Ok, i LOVE freecycle.

I hauled the elliptical out to the porch, then listed it on freecycle as SO HARD TO USE I THINK IT'S BROKEN, and would you believe it? 24 people vying for the honor of picking it up.  24!! No, I do not live in a big city. (I live in a crazy city, apparently, where the populace craves broken fitness equipment.)

Who knew so many people wanted a killer hard elliptical?  I had no idea.

You should try it. It's crazy. Freecycle. What do you want hauled off? I'm betting someone will jump at the chance.

(The lady who picked it up just emailed and said that her husband LOVES it, he's training for marathons and he's been using it all night. I'm so glad. It would take that sort of athlete to appreciate the killer-ness of this particular machine.)

it's Saturday, and I'm listening to Mike do his radio show.

I'm also hoping someone will drive by, see that the crazy lady who lives here has hauled her elliptical machine onto the front porch, and steal it.  I listed it on Freecycle, but no takers yet. 

It seemed like a good idea when we bought it. Mike got it and I tried to like it, but it just didn't seem to work for me. I thought I was the problem. I was surely SO out of shape that it just wouldn't work for me. I'd go for all I was worth, and after 3 minutes fall off, breathless. I tried adjusting the resistance. That didn't help. Finally Mike took it apart, 'fixed' it, and reassembled it. Same deal. It has lived an isolated existence in Seth-1yr's room ever since.

Today one of the kids climbed on it, fell off, and then cried, and I'd had enough. I hauled it outside.

It looks fantastic out there, let me tell ya! I could class it up a little with a big "FREE" sign. I'm sure the neighbors are thrilled with this idea, but at least it is finally out of the house. Well, barely.

You know the fridge? Still broken. And no, I didn't ever hear from Frigidaire. But whereas before, when it wasn't cooling, well. Now it is. It is very "Frigid Air." The fridge and the freezer are identical now. It's a side by side freezer/freezer. How novel! The kids do not like solid frozen milk. Before it was smelly with chunks, and they griped about that as well. Picky, picky. 

Not everything around here is broken, though. Is it starting to sound that way?  Let's see... things that are working:

the toilets, but only if I periodically yell at some child, "We are a family of FLUSHERS! Be a flusher! COME ON NOW!" 

My laptop, which I love. It has fewer keys every day, thank you Seth-1yr.

Family. It's not perfect, but I'm grateful. Most days, that's all that matters, and all you need for things to 'work.' 

and he was there. Totally unexpected, since I was at a different post office than usual.

Our eyes met.

He got extra chatty with the customer he was helping so that I would have to go to another postal worker. (Or so it seeemed, and yes of course i could be totally imagining that out of my own abundance of weirdness.)

The other guy - the one who helped me - was sooo incompetent compared to Reynaldo. Pity. 

And yes, I checked. That's his name. Reynaldo. Competent, Avoidant Reynaldo.

sigh.

Tomorrow I will be heading to the post office to mail the fantastic prize for Jan (which is SO LATE), and also the prize for...

Tas!  Her comment on the last post, in part:

Well, I am not going to do one today, but hopefully I can still get entered into the contest.

I had surgery on July 10 to remove the lump that has been in there for a little bit, it's still a little tender and healing and what not.

I confess. Normally I have a highly scientific process by which I choose a winner. But after that comment? All that went out the window and I decided Tas had to win no matter what. If you can't win a Club 17 drawing after recovering from lump removal surgery... well, that just wouldn't be right.  Keep us updated, Tas, and rest up!

For all the rest of you, i have a fantastic consolation prize. You know when I told you about zafu?  They find you amazing jeans that really fit YOU, remember? Now!  Now they do the same thing with... BRAS!  Yep. My least favorite item to shop for, hands down. So you have to answer a few very personal questions, and then the site tells you which ones will fit, and exactly how they will fit.

(Once you get your results be sure to click on "How does it fit you?" or something like that. That's a very important thing to remember, because it will tell you if it's a good match for you, but also if it happens to be very painful to wear.  And really, why are those bras listed at all? Can't we just destroy all the 'very painful to wear' bras, or at least not suggest them on websites?)

Ready?  Okay, go!

Who's ready for an invigorating BSE?!  I know you are!   

Each month readers here do their monthly self breast exam, leave a comment saying they did and then are entered into a contest for a prize that is SO wonderful and amazing that it MIGHT even get mailed to them in a timely manner. (And if you're Jan, then you're still waiting because the soooo cute prize got put in the car to go to the post office, then taken out of the car when the car got detailed and is now... I don't know where. Need to find or replace it and GET TO THE POST OFFICE ALREADY.)

As always, check the comment section on this post for health updates and prayer requests. To find out how or why or how to get a really cool blog button (see the cutie in the crown to the left), just click here.

But before you go do that BSE, please check this out first. It's very important and I bet you aren't sure what IBC is. Am I right? Take a second and find out. Thanks to PastorMac's Ann for this link!

So...

1. Click link in paragraph above

2. Do BSE and bug your female family and friends to do the same

3. Leave comment. Bask in the glow of feeling healthy and proactive.

4. Check back for possiblity of winning an ' I SWEAR  WILL MAIL IT prize'

5. CHeck for blog button criteria, and if you have earned the one with the crown, get it!  Crown yourself and then come back and tell everyone and we will adore your well earned tiara cuteness.

We have a 3 yr old Frigidaire side by side stainless steel CRAP of a refrigerator. I've held off on blogging about it. For 2 weeks in February it was useless. The freezer part worked, but not the fridge.  Everything went bad before we realized it. It took two weeks to order parts and have it fixed. Two week with no milk. Repeat in June. Two weeks with no milk. (We've tried icing it, but it still goes bad.) It was 'repaired' yesterday. Today everything had already spoiled again. 

We have the 4 year warranty, but! But! BUT! You have to have 3 major repairs and NEED A FOURTH one in the space of 12 months before you get a new fridge. It was pointed out to me today that I'm still technically only on repair #2 since yesterday's repair didn't work but they'll probably come back soon and try again. 

I have a lot of kids who drink a LOT of milk and can't. Frigidaire, I'd love it if you'd fix this for good and not make me wait through two more inevitable recurrences. I know you are a reputable brand and you make fantastic appliances. I just happened to get one of very few 'lemons' and I'm hoping you'll make  some nice cold lemonade out of this situation and deliver a new one.

I"ll give you all the good press I'm capable of, and my sincerest gratitude.

I haven't happily appreciated, sighed and admired the comments section like that in ages. In light of that, let me briefly address a few of you.

Shalee, of course you're not gaining everyone else's weight. (but if someone needs to volunteer for such a job, take one for the team, girl! you're teeeeny!)

Stacey, you're so funny. It was Caden-3yr  who ate the penny, and I did not verify that it 'came out fine.' Let's just 'go on faith ' on that one!  Although the next day I did see him sitting on the potty with a flashlight aimed in the toilet bowl. He was checking on the penny. I admired his no hands- flashlight approach to the issue and left it at that.

It's Kim-13yr who is officially taller than I am. (I'm 5' 4.)

Desert Diva's hair is so cute! No, I haven't taken a picture of mine, but hers is cuter anyway! CLick here to see. (did y'all know that Julie is also the genius behind the cute Club 17 buttons?)

Seth-1yr is the one with the awful haircut. No pictures on that yet either.  I'm. just. not. ready. He was sporting a Longhaired Beautiful Baby Boy look last week, and then without warning Awful Haircutting Madness ensued  and he came home as Junior CEO.  The wonderful women who work in the nursery at my gym DID NOT KNOW MY CHILD. One said she had to match his number up with the name in the log book to figure out who he was.

My mom left this morning. I suppose that means I might be blogging more now, doing more of my own laundry, and probably shopping and laughing a little less. (oooh, that was very woe-is-me, huh?)

So what did I NOT write?

One kid ate a penny.

One kid broke his nose and had to have it 'set.'

One kid got an awful haircut so bad that people didn't recognize him.

One kid forgot how to sleep.

One kid is perfecting his swimming pool trick repertoire.

The dog had a tumor removed and is wearing a big protective lampshade on his head.

My mom turned into Exercise Queen.

One kid is taller than I am now.

One kid is spending lots of time on the phone with a friend.

Mike had an awful health related incident, and is fine. Better than ever, actually, having cleaned up his eating since then. (I"m so proud)

And just yesterday I got a haircut that is way cooler than I am.  Don't worry. I'll frump it up and make it all mom-ish really quick, I'm sure.

What's new with you guys?

Oooh! I just had a fun virtual shopping experience. Zafu.com will find you the perfect jeans after you answer a few questions. I was doubtful, but their results for me returned 2 of the styles that i happen to know actually DO fit me well. Those are rare for me, and this site knew to include those 2? I"m hooked.  Go! It's  fun and you can keep your pants on.