Grown-up Lesson #526

Being a grown-up is hard (just like knots- about two of you readers will get this, but it's totally worth it!) We asked for car tires for Christmas this year. In our attempt to be good stewards, we clip coupons and brown bag our lunch to work/school. A meticulous budget is kept detailing how every cent is spent. Don't even get me started on insurances... I had no idea how much growing up I needed to up, but I'm loving this slightly stressful/immensely rewarding journey called adulthood.

Grown-up Lesson #526: Buying a refrigerator out of necessity and not for a kitchen make-over.

Last Monday, Zach was getting me a bowl of ice cream before we settled down to watch an episode of How I Met Your Mother (one of our favorite TV shows). We were alarmed to see that our entire carton of ice cream was soup. Chalking it up to the freezer vent being blocked because of the ridiculous amount of food we have stock-piled in there, we rearranged a few things in the freezer and I sipped my ice cream soup. The next morning, we checked on things, and we still had a carton of ice cream soup sitting in our freezer. On Wednesday, we called a repair man to take a look at it, and $80 and 15 minutes later he told us what we already suspected- we needed to buy a new refrigerator. That process was relatively painless because our awesome landlords (thanks sonny and caryl) said they would take care of the purchase. BTW- I am super excited for the day I actually get to pick out some great kitchen appliances. Doesn't Kelly Rippa make Electrolux look so glamorous? I don't know about all of you, but I depend on the casseroles I freeze for my reserve stash on those nights when I'm surprised with 4 hungry medical students at my house. And when chicken breasts are on sale at Publix, I buy enough to feed my hungry husband for the whole month! Needless to say, the fridge breaking was devastating to my planned menus...

The new fridge arrives tonight. We haven't opened the doors since the repairman gave us the news, so I'm hoping that enough cold air was trapped inside so that everything hasn't spoiled by now. Best case scenario- I'll be able to cook what thawed out from the freezer and will re-freeze a new stash of meals! (Hint: my next cooking post will be something freezer-friendly!)

Moral of the Grown-up Lesson... you can't always plan for the unexpected, but you can plan on the unexpected!