By Threes...

A very good friend/neighbor of mine recently said, "You know how they say that bad things happen in threes? What they don't tell you is how many mulitiples of threes it will be!"

My washing machine is broken right now. An appliance guy was here to fix it (and the oven too) this morning, but he had to go get the right tool, because he doesn't often have to take the whole drum out to check for lost clothing underneath, (which could cause the inability to spin!) He'll be back later this afternoon. Hopefully this will be behind us soon.

That's the background behind the e-mail I sent my friend when she asked if she could do my laundry for me. Seriously, she took all my laundry, washed it, and FOLDED it!! That's a true friend! (She has 7 kids, 12+ yrs, so she wasn't going to be surprised by any of it; she really knows laundry.) BTW, I had a couple of other offers from true friends to use thier machines too - thanks again!

So this was my e-mail after she volunteered, that kind of turned into a vent session:

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"Weell, I have so much! (Not that you don't already know that...) And I really have to spend some serious time in getting my house under control again - it's outrageous. Do you have a vacuum cleaner that works?

We're having major appliance issues...
Oven - we think it's the ignitor that's out
Washer - won't spin
Vacuum cleaner - beater bar broken
Dryer - doesn't vent outside right now...gotta figure that out still
Dishwasher - many broken parts, but still workable

Lawn mower - won't start - someone suggested it might need a spark plug...?
Garage door opener - hasn't worked in a couple of years, but then hey, I still need to move somebody's stuff over to the other side so I can fit my van in anyway.
Then last night our DVD player quit working. Then the kids told me it does that intermittently - you just can't stop a dvd in the middle of it or it won't work again for a while. So who was going to tell me that was going on?

At least the fridge works! (Except the water dispenser, but that's another story.)

Sorry to vent on you. But I know you understand!

I'm still trying to find the family room from general conference. (I was sick that Saturday, but the kids were okay without me, with just Dad & Grandmother there some of the time! Wierd how they can do things on their own when they get a bit older.) We watched it on the internet, and it worked great. Did you guys?

And EVERYBODY is HEALTHY!

Let me make a list of what I have to do, prioritize it, and figure out how to fit in a trip to your "laundromat". I did do some wash in the kitchen sink a couple of nights ago - I had NO underwear, Kimberly was out too, and the boys' white shirts weren't white and their school pants...! The mini plunger I keep under the kitchen sink did SO WELL, I've never had cleaner whites, and the boys uniforms looked GREAT! (Then after school I looked at those same formerly clean clothes with a sigh...)

Oh yeah, I was going to go make that list...talk to you again soon...
Love, Susan"

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So I'm NOT counting the threes...I'm just counting my blessings and counting ON blessings while I tread the water. One big blessing is friends who really care!