It's almost like they have a gift. They can ruin things that you wouldn't even begin to imagine. This week, we thought that they got to our ice machine in the freezer door. They always push and mess with the buttons, so naturally, we figured they had finally broken it.
Can you live without an ice dispenser in your door? Of course. Is it annoying when you constantly go to push it because you keep forgetting that it doesn't work? Yes it is.
We continued to ask them what happened and which one of them did it. Four little innocent stares came back at us every time. We became more and more frustrated and after trying to fix it, finally decided to call the repair center. The fridge is still under warranty, so we crossed our fingers that it wouldn't end up costing too much.
A man showed up to look at the freezer and began to take the ice thingy out of the door. He worked and messed around with whatever it was that he was doing and finally said, "Huh. Here you go...take a look at this." Deep down in the passage way between the ice maker and the door, was a big block of solid ice. It was like a mini iceberg stuck there so everything was frozen and nothing could move. He worked and worked on it until it eventually broke free.
When everything was all said and done, it turned out to be no big deal at all...just a lot of frozen ice. The kids didn't do it, nothing was even really broken for that matter...it was just one of those things.
Feeling embarrassed, I apologized to the man for making him travel out for no good reason. I asked how much it would cost and he kind of chuckled saying, "Oh you don't even want to know. Your refrigerator is still under warranty, though, so you don't have to pay a thing for the repair or the visit." (whew.)
I'll have to admit, I would have been pretty dejected if we didn't have the warranty and had to pay who knows how much for such an easy fix. We shouldn't have been so quick to assume that the kids did something to break it and we should have spent more time looking for the simple solution.
It reminded me of a story that my Grandpa always used to tell me about a man and a window...This man tried to fix his kitchen window that wouldn't stay open. Each time he lifted it, it slammed back down. It was during the heat of the summer so he needed it to stay open to allow a breeze to come through. Eventually giving up, he called a handyman to repair it. The Mr. Fix it guy showed up and looked at the window for one second, then pulled out a hammer and a nail while strategically placing it in the frame. As he hammered the nail in, the window instantly held it's place whether it was lifted up or down. It was perfect.
"Wow! What do I owe ya?" the homeowner asked.
"That'll be one hundred dollars," said the handyman.
"One HUNDRED dollars?! That's preposterous! All you did was hammer a ten cent nail into my window frame!" argued the man.
"You're right! That makes ten cents for the nail and ninety nine dollars and ninety cents for me knowing what to do with it, when you didn't."
As I sit here writing this in the summer heat with a big glass of ice water, I can't help but grin and think to myself...lesson learned Grandpa...lesson learned.