Stiff Jeans

On New Year's Eve as I was drying a load of clothes (I know - a very exciting NYE festivity) the rubber seal around the door broke in half and fell off. As I had one small load left in the washer, I attempted to continue the use of the dryer, but it took 3 cycles to dry and kept flashing a warning message. Being the weekend, I didn't get to call in the issue to Whirlpool (on our 4 month old dryer) until Monday. They set up a service appointment on Thursday. When the serviceman arrived, he took a quick look and disappeared to his truck for awhile. Apparently, he was contacting his company and trying to locate the part that was ordered and supposed to have arrived at my house already. Sigh. The mountain of dirty clothes, sheets, and towels was starting to make me panic. He left me with the 'wisdom' that I could attempt to use the dryer without the seal, but that it would increase the drying time and could possibly blow a fuse in the dryer. That sounds super, right? As my panic was mounting at an indefinite repair timeline, my son came in from outside and told me that he peed in his pants. In his last pair of clean underwear. So I did what anyone with 4 kids and no clean underwear would do: I cried. And then I called my friend and asked to use her dryer. After two loads of all essential clothing (no sheets or towels - they are still in a mountain) things were looking up for a bit. However, with it being cold and rainy, I realized we were still in need of clean jeans. I washed a load of 22 pairs of jeans, and hung them up to dry. Bella was very upset about this plan. She said to me, "I don't want stiff jeans! I don't know what that means, but can't you just ask Ana again?" I assured her that she could handle it, and managed to risk tossing the jeans in the dryer for 5 minutes to make them slightly less stiff. To be honest, it was kind of fun to hang clothes up to dry. On the other hand, I am incredibly grateful to own a (not currently) working dryer. I love soft clothes. And I can't wait until the dryer is repaired. Which, by the way, is set to happen this Thursday. Nearly 2 full weeks without a dryer. And boy, do I have the piles of laundry to prove it!

All lined up - we have a lot of jeans!