Ho Hum and Stinky Clothes

I want to post about something fun and interesting, but I honestly don't have anything like that to write about right now. Let's see....

I have one more day until I'm lifetime with Weight Watchers. Yippee!!! I'm going to track everything very closely this week.

I'm fearful that fate is dishing me out something I don't really want to deal with that might be a long term deal. I'm hoping it's not how I think it's going to be, but I will let you know more about this when I know more. Heaven knows I'll need to vent.

My bedroom got completely cleaned today! That was a major task, but it got done. I played my five minute game, and it worked like a charm.

More than half of my young women are moving up to Laurels in these next two weeks. I'm so sad about it I could cry. I'll be down to four girls after the 19th. I grow so attached to these girls. They really become such a huge part of my life. This particular group seems like they'll stick close and call and come by from time to time, though. They are the same age as my daughter, so I feel good about that.

Okay, so help me with this. T has a new word. When I put him in the car the other day he was saying, "Ra ro mat," over and over again. A finally interpreted it for me and told me he was saying, "Laundromat." We are becoming well versed in the beauty of the neighborhood laundromat. We're almost to the point of giving it a nickname like "the mat," or something friendly like that. Our family has a tendency to give pet names to things and people that become close to us--terms of endearment, if you will. This would be no exception.

A few weeks ago, our laundry started to smell really badly after it was washed and dried. It got worse with each load I did. I apologize for the offense we caused to anyone olfactory sense in the past couple weeks. Thanks for not saying anything; we already knew.

You can imagine with the size of our family that it is a really beautiful day when there's only one load to do--this is such a RARE occasion.

In response to the stinky situation, I took the clothes to the mat and washed and dried them there. Yes, I had to indenture one of my children to do so, but we got our hands on some great state quarters for our kids' collections. I got everything washed, dried and folded all in a matter of a couple hours, so that was a real upside of the experience. This also gave the washer and dryer a little resting period.

The next few loads I washed were just fine, but I started to notice that the top of the dryer was getting super hot. Our house is designed really strangely as far as the laundry facilities are concerned. The laundry room is in the middle of the upper level of the house, so in order for the dryer to vent, the duct work goes up, turns a 90 degree angle and proceeds through the attic and vents out the back of the house. You can imagine it has to be cleaned out frequently and is far from the ideal situation and very against building code.

So, it was off to the mat again. The little boys were so excited. I was a little less so; quite a little less. So, I waited until it was bedtime, took G with me (he actually volunteered to go; it was just after his band concert that evening), and off we went. We got it all put in the dryers, he did his homework while we waited, and then we folded it together, took it home and put it away.

This morning, again, it was stinking, so Z took all of our laundry over and got it done.

So, have you ever had something like this happen to you? Do you have any advice for us? These are old machines. There's no question about that, but who has extra money lying around to just go out and buy things like this at this point in time? We sure don't. Plus, when I buy new ones, they're going to be those amazing front loading jobbers that do it all so efficiently. So, how do I get my machines to stop stinking? I know either Z or I need to get up in that attic and clean out the duct work. Z said he's going to cut a hole in the floor of the laundry room and run the duct work down and out through the garage. Can he do that without a permit? Hmm. What to do?

Well, so much for a fun post. Hopefully life will become a little happier (I know it's all a matter of attitude). In the meantime, thanks for putting up with me. I love you for it!