Awkward and Awesome Thursday

I am totally borrowing the 

"awkward and awesome" idea

from the lovely Sydney at The Daybook blog.

There is just no other way to describe the day I have had 

without using the words "awkward" and "awesome".

Let me start by sharing the single most AWESOME event:

My sister-in-law, Blair, gave birth last night

to the most beautiful baby boy.

They named him Eli Paul.

It was just March when my brother's wife, Crystal, 

gave birth to my sweet nephew, Macklin. 

{Words truly can not express holding your brother's son.

It warmed my heart to see Alex do just that.}

And now, I get to be Aunt Tay on both sides of the family.

How awesome is that?

He is just perfect!

So, this morning we knew we wanted to be at the hospital for quite a bit

but had plenty of things to get accomplished as well.

Alex got to work from home this morning {awesome}

and I took care of some items on our to-do list.

Al had a meeting close to home around 11:00

so we planned on going to the hospital 

to meet and hold sweet baby Eli {awesome}

during his lunch break.

While Alex was at his meeting I started cleaning

only to find this mess in our guest bedroom:

What you are looking at here is cat pee {awkward}

on our new duvet cover!

Thankfully I smelled the pee right away and got the duvet cover in the wash pronto.

But, the bad thing about a duvet cover is there is a nice, expensive down comforter inside.

After quickly, and carefully, whipping the duvet cover off the comforter

I soaked up all the cat pee from the comforter

and threw it in a laundry basket to be taken to the laundromat.

I washed all the sheets and duvet cover

and, praise God, there is not a hint of cat pee left on them {awesome}.

I knew that Pottery Barn was supposed to deliver our new dining room table {awesome}

between 12:30-2:30 but I thought to myself,

there is no way they will deliver on time,

so when Alex got home before 12:00 

we decided it would be best to postpone the laundromat until after the delivery of the table 

and since that wasn't going to be on time

it would be best to visit the hospital right then.

Man, we were way off.

We had only been at the hospital for 15 minutes before PB called.

I tried to ignore their call, again wrongly thinking they couldn't be on time.

We visited for another 5 minutes before my phone started blowing up.

We ran out of the hospital and called PB.

On the phone they were cordial and very understanding

but when we arrived home at 1:00

we were greeted by two very, VERY unhappy delivery men {awkward}.

We tried to explain the situation to them and apologize but they didn't 

grant us much sympathy and honestly, I don't blame them.

As if things weren't awkward enough, 

we are trying to be "hip" and decided to go with a cowhide over a neutral rug 

for the dining room floor.

It must not have gelled with one of the delivery guys because he asked,

"Do you want me to put the table on top of your floor decoration here?"

{Awkward... and awesome, if you think about... 

"floor decoration" -- pretty awesome phrase... just sayin'!}

We told him that yes we did want our dining room table 

to go on top of our cowhide.

We felt so guilty for being late and embarrassed by the whole situation,

 that we bashfully stood in the living room

trying to hide our shame while they set up the table{awkward}.

We were so relieved once they left

and the table is stunning {awesome}!!

As soon as the PB delivery men left Alex returned to work and

I hurried to the laundromat to get the down comforter in the wash.

I haven't been to a laundromat since I was a sophomore in college.

Let's just say I was a little rusty {or awkward}.

Before I left I did remember to grab some quarters and detergent.

When I got there, the manager pointed me in the direction of the heavy duty washing machine.

It cost $5.25 -- and just my luck, I had $4.25 in quarters.

I ran out to my car to find another 2 quarters, leaving me 2 quarters shy.

I had 50 cents, but not 2 quarters. 

I figured the machine would take any coin, despite the 25 cent sign clearly located on the coin slot.

The manager had to catch me before I inserted all my nickels, dimes, and pennies {awkward}.

All the while, the "regulars" were giving me evil and very judgmental glares {super awkward}.

Once I got the machine going, I had a nice 25 minutes to kill.

When time was up, I obviously had no extra quarters to dry the comforter

so I took my sopping wet bedding and shuffled out the door {awkward}.

 Disappointed with our short hospital visit earlier in the day,

I was determined to run the rest of my errands before Alex got home from work.

I didn't have time to drop off the soaking wet comforter at home,

so I made a makeshift dryer in my car. 

After spreading it out in the backseat, 

I hung each corner on a headrest and rolled down the windows.

Most of the errands were successful and relatively awkward-less

until I got to Trader Joe's.

Both my mom and dad swear by mixing vinegar and water together 

in a spray bottle and using that instead of cleaning solution.

While I was grocery shopping at TJ's I figured I would try their 

little inexpensive cleaning secret {awesome}.

I went to the aisle that had vinegar but I didn't see just vinegar.

All the labels seemed to have extra ingredients like

balsamic, or spice, or apple-cider.

I decided to ask the guy carrying around the question-mark on the stick,

{if you have shopped at Trader Joe's then you know who I am talking about}, 

which vinegar would be best for cleaning.

Well, this poor dude totally misunderstood my question.

He thought I was asking about which vinegar to drink to clean out my system.

It took me a while to catch on to his misunderstanding

but there was no mistaking it when he said,

"Just mix apple-cider vinegar with some honey and lemon and 

everything will be cleaned right out of your body."

Oh my heavens! I was mortified {awkward, very awkward}.

I ended the conversation quickly, thanked him, 

and checked out immediately.

Thankfully the day ended very awesome-ly.

Alex and I went back to the hospital and had a nice extended visit with 

Andrew, Blair, and sweet Eli.

I mean, could it get any better than that?

{awesome.}

I didn't take many pictures while at the hospital. 

Check out Blair's blog soon for more of Eli.