Tuesday

Yesterday dawned bright and sunny, so we decided to go for a walk. (Bob took the van to work as his brakes are still sticking). We bundled and loaded and headed out. We started down the sidewalk behind our house, and made our way to the back gate, and on to the BX. We were out of vacuum cleaner bags, and we MUST vacuum every day.

It took us 45 minutes to get there.

We looked at the bags, and they have one that is supposed to fit in our thing, but they sure looked all the wrong shape. So I thought for a minute, and looked at the new vacuums, and we went to the food court for pizza. I tried to call Bob, but I guess he had actual work to do or something, because he didn't answer. We had our pizza, made two trips to the toilets, and went back in to look at the vacuum isle some more. I decided that "if" I were to buy a new vacuum, the one I would get would be the one they were out of. Plus I couldn't carry it home. I just couldn't talk myself into paying $10 for bags that I knew wouldn't fit, so we left.

The children were very excited, I was bummed, and William was dozing off in the stroller. Bad combo. I finally convinced the boys to walk *with* me instead of wandering around over there. And then I couldn't help but notice the birds were singing and it was still sunny, and I cheered up in spite of the dumb BX. :-)

When we got home, I put the babies down to nap, and crashed on the couch. Something about the elevated body temp, the cheese, and the long walk... I had a splitting headache and couldn't stay awake for anything. The children played a phonics game on my computer while I tried to nap. Bob called about then and was very supportive, offering to pick up something for dinner so I could rest, but I determined to get up. He also knew where the Advil was. So I was soon on the way to recovery, and made a lovely dinner. (more about that later)

When Bob got home we ate and then we all went back to the BX. Back to the vacuum isle. Yes, Bob agreed with what I'd thought earlier. But there seemed to be some employees around this time, so we got one and she was very helpful. They supposedly had 3 of our preferred vacuum in stock, but they weren't anywhere handy (sometimes, we were told, an item would show up on the computer as in stock, and it would actually be at another base over an hour away!). We could leave our number and they could call us when the vacuums showed up... We looked at another one they had there, and we'd just about decided to get it when the lady stopped by again and offered to sell the display model at 25% off. So we went for it.

Yes, budget and all that. It's a bagless, so I figure it'll pay for itself in about 6 months, not to mention our floors could actually get clean. We got a Bissell Cleanview (upright) - this is the same basic model that we had before, and the thing works. Our "Handy" canister vac that we bought when we got here was such a pain, and it didn't pull up half of what the Bissell does. I used it this morning, and there was so much gick in the carpet that I had to wash the filters after one go. There were 3 cups of white, powdery, silt under my living room carpet that just weren't going to come up without a power roller. The babies are scared of it, but the older children are all eager to take a turn.

Oh, yeah, Tuesday. Ahem. Then Bob popped into the commissary for snacks for work (celery sticks, coffee, tea), and we came home. He saw some chicken marked down, and his favorite cereal, but he didn't get any. So after we put the children to bed, I went back. The chicken was all gone, but there was ground beef marked down, and I got the cereal and rice and eggs which I was low on.

I got home just in time for a delivery from Tesco of milk, cheese, bottled water, fruit, bread, etc that is cheaper there than on base. Turns out I could have got eggs cheaper there, too, but I missed that bargain. Next time.

So we put the groceries away and went to bed.