First of all, I guess I should tell you why it's been so long since I last updated. Now, which excuse should I use? There are so many to choose from.
You could start by just calling us (my family) the Icky Sickies! That's what's been going on at our house. Every single one of our children has been sick for over a week. It started with K, she was coughing and hacking and sounding pretty congested two Mondays ago (10 days ago) and then little B started in on it too. The poor little man was so miserable. His first birthday was last Thursday and we were planning a big ol' celebration, but unfortunately, we didn't even let anyone know about it once we realized that the kids were getting sick. However, we did make it to the zoo on Thursday. We'd been promising the kids for a couple weeks and didn't want to disappoint. We figured since they wouldn't be in close contact with anyone and we would be outdoors, it would be alright. Poor B was miserable the whole time... runny nose (raw from wiping it), coughing, and slightly lethargic.
Friday morning it seemed he had taken a turn for the worse and I took him to the doctor for fear that he might have RSV. His cough sounded really bad, he was wheezing a bit and Thursday night it seemed that he was having a hard time breathing.
Does it seem like everyone's baby has had RSV this year? I know so many people that have had to hospitalize their babies. I was scared to death this would be the case for us.
Lucky for us, he didn't have RSV but it was a good thing I took him in anyway. He ended up having a double ear infection. Silly me, that didn't even cross my mind. In the 9 1/2 years we've had kids, we've only encountered ONE, yes one, ear infection. 'A' had walking pneumonia the summer before last and she got an ear infection. Other than that, we have had no experience with such nasty infections.
Thanks to antibiotics, little B has perked right up! His nose finally stopped running yesterday and he's now back to his happy little self. And guess what else... just guess! He's WALKING!! As of tonight, I am officially calling him a walker.... of sorts. He's attempting it anyway. Once he stumbles (about 5 or 6 steps in), he's off and crawling again but he's at least trying. That's gotta count for something, right?
Well, after taking B to the doctor and getting him taken care of, A started in on the coughing but never had a fever like K and B did. Shortly after she started, C and H started coughing and running fevers. What a whirlwind!
And whatever this is, it is kicking C's butt (or should I say behind). H's fever was easily managed with one dose of Motrin but C has required several doses and he has been completely wiped out. The poor kid has been laying around, not into anything (you'd think that would be a nice break but it's actually very sad to see), and whining to be held. "Mom, put B down." Poor little man! He just wants to snuggle. After a couple days of straight fevers, it seems to have calmed down tonight. Thank goodness!
I think we're finally looking up from here. Whew, it's been a rough go!
And now on to my other excuses for my absence. The first being the fact that we Sold these BEAUTIES...
All I can say is, sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do. And this was just one of those things. It's a sad thing because I really really loved my beauties. They were AWESOME. We bought them when we first moved into our home, five years ago. And now, they've moved on to be someone else's beauties, and we get to deal with the beasties.
I'm very grateful for the beasties, don't get me wrong. They are part of the stuff my sister left behind when she moved to California with my parents.
The dryer is actually not a problem at all. It's great! The washer is the problem. First of all, my sister informed Anthony to NEVER use the 'Super' for the load size. I forget why... something about a leak or a spill-over or something? I don't know. But with a family of our size, only using 'Small' or 'Large' means for a lot of loads.
The second of our issues is the fact that our drain doesn't exactly agree with the amount of water the 'new' washer likes to push through. I guess I never realized how truly effecient the beauties were. The washer used sooooo much less water which meant that our extremely slow drain (which we didn't know was so slow) was able to keep up. NOW, there's a process. Wanna hear it? Here you go.
From the time I start the washer (on heavy soil level) to the time it drains is approximately 17 minutes. Which means, I start the load, I run upstairs to set the kitchen timer and when it beeps, I get to run downstairs and get ready for the flood. Only now, it's not a flood because after learning the hard way, I have perfected the process...
Once the water starts draining, my job is to wait approximately 3.5 seconds (for real, I've counted) and then push the knob in to stop it. Even half a second later and the water starts spilling over the top of the drain pipe.
The knob now stays in for approximately 3.5 seconds to allow the drain to catch up. Pull out...3.5, push in...3.5, pull out...3.5, push in...3.5, etc.
This process is repeated somewhere between 13 and 16 times. Yes, that is real, I've counted. It all depends on how precise my seconds are. Is it sad that I know the exact seconds and how many times? Yes, I'm awesome!
From there, once that cycle has finished, it's time to wait for the rinse cycle to complete. I set the timer for another 9 minutes and when the timer goes off, it's off to the basement again for another round of push and pull!
Basically, I now get to babysit the washer. And trust me, it's a BAD day if I forget to set the timer. It's happened once or twice... DARN DISTRACTIONS!! If you ever want to try it, let me know... you're more than welcome. It's lots of fun!
It's really not the washers fault, and yes, the drain could be cleaned out and I'm sure that would help immensely. But when you don't have the funds, you don't have the funds. If you know a plumber that wants to come fix it for FREEEEEEE..... ;) Maybe next paycheck.
And now, for my final excuse... you'll have to wait until the next post for that one. It's almost 2 in the morning and I am going to bed!
1 comment:
Oh MAN! I'm sure there's a good reason, but that sure seems like a rough trade!
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