Yesterday, before I left for work, I put the sheets and our duvet cover into the washing machine. I stripped the bed, throwing the sheets and pillowcases onto the floor, and then when I had the duvet off the down comforter I picked up everything and put them directly into the washing machine. When my husband got home he flipped the laundry into the dryer, so when I got home from work at 5:30 p.m. the sheets were clean and dry.

As I'm emptying the dryer, first the pillowcases, and then the sheets, which I carefully shake out because there is usually a stray sock tucked into the pockets of the fitted sheet, I find my husband's hiking shoe. It's just sitting there, in the dryer, as if it's on display or something. And it's warm, so I know that no one is playing a trick on me by tossing the shoe into the dryer when my back is turned. I hollered to him: WHY IS YOUR SHOE IN THE DRYER?? And he, of course, hollers back: MY HUH IS IN THE WHAT?? So I took his shoe to him and said: YOUR SHOE. IT WAS IN THE DRYER.

Now, I have to tell you that he's totally opposed to washing his shoes in the washing machine. According to him, that'll ruin them for sure. And I don't really want to admit that I washed his shoe. It would be better if I admit that he dried his shoe. But from where his other shoe was located on the floor in the bedroom, I'm pretty sure that when I threw the sheets onto the floor in the morning and then scooped them up, his shoe must have tagged along. I don't know how he didn't notice his shoe when he put the sheets into the dryer, but he did say that he wondered why there was a thunking noise when he turned the dryer on.

So there you have it, he's got one clean shoe. And it's one of the shoes that he wore when he used a sledgehammer to help my brother demolish his kitchen a few weeks ago. It's considerably cleaner than the other shoe. CONSIDERABLY.

In May I got a brand new Kenmore Elite He5t washing machine with the Quietpak 9 and a matching He5 Steam dryer - also with the Quietpak 9. I didn’t know that I could love a washer and dryer this much. The very second that Sears drove away after delivering and installing them I had a load of wash going — and all the laundry baskets were neatly lined up so that I could wash clear into the middle of the night if I chose to.

I’ve kept those machines running on a fairly regular basis ever since. If something needs to be washed I scope out all the dirty laundry until I’ve got enough to fill a load.

And the Quietpak 9? Well worth the money. My laundry room is on the first floor and it’s right next to the living room, dining room, kitchen, and my bedroom. I needed a washing machine that did not make a peep. And this one is UBER QUIET.

Did I mention that I love it?

So this morning I threw in a load of sheets, and tonight I flipped the laundry into the dryer, and started the next load. Then I took a shower. And when I got out of the shower I noticed that the washing machine wasn’t running, and instead was flashing F32 on the screen.

And the door was locked.

And it kept flashing. F32! F32! F32!!

Yes, yes, F32!! But what does it mean?? I grabbed the owner’s manual and searched for all the error codes, F20, F21, F22, but no F32.

What!?

I started punching buttons on the machine, and finally had to unplug it from the wall to get the door to unlock.

Whew! I got all my clothes out of the washing machine, because even though they were dirty clothes, I felt relieved that they weren’t locked inside! I know, odd.

My husband came in the laundry room and tried to figure out what the problem was, and finally announces that “we’ll have to call for service”. Lucky for him the door right behind him is magnetic and there was a Sears Home Service magnet — which I grabbed and handed to him.

“It’s 8:30 at night, they won’t be open.”

“Ya never know.”

I fully expected him to go back to watching his tv show, and I was still wrapped in a towel, so I went to the bedroom to get into my pajama’s. I can see the couch from the bedroom, and I saw him sitting on the couch, then I heard him explaining to someone that the washing machine wasn’t working and it was giving him an error code.

Could he really be calling Sears? At this hour?? For me???

Sure enough, he called!

And I wanted to burst out into song like Giselle in Enchanted — twirling around in my pj’s That’s How You’ll Know!  

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

On Saturday my husband, daughter, and I were at Panera for lunch, it was the Brookfield location at Ruby Isle, and if you’ve been there before you know about the separate dining room that is off of the main room. It’s quieter in there and for some reason it’s Zoe primo spot when she’s choosing a place to sit.

So we were eating our lunch, and there was a couple of ladies a few tables away, but other than that we had the room to ourselves, when all of a sudden, I swear to God, I heard a bird chirp. I glanced around and didn’t see a bird, nor did I see anything that could have made that noise, so I went back to eating. A few minutes later I heard the bird again. I looked up, thinking I’d catch it flying across the ceiling or something, but again, I saw nothing. My husband and daughter heard the chirping too, so at least I wasn’t hearing things.

This is where I have to say that stuff like this drives me nuts! I know I heard a bird, but I never ever saw it. I’ll bet in all we heard it at least five or six times over a 20 minute period, yet every time I looked around, I couldn’t find it. If it were not for those ladies sitting a couple tables down, I would have done a complete top to bottom search of the room. However, since they were there, and didn’t seem to even notice the chirping, I’d look rather insane if I dropped to my knees and started looking underneath all the tables in search of where the chirping was coming from. Although, I did take the opportunity to look behind the garbage cans when I cleared our trays.

Zoe kept saying, ‘Okay, if I hear that chirping again then I know there’s a bird here for sure!’

Folks, let me tell you this: There was a bird there, I’m sure of it. And if I would have had the time, I would have done a stake out, if only to say ‘A ha! There’s the bird!’  and then I’d have gone about the rest of my day, just waiting for the next crazy thing to happen.

One time, at our last house, I was in our family room watching tv. My husband, and daughter, who was just a baby, were both sleeping. All of a sudden something flew across the room! My mind started to flip through it’s internal rolodex of all the possible things it could have been, and it stopped on: bat. A BAT!!! There’s a bat in my house! In the room where I am sitting!!!

And that’s when I started shrieking and threw a blanket over my head. I was frozen in my chair, and thought that if I got up and ran to the other room, the bat might just fly into me. SHRIEK!!!!! SCREAM!!!!!

My husband came running from the bedroom, saw what I was screaming about, and pretty much commanded me to get into the kitchen where we could close the swinging butler door behind us, thereby quarantining the bat in the dining room and family room area. I shot like a bullet across the room, with a blanket over my head, and he shut the door behind me.

Now what do we do? How in the heck do we get that freaking bat out of our house? Well, we walked around outside to the front door, opened it, and then waiting for the bat to fly out. Which he did, and it only took a few minutes actually. That stupid bat. That was probably one of the craziest things to ever happen.

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

It’s Girl Scout Cookie time, and my husband has just informed me that he ordered six boxes from one of Zoe’s friend’s from the neighborhood. My first question for him was this: How many boxes of Thin Mints did you order? His response: Three.

Three boxes of Thin Mints, and they are all for me!

This is one of the perks of living in a house with two people who do not like mint flavored food. Of course, he’s willing to try any gross thing they serve on Survivor, yet the Thin Mints will not touch his lips. My daughter, who will not eat any thing other than chicken fingers, Cheetos, bananas, and grapes ( and a couple other things), doesn’t like mint either.

Her and I were at Macy’s the other day and there is a gumball machine at the Origin’s counter, well how was I supposed to know that those white gumballs would be mint flavored???? She practically ran to the nearest garbage can to spit out her gumball, holding it in her mouth very carefully so that it did not touch a single taste bud.

The first year my husband and I were married, a girl scout came to the door while I was at work and my husband was home alone. I don’t remember how many boxes of cookies he ordered, but let me just say this, he did not order one single box of Thin Mints. Apparantly during our courtship we had never gone over our Girl Scout cookie likes and dislikes. I didn’t know he didn’t like Thin Mints, and he didn’t know that I coveted them like the Holy Grail.

So let that be a lesson to all you unmarried folks out there, if you want your spouse to order you Thin Mints, you should probably put it in your wedding vows, or at least go over the scenario should a girl scout come to the door when the other isn’t home.

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

I wrote this a couple years ago, and since it's (almost) Halloween I thought I'd share it with you today. Boo!

Do you like scary movies? I love scary movies! Except for when I’m watching them, scared out of my mind, then I wonder why I love scary movies so much.

I think it’s the adrenaline rush that I get from being scared? Or maybe it’s the cuddle-factor? I love to cuddle up with my husband while watching a movie.

Years ago we rented Scream, and within 10 minutes I was curled up on the sofa with him, and the two dogs. After the movie we had to walk the dogs. In the dark. On a summer night. He tried to get me to walk them, I tried to get him to walk them. Finally, we walked them together. Every little noise made us jump. It was breezy, so even the rustling of the leaves was enough to get our hearts racing. Every shadow became a dark cloaked figure. We learned our lesson, no more watching scary movies at night, in the dark.

When we rented The Others, we watched it during the day.

All the lights were on.

All the blinds were open.

And I think we played music in the background.

It was still pretty scary. I didn’t see that ending coming. Did you?

There have been plenty of scary movies since then, the last was The Grudge. We saw this in the movie theater. Hello!? What in the heck are you thinking??? This was clearly a dumb idea. Have you seen this movie? There is a scene where Sarah Michelle Gellar is in the shower, and a hand comes out of the back of her head, which she touches while washing her hair. THAT was creepy! Can you even imagine??? Here you are, alone in the shower, relaxing, washing your hair, probably even singing a little tune, right? And all of a sudden there is a hand behind you! That would totally freak me out.

And it did.

One day I was in the shower, alone, relaxing, washing my hair, not singing a tune because I can’t carry one. I was standing under the showerhead, facing the back of the tub, with the water spraying down onto the crown of my head. My hands are washing the suds out of my hair, when all of a sudden I feel something behind me. I barely grazed it, but I touched it enough to know that it wasn’t my other hand, nor the wall, and the showerhead was above me about 6″. I jumped out of my skin, and might have even let out a shriek! As I snapped my head around, looking for the guilty Grudge hand I saw not a hand, but the other showerhead!

Oy! The other showerhead. Yep. I picked the damn thing out, and paid extra to have it installed when the bathroom was remodeled. It’s adjustable, sliding up and down on a vertical bar so that shorter people (like kids) can use the shower. Or I can shower without getting my hair wet. And it comes off the bar all together so you can rinse the shampoo off a kids head who wants to take a bath instead.

Whoever used showerhead #2 last (that would be me) didn’t swing it in towards the wall, so it was sticking out and the rest is history. Creepy. Scary. My-heart-skipped-a-beat. History.

What about you? Anything creepy, scary, your-heart-skipped-a-beat, ever happen to you?

Don't forget about the photo hunt!