I think I'm a sucker. At the time it seemed like a good idea and a good deal. Now when I say it to myself, it sounds insane. I do love the vacuum though. Yes, I fell prey to a door-to-door salesman last Monday. I was sitting at the desk doing our taxes unshowered after working out that morning when there's a knock at the door. It's this lady promising that she's not selling anything but that she works for a company that cleans carpets and they will clean one room in my house for free- no strings. It's just for advertising, she said. Normally, I'm very leary of things like that, but the carpet in the playroom was filthy and I thought, why not let them clean it? I don't have to have them come back if I don't like it, right? So I called Erica and told her they were coming just in case I wound up dead or something. (yes, this is how my mind works) So I took as many toys out of the playroom as possible so they could clean as much as possible. The next thing I know there's a lady and man at the door bringing in all these boxes and stuff. It didn't look like regular carpet cleaning stuff. Before I know it they're talking about some vacuum called a Kirby. I tell them I've never heard of it. They look at me like I'm crazy and say I should ask my mom about it. Then they mention the price- let's just say it's in the thousands! I was like ok, yeah, right. I'll let them tell me all they want about it and clean my carpet and then they'll leave because there is absolutely no way in hell I'm ever buying this thing. So the guy leaves and the lady (she seemed like she was early 20's) starts talking and telling me all about this vacuum and all it's features, etc. I think it's probably close to 12 by this time. So she get's out my vacuum and vacuums the floor with it quickly. Then she starts vacuuming with the kirby. Lots of dirt comes up. They have this little contraption on the vacuum instead of a bag so you can see all the dirt that comes up on these little circles of vacuum bag material. She starts laying them out on the tile while she's talking and vacuuming. She asks if I'm surprised about all the dirt. I say, not really. I knew it was dirty and I fill up my bagless cannister quite often. Then she poured some capet fresh in a little pile on the carpet and vacuumed it with my vacuum for quite a while. 2-3 swipes with the Kirby later there was a big pile of dirtied carpet fresh laying there. I was astonished! I couldn't believe how much dirt my vacuum was leaving behind. With a big dog, a cat and 2 kids-plus the kids I take care of afterschool, my carpet gets really dirty. Then she put on a small handle to make it a hand-held vacuum (like for stairs) and she vacuumed the seat of my chair and ottoman (which are only about 8 months old) and again I couldn't believe how much dust/dirt it pulled out. Then she started talking about the dust mites and dust mite feces in the mattresses. She vacuumed some of Ellie's mattress and tons of stuff came out- yuck!! By this time I really wanted a Kirby, but I knew that the price she told me before was waaaayy too much so I figured that I'd just have to wait until I was older and had more money. I was running out of time, so she showed me all the other attachments, but didn't demonstrate them. As she started to shampoo the carpet I told her I had to take a shower really quick, so I did. I came back out and watched her shampoo a little more. I had to leave to go get Ellie, so she gave me the first price option with some money taken off for my trade-in (old vacuum) and another discount, but there was no way I could or would pay this price, so I just told her I couldn't. Then she called her boss and made me another offer. I had to go, so she waited outside for me while I went to get Ellie. All the while I was frantically calling Erica and my mom to see what they thought. It's easy to get caught up in the whole selling thing and the urgency they make you feel. It's really a brilliant selling technique which is obviously why they still do it. I talked to Erica and she told me to give them a lower price and ask them to come back tomorrow. I did that when I got home although I'm not as good a negotiator as Erica is. I was able to get an even lower price, but I had to do it right then. Of course they make you feel like you got an unbelieveable deal, but who really knows? It still seems like a lot of money, but when you look at it as an investment in your home and something you won't have to replace (at least not for a long, long time) it doesn't seem that bad. Of course Stuart thought I was crazy (he didn't see the demonstration) plus men just don't understand stuff like that. I'm happy to know that my house is going to be cleaner though. I still havent had a chance to use all the attachements, but I'm working on it!!
that since her walls were pink it would be better to do green stripes. So Ellie wound up with the pink striped one. It was the proto-type, so don't look at it too closely (the stripes are hand painted with a ruler, I wasn't smart enough to use tape until I did Grace's). I gave Grace hers for her birthday. 
Then Erica decided she wanted one for Carter's room too. I made his to match his cow over the moon bedding. So now 3 out of our 4 kids had one. 
Logan was a little upset and really wanted one too. I seem to go in and out of creative energy spurts. Sometimes I just don't feel inspired. I've found it's best not to try and paint when I feel this way. It never turns out well. So, like I said it's been a year and a half since I've worked on one of these. During this time Logan has asked me many times, why do all the other kid's have a sign, but me? Talk about guilt. So I finally made him one. He's been into pirates for a while now, and I hope he keeps liking them for a while longer. His is very different from theirs, but he and I both are happy with how it turned out.
