The Good, The Bad, and The Oh-For-Pete's-Sake

But not necessarily in that order.

I mentioned in the Photo-Friday post that our water softener bit the dust. Our water is rather orange, so we had to replace it (it was also 20+ years old, more than twice its life expectancy with the type of water we have). That was done Thursday. Friday, I started out to play laundry catch-up. B. gave me a jug of Red-Out to run through the washer to clean it and the pipes/hoses, which I did twice. Then, I ran a load of detergent through, and finally, started an actual load of laundry. Our laundry closet is on the main floor. When I went down the basement to get something for dinner, I noticed a puddle. Which would have been huge, had a box of denim scraps not been sitting under the drip. Grrr. The washer needs to be replaced because somethings cracked. So Saturday, I carted 3 baskets of absolutely-need laundry over to my parents and used their washer. Sunday, I brought 3 more loads, since we were going to their house anyway.

Sunday evening, about an hour after getting home, Biscuit (who had been complaining that his belly hurt), stood up in the family room, and proceeded to lose EVERYTHING he had eaten that day. All over himself, the floor, under the couch, one of the couch pillows, and the coffee table. Remember, the washer is unusable. Naturally. When I bought the wash board at the thrift store a couple months ago, I wasn't planning on using it myself, I thought the kids would have fun playing with it. Well I got to use it. Twice. Because even though he was acting fine, and I only let him have 4 crackers, a piece of cheese, and some water, he did the same thing all over the entryway heading upstairs for bed. Fortunately that was only tile and his PJ's.

Can I just tell you you use a completely different set of muscles when using a washboard?

Biscuit seems fine today, and so do the girls, and me and B. for that matter.

The good, was B. sneaking out while I was in the tub yesterday morning and getting doughnuts and coffee (a maybe twice a year treat!) for breakfast. Didn't even know he was gone.

And, the creme de la creme (and I tried getting him to cancel it when our appliances began to mutiny): B. shocked the socks off of me by ordering me a Bosch kitchen mixer. I can make 8 loaves of bread at a time with this thing! 8!

And so, we are thankfully in our last week of school, supper is cooking away on the stove, and the littles (and me) are hungry for lunch. I have a baby shower here in 12 days, and I am nowhere near ready(Cleaning? Nope. Gift made? Nope. Baking/cooking? Nope.), but the livingroom carpet is clean, and a section of the family room's, we (I think) are going washer hunting tonight, and I have had insomnia, so I don't feel quite so guilty staying up and working on things.

Oh, and there is NO chocolate in the house. That is bad.

EDITED TO ADD A PRAISE: Looks like B. was able to fix the washer! What he thought was cracked isn't, and all he needed to do was replace a hose clamp!