Two Fridays ago, Riley was napping and the big kids and I were doing something fun around the kitchen table when there was an almighty “Whack, whack, whack,” coming from my laundry room. The kids all hollered and my heart was racing. I ran to the laundry room and saw my washing machine trying to dance across the room doing the spin-cycle shimmy, still making that horrible noise…. After being momentarily stunned (and thinking, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”) I turned the machine off and calmed the kids down. We ended up having such a crazy day after that(try to not be jealous of my glamorous life) that I actually forgot to tell Noel about it until Saturday. I threw a load of clothes in the wash Saturday night (as entertainment for our guests… What?!?!? Isn’t that what you do when you have friends over?) and us grown-ups sat around the table listening for weird noises… (this could be a new party game… I need to patent this….) I heard a couple noises that no one else heard. Then my lovely friend heard a noise too…. Neither of the men heard anything… Read into that what you will. Finally the men heard the noise too. (Which, in their defense, we did have 7 kids 10 and under in our one level house, so there was a lot of noise. Yay for Mommy echo-locater hearing) Noel went in the laundry room and yep, there was a problem…. Boo hiss…. By then it was getting late so he was just going to look at it on Sunday.
After a crazy Sunday at church (it involved us driving 2 cars, me having pre-migraine aura, Riley walking (literally the kid took 2 steps away from me) into the corner of a table and getting a ginormous black and blue goose egg on his forehead, and I’ve blocked the rest out… Typical Sunday, really) Noel worked on the washer. The sounds that came from the poor thing (the washer, not Noel), made it obvious that there was a very serious problem…. I’d been hoping that maybe it had just gotten out of balance from a full load.(what can I say, I’m an optimist!) Nope. On top of all this, Noel was leaving Monday morning for a work trip. A short 2 day trip, but he was going to be gone. He’d been planning on bringing our kids to Nana and Grandpa’s on Sunday afternoon, so I could have a little break, so he washed clothes he needed there. One crisis averted, yay!
I was pretty confident that the kids and I had enough clean clothes to last a few days of no laundry. Oh, I crack myself up sometimes… Apparently I’d forgotten my awesome plan to “minimize” and be all organized and what-not regarding clothes. We’re wanting to sell our house so I’m packing up extra stuff so the kids can’t make a big mess. (which is totally delusional on my part to begin with. My children can make a huge mess from nothing. If it weren’t so frustrating, I’d be in awe of their abilities.. It’s almost like fusion…. Maybe scientists should study them) So I’d been ruthless and packed up winter stuff and extra stuff and left all of us with a minimum of clothes: thus forcing me to stay on top of laundry and making it impossible to end up with a mountain(s) of laundry if/when we’re ready to show the house… See how incredibly wise I am?!?!? Stop laughing at me! I can totally see you…The 3 big kids and I were doing ok, but Riley was a different story. Someone gave him oatmeal-new outfit. Someone gave him cheese puffs- new outfit. Peanut butter was involved- new outfit. This outfit is what we were down to on Thursday: 
A too big sweater vest and too-long shorts! Trendsetter! (He’s crying because he wants my camera.)
I put Riley down for a nap in this lovely outfit. He was quiet for a while and then started fussing. This is par for the course, so I let him fuss. The fussing got more intense, so I went to check on him and calm him down (Mama was really desperate for a nap too). Walked in his room to be greeted by a naked Riley… Mentally smacked myself upside the head for not learning the previous two times that if he’s wearing clothes that are easy to get off, he’ll take them off and his diaper too during naps… The previous two times hadn’t been a big deal. His diaper had only been wet and he didn’t do anything after the diaper was off (except scream). I went to get him and realized he had taken off a poopy diaper this time. And stepped in it, among other things (I’ll spare you the horrific details… You’re welcome)… An hour later I’d cleaned him up and bathed him,(all the while paranoid that he has made the connection that diapers off in crib = bath and baths = fun) then went to deal with the bedding. Guess what I forgot! No washing machine!!! The bedding wasn’t actually too bad, I’ve encountered worse from a blowout diaper. But still. For real?!?! Talk about timing! A short notice trip and a pooptastrophe all in the time frame of our washing machine dying… this is my life, folks!
We’re all in clean, properly fitting clothes now. All the bedding’s clean. We have a new washing machine, and I’m almost excited about doing laundry now! That’ll wear off quickly, I know!
And apparently I need to get out more if a new washing machine=fun…
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