Washing machine woes

OK, I'm not usually a writer on my blog. I mostly just use it to post pictures for family, but I have to write my washing machine woes of the last 2 months.
So, my washing machine decided to die - ie overflow and make a huge mess of the laundry room - the day before Aaron was born. So I got to help Brandon clean up a huge mess 9 months pregnant, and go to the hospital the next day knowing I had no washing machine, but Brandon found out what part he needed to fix it, and fixed it while I was still in the hospital. However, since then, it has been giving us intermittent troubles. We figured out after about a month that it was sucking small items of clothing out with the water. This would cause the drain to overflow and the washer not to work, but we figured that out and tried not to wash any small items. Progressively more and more would get stuck in the seal at the bottom and we would have to pull it out at the end of the load, but we thought we were ok. Then we found a pair of biker shorts that had gotten sucked down and fried - they were melted looking in spots, so we started throwing bity baby items in a delicates bag and really watching the whites batch. However, Monday (2 days before Christmas) the machine sucked down all but a small corner of a baby tricot blanket. That is quite the large item to be sucked down. As I was wrestling the blanket out, trying not to pop stitches, I got out 2 socks that who knows how long they had been there, so enough was enough, and we ended up going shopping for a washing machine. OK honestly by we I mean Brandon. Who wants to drag 4 boys washing machine shopping. We ended up with a new machine Christmas eve. Good thing since Aaron decided to have some sort of vomiting flu the day after Christmas. :)
Anyway, I have always said or heard that the washing machine "ate" it, but never thought that was something that could really happen until the last 2 months. My washing machine truly ate clothing.