Ode to the Vacuum

I have a little secret, if I tell you do you promise to not laugh? Promise!

I love to vacuum. I usually vacuum several times a week. I've thought about this obsession and decided that it relates to instant gratification. Whip out the vacuum and in minutes everything looks better, cleaner, happier, and I feel good!

We have never bought a vacuum. I know that sounds confusing. Let me explain... we received a vacuum as a wedding gift and it lasted from June 1909, just teasing to see if you are watching, June 1996 until December 2003 when the movers broke it.

The Allied moving company gave us the money to money a new one and I did my research with Consumer Reports like every good child of Owen Berrett's should do ;) After borrowing my neighbors for a couple weeks, I finally took the plung and used the moving reimbursement to buy a new eureka smart boss vacuum. I am in love with this vacuum and it has treated me well.


How have a I treated the vacuum, not so well. I've run over the cord and had to use some eletrician's tape to bandage it. I am ALWAYS vacuuming up accidentally, way too big to fit up that little hole, stuff! If you smell burning rubber, it is me! I vacuumed up Madeline's sock and for the life of me I can not find it in the vacuum. I took it apart and searched everywhere but it is gone! Oh, and the plastic release button at the bottom broke off, so now the vacuum will not stay in an upright and locked position (I know it sounds like I am an airline attendant).

So my sweet mother-in-law, asked my husband "what does Tonya need for Christmas?" His reply "a new vacuum". So sure enough there is a big book Christmas morning with this beauty in it. Well, it's been 3 weeks and it still is in the box. I just can't seem to open it up, why? I'm not ready to end this love affair with the smart boss. I feel like I might be cheating on him, is that weird?

I know I need to let the poor thing go but I'm not quite ready. Maybe Stephen can wrap it up and I can open it on Valentine's Day and then I'll be ready! I know it's a really, nice, light-weight vacuum.... some day.

More Memories

here was our morning. i just asked the kids to savor the moment and they truly did!

6:47 am eat Christmas crunch cereal

7:03 am mom and dad get dressed and ready, kids stayed in their new pj's

7:32 am start opening gifts and enjoy each one (the secret is have them open a toy first so they will enjoy putting it together and playing with it for a while)

10:15 am still opening and enjoying gifts

11:30 am pause for lunch

12:45 pm still opening and enjoying gifts

2 pm we go upstairs to see the santa gifts and open them to find...... a WII. oh, my heavens who bought us a Wii, because mom would never do that she thinks we spend to much time on TV and compute as it is. Santa, you are pretty sneaky ;)


yes, he is excited! every gift that is opened, he starts chanting.. lego, lego!
this was madeline's big gift, the american girl cookstove. thankfully, ag had a sale in december with this puppy 1/2 price, yes!
the cute fruit for canning on the cookstove. do you notice the cool ninja belt i have one. compliments of jacob's new dress up costume. it was 90% off from target's after halloween sale!
madeline has told me all year that she would love a robe for Christmas. so i found this at kohl's and it is cute and cozy. she kept saying, i love my robe.
and for the grand finale, the wii! the kids loved making up all the goofy characters. jacob's guy is named ????? and his eyes and at the bottom of his face and his mouth is on the top of his head. no wonder his name is ??? the guy is seriously confused!

Favorite Christmas Memories

We always make a Gingerbread house. We love this tradition. We go to Win-Co and look at all the eye candy and each person picks 3 candies for a total of 12 delicious dandies.

This year we used the chocolate-covered sunflower seeds as our Christmas "lights". So cute!

Jacob's add in was this gummy bear rappelling off our house.


We had some snow in the middle of December and it happened on a saturday so i ran to target and bought our very first sled. how could we live this long without one, kind neighbors who let us borrow one. no more, we are proud owners of the Avalanche Mover 2000.


on Chirstmas Eve, our children beg us to open the gift they bought for each other. we use this as a motivator tool to clean the house from top to bottom. numerous times during the day, you can hear "is it time yet?" to which we answer, nope, more cleaning ;) aren't we mean!

madeline gave jacob a webkinz toy, he was so excited. jacob gave madeline a littlest pet shop toy. for a fhe night, we go to target and the kids use their allowance to buy the toy. first, we walk around the store and pick out 5 things that we like. then we separate and make the agonizing decision of what to buy.

then, all the gifts go up here on our "gift shelf" so there is no lego shaking!!!! jacob is famous for this one! i sewed up these cute "gift bags" for Christmas. they are made out of fabric with a ribbon tie. super cute, easy, and reusable, yes!
this is what kept jacob occupied until 2 pm. when the kids woke up at 6:44 am i gave them a little pep talk about "savoring" Christmas and enjoying every moment. it only comes around once a year ya know.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

i bought this christmas village at a garage sale 5 years ago. we always put it on my grandmother's goldleafed table. i love the miniature people.
i bought some christmas ornaments and hung them outside with satin ribbon. i wanted something beautiful to look at during the day. my sweet husband is taking care of the night lights. he has put up over 8000 lights!!! i'll take a picture and post it later.

beautiful!
here is my cute girl with hairy! we love our cute little guy. hopefully santa will put something in his stocking. madeline made a cute stocking for him last year. he loves dog biscuits.

sorry it's been a month since i've posted. mytagbag.com business (cute temple bags) has been crazy, busy so I've been mailing packages. Merry Christmas if I don't talk to you before then!

Where the Wild Things Are....

The San Diego Zoo was amazing. The botanical gardens were incredible and having all the wild animals in the midst of it was breathtaking. I've wanted to go to this zoo for years and during the month of October children are free, yes!

We had the swine flu while we were on vacation in San Diego.

Jacob took this cool picture of the lion. Beauty is.... wild! Although his favorite picture was the one he took of the elephant's bum, he thought it was hilarious ;)

Do we look sick?


They were a little droopy walking over the 1600 acres at San Diego Zoo, but they took some great pictures and enjoyed the small breaks on the sky chair and express bus.
The orangutan's were adorable. We watched them for a half hour and took over 200 pictures of them.

Madeline entered this picture in the school's art contest. The topic was "Beauty is.... a big kiss!"
We are now mostly healthy, but Madeline threw up last night (I didn't even know because when they turn 10 it's all self contained !!!!!) But she still wanted to go to school so I left that decision up to her!

My friend, Wendy McDonough, took these AMAZING family pictures! We went down by the river last weekend. Stephen had been with sick the h1n1 flu but was a trooper and smiled for an hour!
My cute kids!
I love my sweet girl!

Halloween Party is coming to our house!

I love Halloween and this wonderful fall time. We are having a halloween party today and making spider cupcakes. We are playing a fun game of "don't eat pete", mummy may I, bob for apples, and spooky musical chairs.

Madeline and Jacob had their halloween parade at the school. It is fun to see the creative costumes children come up with. Some of our favorites were the milk carton of the missing student, a wheaties box of cereal, and a working traffic light.

Madeline and I are dressing up like pirates this year, arghhhh!

I hope it warms up a bit because it was SNOWING yesterday.