Leave it to Christie

There has been a suttle yet stinky fish smell lingering in my kitchen for about a month now. I have Cloroxed and cleaned and pulled out drawers and sniffed my way around my oh so tiny kitchen trying to find the source of the stink. When my mom was planning her visit I told her about it and she said, "Oh I'll find it."

For the past 9 days we hadn't noticed the smell until last night.
I returned from picking David from the airport, walked through the door, and the fish smell was overwhelming. My mom said she noticed it too but it had only been since she had last came downstairs. It seemed to be coming from the sink but the microwave smelled too and neither of these places had smelled before. We did what we could to get the smell away but still were perplexed at where the smell had come from.

What had been in the microwave?
My mom had noticed clear liquid in the microwave when she warmed her dinner.
But what was it from? Why did it smell so bad? How did it get there?
We went to bed without an answer.

Give my mom a good night sleep and a cup of coffee and amazing things can happen.
By the time I had returned from dropping David at work the investigation was done and the problem solved. It was only 8:09 am.

Clue #1 She had first noticed the smell while eating her warmed up dinner on one of our big plates.
Clue #2 Clear liquid in the microwave.

Conclusion: We have a large stack of big plates that we never get to the bottom of unless we have company. A month and a half ago we celebrated David's birthday. Thomas and Tara came to celebrate and we used more big plates than normal. We also had fish. One of the plates must not have gotten completely cleaned from the dishwasher. I stacked them without completely drying them. So the fish smell was coming from the bottom of a stack of plates that had fishy water stuck in between.

I had cleaned the drawer several times but never thought that it would be coming from the "clean" dishes. If it had been left up to me the fish smell would have stayed for the next 8 months and maybe even moved with us. Thanks to my mom the kitchen is fish free--finally!

Leave it to my mom to find the stink and kill it with Clorox.
She can do the same with stains on clothes. There is nothing she can't get out.

10 days has flown by. I wish she didn't have to go. Life is so nice with Christie around.
I am so glad she will be back in 3 weeks to help when baby is born.