a little game we will call “catching up”.. and a funny story for your troubles.

that’s right, I promised a funny story (now it’s funny) if you can actually stick out this post of catching up on all that I happen to be thankful for.

let’s see…

saturday I was thankful for snow.  I wasn’t quite so thankful that it came and bent my poor tree nearly in half, but I was thankful for the great excuse to stay home, snap some first birthday pix of my cousins babies, then snuggle up with my girls and watch some “anne of green gables”.

what can I say, watching anne spelled with an “e” is a tradition with first snowfalls around here.

I was also thankful for the dryer parts that came in the mail, and the repaired dryer.  clothes are so much softer (aka not crispy) dried in a dryer versus on a hanger in my bedroom.

sunday I was just thankful that it was a sunday.  good heavens, I love that day!  I was also thankful for the little break I had from my single parenthood going to choir practice.  a half hour can do wonders for the sanity.

monday.  I am thankful for pink paint.  it is quite cheery.  I am also thankful for a best friend who let me borrow her paint rollers, because mine aren’t placed at my home at the moment, and she also let me borrow her body, her ears, she even dispensed comforting advice!

tuesday I found myself still grateful for the best friend, and a mom, who seemed to say all the same things that darn best friend had to say.

I am also thankful for south ogden fire department and a nice guy from questar gas company who made lovely company tuesday evening.

today, well today I am thankful that I have a perfectly pink, perfectly striped little girl room.  I am also thankful for a thoughtful mother-in-law who took the girlies to tumbling.  I am sure I will be thankful for nyquil in the next hour or so.

so you want a funny story?

(it’s funny now…)

last night, it was not feeling so hot.  tired, run-down, had a little headache that was partially crying induced, partially because a certain third grader was arguing over homework, and partially due to the single-parenting situation I have been in the last week and a half.

(but that last little part is a story all by itself.)

I was supposed to go to a birthday dinner for my sweet sister-in-law but wasn’t really feeling up to it, headache, sore throat, swollen eyes and all, so I opted out.

the evening was turning out to be not so bad.  peyton decided to fall asleep earlier than she should (thank you daylight savings time…) and I was anticipating her waking up thinking she had an awesome nap and would want to party all night long and allow me a little sleep.  as I was getting her ready for bed, trying to do it all slowly and calm like, to keep her asleep, the smoke/carbon monoxide detector starts to be annoying.

I pulled a stool over to see what the deal was.  it was the carbon monoxide half of the deal freaking out.  I pushed the middle tester button thingie (cause that is what it is technically called nowadays) and then all of them started going off.  like as in every one in my house!  well, except for the wall guy one in the basement.  that one didn’t go off.  but the rest were.  as I went to put the stool away and find something sharp to put in my ears, all went quiet.

I put the sharp object down (okay, not really, I didn’t grab one in the first place), and went on getting the small people in my house to bed.  right after we said bedtime prayers, the blasted thing started going off again.

fantastic.

I decided to play it safe and such, seeing as I am kinda solely in charge of these kiddos, and merrill said he would not be replacing any of them if something happened, got coats on them, all zippered up and hoods on, bundled them up in blankets and sent them out to the front porch while I tried to find a non-emergency number for the fire department.

that was pleasant.  alarm going off, and I cannot seem to find the location of that number.  so I call my trusty neighbor, the one who is my best friend and lets me borrow lots of stuff. 

so I call the non-emergency dispatch number.  it refers me to another non-emergency dispatch number.  once I finally got a call in to the right non-emergency dispatch, they started asking all the typical carbon monoxide related questions:

“is anybody feeling ill?”

“well, I have a headache, but I know it’s crying related.”

“is there anybody else with you in the home?”

“yes.  three children.”

“get them outside immediately.”

“they already are.”

“good.  we need to verify your address and then you need to disconnect with me and evacuate the home.”

after I verified the address three times, and evacuated the home, I went outside to sit with the girls.  they were having the time of their lives.

it had to have been 20-something degrees.

they were so happy though.

we waited a few minutes and then watched as the fire engine passed our house.

then a police car.

then the police car came back, shined his spotlight on us and asked, “are you the ones who called about carbon monoxide detectors going off?”

“yupperoonies.”

(okay, so I said yes.)

he radioed for the fire engine to come back.  apparently, despite verifying my address three times, dispatch got it wrong.  while waiting for the fire engine to arrive, we then had a lengthy discussion as to whether I am a south ogden resident or a resident of unincorporated weber county.

it was ridiculous.

dispatch radioed back the correct address and added, “that’s in south ogden.”

ha!

(he was a really nice guy though.)

he asked the girls if any of them were feeling sick, and ashley piped-up, “I am.  I am sick of hearing that thing!”  isn’t she fantastic?

everyone was so cute with the girls, and they were equally cute with them.  the declined to sit in the back of the patrol car and the fire engine.  they were having fun after all.

after checking our house with their equipment, they couldn’t find any carbon monoxide, but the detector wouldn’t stop.  so they called out the gas company.

while waiting for him to show, they let us back in the house and they tried to get the thing to stop.  they eventually did by swapping it with another one in the house.

apparently I jinxed them.  we have two nursing/assisted living facilities right down the street, and they are there all. the. time.  so I matter-of-factly stated how it must be nice having a call to help out some people on the other end of the age spectrum.  they all groaned.  “you jinxed us!!  we haven’t had to go there yet today!  we are usually there 3 to 4 times a day.  now we’ll get a call at 3 am, and when we do, we are going to toilet paper your house.”

see, they were fun.

when he finally got there, he asked if there was anything gas on the main level, I replied with, “a little girl in that first bedroom.”  and, well, it’s true.

there was nothing wrong, all they could figure was the sensors are going bad in our detectors.

did you know that you are supposed to replace them every seven years?  well, now you do, just like I do now.

I was also warned that our water heater is going to “blow”.  isn’t that fantastic?

I blame it all on merrill.  had he been home, instead of in the caribbean, none of this would have happened.  but he would claim the opposite.  he would tell me that it all happened because the universe knew it was his house.

you see, he has a bit of a persecution complex going on.  when things don’t work out the way he thinks they should, it’s because it is him.

buy a tv and the sleep timer doesn’t work, it’s because HE bought it.

want prime rib at a restaurant and they are out, it’s because HE is the one asking for it.

if our little family had been incorporated at the time color tv was invented, we would most certainly purchased a new color set the day they came out.  we would have brought it home, plugged it in, turned it on, and it would have been in black and white.

that’s my boy.

so that leads us to today.  I am thankful that those darn detectors have remained quiet.  I am also thankful that someone bought a calling card in aruba, and called.  finally.  it has been four days.

I bet you are thankful that my little (okay, not so little) story is done?