Misc

Just after Thanksgiving our washer went kaput. I called a repairman to see if it could be saved. Alas, no such luck. So off to the store I went. I settled on a Whirlpool Duet. It took a couple of weeks to be delivered. The bad part was that I needed to pack for our Oregon trip and I had no washing machine. By the end we were getting pretty desperate for clean clothes. It finally arrived the day before we left. As you can imagine I had A LOT of laundry to do. No better way to break in the new machine right. All was going smoothly and I loved it! That is until I went to unload my third load. Immediately I knew there was a problem. Little gel balls were everywhere. All over the clothes, and coating the drum. What had I done? I wanted to cry. For the first time ever I had washed a pull up. In my haste, I must have missed it within the clothes. I was really angry with myself. I couldn't believe that I had just ruined my new machine. After googling for solutions, I was able to painstakingly get out the gel and rerun the clothes, then run a clean cycle. It was a GIANT pain. Thankfully, it seemed to work, and I was able to get back to my pile of laundry. Please learn from my mistake. This is not something you ever want to do. Trust me.

Since this was our first house that wasn't a townhome, I really wanted to put up some Christmas lights. We spent several hours on the ladder getting those darn things up. I have a lot more respect for my dad now. I honestly can't believe he has put lights up every year by himself. What a pain!! Next year should be easier now that I can leave up the hooks. I was really happy with the results though. Maybe next year we can add more to it.

The other big thing that happened in December was that Claire was recognized in her school's reading achievement assembly. They have a point system for tracking reading. The kids in grades 2-5 take small quizes after reading books to earn points. They recognized the kids who earned 25, 50, 100, and 150+. Claire was one of 7 kids in the school to earn the highest award of 150+. She actually has almost 300, but the awards top out at 150. She is such a strong reader and loves it so much. We are so proud of her achievement!! Go Claire!