Saturday, July 2, 2011

It Just Keeps Getting Better

Two vomiting kids, possibly two to go. A broken dryer. Gross, pukey laundry. When it rains, it pours. Or when it pukes, it spews. So getting up this morning, I figured we'd go buy a dryer, a hit to the pocketbook, but we'd get over it and have dry clothes once again.

Then Steve called on his way home from work to say his car broke down. Like died. Like possibly it needs to be put to rest. It has 184,000 miles on it, so it's not like this comes as any big surprise. But really, today? Of all days!

The clutch went. Fun. and expensice to repair. Is it even worth repairing at this point?? But buying a dryer for a few hundred bucks is a lot easier to swallow than buying a car for many thousands of dollars! Ugh!

Last night I could laugh at the irony of having a broken dryer and puking kids. Today, after the car news, not so funny any more.

Luckily, Steve was able to fix the dryer by replacing the belt. One crisis averted. There might be a small chance he can also fix the car. Hopefully. But if anything else breaks this weekend, I might have a mini-breakdown! :)

Friday, July 1, 2011

Puke. Yes, Puke.

So I didn't win the Totally Cliche contest. :( Then my kids started throwing up today. And my dryer broke, too. Lovely. I'll spare you the picture (since i know how to do that, note Alice pic below), but not the details.

. . .Sorry, just had to go help comfort said sick child after another round of vomit. Lovely!

Anyway, the day started out with one child saying her stomach didn't feel good. Maybe she was hungry? Or, at least I was hoping that. I didn't know of anyone having the stomach flu, so that wasn't my first guess. We had survived Emmett sitting next to a kid in the car who started throwing up on a road trip. We had survived the stomach flu when it went around church. But I guess, in the end, their is no escaping it.

Then there's the dryer. I did a huge load of whites, towels, socks, underwear. You name it, if it was personal, it was in there. The load became unbalanced and practically shot out the laundry closet before I got to it. Rearranged, restarted, viola! But no. Not so simple. When I took the laundry out, it was very soggy. Almost as if it had skipped the spin cycle. I thought of sending for a respin, but then decided against it. I would just set the dryer temp on high, problem solved.

Fifteen minutes into drying, I hear a huge "Clunk", and the dryer shuts off. At first I thought it was my daughter, who was in the bathroom puking. I thought she passed out, hit her head on the toilet, and I would open the door to find her lying in a pool of her own vomit. (Okay, I know, graphic, and you get the picture. I'm just being dramatic!) I check out the dryer to make sure there is not a fire (the johnson's have had a dryer fire before, as have the Rex's). No fire, but it smells like something is burning. I watch for a minute to make sure no flames burst forth from the back (again, I'm having fun with the drama. I have to laugh or I will cry.)

First vomitting child seems better by 8 pm. We sit down, have subway, watch a movie. I share my subway with Evie, she has some milk, some Doritos, snacks on this and that. She falls asleep at 9pm, only to wake up at 9:30 hurling. Really colorful, since she ate all that lovely stuff earlier. We clean up, only to realize we have soaking wet laundry in the washer (I finally did a re-spin) and no dryer to dry it with. Plus, we have a whole load of laundry that absolutely needs to be washed. Great.

So, I guess we're buying a dryer tomorrow. Happy Fourth of July to us! Alot more is bursting forth in our house than just fireworks. At least there will be holiday sales. Take my advice and be preemptive: Replace your appliances after twelve years. Average appliance lifetime is 13 years (of course, unlucky 13). Our house is 13 years old and in the last year, we have bought a new washer, a new water heater and now a new dryer. Next will be the oven, then the dishwasher. Probably dishwasher first, since we use that A LOT more than the oven. :)

Vomit is very commanding. It makes you drop everything and attend to it. It's not just one of those things you can ignore. Since I have two more kids and two more adults yet to be cursed with the stomach flu, I have a feeling I'll be answering it's every Beck and call, or hurl and heave.

But I guess I'm going to get a new dryer. Yay?