Yeah, I know. Spring break was almost a month ago, and here I am just now blogging it. There were so many pictures to comb through, and I just couldn’t bear to do it on my laptop (SLOW) knowing that I was getting a new (FAST) computer soon.

So, although this post is not timely, I did want to preserve the memories of our fun trip to Branson, MO with my dear friend, Judy Cunningham and her two kids, Laren and Breagan. Despite a couple of LONG days in the van and missing BT (had to stay home and work) we had a fun, memorable time.

See photo album:

http://www.tolberts.org/lori/photo-albums/album/72157604527767557/Spring-Break-2008.html

I received this email and picture from my brother, Brent:

The Farmer’s wife shouted, “Look!”

And the farmer looked and beheld the bunny that had re-entered the garden paradise.

As the farmer’s wife mused aloud whether the cute critter was “Cain or Abel,” the farmer boldly answered, “Nay. Neither Cain nor Abel, but LUCIFER!”

As he stormed out the door, the farmer’s wife followed, camera in-hand, ready to chronicle the continuing adventure.

“Wife! Put down thy wretched camera and post not my farming foibles on thy blog!”

But alas, the Farmer’s commands to his wife were as fruitless his attempts to banish the bunnies.

if a Wood Chuck could . . . visit our garage right now?

Honestly, I think that we may have lost our minds! Being the deal savvy consumers (ie., cheapskates) that we are, when we heard that a local furniture manufacturer was closing their Dallas operations and liquidating nice bookcases for cheap, we got excited. We have really wanted to transform our front living room into a library, but we simply couldn’t BEAR the thought of shelling out $1,000’s for custom built-in bookshelves. And being children of craftsmen, we couldn’t BEAR the thought of hauling in cheap press board, slap ’em together yourself kind of bookshelves. There’s a time and a place for that type of furniture, but our special literary sanctuary deserved more.

So, Bryan hired a couple of wonderful teenage boys to help him pick up our load of furniture yesterday:

• Eight 7’x3′ bookcases
• Eight bookcase base cabinets
• Four desks
• Two window seat bases (94″ long) + tops
• One craft room work center base + top
• Lots of lumber for shelves, molding, etc.

Our garage is FULL!

Because of the pricing, we picked up some stuff for my craft room, the game room, and a couple of other areas of the house. The clincher is that everything we purchased is UNFINISHED. Our task list includes:

• Sanding, staining, sealing all of the furniture
• Installing all of the top/edge/base moldings
• Making (or finding someone to make) doors (29 of them by my count) for all of the cabinets.
• Installing all of this in the house BEFORE our baby is born (5 1/2 months from now).

I also still need to refinish the antique (garage sale) beds I got for the girls, and we need to finish up the molding/shelving in their room.

Despite the almost insurmountable task, we aim to be FINISHERS in every sense of the word.