Hell Week - Monday

Yeah, we faced a few hurdles last week. And, I'm going to run them down day-by-day so you can feel totally sorry for us get all of the details. If nothing else, at least you'll feel better about your life when you get done reading. So, you're welcome.

As you all know from reading this post, we were scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, the 14th. In preparation I made a menu and Nana, Allen and Lexi went grocery shopping on Saturday, the 10th. They bought all of the food we could possibly need for the next couple of weeks.

Sunday, we were getting some ice cream out of the freezer and it seemed a little soft. But, we had filled it quite full and the ice cream was in the door so we didn't think too much of it.

Monday morning, I reached in the freezer to grab Lexi a waffle. And, it came out soggy and thawed and totally gross. I looked around and noticed that the meat was thawed (including all of the bacon from the pig we processed), the OJ concentrate was liquid, and the ice was beginning to make it's own lake at the bottom of the freezer.

Nana happened to walk in as I was calling Allen with the news. She drug in the coolers and ran to get ice. When she got back, we chucked what was already bad and tried to salvage the rest.The fridge was warming, but we figured we had a few hours before everything in there was bad so we vowed to keep the door shut for as long as possible and set out to fix the situation.

I called a repair guy just in case it was something simple. But, alas, it was not. The compressor was gone. And, the cost to fix it was more than a new fridge would cost. Allen and I agreed we would buy the fridge we really wanted rather than just getting whatever since this one will likely be in our kitchen until it dies, too. I started calling every place in town that sold refrigerators. I asked for recommendations from the repair guy and all of the appliance folks I talked to. All of them said to stay away from LG and Kitchen Aid and go with Maytag. I then asked those who were selling said fridges if they had any Maytags in stock. Of course not! The order time was 10-12 days. Every. place. I. called.

So, here I am two days away from going into the hospital to have a kid with my mom here to try and help out and watch my two existing kids and I have no food for her and no place to even put any food if we did have some because no one stocks the good fridges at their stores anymore. And, Allen's up against a wall at work seeing as he is juggling two full time jobs and only has 2 days left in the office to do tons of stuff since we're supposed to be popping a baby out so like he has any time to deal with this crap either.

I finally got a hold of a place that had what we wanted in a price range we could stomach. They had exactly ONE left. Allen made it work and came home and we took off to Albuquerque to get said appliance.

Now, anyone who has ever installed a new appliance under duress knows that there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth associated with the process. Everyone who is a witness to the effort must put in their two cents and usually does so while screaming at the person who is actually doing the installation work. Lest we forget that the only able bodied person around here is Allen, too. So, we're trying to "assist" him but really, folks, he's on his own.

As we approach the front door, it becomes very clear that the fridge isn't even going to fit inside. Of course, I'm irritated, the kids are whining, Nana is trying to wrangle the kids and cook dinner, Allen is sweating, and the stupid thing isn't even going to be in the house because the handles stick out about 2 inches too far.

At this point, I walk away to help with the kids and Nana steps in to try and help Allen. As I come back down the hallway, I see them trying to wrestle the beast into the doorway. I start yelling at them, "You'll never fit it in because the handles are too wide! THE HANDLES ARE TOO WIDE! YOU'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT!" Suddenly, the fridge is in the house. With the handles off. Yeah, Allen had read the instructions and it specifically mentioned removing the handles to get it into the house and he had already done that. Yeah. Open mouth. Insert foot.

We took a break for dinner, baths, and the bedtime routine and got back at it so we could try and put some food inside before we went to bed. Finally, somewhere near midnight, we had done all we could do and we called it quits. When I came out the next morning, I was greeted by this:

 Not too shabby. I went through the coolers to find that all of our freezer goods were ruined. All of the foods we had bought not two days before, trying so hard to be prepared for the upcoming weeks, were gone. Thankfully, though, we had Tuesday to go to the grocery store and re-stock before we went in to have our baby on Wednesday. And, that my friends, is what brought about Day 2 of Hell Week with the Riddles.