I Will Thrive: Buying a New Fridge

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So although our refrigerator isn't dead I believe it is slowly dying. So we decided to take advantage of some of his bonus pay and buy a new one. I went to Lowes, Home Depot, hhgregg and Best Buy to scout them out. I decided to go with Lowes with their 10 % off appliances, the military 10% discount, and the fact that it was tax free weekend I was going to get a $2399 fridge for $1919. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. So I went in on my lunch hour, had all the item numbers ready for the fridge and the warranty, and I set up delivery and haul away of the old fridge. Good to go! That was the beginning of October and the fridge was scheduled to arrive October 22nd at the store. On October 20th I get the call that it is in and they are ready to schedule delivery. It gets scheduled for the 29th. Then Hurricane Sandy hit and it got rescheduled for November 5th. No problem good to go. 

Then the fun begins...I get a call Sunday night giving me a delivery time. Monday morning I get a call...I'm thinking the delivery time has changed. Nope when they unpacked it to load it on the truck they discovered a ding and wanted to give me the option of taking it or leaving it and ordering a new one. I decided for the price and the fact that it was brand new I wanted a perfect one. They assured me it would be an easy transaction to get the new one ordered. Ha...not even close to easy. I get a call around noon asking for my credit card so they can recharge it. I ask about the refund. She informs me they already did the refund so now they just need my card to recharge it. I explain that it is a checking account so I can't recharge until the refund hits. And I ask how come they started the transaction without talking to me and without explaining the process. Her response includes some hmms and haas and an explanation that since I refused delivery they had to refund it. So I talk to a manager who explains they can't undo what's been done and although it could have been one transaction it can't now. He is very apologetic and says he'll call me daily to see what's going on so it doesn't fall through the cracks. No call Tuesday. No call Wednesday. So Wednesday the money hits my checking account and I call them to reorder my fridge. She pulls up my order and quotes a price that is $100 more than what I paid. I inquire about the price difference. She explains that it is tax. I explain that I want it tax free because I bought it without tax. She says she'll have to get a manager. They put me on hold on and off for 30 minutes. Finally she comes back and tells me the card was declined. I look online and it has the charge from Lowes on there for the reorder so I tell her this only to find out that is not in fact a charge but it is in fact a hold on the account for a phone authorization. So in essence I need to have twice the amount of the fridge available so they can put the hold and then charge the actual amount. At this point I'm beyond ticked and ask for a manager. She comes on and says that there is nothing she can do this is the way the process works. When I ask about how come it couldn't be done as one transaction to begin with she tells me if I'd come into the store it could have been. WTH?!? Why wasn't I told this from the beginning  Well we were trying to make it easier on you so it wouldn't be inconvenient for you. Epic fail on their part. So I'm in a holding pattern again. I have to wait for the hold to come off in order to reorder the dang thing.

The hold finally came off today...a week later. I decided to go to hhgregg and see what they can do. At first they can't quite match it because of the tax and the fact that their warranty is more expensive. Then they appliance manager decides to wave the tax so it is only $30 more than Lowes. And I won't have anymore run around. I wanted to talk to J before I pull the trigger and order from hhgregg. He has agreed so we will be getting our new fridge from hhgregg assuming nothing else changes. I think the truly frustrating part with Lowes is the attitude I received even from managers that I just had to live with it and that they didn't really care that I was unhappy. The sad part is I used to be a huge fan of Lowes because they offer a military discount. And for hardware stuff I'm sure we'll still go there but I'm not sure I'll get big ticket items there anymore. 

Love - Hate - Hair

I have a truly love-hate relationship with my hair. I have thick, long, very curly hair. As a child it was tangled most of the time and as an adult it still gets pretty tangled. I've tried it long, short, curly, permed, and straightened. I have only had a couple hairdressers who I felt really knew what they were doing. I'm struggling right now with my hairdresser I like what she does but her prices keep going up, up, up. Last time I was there it was $60 to get my hair cut because she prefers to wash it, blow dry it, and flat iron it before cutting. So I have an appointment with my friend's hairdresser to see what we can do. We'll see...but here are a few pictures of my hair over the past few years...my appointment is next Friday I'll post pics when she's done.

1998-1999ish after it had been set on rollers

2007 in England...my hair loves it there

2009 when I went SHORT and black J loved it!!

2011 at a friend's wedding

My current cut when it is straight...please ignore the I could kill you look

I Will Thrive: Deployment Stories...Lost

Last night on my way home I debated between going to the store and buying the ingredients for taco salad or just stopping by Moe's on my way home to pick one up. I decided to just pick one up. Some how in the process of walking into the restaurant, being in the restaurant and walking back out to my car (a period of 15 minutes) my keys disappeared. I went back in and looked around for about an hour and a half no luck. They checked the camera, the trash can, etc no luck. I was on a college campus so I called their campus police and reported it. So far I haven't heard anything. I suspect that I set them down when getting my drink and someone else accidentally picked them up. Because I just can't see how else they disappeared.

The restaurant was mostly helpful but they kept suggesting I hadn't lost them and that they were in my car. I had locked my car on my way in so I knew this wasn't the case. Fortunately a friend of mine came and got me, took me home to get my spare set and brought me back to my car. Also equally fortunate my neighbor was home so I could get my spare key. I admit it was almost the straw that broke the camel's back. I was on the verge of tears in the parking lot when I was looking for them.

I called both the restaurant and the campus police today with no luck. I hold out one more hope that my YMCA tag will help them return. But we shall see. When I talked to J this morning he said "no one was hurt and nothing was lost that can't be replaced, look for them for a few days and then stop stressing about it." That was what I needed to hear I was so stressed about it.

I admit I'm just frustrated. Have you ever had a experience where you lost something and you were so frustrated?

If You Want to Make the Military Laugh...

...tell them your plans.

J and I had made tentative plans for him to come home this fall for R and R but due to some schedule changes this is not looking good and it is likely he won't be home at all this year. We knew that this was a potential issue but we hoped it would work out. I know that the military doesn't try to mess up family plans and that they are actually quite supportive of Geo Bachelors so I'm not upset with them. But I confess I'm upset at the situation because that means it will be over a year (more like 18 months) before I see him again. I've decided though that wallowing in it will do me no good. But I admit I did do some shopping therapy and some eating therapy in the process.

Now I have decided instead of dwelling on things I don't have control over, that I'm going to focus on what I do have control over...myself. I have been on a weird eating binge and a lack of exercise binge for quite some time. So last week I had class two of the weight loss Bible study (I lost 3.5 lbs) I lead and between that and my body grumbling I'm looking to get back on track. I've been doing better with eating (most days). So now I just have to get off my butt and get moving. I've been doing yoga which is helping my stress level but I need to get back to walking and other cardio. Plus I want to get back to strength training. The kicker is I don't quite have the motivation to do it yet. But I've signed up to do an 8K on March 17th so I need to get the motivation.