Happy Homemaker

Last night the vacuum finally cleaned its last floor. For months now it has been making very strange sounds, and when my Father-in-law heard it last month he commented, "That thing sounds like it's on its last leg". I refused to believe him. This vacuum has been well-loved for almost 10 years, and we have probably spent over $500 on various repairs. Buy a new one? Never. It has all the perfect features, and we have become old friends. But last night, when I dragged it into the living room to clean the cracker-crumbs before the ants could discover them, it started to make a horrific noise. The whole house started rumbling, but I continued to push valiantly forward with my cleaning attempts. However, when I noticed a strong scent of burning rubber, I finally caved in. I turned it off and admitted defeat.

Upstairs, Dan was getting the girls into their pajamas. He tells me that when the vacuum turned on, the girls ran to the window. "I hear a helicopter!" screamed Beth.

"No, I think it's just Mommy using the vacuum", Dan replied.

Beth looked outside again. "I don't see Mommy outside with a vacuum", she said.

Dan came to the top of the stairs, caught a whiff of the burning scent, and instructed me to put the vacuum outside until he could look at it. When he examined it later in the evening, he broke the bad news to me.

"We need a new vacuum", he gently said.

We looked through the Sunday newspaper advertisements and compared some prices. We chose the perfect vacuum, and today I set off, with the three girls in tow, to make the purchase.

Shopping for such an important item really should be done during the evening when the children are in bed. Because, of course, the chosen model was sold out. So there I stood, gaping at the hundreds of different models, trying to scan the information on the sides of the boxes, while attempting to keep Erin from climbing out of the shopping cart.

"Get the pink one, Mommy!" hollered Beth.

"No, I want the blue one", piped Amy.

The yelling and whining got louder, and I finally just grabbed a Bissell cleaner (pink) and threw it in the cart. When we got home I excitedly opened the box, ready to try out the new model on the after-lunch mess. But instead of a vacuum, I discovered various sized pieces of plastic, along with lots and lots of screws. "Some assembly required", states the side of the box.

So there it still sits, waiting for Dan to put it together. And there the crumbs still sit, too. Now, I'm just waiting for the ants. Hopefully the lingering smell of burning rubber is enough to keep them away until Dan finishes assembling my new, pink vacuum.