It has been a hectic couple of days. Before I left my house for the day on Tuesday I decided to throw a blanket in the dryer. My son was helping me out with this chore when the dryer started doing "the twilight zone" on him...beeping like crazy. I ran down to the laundry room wondering, "What is he doing?" He was staring at the control panel pushing random buttons to try and get the machine to quiet down. It didn't work. I unplugged the dryer, said a prayer and plugged it back in...nothing. I had a blacked-out control panel and very little time for a diagnosis. I ran to the electric panel and flipped the fuse back and forth (I had no idea!), but still no luck. The light was coming on in the dryer so I knew the machine was getting power; I just grabbed the dryer manual and ran Rhett to his Art class.
While sitting in my car waiting for Rhett I read the entire manual, hoping to find the section that said, "if you can't afford a dryer repair right now, just press this reset button we've hidden on the back of the machine and all will be well." There was no such section. :( I called the repair center and tried to communicate my issue with someone from India (I think.) She let me know that it would cost $70 for the repairman to come out whether I got anything fixed or not. Then she cheerfully told me about the $200 deal that I could pay on the spot and it would take care of all labor and parts for this visit, plus any I would need during the coming year. I let her know that I would need to talk to my husband and get back to her. I called Mark and gave him the low-down and he said if the control panel had gone out it would definitely cost MORE than $200 to fix it. We decided to let him take a look at it later in the day and wait until we had no other option.
I waited through Art and volunteered at the library before being able to get home to gather my remaining laundry (which mysteriously seemed to be hiding ALL OVER the house-we have to talk about getting the dirty stuff in the basket in the hall again). My husband had beaten me home and was tearing the machine apart trying to find that mysterious button too. :) He cleaned out the dryer's insides, but it still didn't like us. Then Mark said that he had read online that sometimes a control button gets stuck and if you just push a lot of buttons it might pop back on. Wow! We're getting desperate now, but it is $200. So with another little prayer I watch him go to town on the buttons and you won't believe it, it popped back on!! I got misty eyed and we started hugging and praising the Lord right there in the laundry room! I think we said lots of thank you prayers throughout the night and felt blessed to not have to drag a mini-van full of clothes to my mom's house. Dad would be happy about that too.
Later that night I had come up with a tasty meal that included grilled pork chops. As Tara was eating her meat she complained about a sore tooth. (one with a filling) I gave her a toothpick thinking she had some pork chop stuck in her teeth. A few minutes later she emerged from the bathroom with a bloody toothpick and still crying. What kind of mother am I? I got some floss and gave it a try...no luck. She couldn't describe her pain very well so we suggested not finishing the meal and I gave her some pain medicine. She mentioned that it had hurt at other times, but she hadn't told us. I asked her to let me know whenever it hurt again.
Today on our way home from a piano lesson she complained about the pain again. I called the pediatric dentist and they said to come right over. We got there and found out she had broken the filling. Ok, I think. The dentist suggested taking an x-ray just to make sure everything was still good. Of course, it wasn't. She needed a baby root canal on the spot. I know I haven't blogged about the dentist before (there's a reason), but I have awful dental phobia. The dentist only had time right then to fix it so with a "good luck" phone call from Mark, I was the brave Mommy trying not to mirror the terror on my 5-year-old's face. Tara and I came through it just fine and she was excited to hear the dentist's suggestion of ice cream for lunch. Thanks, doc! Can't wait to pay for the next cavity. :)
I took her home to relax, ran to an over-due hair appointment, came home, ate a quick lunch, got my basement ready for ballet (the girls did that...I just did the yelling - quiet yelling!), tried to finish my Bible study homework for tonight (yes, even after yelling), made and ate dinner and rushed out the door to go study Esther. Thank Goodness for Esther! I was dished up a good side of conviction - rightly deserved, but I felt the better for it.
Home to more laundry so my son doesn't go off to "college for a weekend" (CFAW) in the same shirt he's worn for the past two days. Then I ironed for my boys and put some upbeat music onto my ZUNE to keep me awake on the long drives tomorrow.
We've all had days/weeks like I'm having. I'm just amazed that God knew I needed to spend that $200 on a little girl's sweet smile instead of a dryer. I'm thankful He provided the means to do it. He is sooo good, isn't He!
Talk to you again after I return from my trip...I'm hoping to get at least one great picture to share with you. Good-night.
No comments:
Post a Comment