A myraid of things...

This has been quite an interesting day! We found out that the warranty on the laptop was still good because we paid for it with our American Express! So, a claim has been filed and we might be able to get it fixed for free! Hooray! That was pretty exciting. Lately, the dryer has been acting up...sometimes taking 3 cycles before things are dry. We checked the vent and that was fine. Somebody told me that it might be the heating element. Didn't check that yet. Then yesterday a load worked fine. The dryer was definitely making me nervous with its inconsistency. It's over 8 years old, and they just don't make things like they used to, you know? We had talked about buying this gas dryer that someone at Logos was selling, but it had already sold. So, we weren't sure what to do. We went into Lynden today (more about that later) and decided to stop at two garage sales. The first one was a fund raiser for a Uganda orphanage and we found some antique Bible commentaries from the 1800's - a whole set about the Pentateuch for $7! Cool. Anyway, the second garage sale we went to because it was in a nice neighborhood and it was supposed to be a "neighborhood sale". We went to the ONE garage sale we saw and only stopped because they had nice baby stuff and generally, people with nice baby stuff have nice other stuff...you just can't see that from the street. Anyhoo...sitting there next to the nice baby stuff was a nice six-month-old Whirlpool gas dryer! They were selling it only because they had gotten a front loading washing machine and had bought the dryer to match, so they had this practically brand new dryer sitting there. He had $200 on it and told me to make him an offer and that he would deliver it. I said, "Well, I live way out in Everson." He & his wife, in stereo, say "We live in Nooksack!" (Which, for those of you who don't know, is basically connected to Everson. The garage sale was at his mother-in-law's house.) So, I call Ed from the van and we offer the guy $150, which he takes of course, and he delivers it to our house and even helps Ed haul it into the laundry room! Cool. Except, does anyone know how to install a gas dryer?

We were in Lynden for a few reasons...1: to fill our bbq propane tank. We didn't know where, but we needed it filled because we have 43 people coming for a bbq tomorrow. Yikes. Drove up to Cenex, saw a propane tank outside, got it filled, paid $12. Cool. Reason #2: to look for an umbrella stand. We've been wanting an umbrella for our patio so we can eat out there in the shade (because you know Ed hates the sun). We ended up settling for one at Walmart that was on clearance (hideous color) because it was large and tilts, which is important. Only problem was that it didn't have an umbrella stand with it. So today we went to look in Lynden, with our backup being to borrow the stand from Mom & Dad's patio table umbrella. We went to True Value, there was a REALLY heavy stand (also important in the windy city of Whatcom County) that was ON SALE! Boy, were we on a roll today!

So, long story short...all good things! Except then Becca jumped on the couch and ripped the fabric...and Elise bumped her head about a hundred times today...and it's almost 10:00 and we're still watering the lawn (I'm watering a lot these days because I killed a bunch of it when my fertilizer spreader malfunctioned and dumped weed killer on too fast in a few spots).

Have a blessed Sunday! We ourselves are looking forward to church and lots of fellowship!