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Health & Fitness

Another Day, Another Appliance

Another rambling from this suburban mom.

"We should have signed up for the Bridal Registry," I mumbled, as we entered through the automatic doors, to the fresh smell of lumber. We were, once again, in a large home improvement store. My flip flops smacked the cold concrete floors, leading the way to the appliances. We were becoming frequent customers as of late; replacing a washer, dryer, and refrigerator in six months time.

My husband walked ahead, while I supervised my son who was pretending to ride the large lawn mowers on display. After rounding up the other two children from warming their hands in front of the fireplaces on display, I caught up to my husband.

As we made our way down the first aisle of refrigerators, I explained to my husband how a bridal registry could have saved us from this headache. If only we had renewed our vows this summer, celebrating our 16 years of wedded bliss. We could have registered for new appliances, right? While we're at it, glasses, dishes, silverware and a new blender would come in handy. When one door closes another opens,... and closes, and opens, and closes, and opens... when you're refrigerator shopping it's a lot of opening, closing, looking, surveying.

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We had to first narrow it down to what we wanted. We definitely wanted a side by side, water and ice on the door, on that we could agree. We also wanted white, since our kitchen isn't quite ready for the stainless steel age. Besides, with five pairs of grimy hands in and out of that thing all day, stainless would not be our friend. At least that's what the guy in the last store told us. By the end of the day, we had settled on a sensible fridge. Although, the front door looked like mission control, buttons, lights, even an alarm. We were quite sure this was the fridge for us. We took the kids home to refuel and think it over. We logged onto a website and read consumer reviews on our pick. It wasn't good. People we had never met before posted comments on this refrigerator's shortcomings: broken ice maker in first 30 days, inefficient water filter, and so on. It was time to start over, and fall in love with a different brand. We headed out the next day, to look again.

Dragging three kids through four stores, in and out of the rain, was exhausting. Our heads were spinning with features, shelving, cooler bins, and ice dispensers. What would we choose?  We headed back to our favorite store one more time. Our trusty salesman by our side. We happened upon a french door model, with the pull out freezer below. The salesman spouted off information regarding cubic feet, energy star rating, and something about having one in stock.

"We'll take it," we both shouted. We scheduled our delivery and headed home.

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The store called us that night with a delivery window of 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. I've been given delivery windows in the past. I didn't trust them.

The next morning, as I stepped out of the shower at 11 a.m., there it was. A delivery truck in front of my house.

'It's here!', I squealed. The refrigerator was delivered in a timely manner, hooked up, installed and ready to go.

The kids helped to tear off all of the plastic and tape, revealing yet another new appliance. An hour later, waiting for the fridge to reach its proper temperature, I stared blankly at the empty shelves. Envisioning my organizational plan. My oldest child interrupted my gaze, 'Well mom, the only appliance that hasn't been replaced is the stove. Bite your tongue!'

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