the great Vacuum debate, Part 1

I need/want a new vacuum. I have a Lab who sheds (we love him) , and a busy family that goes in and out although we always take off our shoes. I am not strict with eating snacks in the living room and our dining room is also carpeted, so I do need to vacuum daily.

*this post might get a little gross for you, hopefully I won't scare anyone into not coming over anymore!

I am currently using a 6 year old Bissel Clean View. I have been super pleased with its performance until recently. It is beyond loud, it hasn't always been, but something has changed in the last half year. I hide the kids upstairs if I am vacuuming downstairs. Once I put them in the car in the attached garage, all doors shut and it still woke up my newborn! Lately it also seems that it does its fair share of pushing the dog hair around instead of picking it up.

First order of buisness:

I want to know if the Dyson is worth the price, or could I just upgrade my Bissel to the new model or even go to the Bissel Animal model. (most everything I have read about animal versions of vacuums is it is the basic vacuum with a special attachment)

I have borrowed a friends Dyson to play with for a while...

Dyson DC07 Pink; Day 1, after cleaning the whole house minus the guest room

Dyson DC07 Pink; Day 3, cleaning just the living room

-Lots of Dog hair/lots of dust. I think I will unpack my pro/con list in a later post.

Dallas in the exersaucer

Emily's reading nook

Emily... the girl who won't play, read, color anything by herself without you by her side, wants to be in the backyard alone, or "only with Bo". The big dilemma is she can open the door by herself and she doesn't announce/ask that she is heading outside!

VEISHEA weekend

We had a wonderful weekend, had great friends stay with us, and hosted many more for a BBQ Sat. night. Robert marched with Alumni Groove. You can find pictures of him on almost every media outlet in Iowa, he was also interviewed for the TV broadcast of the parade! We also were able to attend our dear friends son's baptism.

I think I will just let the pictures do the talking.

Easter

Thanks to everyone who sent Easter stuff and other surprises for the kiddos. We had a nice day. We got up and went to the Sonrise service (6:30 am) for the traditional music, it was so nice, although I wish our church had an organ! The night before we went to an Easter Egg hunt sponsored by our church. It was really nice (we forgot our camera), but Em won a prize, a new Bible!

Dallas wearing his tie.

Although we forgot to get a family pic, here are some little bunnies I caught around the house.

Our church is hosting a Town Hall For Hope, please look up your zip code and attend or watch online or on TV. I think this will be an awesome opportunity for many get HOPE and become inspired. Consider this your personal invitation from me. I might even bring cookies!




For my family I counted over 80 church is Iowa alone, two in my home town, how exciting!