Hoover Sucks!

And I don't mean dirt, like its supposed to. You see, our vacuum is broken. It has been for some time. Before you think "Ew gross!" don't worry, I have been borrowing the neighbor's. But I want my vacuum back! Its difficult having two dogs who shed and not have a vacuum at your disposal. Matt and I bought a very nice bagless (there's no other way to go when you have dogs) Hoover vacuum right before we moved into our house. It was on sale and we had a coupon, so we got a really good deal on it. Its been a wonderful tool for the last year or so until about two months ago. Matt went to clean out one of the filters and noticed the manufacturer had screwed up. They had glued in the filter! We checked online to make sure, and sure enough, the filter was supposed to easily pop out of the frame to be cleaned. So Matt called Hoover who told us we could purchase a replacement filter for about 89 cents plus $5 shipping and handling. We didn't exactly feel like paying five times the actual filter price to have it shipped and were told that any vacuum store should carry what we needed. LIARS! We spent the next week or so calling vacuum stores and being informed that none of them carried ANY parts for our particular vacuum. So, Matt called Hoover again. After being on hold for twenty minutes he was finally able to talk to a human. She knew nothing about vacuumes. She had a book in front of her with all the names of parts people could order, and that was about it. After trying to explain to her for another twenty minutes what part it was we needed, she passed Matt on to a supervisor. Only he wasn't passed directly, oh no. He had to listen to lovely elevator music for another half hour before he was able to talk to another person who had no idea what we were in need of. Finally she understood (or so we thought) and we paid to have the parts shipped. Another two weeks passed. The parts arrived in the mail...Hooray! Yeah, right. We opened the box and the lady had sent us a very random assortment of parts that weren't even filters, let alone the filters we needed. You would have thought my husband was a sailor that day.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you think the manufacturer of a product should know something about their own products?? Why was it so difficult to get a few simple pieces? Yesterday Matt called Hoover again. After talking to yet another person who knew absolutely nothing he was assured that she would have her supervisor call him back. We were losing faith in these people to follow through, but she actually did call him back yesterday afternoon! And the peasants rejoiced. She claimed she knows exactly what we need and shipped the parts. Thankfully she did not charge us again. But this is the last chance. If they don't send us the right filters, we will be throwing our vacuum away (most likely through the front window of a Hoover store). It may not seem like it, but I have given you the readers digest version of this story. Needless to say, Matt and I will NEVER be buying a Hoover again! I put a picture of our vacuum up as a warning. Do not buy this vacuum! Hoover screwed up with this model and glued in a filter that should be easily removable. And everywhere we've looked, places have close out deals on this particular model. Gee, I wonder why.

My question to you is what brand of vacuum do you use and do you like it? We need suggestions on what to buy next...

April Showers bring May flowers but March showers bring April babies

This has been an awesome week for baby showers! Starting with my work shower on Thursday, and then on Saturday my mom had a family baby shower for me from 12:00-2:00 and then a neighborhood/friend shower from 2:00-4:00! It was nice to see so many people that I haven't seen in a long time! Gertrude got so many nice gifts! Thanks again to everybody who came! We got lots and lots of clothes, some more blankets, books, diapers, and a pak-n-play. The food was super yummy (thanks mom!) and the company was great! It was a really fun day! Thanks to my sister, Kristine, for taking pictures! There aren't too many of people at the shower but plenty of my super cute nephew helping me open gifts. He was so funny! Whenever I got clothes, he threw them on the ground. But he wanted to play with all the toys I got and he was really excited about the blanket my cousin, Margaret, made for me. I didn't think I'd get it back! =)

My wonderful mother-in-law purchased a dresser for us on Saturday to match our crib so yesterday I was able to spend the day washing clothes, bedding, etc. and finally start putting things away. It was so fun!

Alright, I'm in!

I have been debating whether or not to join in on the fun, mostly because I will have a newborn in about two months. Woo-hoo! No sleep! But I'm feeling especially creative today. Besides, who doesn't love presents? So here goes:

The first five people that respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2. What I create will be just for you.

3. It’ll be done this year.

4. You have no clue what it’s going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry, a picture, or maybe even some creation I haven’t even invented yet. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!

5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!

*Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

P.S. I realize I have become a blogging maniac this week. Blogging every day (if not more). But you have to realize one thing: work has been super slow. When work is slow, my mind tends to wander, when my mind wanders, I think of all the things I could be blogging about. (Yes, I am addicted). So in case you've been curious about the flood of posts lately, that is why.

WesTech Baby Shower

The fabulous Errin, Rose, and Tena from work threw me a baby shower during lunch today! It was super fun! Since there are about 70 women who work at WesTech compared to the 250 men, its become tradition to have baby / bridal showers during lunch for all the ladies when a female employee is expecting or engaged. We had crescent sandwiches and then everyone brought salads and desserts to share. It turned into quite a spread! We ate and visited and then opened presents. I feel funny being the center of attention, but we got some really great stuff! Another tradition is collecting money from people at work to go in on a group gift. So you can afford to get the person something really nice. We got lots of clothes, some books, a diapers, wipes, wipe warmer, blankets (including a beautiful handmade crocheted blanket from Gloria), and a couple handmade bibs. Then for the big group gift they got us a diaper bag, a diaper genie, a bouncer, and a swing! They had the swing all set up with cute pink bows on it. Errin told me I had to "unwrap" it and act surprised. Errin and Rose also made these super cute party favors with pastel M&Ms and baby girl rubber duckies. Here are some fun pictures:

American Idol Soapbox

I'm climbing up on my American Idol soapbox for a moment, so bare with me. I am very unhappy with the results from last night's show! Not one of my top picks made it through! I like Jorge, I think he is a great singer and he seems to have a really cute personality. But I thought Ju'not was better. I was sadly disappointed to hear he didn't make it into the top 12. Lil has a great voice. Incredible, really! But she has never been a favorite of mine. I think she has an incredible voice, but there is nothing about her that sets her apart. She has a very stereotypical "black" voice and I don't think she's any better than every other female R&B singer they've ever had on the show. I really thought Felicia and Kristen both deserved to be in the top 12 over Lil! I would have been happy with either of them, although Felicia was my favorite female from group 3. As for Scott...well...its really quite ridiculous that he made it to the top 36 let alone the top 12. I know, those of you who follow the show and have any idea who I'm talking about will probably think I'm a horrible person for saying this. But its true. Scott is the first blind contestant to ever make it this far. I think he is absolutely adorable! He has a sweet personality and an awesome story, but that's where it ends. The judges (I'm sure with coaxing from the producers) have been promoting Scott since day one. Why? Because he's blind. The show's ratings are dropping and they need some contestants with good stories to help promote the show. Now Scott doesn't have a bad voice, by any means. But when he is up there singing, my thoughts always turn to "He would give a nice solo performance in church." His voice is not even close to being on par with the rest of the people in the competition! It's nice, but I don't think he has a good enough voice to make a career out of it. Scott also plays the piano, and the judges kept saying "I hope people vote for you so they can see you perform with your piano". The time in Hollywood week it showed Scott perform with his piano, he wasn't much better. He feels the music, which is awesome! And when he sings, he does have a way of connecting to the song better than most of the other contestants, but that still doesn't give him an incredible voice. I knew Scott would be in the top 12. With the judges pushing people to vote for him, as well as all the pity votes and the "oh, he's blind, how courageous of him to be doing this" people, there wasn't much of a chance that he wouldn't make it. But it still bothers me. This is a SINGING competition. Not a "who has the best personality or who has the best story or who is the cutest" competition. But American Idol continues to have people every year who are voted into the top 12 who shouldn't be, robbing those who actually have talent of their chances.

I really hope they choose two, if not three girls to be added to the top 12 on tonight's wild card show. The girls have been robbed this year! Out of each group, two guys and one girl have been picked. My little brother, Brent, pointed out that this is probably because the majority of persistent voters are teenage girls. So of course they will vote for more guys than girls. But there are so many talented girls this year, its a shame so many of them have been passed over! I hope they bring Felicia Barton back. The judges all seemed to like her and I think she has the possibility of doing really well! I've also heard much talk of them bringing back Megan Joy Corkrey (the girl from Utah I wrote about earlier). I kind of hope they do bring her back. Because like I said in my post, she does have a unique voice and style, which I really like! I just hope if they do bring her back, she gets over her serious twitching problem on stage. As well as the few pitch problems she was having onstage the last time. I don't know who I want the third person to be, but I really want to see more of the girls come back who should have made it in the first place! Okay, I'm stepping down now.

ADDENDUM:
I didn't actually see last night's episode. Jill wasn't home so I only found out who made it into the top 12 via texts from my brother. I didn't find out until just now that they also determined last night who was coming back for the wild card show. I just have one word to describe how I feel about the choices....LAME!

Kitchen Quote Part Two

A couple weeks ago I mentioned I was trying to find a cute quote or something I could do in vinyl lettering on my kitchen wall, above the cupboards. I really appreciate those who gave suggestions! I work with a lady (the wonderful Tena) who has a vinyl lettering company and she is already working on some things for the baby's room for me. She is the best! So I don't need ideas on where to get the lettering done, but thanks to those who have already made suggestions. Now comes the fun part...narrowing it down to one. I'm trying to decide what I like best, so here are some options. Please vote in the poll on the right and let me know which one you like the best (please only vote once).

Option one:
We thought about doing words, kind of like a family motto, spelling our last name. Each word would be a different font and separated by a bullet. "Confident * Appreciate * Relax * Respect * Optimistic * Laugh * Love"

Option two:
Use president Hinckley's 6 B's. Again have each word a different font and instead of bullets separating the words, have bees. "(bee) Grateful (bee) Smart (bee) Clean (bee) True (bee) Humble (bee) Prayerful"

Option three:
Just for fun, use lyrics from Hank William's song "Hey, good lookin', Whatcha got cookin'? How's about cookin' somethin' up with me..." And have a music note on each end of the quote.

Option four:
Kind of a cheesy quote, but would work well in the kitchen. "The most indespensible ingredient of all good home cooking: Love for those you are cooking for"

Option five:
Has nothing to do with the kitchen, but I love this quote and I think its funny. "Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused"

I'm still open to more options as well if anyone has any brilliant ideas.

Home School Musical

(So I started this post last Friday and then forgot about it. Whoops!)

Last night my group at work had a group activity. Twice a year we do something together outside of work and they are always a huge success, thanks to yours truly. This time the group members and their spouses met at Desert Star playhouse to see "Home School Musical". Now, I'm not usually a HUGE Desert Star fan unless Breezy is in the show. But this one was pretty darn funny! We were laughing out loud quite a bit. It was a pretty random show that made fun of several high schools in Utah,home-schooling, polygamy, extreme mormons, as well as high school movies like Napolean Dynamite, High School Musical, and Twilight. There were moments when I was seriously laughing so hard my belly ached. So if you want something fun to do, I recommend going. Although the play was enjoyable, it probably wasn't the best group activity we've had since there wasn't much opportunity to sit and visit. But it is always fun to have a date night and let work pay for it!