When Garbage Disposals Go Bad

So, last night before going to bed I put the dishes in the dishwasher, started it, and was washing some pans by hand when all of a sudden I felt drops of water on my foot.  I looked down and noticed water coming out from the cupboard under the sink.  I opened it up and there was about 2 inches of water under the sink!!!  I guess the garbage disposal had kicked the bucket, b/c water was coming out the bottom of it.  I mopped up the water, turned off the dishwasher, and got a high power fan going to dry it up. 

I am SO THANKFUL that I was still standing there doing dishes, b/c usually I just start the dishwasher and go to bed.  If I had followed my normal routine, I would have woken up to 2 inches of water in the whole kitchen, not just under the sink.  Thank goodness for small miracles!

Anyways, Dad & Mom (the best landlords ever) came over tonight to see if we could fix it.  Mom had made some homemade bread that she brought over, and even made a small Autumn-sized loaf just for Autumn to eat all by herself.

And as you can tell from this picture, she sure did enjoy it.  By the time she got done w/ it there were random bite marks all over the loaf.  What a little monkey!

Dad tinkered w/ the garbage disposal  to see if he could fix it, but there was no way to get it working.  So, instead he and Autumn played and sang the song,

I climbed up the apple tree
To see just what there was to see
I looked down on Grandpa’s farm
All laid out in patchwork charm.

There’s a ba ba sheep
And a bow wow dog.
An oink oink pig
And a croaking frog.

There’s a moo moo cow
And a meowing cat.
A cackling hen
And other things like that.

She LOVES that song and made Papa sing it to her about 8 times in a row.

Anyways, after all that fun we had to go to Lowe’s to get a new garbage disposal.  Autumn thought she was ALL THAT wearing her pink cowboy boots and walking around carrying a shopping basket.

The only way we were able to bribe Mom to go w/ us was to tell her we would stop and get a treat after going to Lowe’s.  So, we stopped in at 7-11 to get a nice and refreshing slurpee.

Autumn was so excited when we handed her the cup and let her hold it while Dad paid.  She wasn’t too excited, though, when I told her she had to share with me.

We got home and got to work installing the new garbage disposal.  Autumn kept coming over to the cupboard and pushing on the little white plastic childproof locks.  I wondered what on earth she was doing and after about the 5th time of her doing that I realized she was pretending that it was a soap dispenser.  She would push on it w/ her other little hand underneath it and then she would walk over behind the counter and rub her hands together like she was washing them.  Mom & Dad & I all got a kick out of watching her do that.

Autumn wanted to “help” Papa, but was better about just getting in the way instead of helping.  Mom commented to Dad at how much they have changed.  She said that if Autumn had been me or Lexie or Nick or Nate when we were little, he would have been mad that we were in the way and would have had Mom come and take us in the other room so he could work.  But since it was a grandkid, he was more than happy to have her there “helping” fix the garbage disposal.

Autumn sure does love her Papa, and I’m so thankful that he’s so good to her.  It’s nice for her to have such a wonderful father figure in her life.  They have a special connection and bond and just adore each other.  I’m so glad that Dad is handy around the house and knows how to fix just about anything.  I sat and watched him fix it so that way I could learn some things about how to do home repairs.  It was very educational, and I guess the best lesson I learned was to read the directions (we didn’t and when we turned the dishwasher on, water went everywhere b/c we hadn’t punched out the plug in the pipe for the dishwasher connection).  But, we got that fixed and are good as new!