Lawnmower Meltdown

Yesterday, Joel was trying to mow the grass and before he could begin he had to do some maintenance on the lawnmower before it would even start.  It's gotten to the point that every time he needs to use it, it requires some tinkering to get it to start.  Then he told me that the self propel stopped working on it too. 

So I had a bit of a meltdown. 

Why, you ask, would a person have a meltdown over a broken lawnmower?  Because, it was a housewarming gift from my Dad.  He bought it for me right before he had his surgery.  I've previously had two other lawn care related minor meltdowns when we had to retire the leaf blower and weed eater.  The lawnmower is the last "living" link to my Daddy. 

So when Joel told me that it was probably a gonner, I was pretty upset.  Joel knew it was going to break my heart which is why he hadn't previously told me how bad it was getting (he has most all lawn care related responsibilities so I hadn't used it in quite a while - not to mention I was pretty pregnant all last summer!). 

But yesterday, when Joel stayed home from work to be with a not-so-sick Lily (more on that in a minute), he took the carburetor off the lawnmower and disassembled it, cleaned it up, reassembled it and repaired the self propel mechanism and.....ta da!  The lawnmower will live to see another summer (we hope!).  I fully recognize how insane it is to be emotionally attached to a lawnmower.  But I can't help it.  Some day, we won't be able to repair it or it will be cost prohibitive to do so and it will have to be retired with the weed eater and leaf blower.  But I'm pretty grateful to my wonderful husband that today isn't that day. 

As of 4pm on Monday, Lily still had a wicked fever so we decided that at that time, there was no way we could send her to daycare on Tuesday.  Well when she woke up Tuesday morning, she was her normal, happy healthy self.  No fever.

But at this point, it was too late for Joel to go in to work as his shift had already started so we stuck with the original plan to keep Lily at home.  Much to Joel's frustration since he was now burning a vacation day to stay home with a healthy kid for the second week in a row. 

But at least she's feeling better, right!?!? 

Joel said he spent the morning picking up the house only to have Lily coming behind him destroying it all again!  But she's pretty cute when she's doing it.  At one point, she said that Joey (Joel's doll from when he was little) was tired and needed a nap and she was going to read him a story.  Poor Joey is laying face down in his pillow.  He must have had a rough morning!