It's Friday.....you know what that means....

it's time to be for realz..........

And seriously people.......if you don't find this gross........what is WRONG with you?  Apparently my gummy/dusty shelf last week wasn't disgusting enough......I tried harder this time.  But really--are you not going to be happy until you see a picture of my daughter wading through piles of dirty clothes with no carpet in sight, eating off the bathroom floor, and a picture of me straight out of bed in the morning (yeah--that's not happening)?

So here goes this weeks installment.......

Here are my basement steps:

Nothing too crazy about that.  The carpet is new too--not even a year old.

And here's a little back story for you.  One of my least favorite chores assigned to me while growing up was "wiping down the stairs."  I wanted to wilt into the floor when my mom told me I had to wipe down the stairs and/or gauge my eyes out.  It involved a wet washcloth and a lot of elbow grease into the seams of the stairs.  And what you unearthed when you wiped down the stairs in the form of pet hair, human hair, dust, unknown grit, and random food particles was so unpleasant.  I promised myself one day while I was saying mean things under my breath about "wiping down the stairs" that I would never do it when I was an adult---I mean, hello?, isn't that what vacuums are for?

Well...........come to find out, "wiping down the steps" actually does get the staircase cleaner than a vacuum as much a I hate admitting it................good 'ol (er....young) mom was right.......again.  (My sister and I always say, "That Marcia--she has an uncanny way of ALWAYS being right in the end.) So, it's true--you can find me in a game of "wiping down the stairs" on occasion.

However, the last occasion must have been..........never.......since last June when the carpet went in.   So here you go.....today's finds.

That's all cat hair baby.  And a few of mine.  But mostly cat.  And I promise--that picture of the staircase was taken first; prior to a good wipe down.  Like I said--you think a vacuum is doing the job.  Nope.  It's not.

Oh, but no worries.....because I just popped over to Amazon and snagged myself this book...........

My sister is always looking out for me in the book department.

No cat?  Just a dog? No problem.  There is also this one:

I'm sure if you have stairs and a dog you could wrangle up enough hair for a nice scarf or some cozy mittens in one simple "wipe down the stairs" session.

That's it!  Happy Friday!