i {heart} my vacuum

I bought a Dyson at Home Depot just about 3 months ago b/c they had a returned one that was marked down $100! I had been wanting to buy one for a while & had almost talked myself into spending the money when I saw the returned one so how could I say no? It did look like it'd been dragged across the parking lot, but since I'd still get the 5 year warranty on it I figured why not? We liked it but it wasn't like, "Omigosh, this is the most amazing vacuum ever!" BUT if I leaned the handle down too low or hit the baseboard or anything more than ever so gently it would make a real loud screechy sound until I put the handle almost upright again & then resumed vacuuming. I had no idea if this was normal and it took me nearly 3 months to take it back to HD. So this morning I went in with my vacuum & asked if they'd be willing to turn on a new one so I could see if it made the same noise. I didn't want to return it if there wasn't really a problem. The lady back in flooring said she had a Dyson too, although not the same model, but plugged mine in & we took it for a spin. Of course it didn't make "the noise" but it made a more mild variation of it & even that was bad enough that the flooring lady said my vacuum had issues & they ended up doing a straight across exchange! That's right! So I got a brand new Dyson for the returned Dyson price! Woohoo! I opened it tonight and guess what? It almost has a new car smell! And it vacuums even better than the other one. Oh, the power! I love my Dyson! Thank you Home Depot for making this blessed union possible!

Best in Show

Callie had her first ever gymnastics meet on May 1. She's not in competitive gymnastics, but the gym holds a "Cartoon Classic" once a year so that even the non-team gymnasts can do a meet & get the whole experience. They'd told the girls that they could win trophies & ribbons & medals & Callie was SOLD! She BEGGED me to sign her up and then she started to get cold feet as the event drew near. She was able to do it though & she LOVED it! Here are her results (mind you this is out of 6 girls in her skill level):

Vault: 1st
Bars: 3rd
Beam: 2nd
Floor: 5th
Overall: 2nd

She also got a special judges award for having the most grace (and that was out of all levels of all the kids there)! We were just a little proud! :) Yay Callie!

Here's a video of Callie doing her vault "routine."

Alas, another month passed

So here it is, in pictures...

Ellie has got into my makeup a few times. She's very proud of herself each time she does. She's in a phase where she comes to me constantly & says, "Close your eyes. [I close my eyes] Dah, ta, dahhh! Makeup! [or I have a shirt, or I have shoes (that she's put on herself), or I have candy.]



On this day she had some help...



...from this guy!



We're on a little strawberry milkshake kick. Some people do smoothie kicks. We're all about the milkshakes. That's how we roll. Here the kids model their milkshake mustaches!



Grandma Darcy was giving the kids a bath one night & they were playing with foam. She told me to come look at the kids and I found all three "kids" with blueberry moldable foam soap mustaches! Ellie laughed so hard that when she took a deep breath the foam went up one of her nostrils!



And here's a few of my fashion-forward children. In each instance they dressed themselves!



She put on the hat, vest, & Jack's shoes.



Target.



I went to pick Jackson up from school one day in the Rhino. Ellie LOVED going for a ride. She had a better time on the way back though when Jackson was with us - they giggled the whole time!



I ran my first ever 5k this past Saturday. I hated it! I signed up for it because all my friends were doing it & I caved to peer pressure! Abby & Summer ran the 10k, while Ashley, Lacey & I ran the 5k. Up until last Monday, I'd never run 3 miles in my life! I run 2 miles about 4 days a week. Even that is huge for me! I started running in the fall, and if you would've told me even a month before I started running that I would ever run I would've definitely known you were wrong. I used to joke that I couldn't run to save my life - seriously! If someone were chasing me I'd die because I don't run! But here I am running. I run because I like to eat and I want to stay healthy, so I don't really care if I don't ever run more than a couple miles a day. I think that's plenty healthy! Even since I've started running I haven't had the slightest desire to do a race, and this 5k sealed the deal! LOL It made me feel better when a couple of seasoned marathoners told me that this race was actually one of the more difficult courses they'd run.

So this was funny: all the girls were going to meet at 7:15 for a picture. Ashley & I were there but didn't see any of the other girls & so after about 10 minutes we went to my car & tried calling Abby (whose race was starting at 7:30). We didn't get a hold of her so we walked up towards the start as the 10k group was taking off. Except we didn't see Abby or Summer in the group. But we did see a couple of other people we knew were doing the 10k. So we got up to the start & got to looking at the next group that was getting ready to leave & noticed they looked like they were the 3mile walkers. We looked around for another minute trying to find people we knew doing the 5k & finally asked one of the organizers where the 5k group was. Turns out that was the group that we'd thought was the 10k group that had left a couple of mins before (obviously the 10k-ers we saw had missed their start too!). We felt so silly as we took off completely by ourselves way behind the back of the pack & were laughing as we started our run. We kept pace till we got to the top of this steep hill (the halfway point), and then on the way down Ashley ran a little ahead of me. I didn't get my official time & haven't seen it posted yet, but it was by far my personal best! Okay, you runner friends can totally laugh, but I normally do an 11 minute mile. And that's more of a recent thing too! Ashley looked at the huge timer right next to the finish (that I failed to see) and she got in right at 30 minutes. I was about 45 seconds behind her. But then since we left late I'd have to guess I did around a 9 1/2 min. mile. I'll never know for sure! The entire time I was running I was thinking about how much I was hating it & why in the HECK did I decide to do it! It really sucked. But I'm glad I shared the experience with some of my besties! :)

Me with Ash

Me with Summer