The Country Table

I dont get to see my mama as often as I would like, since we live 8 hours apart.  I was so thrilled when she and Aunt Dolley came to be with us this last week while Steven was (and still is) in Utah for work.  I love my mama... Ive always loved  my mama, but when I became a mama, I gained a whole new appreciation and deeper love for mine.  I  found myself just loving the crap out of my girls this week and really really enjoying them.  They make my heart leap. I was holding Emery close to me, smelling her hair and kissing her to death,  and i asked my mom, "Is this how you felt about me when I was a baby??" She looked at me with a smile on her face and replied, "I still do feel that way about you."  (insert sob fest here)

I love when Im with my mom.  And I love when she's with me. The last few times Ive seen her we haven't really gotten to do anything majorly FUN.  Being in her presence is enough for me, but while she was here, we had FUN.  I'll leave out the part where we worked for hours on end in my yard, completely overhauling a serious eye sore of a landscaping job in the front, planting and mulching my side yard, and mowing and weeding and seeding the rest of it...and Ill just skip ahead to the fun stuff.

We went yard-saleing, we went house touring in homes so far out of our price range it was ridiculous, we spent an entire day at the zoo and rode a carousel, got a birds eye view of the African Savannah, took a train ride through the Outback, & watched penguins parade through the tundra.  We watched movies and visited Walt Disney's first ever studio: the Laugh O Gram studio in downtown KC.  We went to the Crown Center and ate at Fritz's where a little train delivered our meal to us.  We stayed up too late and woke up too early.  

Of all of that, the most fun we experienced together came from a late night ice cream run.  This week was spring clean up in our city.  That means you can put nearly anything on the curb and someone will pick it up.  On our way to Dairy Queen we noticed lots of things that people were throwing away, that weren't really trash at all.  Mom had to remind herself that she could only take home what could fit in her car, and it was already pretty full.  We drove around the neighborhood anyways, just taking a peek at what was out.  We passed a truck hauling a trailer, stopping here and there loading stuff up to potentially sell at a thrift shop.  We passed another guy scrapping metal.  We were driving, driving, driving and then we spotted something.  A table.  You see, Steven and I have been discussing a new outdoor set for our deck.  We currently have a little bistro dining set, big enough for two, but there are 4 people in our family now....and we love eating outside.  We havent purchased anything yet because, well....have you ever seen the price of a nice, decent patio set?!  God has really been moving our hearts to be better stewards of our money and we just cant come to terms with spending hundreds on something that sits outside.  There are a lot of things we can do with $500+ and buying patio furniture isnt one of those things.

So: mom spots this table and says, "You need that."  I look at it and think, "uhhh.... no. no i dont.  It needs to stay right there on the curb where it belongs: in the trash."  She stops next to it and says, "no really. you need this table.  Its FREE."  Mind you: we are in her dodge charger and we've already found a little cozy coupe for Annie that we picked up.  I say (still not REALLY wanting this table in my life), "how in the world are we going to get it home? this thing wont fit in your car."  For those of you who have the privilege of knowing my mama, you know that she is one of the most driven and determined women that exist on this planet.  If there is something that needs done, she will not stop until it has been done.  There's always a way. We sit there for a second, while the people inside the house are probably watching us... and she says, "lets go back and get your van!  It'll fit in there."  (its true, it would.)  So, still reluctant I say, "Ok. lets go get it."  (we are only 4-5 blocks from my house)  As we are pulling off we see the truck with the trailer, making his way to the street we are on.  Mom hits the brakes, throws her car in reverse and says, "OH NAW YOU AINT!!  If we dont get this table right now, that dude right there is going to pick it up, I guarantee you."

What I failed to mention is that this table - looks like junk.  The glass is in tact and all of the parts are there, but its terrible.  White, rusted, and the legs wont even stand up straight because they're so loose.  So again Im like, "its ok, I guess it wasn't meant to be."  But I tell you my friends, it was.  It was so very much meant to be.  Mom and I hop out of the car and grab the frame of the table and try to put in in her trunk.  Not happening.  Not going in the back seat either.  So she says, "Ill ride in the back of the trunk with the lid open if I have to."  (YALL, we are from the country, ok!!!!)   We set the base down and we grab the glass top and stick it ON TOP of her car.  We dont have a single strap to tie this thing down with, but somehow - its coming to my house.  While we're standing there, with this big giant round table top on top of this car, a light bulb comes on in my mother's head.  "IVE GOT IT." she says.  "You drive, (since I know the way home) and Im going to get in."  I then proceed to hand her the base of this table and she holds it... out the window.  So here she is, one hand on top of this glass thats sitting on the roof of her car, and the other hand holding the table legs....outside of her car.  I jump in and grab the other side of the glass top with  my hand and we head for home.  

If you were to pass us driving down the street, you would have reacted the same way the guy with the trailer did when he passed us. You would shake your head and just laugh because it was so. so. ridiculous.  Here we are: driving down the city road....with a round table top on top of the car, each of us have a hand on it....and a table base out the window.  We laughed so hard and so much on the way home its a wonder we were able to even hold on to this thing.  When my Aunt Dolley came outside and saw what we did she almost peed herself laughing, "YALL ARE SOME COUNTRY FOLKS." But you know what: we got that table home and i wish we would have taken a picture .... because you would be laughing as hard as I am right now typing this.

Once we unloaded the table we drove around a little more trying to scout out some chairs for me.  We found a lot of the cheap plastic chairs - but the wind here can get crazy, and I really didnt want plastic ones.  I posted on our swap shop asking if anyone had any chairs they were looking to sell, but had no luck.  A few days later a friend of mine in another neighborhood found 4 chairs sitting on the side of the road (they have a different trash pickup day than we do) and picked them up for me.  They did not look pretty, but they, again, were free:

Mom spray painted the table for me while she was here and made it look fabulous.  So I figured with a little spray paint, these could look fabulous too - and they did.

Especially since I painted them the same color as my "country" table.

So now Im proud to say that we have a new outdoor dining set, that was completely FREE minus a few cans of spray paint and some new chair cushions that I got at Walmart for $14/each and I LOOOOVE IT.  The best part is that every time I look on my deck and see this table - or every time I sit at it, Ill always have this memory and will probably laugh about it for the rest of my life.  I love you Mama, and our adventures.  So thankful that God gave me to you and that you taught us to see past the ugly and that a little really is a lot. Thanks for teaching us to make do with what we've been given and that real happiness comes from the people we love and the things we get to experience, not material things.   I wish that you could stay forever, but Im glad that I got an entire week with you.   Remind me, when my girls get older and marry, to never ever let them move away.

I love my country table - and the fun, ridiculous memory that surrounds it.  It'll definitely be a conversation piece for years to come!