Harper is soon to be a big brother. I’m not quite sure to what extent he understands that. We point to my lower abdomen and say “Baby,” to which he responds by patting his belly and saying “baby.” However, he’s also, with his father’s encouragement, began talking to baby. Does he know why? I don’t know. I’m not even sure if he’ll understand if we can get baby to kick him in the next few months. But either way, it is adorable! And come September, he’ll definitely know!

Earlier this week, our washing machine gave up on us. After filling with water and agitating, it stopped in udder protest, completely full of water. It taunted us with half washed, sopping wet clothing. So we did what any good handy people would do – an internet search. After much debating, we figured our problem was most likely a faulty lid switch.

However, during the debate, our first possible solution was to check the hose that the water pumped out of for clogs, which of course, was full of water. While we had buckets handy, we still managed to soak our utility room floor in determining that was NOT the problem. Awesome.

Next was taking off the cabinet. As someone whose expertise in home repair is limited to fixing a running toilet, this, well, sucked. It didn’t help that our utility room is not wide enough to allow us to remove the cabinet. We had to shimmy the washer to the door of the kitchen and pull the shell into the kitchen. Where it has sat for 3 days. Once we determined the lid switch was broken (at least, that’s what we figured the rattling noise was when we shook it) we had to replace the part. Which they don’t make anymore. Le sigh.

Tom however, found a local appliance shop that still had some old parts, and thankfully, they had ours – for a fraction of the cost of the newer compatible “replacement part.” Tonight we managed to get all the parts together, the screws tightened, the cabinet shimmied, and all the hoses connected. We plugged it in, and started her up.

Ka thump thump thump.

Well crap. The cabinet was definitely not aligned. We decided that since, technically, the washer was working, we’d let the cycle continue to drain all the water out and finish the days old load of laundry.

So, back to the internet! With a quick jog over to youtube we found a visual for the “stupid thing you were doing wrong.” After the washer did its thing, we tackled the cabinet again. Armed with our new knowledge, we finagled that beast into submission. It is currently re-washing the days old load (5 days of wetness in a dark room *shudder*) and Tom and I have the sweet sense of victory over the world of broken appliances. Maybe in 5 – 10 years we’ll be ready to tackle home ownership!

A lazy day in the house, with some of the most adorable father son bonding I’ve ever seen.

After much trouble with our Lincoln, which has served us well in the last two years, but was definitely starting to show its age, we went car shopping. We found this 2004 Mercury Monterey. While I am sad it isn’t blue, like my last three cars, I was pleased to find a car on which we don’t have to make a single payment – we bought it outright!

And I couldn’t have been more proud as I sat down to do paper work and the salesman immediately set out credit applications. I looked at him, said “I don’t think we need these. We’ll be paying cash.” He looked at me, confused, and replied “For the whole thing?” When I confirmed, he stopped and paused. He didn’t know what to do next because I had thrown him off his grove.

Now don’t get me wrong – this isn’t a fancy car. It’s got a few cosmetic defects and we found out the following week at the key shop that the antenna doesn’t receive the signal needed to have door lock remotes (we haven’t seen how much/if it can be repaired) – both reasons we got a reasonable deal on the vehicle.

But I don’t mind. As Erin and I used to say “It’s defective, and that’s okay, because so am I.”

After a nice, sunny almost 80 degree day, we decided to head to the beach in the late afternoon. We couldn’t resist. Wrightsville Beach starts charging in March, and we wanted to enjoy the sand and the sun on a glorious February day.

But by the time we actually got the shore, the sun had started to set and the chilly nighttime air started to set in. We only stayed for about 20 minutes, but we still had a nice time.

Not for me, but for our church group! The Young Professionals ministry at our church has grown by leaps and bounds. Currently, the families in the group have 9 little boys, and not one single little girl. Until now!

Here we are at Morgan’s baby shower, about a month ago. Morgan has now brought little Brooke into the world, who is adorably small with that precious little birdy cry.

But we have three more babies due this year – who knows what’ll happen? I know that we’ve got a lot of people hoping we have a little girl, but I’m not so sure that will happen, with the history of boys in Tom’s family. Either way, we either have plenty of boy clothes and neutral accessories, or we’ll get overwhelmed with adorable little girl clothes within minutes of knowing.