New Vacuum

I know this seems like a trivial thing to blog about, but Jared and I are just so amazed with our new vacuum that I figured I'd write a quite note about it.

For the past 7 years we have used Jared's old Eureka vacuum that he bought in college. I'm pretty sure it worked well when he first got it, but the past few years we have been loosing our battle against cat hair in the carpets. I've never owned a pet that shed before and I just assumed that you can never get all the hair. . .oh I was so wrong. What really pushed me over the edge to get a new vacuum was when Daniela was helping me unpack/clean the house when we first moved in. She was using our vacuum and I believe her exact words went something like "No wonder you hate your cat so much with the shedding, this vacuum doesn't get s***!"

Even though I knew she was right I put off getting a new vacuum because there was so many other things that we needed for the house. After all, we did have a vacuum, so we didn't really have to get a new one even if it didn't work so well.

Today Jared and I splurged and bought a new Bissel Pet Vacuum. It was on sale at Kohl's and Jared got a 20% off coupon from Dan and Steph so we figured it was a good deal and it was time to buy.

All I'll say is this. . . .just in the family room alone we had to empty the canister for the vacuum twice. It was SO gross. And now are carpets look brand new. Totally worth the 117 dollars. Every penny!

Anybody want to buy a slightly used Eureka vacuum for cheap? ;D

10 Year Reunion and a Grill

Last weekend was quite a busy weekend for the Butler household. Friday afternoon we made the long drive down to Jared's hometown of Henderson Kentucky for his 10 year high school reunion. Jared was a little disappointed at the reunion since not many people showed up, but the weekend was still a ton of fun seeing family, Lucas and Mary, and Amanda and Stephen.

Henderson County High School Class of 1999!

Saturday was spent with the Couch family seeing our ever growing 3 nephews. I can't believe that Sam is going to be 5 years old in October. It's really true that once you have a child (even though it's a nephew) you really see the years going by faster as you get older. My childhood and teen years felt like forever to me, but my 20's are flying by!

Another fun recent event was our Beatles Rock Band/Inaugural Grill party. We didn't think we were going to be able to get a grill this year, but my parents surprised us with one as a house warming gift! So we decided to break in the grill by throwing a small get together with our close friends and of course Pat brought the video game entertainment. I'm not a huge Rock Band player (my attention span starts fading after about 4-5 songs) but Beatles Rock Band kept my attention the entire night. All the songs are so fun to sing, and it's really cool how 3 people get to sing together to try and make harmonies. We didn't harmonize that well, but it was a blast anyway.

Greg loves to grill. . .a lot :)


This was going to be our mock "Faith Plus One" cover shoot photo (it's a south park gag) but I think I made Jared and Matt laugh right when I took the picture. It still came out cute.

Car Issues

This past week has been quite a stressful week for Jared and I. It all started the Friday before Labor Day when my car started running loudly. We took the car to our local mechanic around 3pm on Friday. The mechanic took a quick look at it and said he wouldn't be able to really diagnose the problem until after the holiday weekend. Boo! So Tuesday rolls around and we get the dreaded phone call that it's an engine problem our mechanic doesn't work on, and we should take it to the dealer. To make the story short the timing chain and the fuel pump needed to be replaced resulting in a $2,100 dollar bill from the dealer. Ouch. . . .it's just been a hard decision on whether or not to replace my car with a newer one. It's not something that we really want to do since we just bought a house and don't really have a down payment for one. So we took the chance, crossed our fingers and fixed the car. Hopefully we won't have any more major issues for at least a year (2100 dollars is probably around 6-7 months of car payments, so we better at least get that much out of it). As for me I'm done with this car and I'm going into super saver mode to save up enough to get a new-ish car. I think it's pretty safe to say the next major thing that goes wrong with it, it's going to be replaced. It's been such a head ache for me specifically having to drive Jared to work and pick him up. I'm in the car for like 3-3.5 hours a day, which makes me really grouchy/road ragey with Chicago traffic in rush hour AND all the construction that's going on right now. I'm not sure what I want to replace the car with yet, but I think Jared and I have agreed it's going to be a hatch back or a station wagon. I really want an SUV, but I don't think that's practical with the gas mileage since this will be our primary car (especially when we have a family). So keep your fingers crossed for us blog readers! Maybe we'll get lucky and the car will last 2 more years w/out problems. . .you never know :D

On an up note we had a wonderful Labor day with a visit from Jared's mom, step dad and little brother. It was great to have a nice low key visit with no major plans. The weekend was spent eating lots of yummy food and enjoying each others company. Pretty perfect if you ask me :) two of my favorite things.