When it rains

Lucky me..... It spews bleach and soapy water.

Life has been awesome lately around here. Nothing spectacular has been happening. I have just been enjoying the little things and going with the flow. Happy is as happy does, I guess. If I were a dog I would be a big dopey dog that is happy chasing its tail. Is that strange?

So, Tommy is in now, the middle of an emergency trip to California to see and help his mom, who had a pretty bad car accident. She is just now seeing all the after effects and finding the injuries that should have been checked, but that is a whole different post. With that, we decided to take advantage of the trip and send Brinkley with Daddy. Jax and Pudgie are holding down the fort here. Or, as Daddy says, "spying on Mommy."

I made the deal with Jax that he could stay home from school as long as he kept the little Pudge man busy so I could de-clutter and do early spring cleaning around this monster-mess house. Goodwill is going to love us this week!!

Wouldn't you know it...... fate had to intervene in all my plans. Five flippen minutes before Tommy is ready to embark on his Daddy and Binky adventure... my washer starts spewing bleach and soap water out of it. I just stood there. Staring..... aimlessly. I was not even mad. Not sad, NOTHING. Just aimless staring.

I bounced down the stairs, walked into the kitchen and matter-of-factly told Tommy that the washer was spewing water everywhere and I was buying the new Cherry red LG steam washer we had researched when the belt in the dryer broke. I was totally kidding. I had no idea what I was going to do with a broken washer, but I am confident enough that I could figure it out and get through it on my own. I probably could fix the thing. Actually, I know I could.........

Needless to say, Tommy looked up and said, "are we getting the dryer too?" So much for trying to shock him into a purchase. Such is life around here. He is my ultimate consumer.

Thankfully Tommy was just happy that I was not going bonkers over the whole situation. No yelling, no screaming, no tears. That, and the fact that I have wonderful neighbors who let me wash the load of laundry that was starting to stink from sitting in a washing machine all afternoon made everything worth smiling about!

All's well that ends well. I don't even get that quote, really. I don't know why I even wrote that. It doesn't really make sense. Ok, anyways....

With that.. my lovely little cherry red LG washer will make its debut in our home on Wednesday. The frugal flugalbinder in me is holding off on the dryer (mainly because they would not be able to deliver it until February 6th.)

And really, do the washer and dryer really need to match? Maybe since she is soooo pretty I will start to actually like doing the laundry?

Nah.. never gonna happen, but one can wish!




How sad of a woman am I? I really thought that I didn't have to have a matching washer and dryer. I was not going to be crazy anal about mismatched items and I was not going to let myself lose sleep over it. At 3:30 a.m. on Friday morning, I ordered the dryer. I was almost physically sick over the thought of two different kinds of machines in my laundry room... and then I couldn't sleep knowing that they were going to be two different colors. CRAZY, I know. Thankfully Tommy just laughed and asked how my redecorating is going in the laundry room. I have to paint it for it's new tenants. And, I get to paint it crazy since no one ever goes in it....... I am going for Cherry red and black zebra!!!!!!

Daddy Knows Best

Something is just following me around since we returned home from our vacation to California. I have been keeping watch over my shoulder. It is hiding and waiting and keeping still so I can not actually see it. I can sense its presence though.

The Sunday night we finally made it back home, we discovered that our downstairs air conditioner was not working. Not one to manage without air conditioning... we basically spent the evening with the fans on high and dropped the upstairs a/c lower than normal. Luckily, the temperatures outside were abnormally chilly. Needless to say, the $300.00 I had managed to not spend at Disneyland went directly to my a/c unit. One thought kept steady in my mind... It could have been much worse.

Now, after last night, I am regretting doing laundry at Tom's moms house. Our last night there, I used her amazingly beautiful LG cherry red washer and dryer. They were wonderful. I was amazed at how quiet they were. Tommy and I even joked about needing them because of the fact that Pudgies room backs up to the laundry room and my units are somewhat loud. I even researched these babies when we got home. There was never an intention of actually getting them. At least not right now.

When we sold our old house... my very first house, our washer and dryer went with the house. We decided to buy the cheapest washer and dryer known to man when moved into our rental house. I think that we paid something like $480.00 for both of them. Simple, plain white.. no fancy buttons or bells and whistles.. just cheap, easy and working. That is, until last night.

I went to put the wet laundry in the dryer. Shut the door and bam.... nothing. I heard it turn on. The motor was running but the tub was not turning. My heart sank. I knew what this meant. Tom ran for the computer. I sheepishly admitted I had already researched them and Best Buy was the place to get the new LG's.

This morning I surveyed my neighbors. I even had to ask if I could dry some of our whites at her house as she was showing me her washer and dryer. My house was a complete disaster with jean shorts for school all over my loft. I was nearing tears when I joked with Ruth that I was calling my mom and asking for an early Christmas present. I wasn't really going to do that... I just had to tell her about my BAD luck and figure out what to do with all my wet clothes.

After 5 minutes on the phone with mom... literally laughing at the BAD KARMA that is my shadow lately... I hung up and we made the decision to scrap the gym to go out and spend some $3200 on the LG washer and dryer. Then my phone rang and my dad quickly said..... "It is your belt. The belt on your dryer is broke. Trust me."

Tommy grimmaced when I told him this. His exact words were..."I wanted new S&#T!" That was when we started taking apart the dryer to even find where a belt might be. Unfortunately I did not have the manual for the dryer...only the washer. AGAIN.... Karma.

With my dad already enroute to our house via "Art's Part's," in Phoenix... I reluctantly headed to Costco to feed everyone and salvage some of the day by grocery shopping.

After all was said and done... Daddy was right. The belt broke and it took all three of us to put everything back together right and make it work. Thankfully, Daddy had the amazing parts store right down the street, that stocks everything! Thankfully, Tommy was patient enough to listen to me to get the belt into the pulley system right and thankfully....IT ALL WORKED OUT!

The cost of a new LG steam washer and dryer $3200.00
The cost of a new Whirlpool Elite dryer belt $18.09
The cost of 2 Costco pizza's to feed the boys $21.45
Total amount saved by listening to Daddy $3160.46
The hours spent completing the entire prject as a family...

PRICELESS!

Thank you Daddy!

Thank you Tommy for being willing to go out and buy me such wonderful new toys on a whim, without one single complaint... but trusting us enough to fix the old toy that still has some kick left in her!!!

I love you both!!!