Gratitude Challenge---Day Six---A New Dishwasher

I have the best parents in the world. Today I am thankful that my parents decided to surprise my husband and I with our early Christmas present...a new dishwasher! My old one went on the fritz over a year ago. It chose when it would work, and leaked when it did. My brother and sister-in-law were kind enough to donate to us the dishwasher they took out of their recently purchased house when they replaced it (he works at Ferguson and got a great deal on a new one). Unfortunately, it worked about as well as my old one (minus the leak) and sounded like an airplane getting ready to take off when it was running. I have been "going retro" and washing my dishes by hand...and cheating by using paper plates and plastic utensils...for some time now. I have been trying to be patient and appreciative of the fact that we have such a nice sink and I really do like the way citrus scented dish soap smells...lol.

Today we discovered that a leak from the old dishwasher hookup had caused some significant damage to our kitchen cabinets and were contemplating whether to try to reinstall the old (less noisy) dishwasher (having thrown away the airplane one) or to plug up the hoses and put a curtain in front of the empty hole until we could afford to buy a new one when my mom (to whom I was talking) said, "Wait! Don't do either...I have to tell you something..." and the rest is the best surprise I have gotten in a long time.

We headed off to the store where we had the nicest salesman named Larry. He was happy to show us everything and he was just plain friendly...not worried at all about doing anything but helping us (he even showed me a pressure point to help a migraine headache!). We walked around and looked at all the choices and my mom showed me what she and my dad wanted to get, and I was VERY happy.

Then we saw the one we both REALLY wanted because the controls are on the top edge of the dishwasher instead of the front, so little ones can't push the buttons randomly and mess up your cycles (you understand why this is important if your wee ones are still wee), but it was out of our price range...UNTIL dear Larry showed us one very similar to it that I also loved that was WAAAAAAY on sale, plus it had a great additional discount, making it just a tiny bit more than the one they planned to buy us originally. Since hubby and I have been saving bits and pieces toward a new dishwasher, we were able to add that to the gift and are now the owners of the beautiful Maytag dishwasher you see below. It is AWESOME! And I have the best parents you ever did meet! It is a perfect Christmas gift, and I will have a very Merry Christmas indeed since I won't have to wash all the pots and pans and dishes by hand...yipee!!

My new dishwasher will be delivered here (for free!) in twenty-six days (since I wanted white, not stainless) and I can't wait. I am going to make sure I am thankful for it every day until then, and I will even try to be thankful for washing dishes in my nice sink, with my citrusy dish soap. Really, I will.

Blessings,

Heather