Vacuum Cleaners

I can't believe I haven't posted about this before...

My husband, the entrepreneur, has now entered the vacuum cleaner business.

Daniel found an auction website were you can bid on lots of a huge variety of items. He bid on several different things but ended up buying around 40 vacuums for less than $10 each. The lot has a couple of almost every brand you can think of - Dyson, Eureka, Bissell, etc. - and also has a few steam cleaners. They are all vacuums that had been returned to the manufacturer for one reason or another and need a little work. Some of them are as easy to fix as making them stand up on their own without falling over, while others are going to take more time. I didn't even know that he knew how to fix a vacuum cleaner!!

He has great plans about then selling the repaired vacuums on Ebay, Craigslist, etc. We shall see!!

Of course, I tried to claim one of the easier to fix vacuums so that I could have one upstairs and one downstairs - but my sweet husband told me I would have to wait. He wasn't sure how much he wanted to charge for each vacuum....He's going to make ME pay HIM in CASH!! He says this is the beginning of a 'beautiful retirement.' Big dreams, huh?

He is too funny - I laugh every time I think about this latest venture. If he didn't love his job so much and do such a great job at it, I would try to convince him to go into his own business of some kind. I am trying not to be too skeptical about the whole thing. I just want to know when I get part of my garage back! I guess it is a good thing we went for the 3rd car option....

I'll post a picture soon...

Self Evaluation

I spent last evening filling out my yearly evaluation for work. I HATE doing those type of things. They always have questions about your strengths and weaknesses and I feel like I am trying to always find ways to brag about myself in the answers. Daniel says I have to make him 'realize how important' I am. :) I guess you do want to make your self sound good so maybe you can talk the boss into a raise, but it sure is hard to answer all the questions.

What is it about self-evalutions that are always so difficult?

Cookouts, Canoeing, and...Locksmiths?

Dan and I had a very eventful day yesterday. Dan's brother David and his wife Suzanne camped out over the weekend at Lake Ray Roberts. Daniel had to work for part of the weekend so we did not camp with them, but yesterday afternoon, Daniel and I, along with Jon, Mandy, and JD drove up to join them for the rest of the day.

We had a lot of fun just hanging out for the afternoon. David and Suzanne had rented a canoe from the campground so we all took turns taking it out for a ride. The water was very nice and peaceful, and as long as the girls could keep their husbands from splashing them with the paddle, it was very calm on the lake. :) (Of course, we all ended up splashing back).

We ended the day with steaks and potatoes and smores cooked over the campfire. It was a great meal! After dinner, we all left David and Suzanne to their tent while we drove back home.

As soon as we started unloading stuff at our house from Jon and Mandy's car, Dan and I realized we had left the house completely locked up without anyway of getting back inside. When we had left earlier, Daniel had locked all the doors and then run out of the garage and ducked under the closing door. Neither one of us had any keys or garage door openers with us. The spare key that we usually keep outside was not in its place either....I had given it to my cousin's husband last weekend and had not put it back.

After thirty minutes of me and Mandy standing outside with JD, the guys determined that none of the windows would open, the attic vents were too small to crawl through, and all of the doors, were indeed locked. Do you know how hard it is to find a locksmith on Saturday night? I did not have a CLUE that it would be that difficult! Once we knew that there was somebody on the way, we sent Jon and Mandy home with JD and we made ourselves comfy on the front porch. Good thing we had taken chairs with us up to the lake!

It was almost midnight before the locksmith showed up and let us in our house...he had a little difficulty picking the locks. (In the end, that makes me feel really safe, considering how hard it was for us to break into our house). We spent three hours sitting in our driveway from the time we arrived until we were back inside. Trust me, we will not be making that mistake again!!

What an eventful evening!

Oh, and just for future reference, locksmith's at midnight on a Sat night are a quite pricey and only take cash, which we typically never have...good thing we went to the ATM yesterday!!

Beautiful Day

What an absolutely gorgeous day!! I was really wishing that I could have been outside a lot more during most of the day, or at least, that my office had more windows!!

I love it when the weather changes and we get to see God's glory in a new (different) way.

What an awesome God we serve!!

Cousin Weekend

For four years, my sister and three of our cousins all lived in the same town. In the summers, they would have "cousin dinner" once a week at someone's house or a restaurant. It was really just a time for them to all get together and eat. Of course, I was living here at the time, and I think that they called me every week to talk about what I was missing out on.

Well this weekend, my cousin Leslye and her husband Joey, came to spend the weekend with us. Well, actually, Joey works as the sports information director for Tarleton State University and had to go to the football game on Saturday in Oklahoma. They came to spend the night at our house on Friday night, before he went to the game on Saturday. Daniel had to work on Sat. so Leslye and I had our own cousin weekend.

We had so much fun! We lounged around the house Sat morning, went shopping, spent some time at the pool, and then ended the day at church at the M&M Mom's were my mother-in-law was the speaker. It was a great day!

They were able to go to church with us on Sunday morning and then came back to the house for most of the afternoon. I was so glad they were able to come.

I just wish we had remembered to call all of my other cousins and tell them what they were missing out on!! :)

Slowing Down

I was looking back at my most recent posts and realized how much further apart all of my posts have been getting. I guess the craziness of our summer is finally slowing down! Yeah!

It is nice to be back into a normal routine. It is fun to always have things planned and new things to do, but that can also be so tiring! I love having the weekends to recover from the busy work week instead of the other way around. Of course, after a couple of more weeks of normalcy, I am sure I will be ready for something new!

In other news, I haven't told everyone that my sister is expecting a baby! She is due around the end of March/beginning of April and everyone is soooo excited. My parents do not have any grandkids yet so you know they are over the moon. We have finally been given permission to share the news. Congrats to Amy and Charlie!!