Busy Bees

This week has been crazy! A lot going on in the Folden household. I wish that I would have gotten some pictures of Dustin cleaning our icy, snow-packed driveway because then I could have done an "our week in pictures" post. But, I do have some pictures of the events of the week so I will sprinkle them in here are there.

Our week began with a winter storm. We only got a small blast of arctic weather compared to many other cities in the U.S. but it was still quite a big storm for Lafayette. Most businesses were closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Usually I watch a little boy in the mornings, but his mom's work was closed, so it was just me and Mackenna hunkered down in our warm little house watching the pretty snowflakes fall to the ground. On Thursday I hosted a brunch at my house with my friends, Dawn & Aubrey. The kids played while we enjoyed brunch. It was a much needed "Mommy Time" after the two snow days that kept us all inside.

On Thursday Mackenna had to get some blood drawn to test for a couple allergies (milk, wheat, and gluten). Dustin blessed me so much by taking Mackenna to get her blood drawn so that I wouldn't have to endure seeing her in such pain. He said that she was a trooper, but that there were lots of tears. The nurse couldn't find her vein, so it took longer and I am sure was more painful. She's got her mommy's veins. Here are a few pictures of our little trooper with her Tweety bird band aid.

... And one of her reading one of her favorite books, upside down! Made me giggle!

Since we moved into our house in October, we've been saving little by little for a water softener and a dishwasher. It worked out for us to rent a water softening system, which left us money to purchase a dishwasher (yippee!) and so, on Thursday we purchased a dishwasher and Friday the water softener was installed. Friday night, Dustin and I (ok, mostly Dustin) installed the dishwasher. I am so proud of him! He did such a great job! He read the instructions, made a game plan, and an hour or so later we had a fully functioning dishwasher. I've done three loads of dishes already. Here are some snapshots of my handy man!

And then, Friday night I moved a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer and an hour later checked on it in the dryer and there was no warm air in the dryer. The air was cold and the clothes were still wet! I was freaking out! So on Saturday morning, Dustin googled our dryer's model number and followed some troubleshooting tips. Was the breaker tripped? No. Was the air vent clogged? No. We vacuumed it out and there was still no heat. After the first two "easy" steps, Dustin turned off the electricity to the dryer, moved it, took it apart, and checked a bunch of electrical things. Way over my head! But, he did find out that the heating element wasn't working. So, I searched for a Maytag store in town and called them up and they had our part in stock! Praise the Lord!

We quickly packed up our tired baby girl, picked up the part, stopped by a CVS Minute Clinic (I've been sick for three weeks, but got a prescription so hopefully will be doing better soon), stopped at a salon for a quick haircut for Dustin, and returned home. Dustin successfully installed the new heating element and voila, we have warm air in our dryer again! Here's some pictures of my handsome boy fixing our dryer. I know I am bias, but I sure think he's cute when he's fixing things. :-)

And now, we're home. And we're resting. Because we are both exhausted. Yes, I have laundry to do (since I couldn't do it yesterday), and yes, there are probably ten other things I could be doing. But, we've done a lot this week and we have a lot to do tomorrow and next week. So for right now, resting is the perfect thing for us to be doing.