The Farns: It's a Miracle!

Thursday, 12 March 2009

It's a Miracle!

Woo hoo! Praise the day, it's a miracle! Shout out "hallelujah" from the roof top! Our vacuum cleaner broke....finally! Thank heaven!

When we moved to Chicago and into our new house, we had nothing. We left all of our belongings minus clothes, books and toys in London. We had no appliances and no furniture. Some kind people in our neighborhood had pity on us and gave us a few items since they were moving. One was our kitchen table which we were very grateful for because for several weeks it was the ONLY place we had to sit in our entire house besides on our beds and without it, we would have had no where to eat. Besides the table, these people also gave us a lamp, some blankets AND a vacuum cleaner. My heart sank when I saw the vacuum cleaner. I had just spent the last six weeks eye-ing which shiny, new vacuum cleaner with all the fancy gadgets attached that I wanted at every store we went into. (ok, I know I am pathetic but this is my life!) I knew when we got this vacuum that my NEW vacuum cleaner would then be bumped to the bottom of the list of needed items. I don't mean to sound ungrateful but this vacuum is old. It has no attachments and is heavier than anything. It can't get those hard to reach places. It is so difficult to clean the stairs and is monsterous to push around. I have been quite rough with it in hopes that it would break. No luck!

However, today my luck changed and I wasn't even trying to destroy it. I was simply just vacuuming because I am expecting a house full of people this afternoon and simply wanted to clean the carpets. Halfway through the job, the vacuum suddenly sounded different and I noticed the roller on the bottom was no longer turning.

I called Charles in delight and announced the death of our vacuum. He then asked if it happened after I dropped it out the second story window "accidentally" a half dozen times? To which I responded, hmmm I didn't think of that.... Then he wondered if I had "accidentally" run over it seventeen times; another trick I could have tried months ago and didn't think of - darn! He then threatened me that he would research the repair of vacuum cleaners online all day and would be sure to fix it when he gets home OR he would ask our handy neighbor to give it a try.
NOOOOOO! I screamed! ....Now to get rid of that vacuum once and for all. It has caused me enough pain. Where can I dump and abandon this thing so no one will be able to resurrect it? Maybe I will bury it in the backyard in a shallow grave, no a deep one, then I will pour cement over it and seal the deal... Die vacuum, die!

I can't believe I am not even upset that my carpets will not be clean for our guests today. I am too busy laughing and digging. Any suggestions on which NEW vacuum I should purchase this weekend?

7 comments:

Mike, Jess, Elijah, Julia and Amelie said...: We love our Oreck. It's light (I think only 8 pounds).; 12 March 2009 at 14:21:00 GMT-7
Mindi said...: Hilarious!!! No suggestions for you.. just a lot of laughs. :) Thanks.; 12 March 2009 at 15:15:00 GMT-7
Debbie said...: We just bought a Dyson!!!! We bought a cheap vacuum just before we moved in so we would have it to clean the floors when we got here, only to find out that it doesn't do hard wood floors. Brian wanted to make sure that the next one we bought would meet our needs. It is a discontinued model so we got a great deal on it, but I didn't think that it would be that different from any other vacuum. I was wrong. I love it. I never knew vacuuming could be so easy!!!!; 12 March 2009 at 17:31:00 GMT-7
Debbie said...: I forgot to thank you in my last comment as you mentioned once about getting a vacuum almost as good as I Dyson. If it wasn't for that I probably would have stuck to the Hoover that was the same price. I also recognize what a great day that must have been for you as I have heard before of how much you hate bad vacuums. I hope that you enjoy getting a new one and make it a good one!!!!; 13 March 2009 at 14:11:00 GMT-7
JennaK said...: I love my Dyson!; 15 March 2009 at 16:23:00 GMT-7
Nelson Family Album said...: My dad owns three carpet cleaning franchises in California and goes through vacuums rather frequently - UNTIL he purchased a Dyson. He swears by it - he also cleans a lot of peoples carpets. I couldn't afford one so we bought a Dirt Devil Reaction with Hepa filter and have found it to be decent. (*I will have a Dyson some day though...I dream...); 17 March 2009 at 17:59:00 GMT-7
Kam said...: Wow, now I want a Dyson after reading everyone's praises! I hope you go with a Dyson, Joyce. You DESERVE it!!

And running over the old one sounds like it would have been a good idea. ha!; 17 March 2009 at 21:09:00 GMT-7

Books I Have Read Recently

(Let me know what books you have read recently or what your favorite book(s) is. I am always looking for a good book. Here are a few I have read.)

-The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

-Pope Joan by Donna Wolfolk Cross
(Definitely one of my favorites)

-Men to Match my Mountains by Irving Stone

-Life of Pi by Yann Martel

-The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

-Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor of Jordan

--Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
(This is one of my favorite books.)

-Those Who Love by Irving Stone
(This is a book about Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams. It was an enlightening read.)

-I Love You Ronnie by Nancy Reagan

--The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
(I didn't like this book.)

--The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
(I liked this book when I read it several years ago but when I recently re-read it, I did not like it. I guess my tastes have changed.)

-The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
(Begins in 1885, with the British invasion of Mandalay and the capture of the Burmese king and queen, and encompassing over 100 years to modern-day India and Burma (Myanmar). It was a great read.)

--The Peddler’s Grandson; Growing up Jewish in Mississippi by Edward Cohen

-Brick Lane by Monica Ali
(I liked this book a lot except for the middle part where you are reading a bunch of letters written in poor English. I could have done without that.)

-Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks

-Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
(I saw the movie and loved it. It stars Queen Latifah as August and she is great!)

--Power and Glory by Adam Nicolson

--How To Run a Traditional Jewish Household by Blu Greenberg

-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

-The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

-Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake

-The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
(This is a very thrilling read. I could not put it down. It may not be for everyone though.)

-Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behavior
by Kate Fox

-The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom and John Scherrill

-Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

-Atonement by Ian McEwan
(A very intriguing book and I loved the movie, even though Kiera Knightley was the star.)

-Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

--The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
(Great book about Katherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII's first wife)

--The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
(A book about Ann Boleyn - King Henry VIII's second wife)

-The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
(This one is about King Henry VIII's fourth and fifth wives - Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard.)

-The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory
(This book is about Queen Mary, Katherine of Aragon's daughter, and the Queen-to-be Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn's daughter. There is also a fictional character Hannah. I loved it!)

-Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

-The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
(A great overview of recent Afghan history. Check out the bookseller's rebuttal book published this year.)

-Virgins of Paradise by Barbara Wood
(I loved this book. It focuses on an Egyptian family from the 1940s to the present. It was a really good look at Egyptian culture and politics as they have changed through the years.)

-A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

-The Chosen by Chaim Potok
(This is a good look at Jewish life. I liked reading the history of the formation of the state of Israel and the different reactions of various Jews throughout the book.)

--The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

--The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

-Children: The Challenge by Rudolf Dreikurs, M.D.
(I am still in the process of reading this book)

-The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
(I admit, I skimmed this. It was long with too much political rhetoric for my taste.)

--The Hours by Michael Cunningham
(I didn't like this book, I wouldn't recommend it.)

-The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
(This was an amazing book. I could have read it in one night, easily. I could not put it down. It is about an innocent boy living outside the fence of a concentration camp.)

-David O. McKay and The Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory Prince and WM. Robert Wright

-The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
(I loved this book!)

-1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 by Thomas W. Phelan
(I have been doing this with Abby and it works like "magic!" I even went to a lecture and heard the author speak about the method and it is great!)

-Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

-They Dare to Speak Out by Paul Findley
(A book about an Illinois congressman who lost his seat to the Israeli Lobby.)

---“The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” by John J. Mearsheimer, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
(This is an excellent paper.)

--A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
(I must admit, I did not finish this book. I found it very slow moving and a bit boring. I read about half and gave up.)

--The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

--Stasiland; Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder

--These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881 - 1901 Arizona Territories by Nancy E. Turner
(This was a great escape. I loved it!)

--Escape by Carolyn Jessop (This is a disturbing book but a good read. It's all about a girl who escapes from a radical FLDS polygamist cult.)

--Tall Grass by Sandra Dallas

--The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
(Doctors took her cells without asking; those cells never died. They launched a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry. More than twenty years later, her children found out. Their lives would never be the same.)

--FREE RANGE kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry) by Lenore Skenazy

--Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam by Asra Q. Nomani
(I loved this book. It is a very detailed account of the hajj and her take on Islam.)

--The Year That Changed The World: The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Michael Meyer
(Meyer is a myth buster. The myth he tackles in this book is Americans' idea that communist regimes in the Cold War fell because of the United States' involvement. He is an excellent historian. I really enjoyed this book!)

--Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb
(This book is now on my list of all-time favorites. It was thrilling and so fascinating. I highly recommend it!)

--Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
(I loved this book. It was adventurous and inspiring!)

--Someone Knows My Name By Lawrence Hill

--The Great Fire of London in the Apocalyptic Year 1666 By Neil Hanson
(I knew of the great fire in London but nothing else. This was very informative and kept my interest. It did get a little too detailed in parts though.)

--Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue and Unthinkable Choices By Mosab Hassan Yousef
(I like this book)

--Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
(Excellent book on the history of China and how it has changed over the century.)

--Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine
(I would read this to my girls one day. It is a good look at the holocaust for children.)

--The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles by Hala Jaber

--Mengele: The Complete Story by Gerald Posner and John Ware

--Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

--In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

--The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

--The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

--Faith: Behind The Fences: A True Story of Survival In A Japanese Prison Camp by Kelly Dispirito Taylor

--Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

--We Were Not Alone: How an LDS Family Survived World War II Berlin by Patricia Reece Roper

--The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

--Pillar of the Earth by Ken Follett

--Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

--The Cultural Revolution: A People's History 1962 - 1976 by Frank Dikotter

Books I Want to Read

--Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill by Jessica Stern
--Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown by Paul Theroux
--Through a Glass Darkly: A Novel by Karleen Koen
--Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
--The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones
--Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
--The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter by Jason Kersten
--An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah - A Memoir by Farah Pahlavi
--Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West by Benazir Bhutto
--City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre
--East of Eden by John Steinbeck
-- The Agony and the Ecstacy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone
--One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
--Year of Wonders, a novel of the plague by Geraldine Brooks
--Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography "Infidel"
--Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke by Patty Duke and Kenneth Turan
-- The War against the Jews: 1933-1945 by Lucy S. Dawidowicz
-- Alicia: My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman
--Vintage Sacks by neurologist/author Oliver Sacks.
--Helen Keller's "The Story of My Life"
--I Thought my Father was God (a collection of peoples' stories from NPR's National Story Project)
--Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
--I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles