the house that built me.

i've been out of my little blogosphere because sam and i made a visit to my parents' house for a few days. it was a really terrific visit, and we had a great time.

i've already mentioned that i really, really love my parents. they are amazing. and they truly outdid themselves on this trip. i spent a tremendous amount of time sitting on the front porch, savoring the amazing view and a good book while listening to birds sing. sam spent a lot of time helping my dad out with a building project my parents have going on the house, and now he has some lovely tan lines.

sam and i have been on a search for a good, used microwave. in the apartments we have had in the past, microwaves have been built in. this new apartment is actually the least new apartment we have ever lived in. don't get me wrong, it's in good shape, it's in a safe place, and it's certainly great for my budget, but it doesn't have a microwave.

i could live just fine without a microwave. sam, however, was just diagnosed with an ulcer, and several of his favorite foods (i.e., foods that don't make his stomach hurt) are frozen microwaveable meals. so we want to have a microwave in the house.

the cheapest new microwave we were able to find cost about $40. we were sure we could find a more economical alternative, so before we went to my parents' house, we went off on a mission to find the one thrift store in our new town, a salvation army store that, according to google, had about three different locations. the first two addresses that we used caused the gps to lead us to an empty field and a forest, respectively, but finally, on the third attempt, we found the salvation army store.

of course, we did not find a microwave there. "no big deal," we said. there are several great thrift stores in the city where we used to live, and we have to drive through that city to get to my parents' house, so we decided to stop on our way.

i swear that the first rule of thrift store shopping is as soon as you go shopping for something specific, you will never find that thing you want and/or need. i think the last time i went thrift store shopping, i saw at least three or four microwaves. no luck this time, though. we didn't find a single microwave. not even a junky, falling-apart one from the seventies that weighs about three tons.

we weren't about to give up hope, though, and we weren't about to buy a new one. we decided that the next course of action was to do some heavy yard saling during the coming weekend. when we got to my parents' house, we told them about our plan to obtain a microwave for our apartment.

my mom said to my dad, "honey, don't we have a microwave in one of the houses?"

my parents own two rental houses, one of which is currently vacant. apparently there was a free-standing microwave in the vacant house. my parents offered to give it to us.

"no way," we said. "we won't take it without paying you for it."

my dad responded, "we won't let you have it if you pay us for it. we'd rather you use it than some random tenant. we know you'll take care of it."

after some more wrangling about paying/not paying, we finally agreed to take the microwave. as it turns out, this microwave is nearly brand new, and it would have cost us around $140 if we had bought it new. we are so incredibly grateful to my parents.

but they weren't done yet. a few days later, sam, my parents, and i made a trip to sam's club in a neighboring city. actually, we went to the city because my parents are in the middle of a building project and they needed to pick up some supplies from lowe's. but they were curious to find out if sam's offered better prices on a few of the things they needed. so we stopped. we browsed. and my parents decided that they needed a sam's club membership. sam and i were thinking that a sam's club membership might be something we would look more closely at a little bit in the future.

as my parents were establishing their account, my mom asked the lady behind the desk, "can we add our kids to our account?"

the lady responded, "of course you can. for an additional fee."

"no, mom," i said. "that is really sweet of you, but you don't have to do that."

"we know we don't have to do it," said my dad. "but we know you'll use it!"

"at least let me pay you what it costs to add me to the account," i wheedled.

"nope," my dad said.

and that was that.

so after a lovely visit with my parents, we returned to our new apartment in our new town with a new microwave and a new sam's club card. we are both terribly excited, for different reasons. i am thrilled at the opportunity to buy staples (flour, rice, etc.) in bulk at rock-bottom prices. sam is excited because some of the aforementioned favorite frozen foods are available there for him to buy in bulk. we know that sam's club and costco and places like that can be a trap if you let them. but we are confident that we will use it to our advantage. and we are so thankful that my parents gave us the opportunity to do that!