Our anniversary day trip and organizing around home~by Beth

I have been wanting to do a day trip with Jon for a while.  When our anniversary landed on a Saturday this year, we took advantage of it.  We rarely go away together so it was a really fun thing to look forward to.  There is an IKEA two hours away in Tampa, so that was our destination.  We had our cow calendar cards to use for the month so we began our day with breakfast at Chick-fil-a. 

Our first selfie of the day

We got up to IKEA and began walking through the showroom.  We love to take our time, but some how we did it too quickly.  We sat down, grabbed a drink and talked for a while.  Then we went through the show room again! 

I love this kitchen

and this one too

After that we shopped on the lower level.  Fun. 

loading up the van 

After IKEA we drove down to Venice (Florida that is) to go out to dinner for our anniversary.  We had a gift card which made it so much more enjoyable!  For some reason we didn't snap a photo.

Here are the girls putting together one of the book shelves that we got.  This one did not hold a lot of weight so we are returning it in a few weeks when we head up there again.
I spent the following week putting together the shelves, moving bookshelves around, vacuuming up dust, and organizing books,etc.  In the end we got rid of one large (old) bookshelf and two shorter ones, and moving around 4 other shelves.  Jon also found a white shelf unit that is much sturdier than the Hemnes one we got from IKEA (the one we are returning) which I also put to use.  It was used and going out of a house.  It needed a toe kick, which Jon cut, painted and installed.  Eventually we will put some sort of a back on it (luan?).  But for now it is working beautifully.  I love getting organized.  We were able to purge some books, and also Christiana took her books and packed them up for her move to Texas in about a month.  These are the after pics.  Love them.

New Billy Bookcase is on the right, the others were moved and rearranged

The used unit Jon got that matches the Billy one

This was in the family room and is now used for school stuff

This was moved to the living room

This is the cabinet I put together with help from Charity and Stephen.  It cuts down on the clutter at the front door.  The tray was a new purchase too, but the rest we already had around home.

Love this