Welcome Back Toolwoman.

HELLO??? Anyone still out there? It's been awhile, but if you are still with me after all these lonely days then I'll tell you all about my adventure with fixing the dishwasher.
I'm NO appliance expert, but it doesn't take a genius to see "this ain't right" so I called a repairman for some assistance.

He told me it would cost $215 because of the labor involved with replacing the heating element. He then went on to explain the difficulty in pulling out the dishwasher to replace the element. Apparently, I kept staring at him with a blank look waiting for the intensive labor part to reveal itself because "pulling the dishwasher all the way out" and "reaching from behind" did not seem worthy of my $215. It wasn't.

Thanks to my new friends at ehow.com this was fixed in a little over hour (including the time it took to pick up the part).
Full Disclosure: The Commander managed the water line, but the rest was all me.
The total cost: $29.99 and I offered myself better customer service than the overpriced repairman by vacuuming the years of funky build up behind the dishwasher. BONUS POINTS! Now I think a shopping trip is in order as payment for my new found appliance skills. :)

CHA CHING!

July 4th Extravaganza

Today has been a much needed lazy day. I finally downloaded my pictures from the 4th of July weekend and just caught myself grinning ear to ear as I was looking at them. We enjoyed several parties with friends and family. We spent Saturday with Butterbean, Solar, and Nanny. Doesn't she look cute with her pop sickle? Did y'all make homemade pop sickles when you were younger? I found these monster molds at TJ Maxx and they instantly reminded me of eating them when I was young. They were hit with the Minis too. I need to get extra molds because the recipe I used makes a lot, but I only have four molds.



Grandaddy did a great job preparing the food for a shrimp boil. OH it was good!


The Minis started swimming lessons at the Swim Ranch on the 4th.


Our lessons were rained out on the fourth, but the evening turned out great with mild temperatures so we went to some friends' house for another cookout and fireworks. I left my camera so there are no pictures to post, but we grilled burgers and enjoyed watching the fireworks.
We spent the rest of the week finishing up with swimming lessons. Both kids learned a lot and really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure if it would be worthwhile to send the Wild Thing, but it was. The most important thing I learned from it was to teach small kids to turn around and reach for the wall after jumping off the side. Most kids drown from falling off the side and don't know to turn around and grab the wall. You can bet we worked hard on that lesson.