Ladder 49 Squared

This is been an eventful week to say the least. My word, I feel as if I have aged about 10 years in 7 days and when you're nearly half way to fifty like me, that is just not a good thing. Maybe I should start where it all began... seven days and ten years ago.

Last Monday, I went home and made supper. This is a fairly normal event. Little did I know it was about to get not normal. I made our favorite chili while Ty was at the gym. While the chili was cooking, I began to smell something that reminded me of burning dust. How do I know what burning dust smells like, you ask? Well, I just do. I think if you had smelled this smell, you would have said, "Wow, that really smells like burning dust!" Anyway, I waited until Ty got home and he assured me that yes, something smelled. That made me feel so much better because I am known by my ability to think I am seeing something, smelling something, dying, etc. and all the while, what do you know, I'm not!

After affirming me and my burnt dust smelling nose, we debated over what to do. We ended up deciding to call the fire department dispatcher and ask if they could send someone over to take a look at what might be causing the ever increasing stench. With my own ears, I heard T say, "It's definitely not an emergency. You can just send someone over in a car or whatever." Apparently the dispatcher told him that they couldn't do that. Liability or something stupid like that. At this point, it was about 7:30 and I was growing nervous. However, I wasn't nervous for the reasons you might think, i.e. my house could burn down and I could lose all my earthly possessions. No, I was nervous because at 8:30, we were going to Todd and Caitlin's to watch the season finale of The Bachelor: ON THE WINGS OF LOOOOOOOOOOOVE! We had even strategically planned it so that we would start watching it on their DVR at 8:30 so we could bypass commercials. Caitlin is a Bachelor genius. I had a very specific plan in my head that if the fire department didn't come by eight, we would have to call and see if T & C would come watch it at our house so that I could keep my home safe and enjoy all that Jake had to offer in his last two hours as a bachelor. Little did I know, that would not be necessary.

As soon as Ty got off the phone with the dispatcher, I asked him when they'd be coming. He told me that they'd said they would send someone right away. This was good and bad, friends. Good and bad. Good because we would be able to watch The Bachelor: ON THE WINGS OF LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! at the afore mentioned time but bad because my bed WAS NOT MADE and it was laundry day so there were PILES ALL OVER MY BEDROOM FLOOR (although they were color coordinated piles). So, I had to make a decision and I had to make it fast. Do I make the bed or throw all of my piles back into the laundry basket? Either way, the fire person coming to the house would think I was a slob! It was like Sophie's Choice, y'all. So, I chose. I had too. I yelled at Tyler while sprinting up the stairs, "WE HAVE TO MAKE THE BED. COME HELP ME MAKE THE BED!" He was extremely baffled by this, but was a good sport and did in fact come up to help me make the bed. I was behaving a bit like Animal from the Muppets while Ty was quite calm. About halfway through our bed making, we heard something in the distance. Yes, you guessed it: SIRENS. Loud ones. We looked at each other and I said to Ty, "Are those for us?" His response of "Oh, yeah" made me feel NOT A WHOLE LOT BETTER. This made me a lot little more frantic and I somewhat remember throwing pillows and tugging sheets and screaming, "HURRY! HURRY! THEY'RE COMING!"

The next thing I know, there are two, COUNT THEM TWO, huge ladder fire trucks pulling up to our house and firemen come pouring forth from both of them. To all my single ladies, I was wishing that you had all been there. You would have had yourself quite a choice with the group of men that came raining down upon our house. It was like my own version of The Bachelor: Ladder 49 but only not since I am happily married. They came in, made themselves at home and affirmed my feeling that the smell was "burning dust and plastic" only I didn't really agree with the plastic part. Who am I to disagree with a fireman, though? The first thing they asked was if I had been cooking anything. I responded with a very intelligent, "Yes, but I've made this chili before and it does not smell like burning dust!" Oh. My. Gosh. Writing that down? Makes me doubt ever opening my mouth again, yes it does.

Long story short (who am I kidding, this is already 3 paragraphs longer than it needed to be), they discovered that the blower motor and some other essential things were broken in our furnace which meant a furnace that needed to be turned off until these things were attended to. The firemen were very nice and assured us that we had done the right thing in contacting them. I was just happy that we got the problem diagnosed and that we were going to make a timely arrival to T & C's to watch Jake make the BIGGEST MISTAKE OF HIS LIFE. If you watched The Bachelor: ON THE WINGS OF LOOOOOOOOOOVE! this season, you know what I'm talking about. I didn't realize that I would have much bigger fish to fry come the next day.

This next part shows my true ignorance about being a homeowner. I truly thought that we would get a dude out the next day from the insurance company to check out the heater, he'd fix it and all would be well. BIG FAT WRONG. The timeline went a little something like this:

Monday-- After watching Jake plummet himself into what can only be described as self inflicted torture (marrying Vienna-- BLEH!), we go home and sleep in a semi-cold house. It is still maintaining much of the heat from the day.

Tuesday-- Claim is filed with the home warranty company. Fellow from the home warranty allowed heating & cooling company comes to check out the furnace. He diagnoses the problem and says that he doesn't have the parts, but when he does, it should be an easy fix. We spend the night at home in an ICE BOX.

Wednesday-- Claim has still not been approved. I am getting a little testy. We decide to spend the night in a hotel, not because we didn't have abundant offers of places to stay, but because I have major issues asking for and accepting help. Are there any women out there who feel me on this one?

Thursday-- I get on the phone and while being firm, yet nice, I inform them that they need to fix our furnace and they need to fix it STAT (I didn't actually use the word stat, but I am now wishing that I had). I get a call back 45 minutes later saying that our claim has been approved that that the heating and cooling man will be out to fix it. I go out for a much needed girl's night with my precious friends. We have dinner downtown and go to a play and afterwards, Ty and I spend the night with different friends since our workplaces are so far apart. I didn't sleep very well without him.

Friday-- FURNACE IS FIXED. GLORY HALLELUJAH. We celebrate by going home, catching up on the very full DVR and falling asleep at 8:30. And by saying that we fell asleep at 8:30, I obviously mean I fell asleep at 8:30.

So, there you have it. My very full and stressful week. Looking back, it's a little bit humorous, but I do have to say that I don't recommend having your furnace go out when it's still in the 30s outside. Not so fun. It did, however, make me a lot more thankful that I have a house and a furnace and really precious friends who offer their homes when ours is too cold. You really learn to love and appreciate your friends as your family when you live far from your actual family. God has blessed us indeed!

Hope you have a great Monday!