Smell anything? And a long distance birthday greeting.

Last night was a bad ending to what had been a great birthday weekend for me. On my way home from church, I was coming down with a splitting headache and an upset stomach. The kids were tired and cranky. Justin cried almost all the way home. As I walked into the house, Austin immediately sat down to take off his shoes. I realized the alarm wasn't set and then it happened......I smelled something. A not-good something. A strong something. You guessed it, natural gas. I called Matt first, and his first response was, "Check the stove." It's electric! His next suggestion was to check and see if we had hot water. I obliged while "lovingly" letting him know that altho it appeared we did have hot water, that wouldn't have any bearing on whether or not we had a gas leak. My marine husband likes to say he saved the day. I'm just glad he didn't suggest I light a match. Anyway, I called the gas company, left the house, and parked on a side street across from the house. I sat there an hour. Matt came home and we were there another half hour. I was getting sicker by the minute and the kids and Matt were getting sleepier and crankier by the second. Matt called to find out what was going on and was told that they had released extra "odor" into the gas lines and consequently had received 500 calls from area residents with odor issues. There were only 40 techs on the job. Apparently you can have small leaks and never know it, but due to the increased odor, now you know it! By this time it was almost 11pm. We decided to leave the house and garage unlocked and unarmed and go to a hotel. We gave them our cell numbers, and we were off to the Hampton Inn. We were in our room by 11:30pm-ish. Austin with no shoes and only 1 clean diaper! I went to the bathroom for awhile trying to quit being sick. Matt bought me Tylenol from the vending machine. In to bed we went. The gas company called back around midnight to tell us someone would have to be at the house in order for them to enter at night. Matt wasn't thrilled. Especially since he had to get up for work at 5pm. They called at 12:30pm to say they were minutes away. Matt left, and was back by 2pm with the confirmation we dreaded...we have leaks inside AND outside the house. Gas was shut off. They said they would be back Wednesday to fix the outside leaks and reposition the riser from inside the garage to a prominent position outside the front of the house for all to see! Yeah!! When we got home this morning around 7:30am, Matt called work to let them know he would be a little late. They called him back and told him not to come in because there were 2 guys at the top of a large crane protesting fathers rights to raise their kids. Great! Now this father loses a day of wages due to their "rights" being violated. Gotta love the country we live in! Anywho, we pay for extra protection on our gas bill for inside repairs, so it looks like that won't cost us anything. And the gas company pays for everything outside, so that won't cost us. Thank God it isn't cold out. Thank God we are all ok. Thank God our house is still in 1 piece and our neighbors aren't at risk due to our home.

And, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little sister in Virginia who is a whopping 37 today!!!! I love you!

See what happens when you quit blogging and doing bible study for over a week! :)