Grown up

I just can't help but notice how much my Angie-Angelina has grown up lately.

I feel like she grows right in my arms. Like every time I pick her up she's taller, heavier, and cuter. Her language has EXPLODED and she's.......not a baby anymore. She's so sweet and cuddly- especially when she's tired. And just when I feel like I've bought enough clothes for a season....she outgrows them and I have to get all new ones. Her hair is FINALLY starting to get a little longer.....although still very much like a baby chick: fuzzy and out of control. But she's at least getting some length in the back near the top of her head. She has a nice "alfalfa" tail at times.

She's obsessed with shoes, her blanket, and her sippie cup. Her favorite game is to put a bag over her shoulder (purse, tote, whatever she can find) and then walk into the closet, and while closing the door she'll say, "Bye bye!" And she'll KEEP saying it until you acknowledge and say, "Bye Angie! See you later." Then she'll shut the door and wait quietly for a minute, before emerging from the closet and yelling, "HI!!!!"

She's a genius climber, which means she's a genius faller. :) She always has bumps on her forehead, and must have a "kiss it better" for every bump, bruise, or scratch. If she finds nail clippers lying around, she'll pick them up and try to clip your toenails while saying, "Feet! Feet!"

She won't say her own name, but she will point to herself. She refuses to say "please" but she will use the sign for it.

She loves to be read to, especially her favorite book, "B is for Bear" touch-and-feel book. She knows it by heart.

She'll eat anything, but if she doesn't like it, she'll just hold it in her cheeks forever and won't swallow.

I just thought I'd post a few things. This all seems like common knowledge to me right now. But I know a few years from now I may not remember. She's adorable. And a pain in the butt. Always climbing and dumping. Today she emptied the utensil drawer so she could SIT in it. She'll refuse to eat her own food....but as soon as I get her out of the high-chair, she'll climb up on a bar stool and finish Caleb's meal. Even if it's the SAME thing.

She's FINALLY letting me brush her teeth by saying, "CHEESE!" and I can usually get a few scrubs on those top front teeth before she decides to bite the toothbrush.

And she LOVES to dance! Any kind of fun music and she'll start to bend her little knees and nod her head. She ALWAYS dances to the credits on "Tangled."

She's my little sweetheart, and she's gonna be TWO in just a few months!

Wash the Washer

Meet my washing machine.....

It's ancient.
When Parker and I got married, we needed laundry machines. My parents found this guy that had repaired these old dinosaurs, and we got the washer and the dryer (A MATCHING SET!) for 300 bucks.

It has NEVER failed me. But it's nothing special. If you've got stains on your clothes, you'd better spray them with shout or spray-n-wash and let it sit for 30 minutes before throwing them in this thing. Even grass stains (which from all of my childhood memories SHOULD come out in the wash with NO special treatment) must be spot-treated first. But....honestly a little spray and even the stains go away. The point is it works, and it always has. I really don't care for it, but it works and if I get a new washing machine- I want a front-loader. And those get expensive.

For a couple months now, my washing machine has been emitting a ...... smell...... when I run it. My clothes smell fine, and don't seem to be any less clean than ever before. But it smelled like.....a dirty pipe. Mildew. Scum. Rank. Anyway. I started thinking to myself, "Maybe it's gonna die!" (wouldn't THAT be awful.....) I told Parker we need to be prepared to be getting a new washing machine within the next few months because I had NO idea how long this old thing was gonna last. We shopped around a little. The ones I wanted are pretty expensive. Ok. Maybe we can hold out a little longer.

Then one day I saw something on Pinterest (another story for another post). "How to clean your washing machine." WHAT? You're supposed to CLEAN your washing machine? (Maybe THAT'S why it stinks....). Simple really. Fill the machine with hot water and then STOP the cycle and add 2 cups of vinegar. Let it sit for 1 hour. Finish the cycle. Then repeat, only this time add 2 cups of bleach. So I did.

While I waswaiting for the 2nd hour (with the bleach) to go by, I decided to scrub some of the grime off the lid. I did NOT take any pictures before I cleaned. It's too emberassing. It's too gross. The AFTER pictures look bad enough because of all the rust. Anyway. I couldn't believe how much grime could reside on a FLAT surface! And in each of those corners!......ick. It was nasty people. I used an old toothbrush and lime-away. I tried to not let the lime-away drip into the actual machine that was full of water and bleach. Although some DID get in.

See all those many tiny "nubs" around the top of that agitator? That was full of grime. And what comes next was BY FAR the worst part of this entire endeavor. Apparently there's a little rubber liner near the opening of the machine. I've never noticed it before and so OF COURSE I've never cleaned it!
The under-side of that rubber liner had a slime-layer SO thinck that the toothbrush came out FULL of grime after a 2-inch pass. Yuck. And then if you look below....
This little hole? It was almost half occluded by grime. I'm confident that THAT'S where the smell was coming from. That hole is where the water comes out for the rinse cycle or something.....I think.
And then there was near the hinges around the lid. I had to spray lime-away and LET IT SIT before the grime would come off.

Then lets not forget the lid itself:
And there was some rust that wouldn't come off no matter how I tried. And lets be honest. I wasn't gonna try TOO hard. This thing's a dinosaur.

And this pictuer below made me laugh. Once I cleaned this spot, I realized that wasn't a blob of rust. That's the BUTTON that stops the washer when you open the lid. Rusted on all sides, but it still works!
And the lint-catcher. I'm SO emberassed to say that it was a completely different color before I cleaned it.
And now the finished product.

It's still old and rusty. But at least it doesn't stink when I run it anymore. In fact. It actually smells good when I run it! And another tip I learned from pinterest: add 1 cup of lemon juice to your whites to brighten them up (and it smells good too).