Uhhh, naps for 3 please

Raise your hand if you know the answer to this one.

What happens when you have a faulty fire detector?

Anyone? Anyone?

It chirps annoyingly?

Nope. Anyone else?

I'll tell ya what happens. They all go off. All 3 on the main floor are wired together so at 1:41 a.m. last night all three fire detectors started screaming. Brian's out of town so I was already sleeping lightly. I flew out of bed, started pushing things on my phone thinking it was a phone alarm. Then I realized it was the fire alarms. I walked out in the living room (heart racing, whole body shaking), smelled for smoke, called 911, explained what happened. He told me to get the kids and get out of the house and he was sending the fire department.

If you can believe it, my kids were still sleeping. Those alarms are so loud it makes me want to throw up yet they slept right through it. I was trying to move quickly, get them into something warm, and get them into the car at the same time. Not easy. Especially when the kids are pretty much sleep walking. I got them in shoes and wrapped in blankets, called for Roxie, and we headed for the door into the garage. Then I yelled at Jackson to stop. What if there was a fire in the garage? I checked the door to see if it was hot. It wasn't but I still wanted to be the one to open that door first. I was actually yelling at Jackson to let me go first but the kid wouldn't let me. He pushed and pushed his way in front of me until he went through that door first.

I got the kids in the car and reached down to pick up Roxie and put her in the car. She had decided it was a great time for a potty break in the driveway and then was going to run over to the neighbors. I've never hated that dog more. I decided I'd chase her about 3 steps and then she was on her own. Thankfully, she stopped and I got her in the car. Also thankfully, I had fully shoveled the driveway yesterday or I wouldn't have been able to get out of the driveway. I went and parked at the neighbors while we waited for the fire department. God bless them for shutting off the alarm when they turned onto our street. I would have hated to have woken up the entire neighborhood for a faulty fire detector. The firemen checked out the house for about 5 minutes, told us it was fine and to come back in, and unhooked the fire detector in my room. It's faulty and needs replacing. That's all.

I think the manufacturers of fire detectors could come up with a separate sound for that problem and save the fire department a trip. They were very, very nice and even took the time to talk to the boys. They told them they did a great job getting out of the house so fast and wondered if they had learned that in school. Andrew just kept nodding his head a huge YES with his eyes so wide.

After they left and I was trying to calm down I started looking around the house. I had cleaned the kitchen and living room and our bedroom yesterday but everything else looked like it does when Brian is out of town. I wonder what they were more impressed with: the dog poop in Andrew's room (a little midnight surprise from Roxie, I guess) or the piles of laundry strewn all over the basement stairs. They just have really appreciated having to kick all that aside when they were trying to get down to the basement. So embarrassing! I had the kids help me yesterday by throwing the clothes downstairs for me. I figured I'd get them all the way to the laundry room in the morning.

So it was 2 a.m. and we were all wide awake. Both boys were in bed with me now. Jackson was trying to go back to sleep while Andrew was using me as a pillow and/or a wall. Not easy to sleep when someone wants to use your neck as a pillow while simultaneously trying to bury their toes in your belly button. By 3:30 I was falling asleep when Andrew sat up and yelled for MORE JUICE and then had to go to the bathroom. We took care of the potty, threatened to send him to his own room if the juice demands didn't stop, and went back to sleep. Until 4:30 when I heard Roxie eating her food in the kitchen (why at 4:30? no idea.) very quickly which is then always followed by *the sound.* A burp followed by the sound of her throwing up. I sat there thinking about how I would get it in the a.m. but then worried it would stain so I got up to take care of the bleeping dog. And then I went back to sleep soundly until 7:15.

Now the kids are begging me to play outside but it's really, really cold today. It's like torture to them to see the snow outside and not get to play in it. I don't understand why they don't want to curl up on the couch for a nice morning nap....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........................