Summer Chronicles (part 1)

We have been battling a serious case of croup cough among the younger girls this past week and it has exhausted me. I am seriously ready for summer vacation. No alarm clock for the next 81 days sounds dreamy! Even with the sickness aside, our first official day of summer did not go as expected.

Upon waking, I remembered that the day before my dryer decided it did not want to heat anymore. It spun and hummed and blew air but decided it wasn't so excited about actually doing its job of “drying” anymore. Thankfully, my husband is a Mr. Fix-It so hopefully it will be remedied soon. Eight people’s worth of clothing is depending on him. (No pressure, honey.)

After breakfast, the girls decided to have a beach party and took all the blankets and towels to the deck, dressed in bathing suits and were having fun. I handed out fruit popsicles to soothe their coughs and throats. Isabella came rushing in and asked me to “Cool my popsicle! It’s sooooo cold!” I assumed she meant I had to make her popsicle warmer but then it would have just been juice therefore totally losing its cool. Funny, I know.

As all popsicles were finally being consumed, I noticed an odd smell which I thought was coming from outside. Instead I discovered that it was emanating from my dishwasher and smelled of burnt plastic.

Not good.

I shut it off and fearfully looking inside expecting a fire. I noticed that a piece at the bottom had melted and was burnt. Wonderful.  Mr. Fix-It had another job to add to the list.

I emailed this photo to my Mom with the subject, "On fire? Yup.” and another one to my husband with the subject, “Is this good?” Amusing to me but maybe not so much to the guy who had to come home and troubleshoot it.

Later, I talked to my Mom and she mentioned that my Dad (also a Mr. Fix-It) never saw any part that ever resembled that in a dishwasher before. I took his word for it and took another look. This time I realized it was a part from a cake decorating contraption that had fallen to the bottom and was touching the bar that heated during the dry cycle. Score! I told my husband I fixed the dishwasher all by myself! Again, he wasn't so amused.

In the midst of all this turmoil, coughing and laundry piling up and kids wanting to be fed actual lunches (just kidding!), I decided it would be a great idea to make a homemade mosquito catcher. I will tell you in a week how that works out. Currently, it only seems to be attracting ants. Lots of them.

Also, Lana's Barbie is in the hospital (again!) This time she is pregnant and expecting the baby "any day now!" I found it strange that she grew up in a household of only home births and still she has Barbie birthing babies in a hospital. Hmm. I give her a plus for a huge imagination, though. The worlds she dreams up in her mind are amazing!

So Summer is not off to the greatest start. Summer is definitely beating us 1-0. I figure it could be entirely worse so I try to keep a half-full-not-half-empty approach.

Plus, with 80 more days to look forward to, I am confident we can settle the score.