Wild and CrAzY!

Charles is amazed there hasn't been a blog posting in 8 days since we had quite the week starting last Monday! There we were at 9 p.m. watching our beloved Operation Repo when we started hearing strange noises coming from my most prized household appliance, our washing machine! I went to check it out and found nothing out of the ordinary. The noises stopped so we continued on with the show. Charlie and Ryan had started some of their laundry before going to bed and Charlie decided it was finally time to do his homework (which translates to being a pain in our butts past bedtime). We have a rule in our house that parents have nothing to do with kids if it's after 8:30. Well, the noises in the machine started again and quickly got louder, then there was a loud crack and Charles and I both ran in there to see what in the world was going on. We discovered that our 2 oldest children had both put their soccer shin guards in the washing machine and one had become lodged in the seal of our 2 year old Maytag Epic front loader resulting in the seal becoming shredded and ruined.

YES! I was pissed and said a few choice words before sending them to bed. This incident has resulted in more rules at the Woods' house and we should have no more trouble with anyone tearing up my washing machine. Lucky for me, Charles has a good pair of testicles and can fix these types of things so that we don't have to pay repairmen to do it. He ordered the replacement part immediately and we were without our appliance for an entire week. It finally came when we were headed out of town to Phoenix. It was repaired on Sunday and on Monday I was able to do the 7 loads of laundry that had piled up through the week!

We left for Phoenix Friday night so we could attend the temple on Saturday. We stopped in Tucson for dinner and ate at a place called Frankie's which serves up authentic Philly cheese steak sandwiches. Charles had talked to a guy from work that is a South Philly native and swore this was the best place for Philly Cheesesteaks in Tucson. So we stopped there for dinner, thinking we were going to have the meal of a lifetime, and we were slightly disappointed. For one, we're from the south. We don't really care what they eat in Philly. Maybe what we think is delicious might not be so tasty to others. Don't get me wrong, it was a good sandwich but I won't be rushing back there any time soon:) It was a fun experience though! We arrived in Phoenix just in time to get to bed. We got up early the next morning, went to the temple and came back to our hotel with 3 extra kids (so their parents could go to the temple) and met up with another family with 3 kids. So there we were with about 9 kids in 55 degree rainy weather sitting under a pavilion watching them swim in an outdoor pool! There was also a hot tub so they were able to at least stay warm. It was a grand ole time. We stopped at Ikea on the way out of town and discovered that it was the largest, most overwhelming store I have ever encountered! Apparently it is a Swedish chain that the Swedes think is full of cheaply made crap that Americans would die for! They're not sure what our fascination for this store is all about. It was unlike any shopping experience we have ever had and I loved it. Although we did question the durability of a lot of their merchandise. Oh yeah, we did leave empty handed!

Anyway, I'm training for a 5K. I'm not quite sure that I will actually run one but I will be fully trained for one. I'm in my 4th week of training and it is going rather well. I still haven't developed a love for running but I'm at least doing it. I was at the gym yesterday and there were only 2 treadmills opened so I darted to grab one and the lady I was there with hopped on the other one. I of course was next to this black girl who had a terrible stench. I didn't notice the odor until I was well into my run. I began catching whiffs of what smelled exactly like a butthole. I inconspicuously check my pits to make sure it wasn't me. Once I determined it wasn't me that stunk I started to realize it was the chick next to me. I knew it wasn't my friend because I had been in the car with her and she hadn't smelled foul. The odor got stronger and stronger and was a mix of horrendous B.O., butthole and dirty female crotch. I was running on an empty stomach since I had skipped breakfast so I was extremely weak to the stench. At one point I had to ball my towel up and hold it to my nose. I thought it was either that or I would start gagging. I had to do what was the least embarrassing to me and to the stinky girl and I figured that was it. I thought if my eyes started to water along with my mouth, not the good mouth watering either, and then the gag reflex would kick in. Now, THAT would be super embarrassing! So I chose the towel trick and ran with it held to my nose until she exited the treadmill. I did try to make it look as though I was wiping sweat but then I thought if she had the nerve to go out in public smelling like that then I should be able to have the nerve to prevent having to smell it! So I just balled it up and put it to my nose and had no reservations about not trying to be inconspicuous. Wash your butt ladies, not to mention washing your unmentionables! For cryin' out loud. The thing is, it's not like you wake up and stink like that if you have showered the day before. It takes a few days to get to stinking like that! Now I can't seem to erase the smell out of my mind and I will gag when the thought of it creeps in!

Anyway, that was our week. Oh yeah, we did gut the inside of our RV. Now we are ready to start the fixing up process! It's very exciting to think I won't have to sleep in a sleeping bag on a hard tent floor ever again:) That's what I call camping! Here are some before pictures.