I lost a dear friend of the family a couple of weeks ago. She had been with me since our oldest was four. Sweet Mrs. Roper served our family daily for the last 12 years, making sure all of our whites were white and our colors were bright while her dear honey Mr. Roper dried everything to a fluffy softness. He passed away two years ago and nice old Ken More moved in to help out Mrs. Roper with the chores her honey used to take care of. But alas she has gone on also, although she is not too far away - she has been sitting in our back yard since her passing.

After Mrs. Roper moved to the backyard I decided to be creative. Surely her job was not that difficult. A little water, a little soap, agitate it, rinse and maybe rinse again, ring it out and send it on to Ken. Humph, she has been fooling me! I filled the tub with hot water and a little Sweet Pea bath soap, tossed in some socks and undies, added a couple of young boys to agitate the clothes (I figured they agitate me enough...) and left to fix dinner. Lets just say young boys do not do the same job as dear old Mrs. Roper!!! But on the up side, the bathroom floor got a well needed mopping! So I removed the boys, drained the clothes and rinsed them - FIVE times! I still had soap in em. And the socks were still grungy, so I ran the hot water again, added powdered bleach and detergent to the sock soup and tried to hand wash the suckers. Two hours and three busted knuckles later I gave up, rinsed everything one last time, called in the resident hero (aka dh Andre') and he wrung everything out. I tossed the wet things into the dryer (aka Ken More) and crossed my fingers. Another hour later and Ken delivered dingy dirty dry socks and undies. So much for nostalgia and the good ole days!

Ken More was delighted to meet Miss Roper and the two of them got right to work on Mt. Washmore which has invaded our home since Mrs. Roper passed away. Miss Roper welcomed the dingy socks and cup of bleach and sweetly delivered the whitest socks this house has seen in years! I will miss my dear friend, but her replacement is making the transition much easier!!

Guess what I got for Christmas? Aint she purty!

Sure beats last years gift...

 A radiator for my van (yep the van that kicked the royal bucket 4 months later...) I am sure Miss Roper will be with us much longer than that silly radiator was - and she was half the price!!