WACKY Wednesday

Let me just share a little story of how my Wednesday went this week... I had a really crazy day at work seeing several students with makeup sessions, etc. I rushed to Harris Teeter, our local grocery, to shop with my coupons before I picked up the kids at daycare, headed home for dinner, baths, and then for me to head to Dinner Done with my friend and next-door neighbor, Andi.

So, I'm in the crackers aisle when I get a voicemail from Andi on my cell saying that she hears an alarm going off in our house. I'm puzzled, so I call her back and thought it couldn't possibly be my Roomba (even though I ran it that morning as I left for work) b/c its alarm isn't loud and goes off eventually to save its battery. I asked her to go in the house after giving her my garage code while I stay on the phone. I hear it and it doesn't sound familiar. She walks around to check it out, but it's hard for us to talk since it's so loud and her kids are with her. She tells me it appears to be coming from outside Libby's room. I immediately freeze because outside her door in the hallway is one of our carbon minoxide detectors. I tell her to get herself and her kids out of there right away!!!

Her husband, Thor, is a firefighter and works in Haz Mat, but is still at work a ways away. Andi says she'll call him to see what to do. After we talk again, I decide to call 911 even though I'm still in the snacks aisle! Meanwhile, I'm trying to call Darrell like crazy, but can't catch him at work or on his cell. I leave a ton of messages and it turns out he was trying to call me back, but I had weak reception in the store.

Now, at this moment, I am worried that something might be wrong at our house, but is it terrible that I actually became more concerned that I'd have to leave my full cart of carefully selected grocery items that were on sale or that I had a coupon for?? I figure the fire fighters will take care of the house situation better than I could! So, I shop for 2 more minutes and then rush to check out.

I look at my watch and after all of this, I need to pick up Libby and Drew in 5 minutes! Of course, all lines are full with slow employees. I say a little prayer and an enthusiastic young girl calls me over as she opens her lane. YES! She's nice, but talkative while I'm trying to call Darrell and Andi back and forth for updates. I turn into the person I can't stand in a store-- you know, the one who doesn't even acknowledge the cashier while she blabs on her cell phone at the check out, mostly holding up the line or just blabbing so loud that you can hear her entire life story.

So, I get Darrell on the phone finally and I tell him he needs to get home now b/c the fire department is on the way. I'll go get the kids. Finally, I check out and basically run with my cart to the van, praying the whole way.

I get to daycare just in time, but "Mita" (Brenda's mom) answers the door and she speaks only a little English. I speak only a little Spanish and am trying to tell her what's going on in a rush so that the kids will get moving. I think she understands, but who knows what I was telling her??!! Why didn't they teach us how to say carbon minoxide in high school Spanish???? Of course, the kids decide to move like slowpokes and whine. I explain to them why "Mama is in a hurry" and want to warn them that there may be firetrucks at our house so they won't be afraid. Well, they are now so excited! "Mama, we see firetruck? We ride it?" and so on.

We zip around the corner to the house, but I only see Darrell's car and no signs of fire trucks anywhere. Nothing! This is when I realize that I should have never even told them about the fire trucks because I got them excited for nothing! There are no alarms going off, and I open the door and call inside. Darrell, Andi, and her kids are there and they tell me that it wasn't the carbon monoxide detector after all. We have hard-wired smoke alarms throughout the house and once one goes out, the others go off on that circuit. So, all of the upstairs ones were going off. Andi told me the firefighters got here in record time and seemed to be ready for action. We figure they don't get too much excitement in our suburban neighborhood (the fire station is in our subdivision). I think the last big excitement was when someone dropped a mercury thermometer and they closed off 3 blocks of a street and had at least 5 firetrucks, an ambulance, and I counted-- 10 police cars!

Well, they checked it all out and told us that those alarms usually go out in 5 years, so since our house is now 10 years old, it was definitely time to change them. I was relieved to know that they go off like this when something is wrong because we would have never known. Darrell apologized, but they were really nice and told us that was part of their job. Bottom line is everyone is safe.

After a terrible dinner meal with the kids (because it was so late and they were crabby and hungry), I sat down for 5 minutes and ate a cereal bar for dinner before rushing out the door to make 18 meals (9 entrees split into 2). Needless to say, I was pooped when I got home and slept like a log last night.

Oh, and did I mention that I saved over $60 in coupons at Harris Teeter? See, I told you that it was worth staying to shop!