Craigslist... a not so nice story.

As of tonight, the Knight family has had it's first negative Craigslist experience. Just so you know, we have done a lot of Craigslisting. We sold our old car (the Saturn), purchased our new (to us) van, sold several household items, and bought a few ourselves. I have even hired a cleaing lady to clean our last apartment before moving to Student Housing!

Sunday night, as Josh was bathing and getting the kids ready for bed, I was cleaning the kitchen. I open the dishwasher to find... lots of water! The water did not drain from the last cycle. Being the lazy person that I was truly meant to be, I just unloaded the clean dishes and loaded up the dirty ones. I start the thing and... and... and... click... nothing. After several more clicks then nothings. We start to do some serious investigating. So the water is not draining, a clog right? Where do I look? How do I take this thing apart? I call my brother-in-law. He laughs at me. "You are asking me over your husband" he asks. Okay, okay. I will ask Josh.

Josh looks at it. "I have no idea. This thing is 30 years old!" (That does not help!) So in my desperation, I look up to see if anybody is selling a portable dishwasher on Craigslist. They sure are! Anywhere from $150-500! Yikes! Then I notice that a gracious person has placed their portable dishwasher for sale in 'Free Stuff' a mere two hours earlier. WOW! Not only that, but they live insanly close to us. We hurry and throw the kids in bed.

Josh and I unload the junk in the van that I have been too lazy to take to Goodwill, and take the back seat out of the van. It is raining (of course) so we put the seat out of the rain on our neighbors porch because ours is too full of kids bikes and chairs and sandtoys.

My husband takes off to find our new dishwasher. He finds it instantly and like the strong man that he is, loads it in the back of the van with ease. When he gets home we admire the new machine. It is clearly older then our previous one, but in better condition. Now for the test drive. Load the dirty dishes, load the soap, attach the hose, plug it in, and... and... and... click... whir.

The thing is working! Or so we thought. It runs through the entire cycle without adding any water or draining the little water that was in before.

In our greatest moment of brilliance as a couple, we decide to tip the thing over and examine the under parts. Perhaps we damaged something in the move? As we tip the huge thing over, the water begins to drain out on the floor. We lay towels down and look at the bottom.

"What is that smell?" Josh asks. It is clearly unmistakable. Cat pee. Gross. We look as the water on our kitchen floor begins to drip yellowish-brown. Josh reaches in a bit more to look at the hoses and wires. Then he sees something even worse. Turds. Not cat turds. Rat turds. Super gross.

So that dishwasher is gone. Our clothes have been washed, hands have been cleaned and sanitized, towels have been washed, floors have been moped, and carpet vacuumed. (just in case a turd fell out in the move. Claire still puts everything in her mouth!)

What a night! And now, I get to go hand-wash a dishwasher full of dirty dishes!

March 2008 Slideshow

Graham cracker crumbs

This morning at work, one of the children dropped a whole graham cracker on the floor. After several children walked over it (on accident) it was in about five large pieces. Levi noticed this and instantly put his boots back on, walked over to the cracker, and started to crush the thing into the carpet. He was twisting his foot, right to left, left to right, smashing that cracker into the floor like it was the most important job in the world.

When I noticed what he was doing, I natually got upset. Of course, I did the "do not make a mess" talk and the "you are making more work for me" talk. But then I got the vacuum out and had him vacuum up the mess. This brought on all kinds of tears and screams, but in the end, he did vacuum (with help) and cleaned up all the crushed crumbs.

The reason why I tell this story is becasue I had to work again tonight. Clarie dropped a graham cracker, Levi saw it... and what did he do? He picked it up and threw it in the garbage! WOW!

I guess that kids really do learn! At least this time.

First Time

It seems everybody else is doing it... why not me? Blog that is. This is my first entry. I have no idea if I will have enough to say; let alone the time to transfer the craziness in my mind through my fingers and onto the keys, but I will give it a go.

A couple of families in our community have blogs and I have read theirs and find them amusing. Not only fun to read about the lives of my neighbors (I KNEW they were fighting last night!), but a wonderful way for family that I do not see or talk to often enough to quickly see how my children grow and learn.

Once something interesting happens, I will log on! I will rant! And I will blog!