I felt SOOOO much better after being released from the hospital. I guess the 18-year-old blood is doing its work. However, a new side-effect for me is that I feel just a little queasy all the time. I decided that it wasn't worth taking the medicine which makes me feel brain-dead and tired out. So it reminds me of being pregnant. Yuck.

Steve and the kids had arranged the vacation days into job/reward sequence. They have cleaned and de-junked the toy room, rearranged the furniture in the family room downstairs, and cleaned their bedrooms, so we went to Ikea one day for the reward. I got a wheelchair, which was extra-large, and we had a grand time looking at everything and oohing and aahhing. Steve had brought measurements of the dining area, and we measured several dining tables, but none were exactly what we were looking for. We were all starving by the time this was all over, so we decided to be creative and eat at the Ikea restaurant! It was very delicious, and rather inexpensive.

While I was waiting patiently with the slow eaters, Steve took the quick eaters and disappeared back into the store. We were just about to try to find them when they came back and whisked us all away and made us sit around a table in several different formations. Turns out that the table was 1) on sale, 2) able to seat at least 8 without a leaf, 3) had a leaf to enable it to serve at least 12, and 4) had benches for each side, which means we could put more people of little sizes. So we bought a new dining table! Steve and Joseph put it together, and it is extremely lovely and functional -- the benches push in underneath to be completely out of the way.