Adjustment Period & Shiny New Things

When a person moves to a new home, there are all sorts of things that you need to get used to. For example, the noise the the refrigerator makes, or how you like the thermostat set. I had an interesting experience one morning last week. Alex was sleeping, Isaac was watching cartoons, and I was in the shower, when all of the sudden, I hear the smoke alarm going off. With a body full of suds and hair full of conditioner, I jumped out of the shower and tried to find which alarm it was. It was hard to tell, because it echoed throughout the entire house. The entire time, Isaac was at my side saying, "Mommy, what that?" I finally figured out it was coming from the smoke alarm in Isaac's room, down the hall. I wondered if maybe the steam from my shower set it off, so I waved my towel in front of it, and it stopped. So I hopped back in the shower. A minute later, my shower was interrupted again by the same smoke alarm. As I was getting out to make it stop, the hall smoke alarm went off, too. I went into Isaac's room and unplugged that alarm. Then I tried to unplug the one in the hallway, but it's hardwired into the electrical system, so I couldn't figure it out. I finally tugged on some random cords and it came unplugged, but was still beeping! So I quickly grabbed my cell phone and called James in hopes that he could instruct me on how to turn the darn thing off. Seconds after he answered, it went off. I guess it has a battery backup that made it keep working after it had been unplugged. James pointed out that that must be why the previous owners had removed all the batteries from the smoke alarms... who wants them going off every time you take a hot shower? Mercifully, Alex slept through the whole ordeal. What a wonderfully hectic start to my morning, though.

In other news, we bought a new dishwasher yesterday. The one that came with the house is a piece. The soap dispenser doesn't open, unless you're able to jerry rig it so the dispenser isn't all the way closed, which usually consists of it popping open while I'm closing the door several times before I get it right. Plus it's really noisy. I look forward to being able to have a conversation in the dining room while the dishwasher is running. Plus, Isaac kept wanting to turn the dial and push the buttons on the old one. This one has all the controls concealed on the top side of the door, so he won't even know they're there. Our new one gets delivered tonight. Can't wait to run a load and test it out!

Ain't she a beauty?