An Unintended Science Experiment

Do you remember the ever-so-frequently performed science fair project where a young student who desperately needed a project idea came up with the "which diaper holds the most water" test?

Well, let's just say, last night, I found out how much water a pull-up (diaper training pants for those of you without toddlers!) can hold.

I thought I was doing a good job getting a load of laundry done - it was our good clothes - the ones that have to be washed in cold water... I even remembered to set it to cold water!

Well, the first thing that went wrong was about half-way through the cycle. Matt realized he'd left 3 checks in the pocket of his pants that day. Of course, it was put in the load of laundry that was in the washer at the time! I had to be on top of things just this once :(

So at the end of the washer's cycle, I was watching it finish the last minute. As soon as I got to the washer, I noticed a bunch of white shredded type stuff surrounding the door (we have a front loading washer.) I got to thinking, though, that there was way too much white stuff just to be the checks. It must be kleenex or something left in a pocket - that's not uncommon, I thought.

Let's just say, I about panicked when the cycle stopped and I opened the door. I knew right away what that material was. It's the beady stuff from inside... yep, a diaper! Oh no! I thought. What kind of diaper (messy or clean) could have ended up in the laundry and how? We'd just sorted a huge pile of clothes. I began pulling out the clothes, piece by piece, shaking them off to get that nasty stuff off them. Eventually, I found the source. By this time, it was about a 10-pound pull-up that had lost quite a bit of it's beady stuff, but was still pretty full of absorbent material.

Thankfully, I am not the only one who has done this. I did find posts on the internet that discuss potential solutions to cleaning out the washer and getting the stuff off the clothes. The washer just finished re-washing the load, so we shall soon see if any of it got washed away. Remember, these are some of our better clothes! Ugh!

On a positive note, we did have closing on our old house today. It had been on the market for 13 months. We are thrilled for it to be over. Maybe now we can start saving for the kids' college!

Matt is "celebrating" at Eddie Merlot's tonight. Well, he's being taken to dinner at Eddie Merlot's by a vendor rep. The kids and I celebrated, too. Only our celebration was at IHOP. Jacob loved the strawberry syrup, onion rings, mozzi sticks, and chicken fingers. Oh yeah, he scarfed down the eggs, too! Don't know where that came from - he won't eat mine! Maybe next time he will.

I think I'll be heading to bed soon. Matt will be late after filling his stomach full of that fancy food stuff they have there....