Last Friday was a typical day here at the Sullivan house. Maggie was at school and Max and I where hangin' out, listening and dancing to blog music while we cleaned around the house (he's my favorite cleaning buddy.)
The morning flew by and it was time to pick Maggie up.....some days 11:00 am comes really fast. I threw in a load of laundry and Max and I headed out the door to pick her up.
Got home, made lunch (the girl is starving at 11:15), made a few phone calls and then remembered the laundry. Transferred it from washer to dryer and went on my merry way.
I used to use Dreft for all the clothes when the kids were babies. I think I used it well into the toddler size clothes, but then there was this day when I said, "Gosh this stuff is expensive. My people don't have sensitive skin. I'm going to try to use regular detergent for their clothes too!" And I have been using the regular stuff ever since.
My normal laundry routine is this, parents clothes one day, kids clothes the next day, towels the next, bed linens the next. Every once in a while, more often than not, the routine gets out of whack. Last Friday was an out-of-whack laundry day!
The load that I threw in was a mixture of parent stuff, kids stuff and cleaning rags. I just put it all in together. No big deal....it will all get clean! I was in a hurry...the laundry had to get done....put it all in!
When I opened the dryer to get the stuff out, after a few hundred buzzes by the very annoying machine, I noticed something red and black ALL OVER EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING! OH MY GOSH! WHAT IS IT?
I immediately went threw the entire basket looking for a marker, crayon, ANYTHING that could have caused this, then started to panic a little looking at Andy's work slacks, dress shirts and Maggie's brand-new Gymboree school outfits! Ruined, because I was in a hurry!
I asked the kids if they remembered anything in their pockets (I didn't want to make it sound like it was a big deal, and I made sure they knew that they wouldn't get in trouble, but that I just needed to know what the "stuff" was!) I was searching for a confession from someone.
No one confessed!
Surely it had to be crayon! A crayon must have been in a pocket, otherwise I would have noticed it when I transferred from washer to dryer. If it was crayon, then nothing happened during the wash cycle, but with the heat of the dryer it melted and the covered the entire dryer and its contents. Makes sense right?! I think so!
I got on the Crayola website and found out how to remove the stains from fresh and heat set fabrics. I also found out how the clean the dryer! Thanks Crayola for all the help! Good ol' WD-40!
I didn't get all of the stains out, but I did get a LOT of it out!
I also realize that I had been lacking in the part of my of my job description that calls for me not to just do the laundry, but also to check all the pockets before hand! I just don't like that part!
And you thought this story was over.....oh wait, theres more!
As I interrogated the entire household agian, (including Charlie the dog) looking for someone or something to solve the laundry mystery. I began to recall the situation.
Thursday, the very day before the mysterious item was put threw the wash, I vaguely remember picking up a purple crayon in the drive-way. I think I must have put it in the pocket of my jean shorts, while I was multi-tasking. Those very same shorts where also in the load!
Is a purple crayon made up of red and dark-blue-blackish colored wax? I think it must be!
And I think it was in my pocket! I was the one who left the crayon in her pocket! It was me!
This is my official apology to my family! I was wrong! Do you still love me? Do you want to get a maid to do all future laundry duties? I won't be that upset if you do!
4 comments:
Oh, how awful! I hate laundry fiascos like this. And I cringed in sympathy when you said Maggie's new Gymboree outfits were in there...ouch. Glad you got most of it out!
I still remember my mom's reaction one long ago day shortly after Easter when all of our beautiful Easter clothes found themselves in the company of a baby blue crayon. I had to be 6 or 7, the drress was a really pretty pink one that had been a gift from an aunt. It's funny how vivid the memory is! I wonder if my mom remembers the crying in the laundry room...
ps if you'd just kicked the crayon off the driveway, or left it sit to be crushed into a soft lilac driveway shadow it wouldn't have caused such a ruckus...I'm just saying, you've seen my driveway. =)
Oh, this post had me laughing. Then I saw Marci's comment, and I'm laughing even harder. It sucks when conscientiousness bites you in the butt, huh?
See, I'm conscientious in a different way. I probably would have left the crayon, but I went to Word to spell-check "conscientiousness". Actually, that not so much conscientious as it is anal. Either way, it's a good thing, 'cause I had it wrong.
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