a journey in motherhood

My lovely big front loading washing machine has been acting up lately. It’s only a year old and I recently declined the extended warranty so I’ve found this very frusterating. I did what I often do when confronted with a problem, I tried to ignore it…until I couldn’t anymore. In fact, I tried so hard that there has been a 1/2 washed load of dirty diapers in my machine for 2 days now. Dreading having to call and pay someone to fix it for us I got Charlie involved and we decided to see if we couldn’t figure things out. I can’t count the number of times I’ve thanked the Lord for placing my life in this period of time all for the internet. That’s where we found our help. The lovely posters at www.fixya.com had the solution and it worked. Now we’re waiting for the washer & floor to dry of the nasty smelly water that drained ALL OVER before I can finish my 2 day old dirty diapers. Don’t worry, I’ll be washing them a few extra times at least. I’m just grateful to have avoided the cost of a service repair, and I feel so empowered like I could fix anything now. loveit.

In the last month I’ve had 2 flat tires. Totally flat. The first was when we pulled out of the garage on our way to church, got 1/2 way down the street and realized we had a problem. Large screw right in the middle of the tire. So we had to pile out and cram into the truck & deal w/ the flat later. Which was actually rather painless, as Sams Club fixed it for free. We didn’t even buy the tire there - sweet huh? So we went back there yesterday b/c this time I had a flat when I came out of the Dr.’s office. Though I’m sure I caused the leak when I hit the bricks while trying to avoid hitting Charlie’s truck when I was pulling out of the driveway. (I’ve hit the truck before and this was a better option!) Anyway, thank you Toyota for giving me a spare that is exactly the same as my regular tires b/c no one seems to have the right kind in stock right now, but once again, Sams helped us install the spare for free, and even advised we buy a spare elsewhere b/c it would be cheaper.

Before the the flat incidents we had another close call. We all went out to the car only to find it completely dead. This caused more anxiety than the usual, oh we just have to jump it annoyance, because we own a hybrid. Who knows what you do to get a hybrid engine recharged? We do now. And it happens to be the exact same way you do with a regular car. Jump it. phew! Thank you Toyota again. Though we did have to figure out how to get the care out of the garage first - did you know there is a secret gear shift override button? There is. I must admit what you can learn from these annyoing bumps in the road helps make up for the frusteration they cause. Can you tell I’m an optimist?