When the Cat's Away...The Whole Damn House Falls Apart.

So, I get home from picking the kids up from daycare yesterday and we walk into the house and instead of being met with a welcoming, warm, enveloping atmosphere, we are hit with air that is no where near warm enough to keep us comfortable from the below zero temperatures outside.

Turns out Hambone didn't shut the door all the way when he was the last one out this morning (Pal had morning duty, you'll see why in a sec) and our home was filled with cold, frigid air. Here's the kicker, we have "off peak" heat because we have a fireplace...so when energy usage is at "peak" the electric company can shut our heat off for a bit because we have a back up heat source.

There was a very unfortunate series of events that happened yesterday...first, the whole "leaving the door open when it's -20 below" outside and then, like a kick to the gut, I believe we also entered an "off peak" time because the temps were so low everyone around us was cranking up their heat. What we were left with was a frigid house without a good heat source and a fireplace that is really more ambiance that efficiency and DANG was it cold!

Here's another kicker...the hubster was out of town. He had to talk me through making a fire in the fireplace (yes, yes he did) and man alive did I get a good fire going! Kinda. Actually, no...it was pretty wimpy...not at all like the Mr.'s warm, roaring fires, but it warmed our fingers.

Then I threw in the towel and packed up the kids and called my baby brother and forced him to go to "burger basket" night at an amazing restaurant that is really too far away to drive to on a Tuesday night but HEY! I didn't have heat, so time was meaningless to me! I figured we'd drive there, eat, drive home and the house would be toasty warm.

WRONG.

Colder. Yes, it was colder when we got back. Baby bro had to tap into our internet (the parent's is wonky sometimes) and this is how he did his work:

Yes, it truly was that cold.

Then I began to fear that something was wrong. I mean, we were talking HOURS now without heat and I was facing an entire night with 5 children who likely would all be bunking in my room to share body heat. Which in my eyes = frigid, sleepless night. Or, in other words, a slow, painful death. Being cold and sleepless? Shoot me now.

But LOW AND BEHOLD, just as I was about to start a campfire on our living room floor, I heard the familiar "tick tick tick" of our baseboards warming up and I ran from room to room testing them and IT WAS TRUE!! The heat was on!

Each kid scurried to find a baseboard to warm up their frozen toes and fingers on and I breathed a sigh of relief. No slow, torturous, cold and sleepless death for me. Thank goodness. 

So, next up, one of our smoke alarms starts chirping. Easy fix, right? Just change the battery? Yeah, only this one doesn't HAVE a battery. It's wired. And yes, I looked to make sure there was no battery. I even had the brainstorm to disconnect it and THEN guess what?

IT STILL CHIRPED. 

Like it was mocking me. The base and the jumble of wires chirped at me. So, I sent a text to our amazing friends and saviors (who rescue us WAY too often) and while I was waiting for a response, I decided to press and hold the button that said "press and hold to test weekly".

And magically it stopped.

But, whilst I was downstairs investigating failed breakers that could make this alarm chirp, I heard a spine shivering skittering in the utility room that let me know there was likely a little critter in there. By this point, I was done playing Mr. Homeowner and I marched right over to a mouse trap, baited it and set it in record time.

Good golly, I worked hard last night. I think I earned some kind of reward or something for all that.

*Yawn* Like maybe a nap?