Saturday, December 15, 2007

When It Rains, It Pours

And I feel drenched.
Ugh. It's been the week from hell. I'm venting. I'm down. I'm grumpy.

The dryer broke.
Of course, since the dryer broke, Aidan wet his pants twice this week, and Brennan wet through & spit up more. We've had to go and pay to use a dryer, but it stops after 45 minutes. It takes roughly 55 for the clothes to dry through, so each load to dry is costing us $2.00. This week alone it's cost us $10 just to dry clothes. On top of which we're having very wintry weather, so running errands w/ the little ones is tough, and air drying is not an option.

One of those days Aidan wet his pants right in front of the toilet. I was upstairs getting Brennan down for a nap. He was almost asleep when I hear Aidan yell. Of course he starts screaming bloody murder since I put him down. I run into the bathroom, unaware of what happened, and step right in a puddle of pee! I yank my socks off to throw them in the wash, along w/ Aidan's clothes...and then DUH! No dryer. Coin laundry sucks.

While I'm trying to help Aidan take off his soiled clothes, phone rings. Some ridiculous person from the credit card place. Apparently we missed a payment.
Now why is it they always have to act like jackasses? They pretend to be so perfect and high & mighty. It bugs me. Really bugs me. I tell the snot on the phone that my 3 year old wet his pants, and she can hear my baby screaming, too. I say it's a bad time. Does that knock common sense into her? Sure not. She proceeds to demand to know where the payment is (like she felt cool as a loan shark or something...). Excuse me, mam? You think I can concentrate with all of this going on?! Uh again.
She was a real you-know-what. And she did a perfect job of making me feel like a horrible loser that doesn't deserve a credit card. (which we no longer use, anyway) It ruined my day. And led to marital fights. Always pleasant.

As if the broken dryer and moron on the phone weren't enough, our van's transmission went. Yup. D4 flashing, couldn't drive over 35 mph...fun. Timing couldn't be worse. Not just because we need to drive somewhere just to do laundry. Oh no. Because on Thursday we were supposed to drive to see my family for Christmas. I see them maybe twice a year since they're in South Carolina. I am so not ok with seeing them so little, and maybe missing this Christmas with them. I've been looking forward to this for so long. Plus, my mother just had surgery recently, and now I find out she needs another one in January (knee replacement this time). I need to see my family. Oh, and this is our only car. Yes. We only have one car.

Do we have extra money for any of this stuff? Not a chance. We've been incorporating the Dave Ramsey plan, but we're not finished with step 1 yet (emergency fund). Every time we get close, there is a setback. Or 2 or 3 or 4.

Dryer. Credit card company. Peeing 3yo, crabby baby, broken transmission. Me with a miserable cold.
Add it all up, and you get one depressed, grumpy, of little faith woman here.

And when I hear certain things, it truly doesn't help, like:
God Will Provide. OR When Life gives you lemons...
I don't even like lemonade. So there.

10 comments:

Bethany said...

I'm so sorry. :( I hear you though...I've been paying for laundry this week, the car repairs just keep adding up, and because of the snow I won't be at the airport to meet my sister coming in from Europe. So...I'll pray for you if you pray for me. I wish I could help you see your family for Christmas ((hugs))

momwats8 said...

You deserve to be frustrated and upset! I am so sorry. We only have one car too and it is so hard when the one and only breaks down. It is also stinks when everything happens at once. I will pray for you an hugs from cyberspace.

Kacie said...

My goodness! You've had a stinky week for sure. I hope that's the end of it.

This might or might not be helpful to you, but I thought I'd post it anyway. I'm a coin-operated laundry gal myself (I live in an apt. with machines in the basement only, not in the unit).

Since you still have a washer, maybe you could take out the jeans, shake them, and put them back in the washer and set it on "spin" to get more moisture out.

Jeans take forever to dry, as you've seen. I've tried shaking them really hard, then hanging them on my drying rack for a few hours (might put a fan near them to blow more air at them), then tossing them in the dryer. They're usually done after one dry cycle, and if not, I just hang them back up.

For other loads, I hang them on my drying rack. They dry fast enough plus the extra moisture in the apartment is nice.

Maybe you could do that once in awhile to cut down your dryer bill.

It will get better soon!

Anonymous said...

OH Sharon, I love ya. I can't even imagine! I am so sorry all of this happened and I truly hope you can get home for Christmas. Give me a call if you need to vent some more. I am home all day!
Amanda

Stacey said...

Holy cow, that SUCKS, girl. Can you ask someone at church if you can use their dryer? I know you don't want to impose, but people like helping. I'd let you, even if I hardly knew you. Coin laundry is annoying on like 10 different levels.

This happens to us too. When I went into the hospital last year with Ace, our computer broke and our cat had to have a $400 surgery. It really all happens at once.

Screw lemonade. When life hands you lemons, put 'em in your bra and yell "I'm sexy!"

Kim said...

I am SO sorry! I know how things always seem to happy at the worst times. But a wise woman (ahem, that would be YOU!) once told me that "things always have a way of working themselves out" :) I'll pray that they do for you, too...and mostly that you can be with your family for Christmas, because what is Christmas without being with the people you love most? Hugs.

Unknown said...

Oh Sharon! I'm so sorry. I hope everything works out with your car, I saw about Honda and the extended warranty, that would be awesome. I'm praying for you, and by the way, I have a working dryer and I'm not that far away hon! You can come over and use it anytime, I will even come over and get you if you need me too! Just give me a call, seriously! I can load you all up in my minivan and stuff!

Andrea said...

Sharon..
I can't even imagine going through all of that at the same time. That stinks beyond all. I know, sometimes I wish people would just say "god will provide".. in all reality I know he will, but when all this is coming at you, it makes it really hard.

I wanted to say about the dryer.. have you tried not drying jeans? They do take forever. We hang all of our jeans up on hangers and hang them from the shower rod. It takes about a day to dry, but not biggie. Then I iron them. Yucky job, but it cuts drying by 1/2.

Hugs. Andrea

Amy said...

I'm so sorry to hear about your rotten week! I'm just checking in today, so I didn't realize what a week you'd had. ::hugs::

Sharon said...

Screw lemonade. When life hands you lemons, put 'em in your bra and yell "I'm sexy!"

THAT is why I love you, Stacey! :)

Thanks everyone. Things are looking up. Your thoughts, prayers & hugs (& laundry tips!:) were so comforting.