Fixed my stove

I haven't been able to make homemade bread for a couple of months now, and only non-tempermental oven items for dinner. You see, my stove has been acting funky. I looked at online forums for Whirlpool stoves and figured it was the fuse in the back because the oven completely turns off when you heat it above 350 degrees, or it just gets tired of cooking your stuff.

If I was baking anything, I pretty much had to plant myself in the kitchen and watch the stove, to make sure it didn't go off. Soooooo Annoying! When ordering the fuse, I found that it was discontinued by the manufacturer. nice. The only other option was that it was the $200 control panel. For that price, I'd rather apply it to a new stove- maybe even a gas range with continuous grates and convection heating.

So on to range shopping. I picked out the perfect gas range and was getting a spankin' deal since it was before Thanksgiving. I got the specs to Dear Hubby and wouldn't you know it, the gas range would be too much for our gas line given the gas furnace and water heater. To expand the line would require a ditch and something about ripping into the sheetrock of our newly-remodeled basement. ugh.

So I was back to a new stove, or fixing the stove. I got a new control panel from my favorite fix-it-yourself online store.

The instructions on the panel said to touch metal while handling the part to avoid static electricity and ruining the shock-sensitive part. Both hands were busy, so this is how I grounded myself. Here is the back opened and the finished product. As you can see, the old control panel was black, and the new white one is funky. The manufacturer has discontinued the black control panel for this stove, but not the white one which is insane to me.

The price of the part was more of a headache than the labor. But my stove works and I can cook without babysitting the stove too. As a matter of fact, my cookies are done. Gotta run.

Expressed my Jealousy

Dear hubby has been working crazy hours, long hours, stressful hours. As soon as he gets home he heads to the back yard.

A few months ago, we got the dog trained to go to the bathroom behind the shed. She was doing great until it snowed. Now she goes behind the shed AND all over the snow. When the snow starts to melt, she tapers back her poop area to just where the snow is. Weird.

So, hubby has been spending training time with her before she eats. Then after she eats, he takes her for a run and gets her to go in the right place. All told, it takes about an hour of his time each night/early morning.

When he came in last night, I nonchalantly asked, "So....if I poop on the lawn, will you start paying attention to ME?"

Sent a Text

I was trying to bribe the Dear Hubby to drop his work and come home before 7:00, so I sent this text: "I'm waiting, for the one I love, to find me, today."

(You know, from Snow White.)

A minute later a get a response. Thinking I'd get the standard, "gotcha- I'm hurrying :)", or "I'm on my way", I flip open my phone to this:

"Today!!!!!!!!! Loud bass voice, not a good one, but LOUD!"

In case you haven't watched Snow White lately, she sings the "I'm waiting" song and is surprised by the prince who sings "Today!!!!"

Aw, I guess I married a prince.

Found One of my Favorite Sites Again

Even though I don't eat healthy all the time, I do try to eat better.

I hate buying stuff with high fructose corn syrup in it, but I can't always make my own tomato sauce and granola bars. Therefore, I really limit the things with HFCS, and end up spending more money on things, because I feel that they are better.

Yes, sometimes a crazy mom has to choose the less healthy choice for the sake of sanity. It is nice to get reminders or some things that make it simple to know what to feed your family that is healthy and easy. This site reminded me of those things, and of how the Lord is the ultimate "health freak" and made it easy for us to be one too.

Won a Gold Medal!

Yesterday, I was working on an acupuncture client while dinner was simmering. Dear Hubby offered to finish making dinner and take care of the now one-year-old baby boy who had just woken up from his nap.

By the time I had finished with the client, dinner was done and the kids were eating. I dished up my plate and sat down as Hubby was wiping off Baby Boy. He told BBB, "Mommy deserves a Gold Medal." I dismissed it, not knowing what DH was talking about.

Later that evening when all the kids were in bed, Dear Hubby said again, "I mean it. You deserve a Gold Medal." Then he proceeded to tell me about how he had given the baby some green beans that were cooking to keep him happy so he could finish dinner. He was shocked at how fast those went down. He gave him another 8 or 10 which disappeared even faster.

Before he could stir the gravy, BB was wailing for more food. Hubby looked for the rice cereal and couldn't find any. So he pulled out a jar of sweet potatoes and had Big Boy feed the Baby while he ran downstairs to dig up a box of rice in the storage room. As he climbed the stairs, Baby Boy was screaming and signing "Please" because the jar was already empty. Big Boy said he was done, and Dad insisted that he scrape the sides clean to satiate BBB until the rice cereal could be made.

Pretty sure that BBB would not eat very much since he had already devoured so much, DH questioned how much he should mix up. Taking a chance, he mixed 1 cup of rice cereal and sat down to feed the baby, and alternated stirring the gravy.

Several impatient yelps, and an empty bowl later, the boy was finally full. He sat in the highchair while dinner was being dished up. This is where I came in.

So to restate, my hubby says that if that is what I have to do every night, every breakfast and lunch, plus other catastrophes that come up on random days, then I deserve a Gold Medal. I laughed it off until he said, "I found myself wishing I had gone into work."

Seeing as he has put in 60-80 hours a week lately (no that's not a typo), and has been so frustrated with work to the point of stating that unemployment would be better, the fact that he was wishing to be there, and appreciated my daily efforts, was touching. It was the best compliment I could have received.

I DO earn my keep, and a Gold Medal for all moms would be a nice reminder of the Olympic feats that we perform out of love.

Followed the path

Yesterday I was lying down trying to get rid of a headache. When I got up, I noticed that Brown-Eyed girl had left these notes all over the house (she just started 1st grade);

She can't spell "commandments",
but the apostrophe is in the right place!
Yea for punctuation!

And last, but NOT least:

There's your Sunday School lesson. Go, do, and be grateful, will ya?

Talked to a Friend

You never see how blessed you are until you talk with someone whose life is really hard.

Case in point: I have a friend who was talking to me about the horrible things her husband has said to her over the years that have broken her down and ruined her self-esteem. The worst part is that it's mostly not physical things like her appearance, but twisting spiritual things to make her feel unworthy of his love and God's love.

Granted, she is not perfect and has returned his affection in like manner. But it got me thinking. Have I said hurtful, damaging things to my husband that have cut him to the core? Or him to me? We have each disagreed over things- temporal and spiritual. We have been emphatic about things, but my husband has never said anything degrading about me. He has never said things to show me that I am less than or unworthy of him.

We joke with eachother; He tells me that I suck after getting my butt whooped by my son at Xbox, and I tease him that Hugh Jackman is my boyfriend. It works out nicely because when he can't get his "honey-do" list done, he tells me to call Hugh. And when I say, "I love H-you," he looks at me and smiles. Then asks if I said, "I love YOU," or "I love HUGH?"

In the end it doesn't matter which one I said, because he's both.

3 Things I am Grateful For

1- That the Lord sees potential in me
2- a mother who taught me to stand up and do things the Lord's way, and to shut my mouth when I don't always get my way
3- Every day opportunities to work on #2

Found an AWESOME Birthday gift

So it was time to get Elder Little Brother Rich a birthday present. What do you get a missionary that obsesses used to obsess about computers?

Hmmm, what to do........

I stumbled across this cute site.

I printed off a design and ironed it onto a t-shirt. this is the design I picked and I LOVED how it turned out;

Stood Taller

I have been shrinking. Literally. Yes, most women lose some height after having a baby, but I lost almost 2 inches. That fact sent me to my MD to start getting annual xrays to monitor my scoliosis.

I remember the one that I had about 14 years ago. It surprised me. This one was different. I was shocked. I almost threw up.

XRAY.

After I emailed the image to my Chiropractor friend, she asked if it made me sad. I told her that it made me grateful. Grateful that I have had 5 kids. Grateful that I can walk and move with the scoliosis relatively undetected. Grateful that all my organs function in good order (with a little help from supplements and massage.)

I am blessed. I may be crooked, but I stand taller today than I did before I saw it all in "black and white".