reasons he loves me.
So yes, that's actually the short story. Believe it or not, there are other crazy plot twists in there, but this will suffice. Thanks to the generosity and patience of our friends at the Airman's Attic and our real friends down the road, our living room is looking much classier...If you ignore the baby toys. And pack-n-play.
