Quick Life Update: What's Been Going on Around Here

It's been nuts around here, per usual it seems.  I'd share Frugal Accomplishments, but I have to say that the last few weeks, there really hasn't been very many, other than I got the kids in for their dental visits and cleanings and they were cavity free and doing well (thank goodness) and I got Alvah into the eye doctor for the first time in a while and he's doing good...his nearsightedness got a wee bit worse, but he's not even close to really needing glasses, so that was a relief and a half to hear as trying to get him to wear glasses would be a challenge and then some.   

Bright side for those who want money saving tips, I'm going to have to come up with some as I had some unexpected things happen that cost me money the last few weeks.  Let's get into some of that.

The first one was I ended up having to take Prince to the vet suddenly.  I went to pet him one day and he yelped when I got near his mouth.  I could tell he was in pain and kept an eye on him over the weekend and the pain wasn't going away and he wasn't eating much as I could tell it hurt him to chew.  So, I ended up taking him to the vet.  The vet didn't see any bad teeth or anything (which was what I suspected was going on, so I was happy to hear his teeth were okay) and that his teeth were in good shape and he couldn't really see anything really wrong (other than Prince is fat, which I already knew that one for sure).   He suspected that Prince might have strep, so he gave him a long lasting antibiotic shot to see if that would clear things up and get him acting his old rambunctious self (it did) and gave him an updated rabies vaccine.  That visit, while worth it, wasn't cheap, so I have that to pay off on top of the medical bills that I've been trying to pay down.

And then the next day (no joke) I was making bread and my mixer just stopped in its tracks and I barely got it shut off before it was going to start burning up on me.  I couldn't get it to work right afterwards, so my husband took a look at it when he came home and after troubleshooting it said that it was just time to retire the old girl as something major was going in it this time.  The actual loss of the mixer actually hit me kind of hard.  That mixer made every batch of Christmas cookies my kids have ever eaten, it had made many batches of bread over the years, many birthday cakes and other goodies,  and it had been a great mixer that I had used hard over the last 16 years.  It just got past the point that my husband could fix it.  Rest in peace old friend.

My husband took a look at the NutriMill I had bought after the earthquake and decided he didn't want  me to use it as my everyday mixer as it was underpowered compared to a normal Bosche mixer and with how hard I ran my mixers, he didn't think it would live very long.  So, we talked about what to do and how to replace the Viking as I am constantly using my mixer and really couldn't be without one around here.  We thought about buying an actual Bosche, but I finally decided that I didn't want to go with a mixer that I might not be able to find replacement parts for, so after some debate (and my husband looking around to see what would be the best to go with for the sake of repair and maintenance), we settled on getting a KitchenAid.  

Unfortunately, trying to FIND a decent sized KitchenAid for my needs wasn't easy, so my husband spent one afternoon canvasing Anchorage trying to find at least a 7 quart KitchenAid mixer for me (we didn't want to go smaller than my Viking mixer as I will sometimes max out a seven quart when doing big batches of things).  He finally found a restaurant supply house that services the residential market too and we ended up getting an 8 quart Commercial KitchenAid mixer.  We went with the commercial mixer because it was available (a BIG plus as it seems that most everything is at least a month out on order up here right now) and it was set up more simply then the Professional line of KitchenAid internally, which would make it easier to work on, all the attachments are stainless steel (so, able to be put through the dishwasher...which sometimes I put my bowl in the dishwasher multiple times a day, so that was a plus for me), and it has a nice, powerful motor that would do everything I wanted it to do over the next countless years.  It is also really easy to clean as they didn't put on a bunch of plastic trim pieces or anything, so you can really clean it well in no time flat. 

And so, I welcome Black Beauty to my kitchen.  I do love it, I have to admit.  

The only downside is the price.  It was NOT cheap.  Neither was the Viking when I bought it so many years ago, but it still hurts to buy a piece of equipment like this.  So, I am going to work hard over the next few months to hopefully get the mixer paid off as I feel terribly guilty that my husband bought me a mixer for our anniversary (just worked out that way for when the Viking died) instead of buying something cheaper, but at least it is practical I suppose and my husband was happy to get it for me, which was really sweet of him.  I have used said mixer NUMEROUS times over the last few weeks and it works beautifully.  A definite bright side compared to the Viking is that I can put some dough on to knead in the mixer and walk away to do other things instead of having to lean on the mixer so it doesn't try to skip off the countertop.  And it is so MUCH quieter than my old mixer.  I couldn't believe how quiet it is as it is doing its work.  May it last many, many years and serve me as well as my Viking did.

So, yeah, it's been interesting around here.  I didn't know where else to put the updates this time, so I decided to just do a quick post about what was going on and I'll get into money saving things, garden updates and some other (hopefully) more fun posts here in the next few posts.  

I hope your summer is going well and you are all getting things done that is on your lists.  Enjoy!