Other Random Happenings

And in other news:

--Bob fixed our crazy cooktop last night!  We thought we would have to order a new one, and we actually did order an induction one, which was really on sale at Lowes.  At Bible study last Friday, however, Tim P. said he thought it was a switch, so when we got home, Bob googled our cooktop model number to find out parts numbers, and he found the squirrelly part online and ordered it.  He replaced it last night, using Luke's eagle eyes to make sure the numbers on the wires on the new part matched the ones on the old part (way at the top of a dark cabinet), and now we are back in business!  When we turn the burner off, it goes off!  The things you take for granted . . .  Siri and I have been creatively using crockpots (plural because we had to dig my old one out of retirement and use both to have enough to feed our combined crews!) and the electric skillet, as well as this single electric burner we've had for ages that has come in very handy.  But now we are very glad to have 4 burners to use once again!

--We got our Stanford test scores back online today!  This is a new thing, but it is so much quicker than just waiting for them to be mailed to us.  You will be pleased to know that everyone did fine, although I think Jonathan is a little over-confident of his math skills.  When we were working through his test review book, I noticed that he was loathe to actually write problems out on his scratch paper, preferring to just figure them out in his head.  Predictably, this strategy was not as successful as he might have thought, so I kept telling him he needed to write every problem down.  But I don't think he really did, LOL.  Oh well.

--Bob celebrated the Army's birthday at the Pentagon today.  They had a tank sculpture thing surrounded by 2600 Georgetown cupcakes frosted a camo color.  Expensive!   

--Jonathan has learned how to knit, thanks to Celia's patient teaching.  He's using 2 bamboo skewers as knitting needles.  Who knew he had such talents?!

--Micah no longer goes down stairs on his tummy.  Now he sits down and bumps down the stairs on his bottom, with his tummy sticking way out.  It's so cute!  We have Anna to thank for teaching him that. 

And now you are all caught up with our not-so-interesting lives!

A Bit of Afternoon Excitement

Siri was cooking soup for dinner this afternoon.  (We've been alternating who cooks dinner each night, and it has been WONDERFUL!!)  It was almost ready, and she ran downstairs to do something.  She was only gone for a minute, but when she got back up, the soup was burning on the bottom!  "Weird", we both thought.  She rushed to get it poured into another pot, but then she noticed that the burner wasn't off.  Except it WAS off.  The burner kept cycling from very, very hot (glowing deep red) down to like a simmer every several seconds, and nothing we did to the switch made any difference whatsoever! 

This actually happened to me a few weeks ago, but Luke came over and fiddled with the knob, which made the burner turn off, so I completely forgot about it.  I don't think I ever even mentioned it to Bob.  It just made me look like I don't know how to work my own cooktop, LOL.

But this time nothing at all worked, and the burner was pumping out incredible amounts of heat while cycling on.  I called Bob, who was on his way home, and he said just to flip the circuit breaker off.  Fortunately it didn't take too many tries to figure out the right switch, and our crazy burner finally had to admit at least a temporary defeat.  But with tonight being CAP and Bob's Bible study, he's not going to get a chance to look at it anytime soon.  I hope it's an easy fix . . . we got this cooktop (a Frigidaire ceramic cooktop, for those taking notes on which cooktops to avoid, LOL) almost 4 years ago, so way too soon to think about replacing it.

I'm beginning to feel like all our appliances are revolting, to be honest!  I just posted on Facebook about how all our refrigerator shelves and drawers are breaking--well, not the shelves themselves, which are glass, but all the cheap plastic parts that hold them in.  They clearly are not made for the amount of food and big containers we put on them (although the 25 year old Montgomery Ward fridge I got from my Nana and Papa, which is out in the garage and has metal connecting pieces, is still going strong, no matter how many gallons of milk/giant watermelons/brining turkeys in huge pots, etc we put on those shelves . . .).

And our fridge down in the basement (another one from my Nana and Papa, one with the freezer on the bottom and the fridge on top) is slowly giving up the ghost as well.  I had the best of intentions of running down there with a thermometer and testing it before Siri came, but I never did--until her gallon of milk spoiled after only about 2 days.  Then I realized that the top fridge part was actually a balmy 52 degrees.  The freezer, which we knew was not actually "freezing" things, was about 34 degrees, so she started using that as a fridge.  But now random things ARE freezing down there.  I'm telling you--it's an appliance plot!  Hopefully the ovens and the dishwasher are still on our side.

Happy Birthday, Grace!!

It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years since Grace was born! She was definitely our surprise baby, coming just 13 months after Anna! Her birth story was another more difficult one, like Micah's. Hmmm . . . something about my even-numbered children--they are harder to birth, LOL. But we are so happy that Grace came into our family! She is such a delicate little sprite. She loves to dress up and to play dolls with her sisters. Her new favorite activity is coloring. She is a very dedicated colorer, very particular and careful. She colors in the lines, and she even outlines--Aunt Claire's coloring genes have passed down to another generation!

After our exciting birthday celebration Friday night, Saturday was a more quiet day! Bob did some outside work, the rest of us cleaned the garage and the house, and then Bob took the kids to a showing of "Tangled" at our church in the evening. There was face-painting, popcorn, and cotton candy as well, so the kids had a great time!

But the most important thing that happened on Saturday is that Bob and my dad finished installing our new double oven!!! Our old top oven died on St. Patrick's Day--I could not make Irish soda bread! The bottom oven limped along, taking longer and longer to preheat, and sometimes turning off, but it kept working until the end, praise the Lord. I was able to bake Grace's cupcakes and reheat a casserole a friend from church brought us on Thursday, and then Bob and my dad took out the old oven in preparation for the new one being delivered Friday. There were a few technical difficulties--some drywall had to be cut to make it fit exactly right--but it is working now! Here is a picture of our new workhorse. Hopefully it will last close to 20 years, like the old one.

Today we had church, and then growth group at our house in the afternoon. I made Amy's nachos, which were a big hit, as well as some more chocolate-covered strawberries (also a big hit!), and we ate the rest of Grace's birthday cupcakes. After growth group, Grace opened her presents, and then we were able to Skype with my brother and his family! The kids really enjoyed seeing Emily and Elia, their cousins! So it was a good day, and a good weekend!

A Dishwasher Saga, Ongoing

So I wrote a while back that our dishwasher up and died Friday, February 8. Bob and I looked at new dishwashers on our weekend away, but we still do not actually have a dishwasher. It's been quite an experience. Here's what's happened, and is happening, for those (like Melinda!) who are curious.

We read the Consumer Reports article on dishwashers at the library on Saturday, Feb. 9. Their top recommendation is the Sears 1374. We finally decided we would get that one (as opposed to the cheaper Whirlpool that was a Best Buy, but not so highly ranked) on Sunday, but when we were in the process of buying it, the not-very-helpful Sears salesman Derek told us we wouldn't be able to get it until Tuesday. Well, that stunk, since we really wanted to pick it up Monday so my dad could help Bob put it in. We were really hungry, so we just left without buying it then.

Bob went back to Sears on Thursday, Feb. 14, to actually buy it. Derek was still there, and this time he told Bob we couldn't get it until Feb. 23. This was frustrating, but oh well. We laid in a stock of paper plates and prepared to wait things out.

After that, Bob thought that maybe we should get stainless instead of black. Saturday we all went back to Sears to look at the stainless one and see if we should change our order. Well, Derek told us this time that we couldn't get a stainless one until March 1, either pick-up or delivery. Forget that!

Coincidentally, my brother Dan and his wife Melinda down in Texas were also looking for a dishwasher that same day! They decided they wanted a Bosch, so they went to Lowes and bought one, getting it price-matched to the cheaper Sears price. After we left Sears, we headed over to Lowes to check out Dan and Melinda's model, since we're nosy. Nice! Very nice! Quieter, with a stainless steel tub inside, and a Bosch name. Hmmmm.

After the kids went to bed Saturday night, Bob got on the computer. We didn't think there were any other Sears really close, but it turns out there is another one not too terribly far away. On the Sears website it showed that they had the stainless one in stock and available for store pick-up the next day. So Bob bought that on-line. Yay! Well, the next day I stayed home from church with the girls, and around 1:00 we got an email from Sears saying that, lo and behold, that model of dishwasher actually was NOT in stock, so they cancelled our order. When Bob got home, he called that Sears. Ahmed, the salesman at that store, told Bob that we actually could pick one up at their distribution warehouse (the same one that the Sears close to us uses) on Thursday, Feb. 21. Well, that's a whole lot sooner than March 1, but Bob asked him how come they have a "next-day delivery guarantee" on their website. Ahmed eventually said that was only for delivery. Bob said he'd much rather have them deliver it--he only said pick-up because he thought it would be faster, since the web site had said "available for store pick-up"! So then Ahmed said that it could be delivered Monday (yesterday). Bob signed up for that deal, but the whole exchange left us scratching our heads:

1. Why was the other store able to get things so much faster than the times Derek was giving us?

2. Why did it seem like if you said the magic word ("Next-day guarantee"), then all of a sudden you moved to the top of the list? Why did no one at either store ever say anything about this?

3. Why didn't Derek at least check around with other stores? If they all share the same warehouse, and evidentally there were ones in the warehouse, then . . .

4. Was Derek's lack of desire to expend any extra effort at all for us indicative of what we could expect for future customer service from Sears, especially in the hopefully unlikely event of there being a problem with the dishwasher? (Actually we had some other concerns in this area. Until the time when we brought in all the kids, Derek had a bit of an attitude with us. When Bob went in on Thursday to buy it, Derek said, "Hey, aren't you the guy that needed it in such a hurry on Sunday?" When Bob told him that is was because his father-in-law was in town, and he was hoping for his help, but now he had gone, Derek said, "Well, that's good, 'cause you're not getting it until Feb. 23!" Definitely not feeling our pain, LOL. Also, when just Bob and I were there, I was looking at cooktops and overheard a really weird phone call that Derek was having with a dis-satisfied customer. It was obvious she wasn't happy, and then Derek started dropping the phone on the counter! It was so bizarre! He would say something like, "I don't know what happened . . ." but there was a group of salesmen standing around snickering. Yeah . . . not sure what his deal was, but I didn't really look forward to dealing with him anymore.)

So, long story short, Bob and I just really didn't feel comfortable with the whole Sears situation. We ended up cancelling the delivery that would have come yesterday, and Bob went to Lowes and bought the same Bosch dishwasher that Dan and Melinda just bought. We'll have dishwasher twins, LOL. It should be delivered on Thursday. I'll let you know if it actually happens. Totally weird.