I always knew there was a reason I hated laundry...

And now I know what that reason is!

Yesterday, while going about my usual housewife duties (none of which I despise, by the way, except for the laundry) - it came time to fold the clothes in the dryer. I bent down, opened the dryer door, and before I even pulled anything out, a little scream escaped my mouth!

The entire dryer drum was splotched and streaked with blue ink!! "Just breathe," I told myself as I pulled the first article of clothing out (my brand-spankin-new shirt that I got last week). As I looked it over, I started to cry. Yes, I'm a baby, but I rarely get to by myself something new, and this shirt was just the perfect shirt. It was casual enough to wear with jeans or shorts, but nice enough to wear it with a skirt to church too. Well, after one look at it, I realized that I'd never be wearing it with anything - it was covered in blue ink. Spots, streaks, little evil smiley faces laughing at me...it was hopeless.

As I pulled more clothes out, I realized that every single one of Mason's new summer shirts appeared to be ruined too. I mean, ink explosions in the washer are one thing - the stains haven't been set by the heat of the dryer yet. But these had been washed AND dried. I cried some more.

After I pulled all the clothes out, I found the 2 empty, broken ball point pens in the bottom. If my nightmare could have been turned into an animated moment, I'm sure they would have been laughing at me too.

I never have anything in my pockets, so I knew the pens weren't mine. Jeff always has ink pens in the pockets of his work pants, so it was easy to figure out where they came from.

Question: Is it my fault for not checking the pockets before I put them in the washer, or is it fair for me to be upset with Jeff for not emptying out his pockets before he threw his pants into the hamper, causing me 4 hours of scrubbing, washing, then more scrubbing & washing?

Conclusion: My job is to be a housewife and mother, since I'm staying home and am not out working. Jeff has told me before that he never remembers to check the pockets, so I'm going to have to swallow my pride (after reminding him each evening to empty his pockets) and check them myself. Give and take - isn't that what a good marriage is made up of?

Anyhow, thank you Mom Donnelson for helping me get the stains out of the clothes! It worked! For anyone else who might ever run into this problem, here's what she told me to do: (in this order!)
1. Spray the stain with ZOUT
2. Apply liquid Wisk detergent over the ZOUT - I applied it with a toothbrush and rubbed it in a little (she recommends the red bottle with blue cap)
3. Put OxyClean powder on top of that, and rub it in (i just used my finger)
4. Let it sit overnight if possible, then wash it in the hottest water the fabric can tolerate. I added 3 small scoops of OxyClean to the water in the washer.

To remove the ink from the inside of the dryer, on the dryer drum, we tried a few things, and only one of them worked.
1. DID NOT WORK: a product called Goof Off. It actually made Jeff high and sick to his stomach.
2. DID WORK (YAAAY!!): We soaked a bunch of old rags and towels in bleach water (LOTS of bleach), then put them in the dryer sopping wet and ran it for an hour at a time. After each hour, we re-soaked the towels and ran it again. We did this 3 times (total of 3 hours), and it worked!! The inside is clean as a whistle!

Anyhow, as much as I felt like I was in one of the dimensions of Hell yesterday, it's nice to feel relief today as I look at my spot-free clothing and dryer. :) Thanks for all the advice!