Maren's Baptism Lunch: handmade decorations

 Maren's baptism was held at 10:00 a.m. so we planned to hold a lunch at our home afterwards for our friends and family to help us celebrate. When I started thinking about what colors and theme I wanted for the party, I immediately decided on a butterfly motif. Butterflies are a symbol of change and rebirth--perfect for a baptism, where there is a very physical representation of rebirth, with the person coming up out of the water cleansed from their old life. Plus they're pretty and feminine and perfect for the Spring--and I just so happened to have a butterfly die for my Big Shot machine that I'd been itching to use.

For the color scheme I knew that I wanted to use periwinkle blue, shades of purple, and a bright green to set it all off with touches of kraft as the neutral. I found the perfect patterned paper at Michael's that incorporated all of those colors, and supplemented with various other patterned papers from my stash. I started out by cutting about 100 butterflies in various sizes with my Big Shot and then waited for inspiration to strike!

Pack-rattery pays off, yet again! I made this brown paper sack ruffle wreath WAY back in August 2010, but it has sat in my closet, naked, for lo these many years. I saw it in the basement recently and remembered that the original that I copied actually had butterflies going up the side, so I grabbed it and adorned it with a few of my butterflies, with tiny lines of pearls adorning the bodies.

Next, I knew that I wanted to hang a banner in the doorway between the front room and kitchen. I used kraft cardstock for the base, embossed with my cool new hexagon embossing folder from Stampin' Up.

To add some movement, I layered the butterflies in different colors and patterns.

I crumpled and then smoothed some of the butterflies to add dimension. On others, I used my fingers to
bend and shape the wings so they curved in and out. I used hot glue to attach everything.

Then I punched holes in the tops of the banner pieces and strung them all on some beautiful periwinkle vintage seam binding. It was tricky to see the dimension and the embossing in the photos, but in real life it looks really pretty!

At Target I found a set of three small tissue fans in my color scheme, so I couldn't resist! I added more layered butterflies to the centers of each side of the medallions (since they would be seen from front and back) and hung them from my light fixture using vintage seam binding. These hung right over the food table. Target also had a cool garland made of strips of paper in purple, blue and green sewn together. I don't have a photo of this one but it hung over a different door.

After all of this, I still had some butterflies leftover, and I was determined to use them all! I bought some cool twine at Paper Source a while back--it is natural twine color, twisted with metallic thread. I used the natural/silver twine and sandwiched it between pairs of butterflies to make a garland.

This photo is sideways, but darn Blogger won't load it the right direction! I used this garland to decorate a little table display I put together of photos of Maren. I just used washi tape to attach it to the wall and the picture frame above the table.

I love how it all turned out and the butterflies were just the way I had pictured them in my head. It's so gratifying when a craft turns out just like you hoped it would!

Maren's Baptism

Saturday was a happy, joyful day for our family! In our church, a person can choose to be baptized starting at age 8, which we believe is the age of accountability. Maren decided that she wanted to be baptized, and we've been looking forward to the event for months!

Here is a bit more about what my church teaches about baptism:

"One of the purposes of baptism is to symbolically wash away our sins, but even Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life, was baptized. Jesus was baptized because it is a commandment and he wanted to provide a perfect example of obedience to Heavenly Father’s divine guidance.

The ordinances of baptism and confirmation are a way for us to show that we are willing to take the name of Jesus Christ upon us, which means to become Christians and do our best to always live accordingly. First, we are baptized by being lowered under water and raised back up by a person who has authority from God to do so. This action symbolizes Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and it also represents the end of our old lives and beginning a new life as His disciples. After we are baptized, a person with authority puts his hands on our heads, gives us the right to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and confirms us members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." (source)

Maren was baptized by her daddy. They both dressed in awesome white jumpsuits.

When the time came, they both entered the font (like an oversized, sunken bathtub in the church) and he held her just like John is holding Jesus in the painting above. He said a brief prayer, and then immersed her under the water completely before bringing her back up again.

Next, I helped Maren get dried off and into her pretty dress so that she could be confirmed as an official member of the church.

We believe that baptism is the first step on the path to following our Savior, Jesus Christ. As He was baptized, we must also be baptized to show obedience and love for our Heavenly Father. It's a huge step and a decision of the utmost importance, and I'm so happy and proud that it was something that Maren wanted to do!

I believe that if we keep the covenants and promises that we've made to God about how we will behave and make the right choices, my family can be together forever, and I want nothing less than that! I love them so much--my family brings me JOY!

Up next: the lunch party!

Weekend Junk Finds: Vintage sparkles edition

Hello, friends! It seems like decent Spring weather has finally decided to arrive here in the Denver area! Oh, we had snow and sub-freezing temps last Tuesday, all right--but this weekend the sun came out and the air was legitimately warm. It's enough to give me hope that winter might finally be in the past! Having a snowstorm here in May is not at all out of the realm of possibility, but I think we might be through the worst of it. My kids played outside all weekend long and came in at night, filthy dirty and sunburned but boy, did they fall asleep quickly! I'm all too happy to return to that routine.

I didn't do any junking at all this past week. Still trying to get things OUT--I took another box of stuff to the consignment store a few days ago and I think I've decided to hold a yard sale in a few weeks. Can you believe that in all of the many yard sales I've shopped, I've never actually held one of my own? We're trying to dejunk the house in preparation for selling so now seems like the perfect time. Truthfully, I don't have a whole ton of stuff to sell yet--all of my 'good' discards have been going to the consignment store for months because I can get more for them there. Maren is itching to sell some toys and make some money, and I've asked some friends if they want to send any of their stuff over for me to sell. They'll get the proceeds, and hopefully my sale will look bigger and thereby attract more shoppers--win for us all!

This week's junk finds are all of the pretty and sparkly variety:

This gorgeous vintage brooch is big, about 2" across. It has pretty multicolored gems and part of it is painted. It makes me think "Spring"! It has an 'older' look to me, older than the brooches I usually see. It really is lovely.

This brooch is tiny, about the size of a quarter is all. It's a sweet little birdcage and there's even a wee birdie inside! It's attached with a separate jump ring so it dangles and moves.

I bought this pin because I thought it looked unusual. On the back of the circle there are three teeny screws, and I was curious to find out why it was fastened that way! The only other vintage brooch I have with screws on the back conceals a tiny battery compartment. When I got home and found my itty bitty screwdriver and removed the back, I found that each of those little tiny circles with the blue stones is removable, and there are slots for four more of them. I'm guessing it's some type of service pin, where a circle would be awarded for years of service or some other achievement. I'm wondering if those little blue stones might actually be sapphire chips? Any ideas?

Can't pass up an owl brooch, especially one with red jeweled eyes and rhinestone feathers!

And the last and probably my favorite--a giant, bejeweled lizard! He was tricky to get a good in-focus picture. Guess my hands were feeling shaky that day.

He's 4" long and made of really pretty large grey and aurora borealis rhinestones, with red AB stones for his eyes. There is no marking on the underside so I have no idea of age or origin, but he looks like a really nice piece and it must have been quite a bit of work to solder all of those settings together. I absolutely love it and I've already worn it!

Did you find any treasures this weekend? It looked like there were a ton of garage sales around here this weekend, though I didn't get to go because I was busy throwing a special party--more on that tomorrow!

Weekend Junk Finds: Small town edition, now with more Jadeite!

I know I've been neglecting my blog lately, but the truth is that things here still continue to be difficult and it's hard to feel like blogging. The laundry room floor situation is still not resolved (we're 3 months in, in case you're keeping track) and has in fact gotten WORSE, if you can possibly believe it. All those times when I was trying to be optimistic and chirped, "Well, it could be worse, right?"--apparently I was right about that.

This past weekend alone: on Friday afternoon, a few hours before an event I'd been looking forward to for months my babysitter called and cancelled because she was sick, leaving me scrambling to find another. The Mister worked all weekend long, we had both an unexpected $700 car repair on Friday and an unexpected $170 computer repair on Saturday, all of which culminated in me having a sobbing breakdown last night when I couldn't find any of my photos from 2011-2012 on the computer. I'd like to think I've been pretty tough through all the crap I've dealt with lately, but that was the one thing that finally reduced me to tears. I *think* my sweet husband may have located them, tucked away in a folder with a weird name, but I'm still not 100% sure. And the external hard drive that was supposed to be backing up everything has apparently not been plugged in for quite some time. Needless to say, we have signed up with Carbonite.

And then the capper? Last night as I was reading bedtime stories to Maren, Porter was in my bathroom, decapitating lipsticks. He got through four of them and tried to dump four lip glosses down the sink as well before I caught him. Today's fun? I get to have my very first cavity filled. I made it nearly 35 years without one but if my luck was going to turn, I'm not surprised that it did it now because why not add that to the list? Oh, and I'm developing a nasty canker sore on the same side as the cavity, so that should be fun.

Seriously, I need a vacation from my life.

And if you made it through all of that whining, you deserve a treat! How about some Jadeite?

I spent most of our Spring Break week staying with my recently-widowed grandmother who can't live alone. I managed to sneak away to the thrift store for a few minutes one afternoon between errands, and these Fire King beauties were my reward! I actually gasped audibly when I saw them on the shelf. This thrift store has a "boutique" attached and they skim off any halfway-decent or 'antique' donations so they can charge a higher price for them in the boutique. How these escaped that fate, I'll never know but I was thrilled to find them!

I found a few other goodies on that trip as well.

The lidless Tom's peanut jar was from a different thrift store and actually was not much of a bargain, but I snagged it anyway because I have plans for it. The three Fire King Kimberly mugs were from the same store as the Jadeite bowls.

That same store also produced a handful of vintage seam binding (which I've been using frequently in my recent crafting) and a pair of vintage games. The Children's Hour game is adorable! There are actually three games inside the box:

--An elephant board game complete with an cool, graphic game board, little plastic elephant game figures, and an elephant head spinner.

--Some sort of card game with animal cards that have cute illustrations

--and a darling fishing game with little alphabet cards and a wee fishing pole. Sadly, the instructions are missing so I'm not sure how to play any of these cute games.

I have high hopes that this week will be a better one. We do have rain and snow in the forecast and cold temperatures expected for the entire week which will do nothing positive for my mental state, but I know we desperately need the moisture here. We're having a big event for Maren in less than two weeks so I need to start party prep, a task I always enjoy. I'm hopeful we'll make some progress on the basement disaster. And perhaps we'll get through the week without something expensive breaking or my 3-year-old destroying it. Cross your fingers for me.

Duck Dynasty Party

Do you watch "Duck Dynasty"? We're big fans around here, and when the third season premiere rolled around back in February, I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a party complete with appropriately-themed food! If you've watched the show the food should give you a laugh, but if you don't watch you will probably be awfully confused. :)

Uncle Si's glazed donuts with hand-stamped "Happy Happy Happy" picks. I loved that I already had that stamp in my stash, long before Phil Robertson made the phrase famous.

My tablecloth was one of The Mister's camouflage Army-issue poncho liners and I pulled out all of my green and brown dishes. We scattered shotgun shells as 'confetti'!

Miss Kay's Banana Pudding. I made little signs for all of the food using kraft cardstock and camouflage scrapbook paper.

Homemade biscuits and honey and jam

 

And my favorite, Godwin's Protest Ham Sammiches complete with cardboard box protest sign. I made the funeral ham sandwich recipe from The Sunday Baker and they were SO yummy! We're having a big party at the end of April and I think I'm going to make them again. They're great party food because you make them ahead and then just pop into the oven for 20 minutes before serving.

 

I used my vintage McCoy log planter to hold green napkins

 

And found this vintage duck planter to hold a few more shells. I forgot to get a picture of our "Muscadine Berries" which were chocolate-covered cranberries.

 

And of course, we had to dress up! I never pass up an opportunity for a costume, you know. I dressed up my outfit with a vintage pearl necklace and a vintage rhinestone brooch in the shape of a pheasant.

Even Bronco got into character, wearing Willie's flag bandanna around his neck.

The Mister was excited because he has an old green Army cold weather cap, just like the one Jase wears when he goes hunting.

The Littlest Beard

My funny neighbor thrifted camo pants for Maren and a camo shirt for Porter so they could be dressed up too.

My awesome neighbors! Alice (wearing her best Miss Kay apron over on the right) ordered beards for her family, unbeknownst to us. When we opened the front door to let them in and saw them all dressed up, we about died laughing! What funny, funny friends we have and what a fun little party this was!

Weekend Junk Finds: vintage Letterman sweater

I mentioned in Friday's post two things: Porter started preschool and I found some fun junk at the thrift store. These two items are totally related, because the latter could not have happened without the former! Porter now goes to school two days per week for about 2.5 hours each day, so I have five lovely hours all to myself (well, not always--last week I watched a friend's baby one day and then volunteered at the school on the other. But the potential is there, anyway). I've been staying well clear of the thrift stores lately because I'm trying to get stuff out of the house, not bring more in. However, I had to celebrate Porter's first day of preschool with a solo trip to the thrift stores! I was rewarded with some fun finds, one of which I want to show today.

That particular day at the thrift store, all of the winter-type clothing (coats, sweaters, etc) was 50% off. I took a spin through the women's racks to see if I could find anything to keep or resell but didn't even think to look at the men's section. As I was walking to the registers at the front to pay, something caught my eye:

a vintage letterman's sweater! It wasn't even hanging with any other sweaters so I'm not sure what it was doing there, other than patiently waiting for me to find it. :D

At first I thought maybe it was a reproduction or a newer version, but this tag clued me in that it was the real thing. Then I saw the number on the arm and got really excited:

1943! Very cool. As I was inspecting it, I found one more little treasure:

the owner's name, embroidered on the inside placket. So naturally, I Googled him, and guess what--I found the owner! Mr. Moog passed away last November, and through the magic of the Internets I found his obituary. He was "Top Boy" and graduated from high school in 1943 in Eveleth, Minnesota--hence the giant E. He served in the Navy after graduating, then went on to work as an aeronautical engineer. He even worked at Lockheed Martin on the Viking Mars Lander and Space Shuttle programs!

I think the sweater is a really fun find, but I must admit that after recently losing my own grandfather I feel like it's my duty to see if I can make contact with any of the children named in the obituary and ask if they want their dad's high school letterman sweater returned to them. I can imagine that after he passed away his belongings were donated to charity and that's how they ended up at the thrift store. If I can't locate anyone or if they don't want it, then I'll keep the sweater and at least my conscience will be satisfied!

One month.

Today, The Mister is coming home! He's been gone since February 28, so you can probably imagine how excited we are. :) While this hasn't actually been our longest time apart by a long shot, this month has been particularly busy. Since my husband left one month ago...

• My laundry room floor has been installed incorrectly TWICE. (Most recent iteration earlier this week. I'm in vinyl flooring HELL)
• My barely-one-month-old tire got a 3"-long siding nail stuck in it and was unfixable. Thank goodness for the warranty (This was yesterday's disaster)
• My toilet leaked
• My washing machine leaked
• Porter knocked heads with another kid hard, threw up, then went to sleep, making me terrified all night long that he had a concussion
• My beloved grandpa died unexpectedly, devastating my entire family. I had to load up my kids and drive four hours to the funeral alone.
• My dog got sick the day after my grandpa's death, requiring an emergency trip to the vet, a $100 antibiotic and a frantic search to find somebody willing to take my sick dog for the weekend while I went to the funeral.
• My mom slipped on a piece of food in a grocery store and tore her ACL and then had the subsequent repair surgery
• We had two major snowstorms, one of which was the day of Maren's birthday party, which meant we had to do a pinata in my living room
• Some little stinker girl was stealing food from Maren's lunch and snack repeatedly and we had to get the teacher involved to stop it
• I made the disgusting mistake of buying California rolls sushi from Costco
• I had a mouthful of canker sores all at one time, making eating and drinking anything absolutely miserable
• Porter dumped a giant new bottle of nail polish remover, a lip gloss, and a $45 bottle of face serum down the bathtub drain while I was downstairs vacuuming up the neverending dog hair because Bronco is shedding his winter coat
• My vacuum died
• I haven't cooked in a month so we have eaten terribly
• I basically quit blogging

On the upside, this also happened:

Maren turns 8

• Maren turned 8 years old and I managed to pull together a fun birthday party for her mostly at the last minute with my Party Ninja skillz
• Porter started preschool, giving me five hours of blissful alone time each week 
• I was honored be able to give the eulogy at my grandfather's funeral
• My dad came out for a weekend to help me around the house and give me some moral support
• We got to see much of my extended family at my grandpa's funeral
• I thrifted some cool stuff including a 1943 letterman sweater

My friends were so, SO wonderful! They brought me dinner, invited us over for dinner, watched Porter to give me a break, volunteered husbands for fixing the toilet, took my sick dog and loved him for a weekend, brought brownies and ice cream and flowers and cupcakes when I was sad, consoled me and commiserated with me when I complained on Facebook, jumped in to lend a hand in the indoor pinata debacle, sent condolence cards and texts and generally lifted me up and supported me in so many ways. I am truly blessed! I couldn't have made it through this without them and their kindness.

Porter's first day of Preschool

And now, The Mister is on his way home. Sure, I complained about being home and facing all that nonsense alone but I know I had it better--he spent the month in the barracks (hello, cinderblock walls and hard furniture) with a stranger for a roommate and eating in the chow hall (just like living in the dorms. When you're 40 and married and have two children.) and the course he was taking was HARD--much, much more difficult than he had anticipated. He got the highest grade in the class and I am SO proud of him!

Bring on April! 

Where I've been

Hello, friends! I've never been a terribly consistent blogger but it's even unlike me to go nearly an entire month without a peep. This last three weeks has been a bit rough, so blogging has been the last thing on my mind. The Mister has been out of town for a long time and will be gone for a little while yet. His stepping on an airplane seems to be my house's cue to fall apart, and in the first week he was gone we had both a leaky toilet and a leaky washing machine. Thankfully, I have kind friends willing to lend handy husbands and my dad came for a quick visit so we managed to get all the water mopped up. I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that nothing else springs a leak or bursts into flames before The Mister comes home!

An update on my laundry room situation: it's still not done. Seriously. We've gone beyond ridiculous and have approached Ludicrous Speed (name that movie). The last time I posted, my vinyl flooring was supposed to be installed that day but was delayed a week because somebody failed to get it ordered. Well, they did finally show up the following Monday and the installer did both my bathroom (not related to the laundry room disaster) and the laundry room. It's a long story, but the gist of it is that the floor in the laundry room looks TERRIBLE. Completely unacceptable. From there, it was a fight between the contractor and the insurance. Today I finally got a call back from the contractor that they will start work on this next Monday and then hopefully in just a few days it will be ALL OVER. I'm so, so very ready for it to be finished. The good news is that I have had my washer and dryer back in service even though the floor was crap, so I have been able to wash my own undies in my own house, a welcome occurrence after more than a month and a half without that convenience.

The most difficult part of the last three weeks has been undoubtedly the unexpected passing of my dear grandfather. He passed away last Wednesday. I supposed when you're 87, death is not exactly a completely unexpected occurrence but we were all very unprepared for it and it was very difficult, especially without The Mister to lean on. It was hard for him to be so far away and he was not able to come back for the funeral service, but I know he supported me the best he could from across the country and I am thankful for that.

My grandpa was a great, great man. The finest man I've yet known, in fact. Here's a link to his obituary, if you're so inclined. I had the honor and privilege of giving the eulogy at his funeral service. He was a man of integrity and honor. He was a hard worker who also knew how to have fun. He was devoted to his family and always put them first. He was extremely generous to his family and many people and organizations in his community. I have him to thank that I was able to go to college, go on my Study Abroad to London, and graduate without any student loans. He was the kind of man I'd be proud to have my son grow up to emulate. I will miss him terribly and hope that I can honor his legacy to be the kind of person that he was.

Now, I'm scrambling to get ready for Maren's birthday party on Saturday. Last year I had everything planned and organized and all ready to go. This year, I'm throwing it together at the last minute. I'm still not entirely sure what we're even going to do besides eat cake, open presents and whack a pinata. Thankfully the girls are old enough now that I don't have to have every single second planned out--they're happy to play and talk with each other and their attention spans are longer. Unfortunately the weather forecast is for 29 degrees and 4-8" of snow, so I can't just send them outside to run around. I'm not exactly thrilled that we'll be doing a pinata inside the living room, but there just isn't another option. I'm sure I'll get it all pulled together and I know it will be fun, but I sure wish I had about two more days to get things prepared!

What should be happening today, but isn't

What should be happening today, but isn't? The vinyl flooring in my laundry room and hall bathroom, that's what. (Insert a really CRANKY face here)

Last week the Project Manager called and scheduled the vinyl floor installation for this morning at 9:00 a.m. Oh, I was so excited! I knew the jobs were small enough that they'd be finished by the end of the day and had planned to start my very first load of laundry as soon as the washer and dryer had been hooked up again. And then I planned to do laundry for about the next 36 hours straight to get myself all caught up again. I have never looked forward to doing laundry in my life but I can tell you that pretty much nothing would make me happier at this point.

Yesterday, the Project Manager called and said that the installation couldn't take place today because the vinyl I chose was a "special order" and wouldn't be available for a few days. So hang on a sec--I emailed my vinyl choices to the Estimator on Friday, February 15--more than a week ago. SOMEBODY dropped the ball BIG TIME--I don't know if it was the Estimator or the Project Manager, but I am MAD! If they had ordered my vinyl last week when they were supposed to do it, then it would have been ready to install today. Instead, I get to continue haul my laundry to my friends' homes for YET ANOTHER WEEK. Ooh, I am STEAMING MAD!

Not to mention the fact that my husband removed the toilet in the hall bathroom yesterday morning, a few hours before the Project Manager called. The Estimator wanted to charge us $200 to remove and replace the toilet--a fairly simple DIY job--so we opted to do it ourselves and The Mister had it all done and ready to go for the installation this morning. There's no point in buying a new wax seal and reinstalling the toilet, when we'll just have to do it again in a week. Only now there's a new complication--The Mister is leaving on Thursday morning to go out of town for an entire MONTH--so now I have to see if I can 'borrow' one of my friends' husbands to come and put the darn toilet back together when the vinyl is done next week. AND--I'm down one toilet for a week! That's not a crisis as we have 3 others in the house, but STILL--it's a needless hassle.

I swear, every friend or family member I've ever known that has had to use a contractor in their homes said it ALWAYS took longer than expected and ALWAYS was fraught with headaches and extra hassles. Count me in among them. At the end of this, it will have taken more than an entire month for those bozos to complete THREE days of actual work. Believe me, I can't wait until the job is done to write a LOVELY evaluation of their services for the agency that recommended them. I'm getting my typing fingers ready right now.

Tick tock, a broken red clock

Yesterday, there was a tragedy in my house.

Okay, fine, it might not exactly qualify as a tragedy, but I'm still sad! My beloved red plastic retro kitchen clock fell right off the wall and met with an untimely end on the wood floors. I thrifted the clock back in 2008--I was surprised to see that I've had it so long!

When I first bought it at the thrift store for 80¢ the clock mechanism didn't work. I fixed it by buying another 80¢ clock at the same thrift store and using the working mechanism in it to replace the non-working one in my red clock. Pretty thrifty and smart, if I do say so myself!

Now I'm on the hunt for a new retro-style wall clock. All day long yesterday I caught myself looking at the wall where this one hung! There's actually a carriage-style clock hanging directly on the other side of the kitchen so if I just turn my head in the other direction there's still a clock--but force of habit has me looking at the empty spot. If you know of a cute clock I need to see, let me know!

Soda-lighted it's Valentine's Day!

Possibly one of my favorite vintage Valentines ever! Found via Pinterest.

PS--The visit with the Project Manager yesterday went well--as I type, there are dudes in my basement building a new subfloor! It's a Valentine's Day Miracle!

The Laundry room saga...stalled

So, an update on my basement situation. Let me remind you what my laundry/food storage room looked like back on January 25:

And let me show you how my basement looks today, February 12:

Well, to be honest, that's not totally accurate. Cover up the machinery in the corners of the second photo and that's what it looks like. Astute readers such as yourself might notice that there has been NO CHANGE. And that, of course, is the problem.

The mold/water remediation guys packed up their big blower machines and left on Monday, January 28. We contacted the restoration/building company the following day, they called me back on Wednesday and their estimator came out to see the job on Thursday. Since then, we've been waiting for the project manager to contact us; he finally called last Friday to schedule a time to come see the job tomorrow. So that means for the last two weeks we've been sitting around and twiddling our thumbs because we're totally at their mercy. Two weeks more of doing my laundry at my friends' homes. Two weeks more of having to buy groceries that I know I already had down on my food storage shelves, but can no longer locate because all the food is boxed up and piled in the basement family room.

So the project manager will come tomorrow, look at the job, and then assign out the work to subcontractors. And who knows when they'll show up or how long it will take them to get the work done and my laundry room back in working order? It could be another few weeks, if things continue at the same (glacial) speed that they have so far. Monday marked one month since we filed our insurance claim and back when we did that, I naively thought it would all be over and done with by now. Wrong!

So after you read this, do me a favor and be thankful for your washer and dryer, if you're lucky enough to have a set in your home. You might even give them a kind word and a little pat if nobody's looking. I know that I took my ability to do laundry in my own home, on my own terms and timeline completely for granted before. You can bet your Tide With Bleach I won't be making that mistake again!