Yeah, I’m still here. I know it has only been just over a week since I posted something, but somehow the nine billion holiday gatherings we attended has made it feel like I have slowly fell out of touch in this space. And with the landslide of new posts from other bloggers in my inbox the last two days, I guess that means the holiday blogging break is over. So…hey. Remember me? I’m that girl who blogs about stuff you sometimes read. We shared comments about wishing things away, scorned nine-year-olds at slumber parties, and most recently, being okay with the fact that your child found out you were Santa Claus. Here, maybe these super cool and tiny business cards I got for Christmas from Lone Orange Marketing Design will help jog your memory. You can even choose your favorite design:
Um, yeah Kelly. We remember you. It’s only been, like, a week. Besides, you need to be relevant first before you can be rendered irrelevant.
Oh. Okay. Cool. Then let’s get to it.
So you all may not have missed me this past week, but I did not miss me either. I had pretty legit distractions. Sure, there was the whole birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ thing. But more importantly, I was busy playing interior decorator and literally watching a robot vacuum my house. Uh huh. That’s what I said. A ROBOT VACUUMING MY HOUSE.
Meet Bobert, my iRobot Roomba and Christmas gift from Heaven. Yes, we named it. It only makes sense considering it has become dearer to me than the dog. And poor Scout just thought she had already been relegated to the bottom rung of our hierarchical family ladder after the turtle and goldfish.
You may not think a vacuum is the sexiest Christmas gift to receive from your spouse. But YOU GUYS! It literally vacuums for me…so I can do more important things, like write, or laundry, or play with my kids, or follow it around and watch it vacuum my house for me (which is what I have done almost every time I’ve used it so far)…or take a ride in my flying car. Because I’m basically Jane Jetson now. And let’s face, it: Jane was a pretty hot little number, by cartoon standards. Probably because she used her time to pamper herself and put George’s credit cards to good use instead of toiling away on housework. So it turns out Bobert was a pretty sexy gift after all. (My husband would want me note, for the record, that he also got me a sparkly bracelet. He once heard Kristi Lee from The Bob and Tom Show, his go-to authority on the universe, say that if you get a woman something that plugs in for Christmas, you better make sure it is accompanied by jewelry. So now I get to be blingy AND lazy. Best. Christmas.Ever.)
When I wasn’t standing around watching Bobert do its magic, I was busy transforming my daughter’s bedroom into a haven mature enough for an eight-year-old, which is arguably the most mature age of childhood. The only thing she wanted for Christmas was to redecorate her room, because apparently the color purple is synonymous with “a baby lives here.” Little did she know that the mere mention of the word “redecorate” awakens a beast inside of me. Give me a gallon of paint, a few trips to Target, and a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby, and I will make you a room fit for the cover of some low-budget do-it-yourself design magazine. I’m not going to lie. That little girl’s bedroom was my bitch.
So now you know how I rounded out my 2013. And this being my very first post of 2014 obviously sets the tone for the year ahead. It looks like for the next twelve months I will be resting on my laurels of a successful room makeover, and resting on my couch while Bobert sucks up dog hair.
Happy New Year!
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“Follow it around and watch it vacuum.” Ha! That would happen. Room looks great! Happy new year!
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Thanks!!! Happy New Year to you!
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Wow…. That is the gift that keeps on giving. Now you can lounge and wear pearls like June Cleaver! Grace’s room looks awesome but like you make’s me sad! (But I have to say that “G” pillow looks awesome! 😉 😉
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That’s me. June Clever. And the G pillow is perfect!
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I’m glad the mural stayed, too—because I see owls!! So cute! And OF COURSE you named your Roomba. I’d have been punching the air and flailing my body around if you hadn’t!
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OMG!!!!! What is it about you and me and OWLS???? Maybe we are spirit animals. It’s like they just creep in everywhere. And BTdubs, that’s exactly why I named the Roomba…I knew you might hurt yourself if I didn’t. I’m a very considerate blogging friend.
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And my owl thing isn’t the kind where I need every trinket or hand towel or piece of stationary that dons an owl … but I just flat LOVE THEM! And thank you for your olympic-level consideration 😉
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Happy New Year, Kelly!
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Same to you Storm Trooper 🙂
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That is the best present ever— for you and your little girl. All I ever got was those stupid Ronco products. I bet you didn’t know I could make a glass out of literally any bottle!
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I did NOT know that. Seems about as useful as a robot that vacuums for you 🙂
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Be still my heart! I am so not the girl who gets mad about appliances…well, unless it’s an iron or something. I got excited when hubby bought me a Kitchenaid mixer a few years ago. Same thing the triple crock pot for parties… I love when he buys gifts he knows I’ll use to do things like throw parties, etc. Now I’m totally wanting my own robot vacuum. 🙂
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I don’t mind appliances either. It’s the weird thing that happens that makes you know you’re an adult. Useful things become very exciting 🙂 I have a double mini crockpot, but that triple whamo sounds amazing!!! And I also loved the Xmas I got my Kitchen Aid mixer. Sigh. It gives a whole new meaning to loving shiny things…
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Exactly!
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Dude. COME OVER AND DO MY ROOM TOO. It looks fantastic! I get loopy too whenever a room makeover is even briefly mentioned, and that’s why I’m so glad we’re moving this year. Whole home makeover! It’s an expensive habit, but what are ya gonna do? Happy New Year, Kels!
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Let’s have a new house makeover party!!! I will be jealous when you get to do that. I’m notorious for redoing rooms after a few years because I love it so much. Which has also taught me the art of doing it inexpensively…so we’ll talk. But I will warn you: you’re gonna have to get crafty, and Pinterest will be involved. But the greatest compliment I ever got about my house was that it looked like a Pottery Barn catalogue…without one thing in my house actually coming from Pottery Barn. Point for Kel.
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I am happily childless, so I never thought I would hear myself say this. I envy you your third child. Want Bobert. Oh, and somebody please give Scout some love and nudge her up the ladder at least ahead of the fish. 🙂
Very fun post — always enjoy your stuff!
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I love my first two, but I would envy my third child as well. And poor Scout…she does take neglect well 🙂 I promise she’s not as bad off as I make it seem. If anything, she probably gets too much (unwanted) attention from my kids.
We’ll have to do all our conversing here on my blog now that you’re comment-less 🙂 Nice to hear from you! And I was nodding my head all the way through your post the other day about how time consuming this all is. I’ve been a terrible blog reader. But hey, you do what you can, right?
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Your family sounds great and I’m sure Scout doesn’t suffer at all! But I always cheer for the underdog, especially when it’s the underdog. hahahahah!
Thanks for understanding about the blog reading—–I’m sure most people “get it”, that it’s mostly about time. Spending a whole day on and off WordPress is something that I can’t afford to do anymore; moderation is the theme for 2014. (Bummer!) I did notice, however, that since I turned off comments, I had a big spurt of creativity and felt like posting, so that blockage removal worked. Yay!
Will still see you around, happily.
Cheers to you and yours in 2014!
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Anything that boosts creativity is a good thing! It’s a hard thing to maintain constantly, and it’s natural to have an ebb and flow. And yeah…that whole balance thing. With the whole raising kids thing, I obviously have to limit my time on WordPress. I do think most bloggers understand the need for picking and choosing. I certainly don’t get my panties in a wad if I haven’t heard from someone in a while, because there are blogs I haven’t read in a while…not because I don’t like them, but because it’s just not doable right now. Anyone who does get upset about that kind of thing…well, then me and that person just weren’t meant to be.
Enjoy your spurt! Hope it becomes a deluge!
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I NEED one of those vacuums! But I would likely follow it around micro-managing it the whole time and would have to empty it constantly because my dogs shed so much. Love your daughter’s room makeover! Happy New Year!
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Well, the model I have DOES come with a remote so can control it if you’re not happy with where it’s going. Or you can just do what I’ve been doing: stop it, pick it up, and move it where I want it to go. But then I realize that basically the same thing as me vacuuming 🙂 So far we haven’t clogged the filter yet…but maybe I will need to get back to you in the summer when our dog sheds more. Although, since you can run it everyday, it should keep things pretty well in check. It does say it doesn’t replace regular vacuuming. But hopefully it should help keep this giant piles of hair from balling up in every corner of my house 🙂
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ooo, now that would be fun…to sit back and remote control the vacuum! I would love to not vacuum every day or every other day to keep the 3rd dogs of massive dog hair balls from growing along the floors. Enjoy 🙂
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I want something to vacuum for me too…
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It’s pretty awesome. Not.gonna.lie.
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I’m a believer
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In the 50’s they wrote that a clean house was a wasted life. A couple of my kids must have some really fantastically exciting lives! I never thought I could get so excited over a vacuum cleaner…..and then my first Dyson came to our door. Wow!
Here’s to wishing you a very happy and healthy 2014 Kelly!
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I have heard thos Dysons are pretty amazing. I’d be excited about one too!
And, uh, I love that quote, by the way.
Happy New Year Rob!!
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Ok, I would love to have you redecorate my entire apartment. I’d even go for before and after pics showing up on Pinterest – AND, a rocking video about how you did it.
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Thanks!!! Maybe I have a new career on my horizon… 🙂
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Sorry Kelly, for some reason Word Press has completely stopped sending me blog posts. At first, I thought everyone was taking a holiday break and then it was like…um, hello? So, I’ve had to actually use my Reader, and I’m way behind! I love what you’ve done with redecorating! I may have to call you. 😉 As for Bobert, I had one of his early versions and loved it! It ate so much dog hair; I was in heaven! I’ve been so tempted to get the newer one as I hear they’ve worked out the early kinks (constantly getting stuck behind chairs, etc)… Welcome back sistah!
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WordPress has been doing some funny things for me as well…like not taking me directly to posts from email links (instead taking me to home pages) and not loading the “like” function all the time. Although, I did take a break over the holiday, as did a lot of others I think.
I’ve been wanting a Roomba for awhile and I remember reading some reviews a few years back. A lot of people seemed to complain about the “kinks” so it made me shy away at first, not sure if it was worth all the money. But it sounds like it still would have been worth it. Since I have a newer model, I can’t speak to how it is better than the older model…but it does sometimes still get itself “stuck” in some places, yet it has managed to eventually find it’s way out every time so far.
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It would be ideal for our kitchen, a large room, where both of our dogs “live.” I’ve heard the newer one is better… Gotta tell you, when my husband gave me one for Xmas a few years ago, I was NOT a happy camper. Of course, at the time, he was still buying ladles and other stupid stuff… we got that one cleared up quick. 😉
WP is driving me nuts!! Suddenly getting my emails again, but having trouble posting, link issues and adding photos to posts has been a real pisser lately! Arrgh. Let’s hope it all clears up soon. I saw that Le Clown was having problems with his site for the past 2 days. So it’s everyone.
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Hmm, here is the link to the support page, dealing with this. Go over there and weigh in. I’ve heard from 5 other bloggers today of similar problems. Seems they should hear that it’s not just tech idiot me! 😉 http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/not-receiving-new-blog-posts-by-email?replies=2#post-1581203%23postform
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I’m still getting posts in my email. I’m just having some other funky little issues. Hope they help you get it figured out!
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Wow. Had I read this post prior to our dinner, we would have been talking about the ‘bot. What are your thoughts a week later–can you rely completely on it or do you need to pull out the old-fashioned model from time to time? Last night, after having to clean up a couple piles of dog vomit, I was so thankful for my spotbot–I love that thing! But I still hate cleaning floors and I have so many floor-cleaning gadgets already…
I LOVE the yellow in the new room. It’s beautiful! You know, I’m going to have a HUGE house to decorate here pretty soon–might have to pick your brain a bit!
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Thanks. I’m happy to have my brain picked!
I still love Bobert. However, they do say it is not meant to replace regular vacuuming. What that said, I can’t say I have used my vacuuming since getting it 🙂 The thing is that the larger the area, the less efficient it is. So I don’t use it on my whole house (or maybe I just need a second Roomba!). I mainly use it in our common areas: the kitchen, family room, front hall and dining room. Those also happen to be all our hard wood/tile areas, which show the dog hair and other junk more. It comes with these “virtual walls” you can place around the house to keep it just in certain areas. My plan has been to use Bobert daily/every other day in the common areas, and then use the regular vacuum weekly (or less…or only when company is coming) to vacuum the other areas of the house, which is are basically the bedrooms, the living room (which is hardly used) and the basement. And to be honest, I think Bobert does a great job on it’s own. I can’t see myself really needing to use the regular vacuum in the common areas. It’s spectacular!
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