Halloween!

The entire week up to Halloween Rob had been sick. I wasn't too sympathetic, since his symptoms weren't horrid. Just a cold, really. I became slightly more sympathetic when Halloween day, about 4 pm, I started feeling a little hazy. Nothing major, just "ugh."

We went to make our traditional Dinner in a Pumpkin, which you cook (appropriately) inside a pumpkin. But the pumpkin we'd bought a while before was rotted out on the bottom. So we made frozen pizzas and worried about the Dinner in a Pumpkin the next day.

This was all just as well for reasons I'll explain after showing off these fabulous photos of the kids in their costumes!

Elijah was a scarecrow (his idea, and Rob's follow-through), Teancom was a horse, and Miciah was a beautiful princess.
Elijah said a few weeks ago that he wanted to be a scarecrow. I was a little surprised, actually. Who wants to be a scarecrow? Miciah was really cute and came up with many ideas for making the costume work. Eventually Rob came up with what you see in the above picture. They had a good time coming up with the costume, and I was glad that he wanted to be something that was FREE. Miciah, too. She was the same beautiful princess that she was last year. I thought she'd throw some fit about it, but she really was happy to be the same thing again.

That's the cutest horse I've ever seen! Teancom is our third kid as a horse, and I think it may be one of the best costumes ever--super cute, and appropriate for both genders. A huge thank you to Angela for passing it down!

Rob with the kids.

After we made Teancom take off the costume, he dragged it around everywhere. He would say, "Pet it, Mommy. Pet it." Super cute. The next morning he dragged it around until we let him put it on. He calls it "his pony."

I want to be a Kirby Salesman for Halloween!

Mid-day a cute young woman showed up at our door and asked if she could do a demo, for free, in our home. I was skeptical, but before I knew it she was scheduling an appointment at 5:00 pm, after Rob got home. She made it sound like it'd be 15 minutes in and out.

I'm sure you're seeing where this is going. So she shows back up and hands the whole deal over to John. John then starts into the WHOLE SALES GIG. Rob carves pumpkins with the kids while I'm half-listening to his pitch. I don't really care. I don't want to buy a Kirby. But he can clean my carpets for free, I don't mind that.

The kids LOVE John. We sit down to eat our pizzas and Miciah asks "if John can stay for dinner." :) We actually ended up offering him dinner, and he ate some pizza with us.

By 6:00 pm we're trying to get out the door to trick-or-treat. I thought he would have been gone by now. But no. I end up taking the kids while Rob stays at the house to get more of the sales pitch. They try to sell us on a $1900 Kirby. We told them we weren't interested at all. HE asked us what price we would buy it for. We told them $500. They said that was absolutely not possible. And we absolutely weren't buying one anyway, so it didn't matter.

By the time 8:30 rolled around, John was still at our home, and for the last hour and a half, at least, we had his manager, Donny, in and out of our house pressuring us into buying a Kirby, offering us different prices. We got them down to $900. Were we interested? No. I told them I'd think about $700. That wasn't possible, Donny said. Well, we weren't going to buy. What about $800 and they'd give Corene an upgrade on her Kirby, too? Umm, no. By this time I'm downstairs to avoid Donny, who is a sleeze. Rob has to come down and show me the numbers. Okay, Donny offers us $760. Not $700, he says, but close.

Finally, after not budging (because as much as a Kirby is cool, we really don't want to buy one), they offer us exactly what we asked for: a $1900 Kirby for $700. Rob came down and reported it to me and I thought, "Heck, ask for $650!" :) Donny said we had to commit tonight. It was the last day of the month, blah, blah, blah. By now our Dave Ramsey anti-sales training had way kicked in. I told Rob this wasn't something we wanted anyway since it went against our current financial goals of getting out of debt and spending way less. I told Rob that furthermore, we were counseled to wait overnight before making any major purchase. Rob went back and told Donny that we'd have to think about any purchase until at least tomorrow. Finally Donny left, upset at us and saying, "You'll never find another one for $700."

So hurrah for no Kirbys! :) Someday we wouldn't mind owning one. They're definitely a good product. But the high-pressure sales is scummy. They make it sound like you're a child abuser for not buying their product: how could you let your children live in such a dirty house? Lame, lame. But I was proud of us for #1 resisting the sale and #2 getting them down $1200 from retail! Dave Ramsey would be proud. ... 'Sides, if we want one someday, we'll have some pretty good leverage for getting them at least pretty dang close to $700: we got them down to that price once before.

The kids with John, the Kirby salesman.

Before John left (he had to stay and finish up until almost 9 pm) he said, "Honest to goodness, that's the lowest I've ever seen him go." Rob asked him how low they could go for John to still make money on the deal. He said, "$1600." And they were willing to sell it for $700. Wow.

Here's the link to the video of Teancom making his horsey neigh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJUEkj_lzmg

Happy Halloween!