Friday, August 22, 2008

The Life of a Bunk Bed

So, the first piece of "real" furniture that Rich and I bought was for our kids, not ourselves. It was a bunk bed set. I remember looking all over the place for them. I finally found the rock solid ones we bought at Levitz Furniture. (This isn't the greatest of pictures.) I remember the day they came and how excited Chris and Lindsay were. I remember we paid just over $500 for them and that was a fortune. And I will always remember yesterday...the day they no longer will be used by one of our children, almost 25 years later. It's just about as bad as the day we officially took the crib down...more on that in a moment.
Actually, the best part of the bunk bed set is the supporting piece of plywood that supports the top bunk. It became quite the canvas for the kids to draw on and leave messages on. Anyone that came to visit usually "signed in". Marshall and I were laughing quite a bit yesterday. Forget the actual set, the difficult decision will be who gets the supporting boards. Even Dad left a message here for Sarah.
Not quite sure, but this looks like Lindsay's handwriting. Whoever wrote it, Marshall must have been sleeping on top.
Sarah says this one always "creeped her out" because she thought it was a strange eye looking at her as she tried to go to sleep...ok, so who's responsible? Even the bottom of one of the rails has writing on it. "I love Jesus with all my heart" it says. So the bunk beds are taking a little rest of their own for the time being. They've served us very, very well. A wise investment, indeed.

In regards to the crib...it was my project this week. With Marshall and Rich each driving a car to Utah, there was a little more room to send things. I asked Katie if she'd be interested in the crib that we had downstairs. It actually came into our family when sisters in our ward gave me a shower when she was born. Chris and Lindsay slept in an old church nursery crib that we were more than happy to have for free, even though it was nailed together. I was so excited to get a new crib with sides that went up and down! I pulled it out and sanded all the pieces quite a bit and put a new finish on it. Granted, if you look close you can definitely still see little teeth marks, but overall it turned out great...no pictures. Maybe when it gets put together upon its arrival in Utah next week. So excited for baby Claire to sleep there...it's all I could think about!

5 comments:

Katie and joe said...

at first i wanted to claim dibs on the plywood.... too many memories! i about died laughing when i saw those! not sure what i would do with just the boards... but those are some of the most sturdy beds ever!

jon and kir said...

I almost teared up reading-- I hate take memories apart. I know it will be worse when the crazies are older.

LinnieBell said...

umm...i think i might have to take responsibility for most of the artwork on the plywood. oops. there has to be a way that we can all have our piece of that wood!

and yes, there are tears coming from my eyes right now from laughing!

Porter Family said...

Who's the one child in your family who went into design? Problem solved. Lindsay is grounded! Just wait until Claire is old enough to use the bunkbeds. They'll certainly last well through generation #2.

The Real Sugarbear said...

That first picture is a little hard to see, but it's a smiley face wearing a tie. I picked up that habit many years ago in
France when I drew that for a little French boy sitting beside me in a sacrament meeting. He began calling me "Elder Cravate" (Elder Tie) and I used it for the rest of my mission. When I would leave a note for an investigator that stood us up, for instance, I would leave our business card with a little note saying sorry we missed you and we'll call again soon, and then would sign it with two smileys with ties.
Rich