IKEA is great, but...

Don't get me wrong, I love IKEA just as much as the next lady. They have amazing storage ideas, low prices and innovative things you can't really find elsewhere. I like taking G-Man there, stroll around, gab with a friend, and pick up some much needed organizational items.

But besides the crazed people that drive hours to be there that take pictures in front of it; besides the women that push you out of the way with the giant carts because they're not paying attention; besides those things, let me tell you a little story.

The Hubs and I decided we wanted a new bed. The one we have is a king size and it was a hand-me-down four years ago. It's lumpy, uncomfortable and slopes to one side. I've been having trouble sleeping lately so we decided to treat ourselves to a new mattress, headboard and side tables.

"We'll go to IKEA," we say to each other. "They have great stuff."

We pack up G-Man and head to IKEA. We go to the mattress section and start picking out a new bed. About two beds into our laying down I realize just how many people have probably laid in those test beds....ick. As I make a mental note to burn my clothes when we get home, we decide on which bed we like the best. We tell the attendant and she prints us off a piece of paper. We look at her like she spoke Swahili. "What's this for? How much is delivery?" She looks at us just as perplexed and says "you bring this to the check-out and then set up delivery down there." Okay, fine.

Then we swing past the bedroom furniture department to pick out a frame. We find one we like and look on the back of the tag; it comes in three packages? Okay, fine. We write down the aisle number and bin of said packages and head downstairs.

We go to the aisle and bin and....nothing. It's not there. Some other bed is in that bin. We look in the next bin, and the next and the next. Nothing. We ask someone, they again look at us like we're idiots and say "well what bin number did the tag say?" I swallow my urge to be just as polite and sarcastic back (i mean, what sort of example is that for my son?) and tell her as nice as I possibly could that we checked that bin and it wasn't there. She tells me I must've written it down wrong. Of course, that MUST be what happened.

We finally, after 30 minutes of looking, find two of the three packages for this bed two aisles away from where it should've been. Then we realize we're missing some middle piece, we finally find that too. Now all we need to look for are the slats that go under the mattress. Another 20 minutes of looking and we still can't find the damn slats. I then realize G-Man has eaten half of the paper we needed to buy the mattress. Great. He smiles at me, so proud he has destroyed this piece of paper.

As we're looking for the slats we run into another customer who looks just as upset and disheveled as us at this point. He can find his damn bed either.

SUCCESS! We finally find the aisle and bin for the slats and....it's sold out? It's freakin' sold out. We track someone down and ask if they have more. He checks and says "we're out." No shit, sherlock. I ask, "when will you get more in?" Another call on the radio later we find out they have no idea when they'll get more in. FAN-tastic.

We ask how much delivery is going to be and we're told we need to go buy our stuff first THEN go to the delivery desk and they'll tell us. So you're telling me I have to buy all this stuff first THEN find out how much and when delivery is? Um, I think not.

At this point G-Man is getting crabby, no doubt that paper probably isn't sitting well, and we decide we can fit this stuff in the car and I'll look online really quick and see if we can just buy the slats from IKEA online. I look online...it's out of stock on there too?

I'm hot, pissed and starting to resent the last 2 hours we've spent in this damn store.

Long story short, if you go up to our room today you'll see our lumpy, uncomfortable, slanted, hand-me-down king-size bed.

Mom2Mom

As a mom I'm always looking for good deals on gently used stuff for G-Man. I hate paying full price for something that he'll use or wear for a small amount of time. I read about celebrity kids who wear designer clothing, have nursery furniture worth tens of thousands of dollars, silk burp cloths, and chenille diapers. As someone who doesn't rely on nannies and doesn't have money to dry clean burp cloths, I rely on something called mom2mom sales. It's basically an indoor garage sale just for baby and kid stuff. I had heard about these sales and decided to check one out with a friend. I was expecting crazed moms dashing in the doors "Black Friday" style and chop-blocking each other for the last $1 pair of pants. I wore my tennis shoes just in case and contemplated bringing a bullet proof vest (I mean, we DO live in a Detroit suburb).

We arrive half asleep (it was 8am), coffee in hand, pay our $1 to get in, look up and start to hear the angels sing; aaaaaaaahhhhhhh. It's tables and tables of gently used baby things; $1 pajamas, $2 pairs of shoes, $2 pairs of pants. There are onsies as far as the eyes can see, toys from vintage to new-with-tags, books, holiday gear, strollers, and on and on and on. It's like our mecca...mom mecca.

We were overwhelmed and in awe of what we were seeing! We kept saying to each other "we wish we would've known about this sooner!" It was like we were "in", like it's this underground sale we need to exchange an egg to get directions for.

The best thing about the sales: it's every weekend at different locations all around the metro area.

In true Katy fashion, I made a list of things I needed to look for and although I definitely still have things I need, I totally scored.

G-Man now has:
two pairs of track pants
two pairs khakis
one pair of sweat pants
three pajamas
one Christmas pajama
a long underwear onsie
a BAG of about 15 pairs of socks
a Christmas sweater
a Playskool child-size grill that talks
a Dr. Seuss book
a Charlie Brown Christmas book
all for.........

$25 dollars total!

I'm totally going back. :)