Eureka! Or, Is It Christmas Again Already?

Yesterday I went to vacuum our bedroom floor, something I have been doing frequently since we moved here. As you may or may not know, our house in Grove City had hardwood floors. Due to Tyler's severe allergies, carpet was a big no-no and Randy worked very hard for three weeks one summer, pulling up the carpet and finishing the floors in every room in the house. Not too sure he's real eager to undertake another project like that again. Sure, Tyler's health is at stake, but that's a lot of work!

As I may have mentioned before, Tyler was hit with a double-whammy when we bought this house: not only does his room have carpet, but it just so happens that when we saw this house on our house-hunting trip, the three dogs owned by the couple who lived here were being contained in carriers in . . . you guessed it, what was to become Tyler's room. Sorta makes us look pretty irresponsible, huh? It's no wonder Tyler hasn't drawn a decent breath in over a month-and-a-half.

But that's not the point. The point is that until we decide what to do about the carpet, we're stuck with it. And specifically, we're stuck with a dark (and I mean dark) green carpet in our bedroom downstairs that shows everything. Every. Single. Thing. So I vacuum. A lot. And yesterday when I started to vacuum, I remembered that the last time I tried to vacuum it didn't seem like the vacuum cleaner was at the peak of its performance. So I left it in the middle of the floor so I'd remember to have Randy look at it when he came home and, sure enough, after he'd taken it apart and tried doctoring it, he pronounced it dead. And there would be no miraculous resuscitation this time.

Now I'm not fond of ultimatums but in my opinion, getting a new vacuum cleaner was NOT negotiable. And fortunately, my oh-so-level-headed husband agreed with me! So he went to the library yesterday afternoon and did some research in Consumer Reports (because my level-headed husband is also practical), and he came away armed with the information he needed to make an informed, responsible purchase. I love it when he does that!

So today while Peyton and I ran some errands, Randy took Tyler and Sawyer to Sears (Darcy elected to stay at home) and got me a quite-belated Christmas present that I couldn't love any better than if it was a diamond-encrusted ring or a new set of cookware or a case full of scrapbooking supplies (well, that might be a stretch). Ho ho ho!