I’ve established here before that I live in the middle of nowhere, a real BFE type of place. A place where not only does the waitress know my coffee preference, she also knows my in-laws, grand in-laws, and could most likely name my kids and neighbors. Small town, USA.

And there has been downsides to living in Small Town USA. Like no cable TV and dial-up the only option for accessing the Internet. However, we’ve lived here long enough that technology has caught up to our desire. We now have Satellite with TIVO! and DSL. So now everything I love about small town life has been upgraded to include everything I wanted about big city life. I have the best of both worlds.

I figured there wasn’t anything I would complain about. After all, I have DSL and Tivo. But today, I was going to enter a kitchen makeover contest sponsored by CBS and Lowe’s. Reading the rules (yes, I am anal enough to read the rules before entering) I learned you must live within 25 miles of a Lowe’s store to qualify. According to the Lowes.com store locator, the nearest store is 43 miles away. See for yourself.

Since I can’t win, I will encourage you to enter, but only if you qualify! Of course, if I was eligible there’s no way I would have shared that link.

Big Screen Woes

There was another instance recently where I was very upset that I live in the middle of BFE. It had to do with our wide-screen TV. Three Sundays ago, our wide-screen TV shut off while we were watching it. It acted as if we had lost power, but it was the only thing that went off. We tried to turn it back on, but the green indicator light came on for a few seconds and then would go off. It was in, I later learned, "fail-safe mode." The warranty expired 6 months ago. Isn’t that sweet?

Finding someone to repair it wasn’t easy. The nearest authorized repairman was more than 50 miles away and would charge a minimum of $50 and $1 a mile to come to the house. That’s $150 without fixing anything, and another $150 if a second service call was necessary. They suggested we take the TV to them. Right. The thing ways more than 300 pounds.

Finally, a service tech came and it wasn’t the authorized people. This service tech took all of the guts out of the TV and left, promising to call back this week.

I miss our wide-screen TV. When we first got it, I thought it’d be more for Steve than me. But I really like it. More than I ever thought I would. Plus with the wide-screen out of service, we brought our TV from our bedroom into the living room. It’s changed our entire morning routine. We used to turn on the morning news and listen to it as we got dressed. But now, with the TV in the living room, we don’t hear as much news as we used to. Hopefully, it’ll be repaired soon.

It could have been worse

As bad as being without our WS TV is, I learned this weekend that it could have been worse. This past week, we’ve had a mystery wet spot in the carpet right outside our bathroom. This has happened before when the children get a bit rambuctious (speeling iz optional, remember) in the bathtub. But usually that dries up pretty quickly.

However, this was still wet after three days with a fan blowing directly on it. Finally, on Thursday, it was dry. Whew. Then Friday morning I noticed the carpet in the hall was wet again, only this time it wasn’t anywhere near the bathroom. Uh-oh.

So I started to investigate. And that’s when I learned my washing machine had been leaking all week long. The reason it dried for a day, was because Wednesday I  caught up on  laundry. It was wet Friday because Steve did a load Thursday night.

Not having a working wash machine when you have a family of 6 is the stuff horror movies and nightmares are made of. Trust me on this.

Our wash machine and dryer reside in a deep closet right off our hallway. There is a ton of stuff that we keep stored and organized in this space, incuding chargers for batteries, and just lots of things. I had to pull it all out, including the washer and dryer.

During the week, the water leak absolutely ruined the tile floor in there. It all had to be pulled up. Luckily, the floor beneath it wasn’t warped.

I was of two minds. First, I knew I would not go any longer than today without a working wash machine. It just wasn’t going to happen. Second, this seemed like a perfect time to replace our old Maytag with a new version. I’ve been drooling over the capabilities of the Whirlpool Duet or Maytag Neptune versions for a couple years. Anything, something more modern than my current set.

Steve, however, was less enamored with the idea of buying new. Especially when he looked online and learned prices range from $300 to $,1000. So. He fixed it. It was some filter that needed replaced and cost less than $10 to fix. So far, everything seems to be working. And I’ve been checking for leaks and not finding any.

It looks like I’ll have to wait for a new one. Even after my arguments about how a new set will be more energy efficient, Steve still wants to wait to buy a new set. However, I do know I’m going to start researching, and saving. Because with a family of 6, there’s NO WAY I"m going to haul laundry to a laundromat.

I was even willing to give up our upcoming vacation to buy a new set.

Vacation Plans

On Friday, Aug. 19, I turn 34. Steve and I will be taking the kids to Mackinac Island this weekend. It’s a trip that Steve and I did when I turned 18. Now we’ll have all four kids, and instead of staying in a hotel with a hot tub, we’ll be staying in a tent at a state campground.

This will be the first time we’ve gone camping as a family by ourselves. That means I have to remember everything. Normally, we camp with Steve’s parents, and if I forget something, my mother-in-law has it. Bug spray, jackets, cooking gear, whatever. Now not only do we have to supply it all ourselves, we have to figure out how to transport all of it in a minivan.

We had initially thought we’d take the kids here on Friday, but there’s so much other stuff to do that we are thinking now we don’t want to spend a day in a water park. We’ll be getting a Heritage family ticket that will let us tour all four historic parks.

We’re also planning our family vacation for next year. The kids won’t be going to summer camp. Instead, we plan on going to Disney World. But I am very disheartened that hotels limit the number of people that can stay in one room. I don’t need two rooms just because I have a family of 6 instead of the more typical family of four or five.  If we added up weight and divided, I wouldn’t have a family of six. Still making plans, and haven’t finalized anything. We want to go during Spring Break, but our school hasn’t finalized the teacher contracts, so who knows when Spring Break will be.

True to Life Comic

Steve and I realized Sunday’s Baby Blues comic strip was a window into our life not that many years ago. See for yourself. You will have to change the date to Aug. 14 to see the strip that I’m referring to.