Washing Machine & Dryer

About the middle of last week, I got a new comforter set from Bed Bath & Beyond for Mark's and my bed. I haven't been able to find our bedding from the last house, so Mark's been using a crocheted blanket and I've been using a Spiderman comforter or crocheted blanket pretty much every night since we moved here. I've hated it. I've been telling Mark for a while that I'm going to get us some new bedding, so I've been searching for a while. Well, about two weeks ago, the boys and I went to Bed Bath & Beyond. I looked at the bedding there, and I found something that I liked. About two days later, I took Mark there and had him look at it and get his opinion. [He has no sense of style or decor, so it's kind of pointless to ask for his opinion. I just like asking him though because it makes it feel more like "our space" instead of "my space."] He said he liked what I wanted to get. A few days later, I went back and got it. The other day, I wanted to throw the comforter in the washing machine before I put it on our bed. It's the logical thing to do: wash sheets before putting them on the bed. After it was done going through the washing machine cycle, I went into the laundry room and noticed water on the floor. The dang comforter broke my washing machine!!!! I was slightly upset because it was now broken, but I was more happy because that meant getting a new washing machine and dryer. Also, all of the laundry in the house was done at that point, so it was okay that it broke then because I didn't have mounds of laundry to do.

Our washing machine is the one we bought back in February 2007 when we moved into base housing at Camp Lejeune. [Oh, what a nightmare that house was. Luckily they knocked it down and have put up a new house. I hated that house so much!! What a joke and horrible nightmare!] So our washing machine is just over four years old for us. The washing machine and dryer been through a lot of moving around from putting them in storage, getting them out of storage, putting them into the houses we lived in whenever we would move back to NC after deployments, and moving them from NC to here in FL. They have been beaten up so badly. I knew as soon as we moved here that we would have to get a new washing machine and dryer at some point. Turns out that "at some point" was the other day.

I went to Home Depot on Friday and looked around for a little bit. I knew that whatever I was going to get would be Energy Star rated. I wanted something that used less energy and less water than what we've had has been using. The environment and being earth-friendly is incredibly important to me. I was surprised to see how much the prices of Energy Star rated washing machines and dryers have dropped over the last few years. There were washing machines and dryers for sale that were about $600 a piece! That may seem like a lot to some people, but when we looked at washing machines and dryers four years ago, there was nothing even close to being that cheap that was Energy Star rated! Heck, even two years ago, they were still a bit pricey.

I was looking at the cheaper ones at first, but the capacity size was just not big enough. I knew that if I got one of those and put our new comforter in it, it would break. So I started looking at the larger capacity size washing machines and dryers. I eventually found what I liked. I didn't want to just get them though, so I called Mark and asked him. I texted him some photos of them after we were done talking. He said it was fine to get them, so I got them. I am quite excited to have them delivered to us on Tuesday!!

Rain Barrel

Water is such a valuable resource. I feel that people should collect rain water, especially if they have plants that they water on a regular basis like I do. I water the garden, grape plant, citrus tree, strawberry plants, and all of my herbs on a regular basis. I didn't want to keep paying for city water if I could collect and use rain water.

On March 5, it was raining here. Mark and I decided to get a rain barrel to collect rain water. When I checked the rain barrel the next morning, there was only maybe an inch or two of water in the barrel. I was upset because I really wanted to collect rain water to use for watering plants.

On Wednesday [the 9th], we had a major rain storm here - complete with tornado and flood warnings. In the morning, I looked outside just to see the rain barrel and make sure it was okay. When I looked at it, it was on the ground, on its side. I ran outside real fast and stood it back up so it could collect some rain water. When I checked the rain barrel the following morning [yesterday], this is what I saw:

I was so excited!! It makes me so happy that the rain barrel was pretty much full!!

This morning, I used some of the collected rain water for the first time. I was very happy to use the rain water to water my plants.

Day 19

A picture and a letter.



Dear Earth,

I know that the first 21 years - give or take - of my life, I never cared much about you. I cared, but not like I should have. I really hate that I never truly cared. I care now though. I care so much. I have been learning how to take better care of you the last few years. I am continuing to learn about all of the ways I can take better care of you. While I learn, I make sure that Mark, Michael, and Brayden learn as well. I do my best to inform others about how they can take better care of you. I hate to know just how bad you really have it, especially because it's people who are making it bad for you.

I hope to leave you in a much better condition than when I got here in 1987. I hope that my children will grow up and live their lives taking great care of you, and then teach their kids how to take care of you, and so on. I hope that as I continue to learn and talk about the many ways you can be taken care of, people will get inspired and realize that they need to take better care of you, too.

You've given me so much, and I always took you for granted. I'm just happy that I no longer take you for granted and I truly appreciate everything you've given my family, my friends, and me. Life has been better since I started caring more. Thank you. Thank you for everything.

Day 16

A picture of someone who inspires you.


There are many people that inspire me, especially in my family. However, for this post, I wanted to show an inspiration outside of my family.

Ed Begley, Jr. is someone that majorly inspires me. He is such a tremendous eco-activist, and he truly inspires me all of the time to try to do more in my life to become more earth friendly. I wish there were more people in this world like him because then we would be living in a much cleaner world.

WEEKEND WITHOUT OIL

This past weekend was WEEKEND WITHOUT OIL. It was a great thing that was put together and get people to be a part of. You didn't even have to spend/donate money, and you got to stay home [no worries about being somewhere on time and having to rush to get ready]. Did anyone take part in this? We did in my house. It was quite fantastic, to be honest.

On Saturday, we cleaned a few things around the house in the morning because the house was a little messy from the night before. I did a load of laundry, too, because the hamper was almost full. Then Mark got the boys' pool set up and filled with water. We didn't let the boys go in it right away because I wanted the water to warm up some before they got in it. So after the pool was filled with water, we got the boys ready in their swim wear, put them in strollers, and walked to Dollar General to get a few items. It took us about 10-15 minutes to get there, and we were walking in the blistering sun. By the time we had gotten there, Mark and I were sweating kind of badly. But you know what? I am a person that does not mind sweating, which is a great thing because I sweat a lot. After we left Dollar General and got back home, we let the boys out the strollers and they ran to the backyard and got right in their pool. They were so excited! I stayed out back with the boys at first because Mark wanted to get some stuff out of the house and garage - towels, chairs, a book, etc. The boys thought it was hilarious to start splashing me with water. I eventually got so drenched that I just got right in the pool with them and sat down. It felt nice! The boys and I had splashing fights in the pool, and they thought it was the greatest thing that mommy was right there splashing along with them. After a little while, I got out of the pool and sat in a chair next to Mark while he read a book. Eventually, I talked Mark into some yard work because of yard was looking a bit more than insanely ridiculous. We didn't use the lawn mower or any gas-powered equipment to do the yard work we finished since it was Weekend Without Oil. I enjoyed doing some yard work, even if it was really hot. [At our last house, I did 95% of the yard work simply because I enjoy doing it.] After we were done doing yard work for the day and the boys were done in the pool, we came inside and watched the Pan Pacific Championships on NBC. [If you know me, you know that I love swimming and have even met some of the swimmers on the US team!] I made dinner, we ate, and then we all just sat around for the rest of the evening. It was a great Saturday here.

Sunday was a great day, too! As soon as we woke up, we got ready for the day, then walked to Dollar General for a few items. On our way back home, we stopped at the gas station right around the corner and got a gallon of milk. [Have I mentioned how much milk Mark and the boys do not go through now?! It's so nice that we have cut the milk consumption in this house by more than half of what it used to be about two months ago!!] When we got home, "Phineas and Ferb" was on Disney, so we decided to rewind it back to 9:00 AM when the first episode was on so that the boys could enjoy their hour of the show. While the boys watched the show, I put a load of laundry in the wash and folded the load that I put in the dryer the night before. Then Mark and I went into the sun room [or Florida room as some people call it], and we went through the stuff out there. There was stuff in there that we knew we could get rid of, and that's what we did - we got rid of the stuff we have no use for anymore. We got rid of quite a few things, and we were able to compact stuff into few boxes. Also, we packed some more of the boys' toys and got rid of some others. I am happy that we went through more stuff and got rid of things we do not use. When we were done with that, I made lunch. After some time of playing, cleaning, and the boys taking a nap, I went into their room and went through the clothes in their dresser and closet. I took all of the cooler weather clothes that will be of no use here and old clothes out of their room, and then Mark and I went through everything piece of clothing. We made piles as to what would stay and what would go. [I've got some boy clothes size 6 months to 24 months/2T that we're getting rid of, if you're interested. All in great condition still and mostly Old Navy and Children's Place stuff.] After the piles were made, I started folding all of the stuff we're keeping and putting them into piles base on size, sleeve length, pants, shorts, etc. Once I was done with that, I packed it all into a suitcase bound for Florida next month. I then watched the Pan Pacific Championships on NBC because I can't get enough of swimming in my life! [I follow the sport year-round and I even know what's going on in other countries. Seriously, that sport just sucked me into a hole and I don't ever want to come out!] A little bit later, I had a headache coming on that not even medications could control, so I had to take a nap. After my nap, it was time for dinner. I didn't make Mark and the boys dinner because they were eating meat, so that was Mark's job to make them dinner. I had some spaghetti for dinner. I love spaghetti! Once we all finished eating dinner, we watched some of the Little League World Series, then Mark turned on a show on Animal Planet about Africa's Great Rift Valley and we watched that till we all went to bed. [The boys LOVED seeing the fish. All Brayden could do was yell, "NEMO! NEMO!" the whole time the fish were on the TV. When it cut to a commercial break, he grabbed a remote and tried to rewind it so he could see the fish again, but he grabbed the wrong remote. HA.]

Weekend Without Oil was great in our house! It made me realize a few things that I wouldn't have realized otherwise. Plus, it was great because we didn't drive around in our car and pollute the air even more than it already is. Instead, we got some exercise together as a family and had fun, all for a great cause! Because of this past weekend and how successful it was, I think we may do a weekend without oil at least once every month. Anything to help the environment.