He's Baaaaaack!!!

I can't believe I forgot to mention last night the best part of all about being HOME SWEET HOME... After his 5 long nights away, John Dickson is BACK! I think I will be eternally grateful for my parents bringing him all the way here rather than meeting them in Clinton, as originally planned. After about 8 hours in the car yesterday, the very very last thing I wanted to do was get back in and add another 2 to the trip.

I was not very hopeful about John Dickson being excited to see us when we got back (he actually beat us home... how is THAT for service??)and I was not let down. John Dickson would not give either of us the time of day. In fact, he took a little tumble or something that made him start to fuss (I cant even remember what... can you say tired??) and he went straight past us to his Nana. My parents stayed about an hour maybe and the entire time they were the only ones he wanted. I wasn't surprised because after my week long trip to Raleigh back in the summer, John Dickson tried to convince me that Dad was the new Mom.

John Dickson went down for some shut eye last night and screamed his head off. I think I finally understand the term "screamed bloody murder". I thought I understood it long ago, but I know now that I did not. After Nana and Grumps left, John Dickson got back up (with some assistance) and with Nana and Grumps gone, Adam and I were allowed to resume our former roles.

John Dickson did not come home empty handed, mind you. Other than his Bob the Builder juice (who he calls Bob and tried to feed Special K to this morning), he was sporting a brand new baby Dyson, complete with miniature attachments. If the thing really cleaned, we would have one squeaky clean house. Except that I vacuumed and mopped all of the floors today, so they are squeaky clean anyway, but that's beside the point. And our guest room is squeaky clean because, well, I'm a sucker...

On Wednesday afternoon I got a knock on the door. It was a sales person who wanted to shampoo one room. After much reassurance that this would take 30 minutes, came with ZERO obligation, and was guaranteed to get out all stains, including the big stain from when our dogs were left inside for 24 hours due to some miscommunication while we were out of town, I let her in to work her magic. I thought she was selling a service, and had she gotten the stain out, she would have most definitely come back to do our other carpeted rooms. So, she starts to vacuum the rug (vacuum? vaccuum? I think it's one C, but Im a terrible speller) and then she lets me sweep with the "electric broom", while trying to convince me that this broom is so much better than the non-electric kind, ignoring me when I told her I just vacuum the hardwoods. (Now Im thinking 2 Cs??) She "deep cleans" the hard wood in one spot, vacuums some furniture, then lets herself into our bedroom and starts to vacuum the mattress. She then tells me that I should be doing this every 3 weeks, and that this vacuum is so much cheaper than buying a new mattress every 3 weeks. You know, because that's what my lazy rear end normally does when I dont feel like cleaning my mattress... I just buy a new one. They even deliver, you should try it...

So... two and a half HOURS later, she finally sets foot in our guest room. Low and behold, the stain IS gone, and the carpet looks great. Unfortunately, she is not selling a service, she is selling this vacuum/shampooer, and she gets down to the bottom line.

$2,499

But wait. She will knock off $100 if I agree to buy before my husband gets home. No really, its called a "spouse alone" discount. AKA, sign up before your husband can tell you no. So Adam FINALLY comes home, right as I was about to ask my neighbor Scott to come be my husband for a minute, and he politely argues with her for 30 minutes, working the price down to a mere $1,500, with $0 down and only $60 something a month for a mere 3 years. (Working the price down, by the way, was just telling her no over and over, while she continued to lower the price).

I have no funny conclusion to this story, I just wanted you to know that I am a sucker who lets vacuum sales people into my home. Oh well, my carpet is clean. The best part though? Her bargaining tactics were trying to convince us to help her win some trip to Virginia. Sorry lady.

So John Dickson is home. Our floors are clean. And soybean is the size of a grape this week. Those are the highlights.