This just in: Stupid washing machine malfunctions and ruins carpet.
New carpet a must, will cost thousands of dollars.

It’s my fault, I guess. I got too cocky. This is what I get for bragging about my special shopping saving skills. “I saved $300 dollars on toys!” Well, this will show me!

I reckon I could also blame [L]. He did, after all, start the fateful load of laundry that would eventually go on to ruin all the existing carpet that now needs to be replaced. He did also, somehow, sit obliviously at his computer, 30 feet away from the disaster area, as the hallway filled with water from the evil, malfunctioning washing machine. But, he was doing laundry. And he did stay up until the wee hours of the morning trying to correct the damage with the wet/dry vac. So, I guess I will let him off the hook.

I think it’s best just to blame the washing machine. It caused the damage and it can’t defend itself. Perfect scapegoat. Thankfully it can also be fixed. Actually the “fix” is just a matter of simply replacing a hose that malfunctioned. The replacement hose will cost $.68. I’m equal parts thankful for that and also nauseated at the amount of damage that was caused by such a simple and inexpensive problem.

Regardless of whose fault it is, the bad news is we have to buy new carpet for our entire house. The good news is we get new carpet for our entire house. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little excited about this. We have both hated the original carpet in our house from day 1 and we have always planned on replacing it but, unfortunately, the timing just couldn’t be worse. Because, guess where the money for the new carpet is coming from? Our Africa travel fund! Guess where money is most needed right now? Our Africa travel fund! You see the problem. But we’ll make it work. And we’ll have 2 beautiful kiddos and a whole houseful of brand new carpet to show for it when it’s finally done!

The other good, actually GREAT news, is that it could have been much worse. The night when all this happened, [L] had asked me earlier in the evening – before we left the house for about 4 hours – if he should run the washing machine while we were gone. I am one of those (sane) people who believe that an appliance has a much greater chance of malfunctioning and burning the house down when left unattended so, of course, I said “ARE YOU CRAZY?” no. Had I not been much smarter than my husband said no, our washing machine would have had 4 uninterrupted hours to pump water throughout our entire house. 30 minutes took out 2 hallways and 2 bedrooms. Had it run for 4 hours, we would have also lost all our hardwoods, our baseboards, and probably come home to find the cats stranded together on the couch locked in some sort of Steinbeckian “Lifeboat” struggle. So, it could have been worse and I am thankful it wasn’t. I’m gonna just go ahead and get excited about the silver lining on this crap-tastic cloud which is brand new carpet for our brand new family. Won’t [A] and [G] be excited!?

P.S. This might be a shamelessly perfect time to remind y’all that we still have t-shirts for sale to help with our adoption fund. And jewelry will be back up later this week!