Last night was just a bad night, that's all that can really be said about it. It's kind of a long story too, so enjoy the recounting or don't, it's your choice!
Kris left in the afternoon for the airport. Kelly & Lechelle were getting
sealed as a family to their adopted baby Boston in the
St Louis temple, and we wanted to be there. Unfortunately we couldn't afford to all go, so Kris was the one to be sent.
It was snowing. Freezing and snowing and hailing too. But Kris left anyway and he got to ABQ just fine. That's just the beginning of the story.
His flight was delayed. By at least an hour. The people at Frontier assured the whole flight that they would make their connections --"everything's delayed" they said.
Well, when Kris arrived in Denver, there was no sign of his connecting flight to St Louis. And since he arrived just about when the flight should've left, seems there would've been some evidence of it. But no. Nothing. So he got to wait in a great big line to try to get a different flight. Sadly the next flight he could take was the next morning, too late to make it to the sealing. So since he was only going to be staying out there for one night anyway, he made the tough call and decided to fly back home instead.
in the meantime I was at home with the boys. No big deal, right? It was cold and snowy out, but we were warm and safe in the house. Well......
The first unfortunate thing that happened was that the deadbolt on the front door froze. At least we think that's what happened. It actually got stuck with the deadbolt sticking out and the door wouldn't close. I had to go and get a mallet from the garage and try to force it back into commission. I did succeed in bashing the deadbolt back in, so at least the door would close, but I also got the key completely stuck in the lock on the outside of the door. That was exciting. Luckily the key didn't work at all, and the bottom lock was still working. So we were ok.
So then I got Max to bed and spent a good 45 minutes trying to talk the baby out of crying all night. He was missing Kris's strong arms. He likes the football hold and he's just too big for me to do it right.
As soon as I got him quiet I heard from Kris that he was coming home. His flight back was supposed to be at 9:30. I called Kelly really quick to tell him so sorry that all of us were going to miss everything.
Then suddenly the lights went out. Everything went out--except my poor laptop of course, that just has about 3 minutes of battery life. The poser was gone.
Luckily I know that Max keeps flashlights very close to his bed. I went in to his room and he lent me his monkey flashlight. I told him to come out with his pillow and blankets and nightlight and lie on the couch.
Max watched the baby for me while I found another flashlight. It was very cute, the baby was asleep and they were all snuggled up on the couch.
THEN the security system started to freak out. We have this lame 3rd party bizarre security system installed at the house, and it doesn't even work. It does us no good. The only thing it does do, is when the power goes out it emits this horrible shrieking noise from the laundry room. It won't stop until the contacts are pulled off the battery. And then once the contacts are pulled off, all the fire alarms in the house start chirping at each other. Turns out if you detach the battery enough times trying to get everything to stop, then luckily the shrieking and the chirping all happen at once, YAY!
So we all went to my bedroom and closed the door to try to hide from the horrible sounds. Sultan had decided he was scared to death during all this. I'm not sure why my big fierce dog that scares people turned so wimpy, but it was not helpful. I was already nervous--it was super dark and lonely and I had my little boys to take care of. Sultan was following me so closely that I tripped on him a bunch of times. He also squeezed between me and whatever I was doing. Like when I was brushing my teeth he had to be between me and the bathroom counter. Annoying!
We covered the fire alarm in the bedroom with a towel taped to the wall. It didn't really help. I read Max a few chapters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by flashlight, we imagined that the chirps were coming from birds instead of horrible fire alarms and then he fell asleep.
Kris called and said his flight was delayed until 10:45. Argh. So he wouldn't be home until after 1AM.
I went to sleep, and woke up an hour later to the dog leaning over the baby's bed and breathing heavy in my face. I have no idea what he wanted but he was very persistent. So I figured he needed to go out and we headed out and down the hallway.
When I got to the living room I realized it was FREEZING. I thought the heat just wasn't working. But no, turned out that our french doors had blown open in the crazy wind. I couldn't lock them either before I went to bed because their locks were frozen too. (Don't freak out mom, we're in a very safe area as you know. Besides there wasn't much I could do!) So how long had the freezing wind and snow been blowing into the house? Who knows. Plus it's the coldest it's been all year. Freezing for sure.
It was scary.
Then suddenly I had no phone reception. My phone wouldn't work for about a half hour. I was freaking out. Then the power came back, YAY! So I had to go around turning off lights and all that. Then my phone worked. I called Kris and he was on his way home from the airport.
Then I finally got in bed to go back to sleep and the security system went off again! It had realized the power was on but the battery was disconnected. I almost busted the whole dang thing off the wall. ARGH!
Then when Kris got home the baby needed to be fed (2AM). He usually goes right back to sleep, but of course he had gas problems and so was up for at least an hour.
OH gosh I'm tired. I'd say the evening ended well though. Kris made it home safely and everybody got at least a few hours of sleep. Now we're home and warming up the house with some fires in the fireplace.
Sorry for the LOOOOOOONG story, but it was just such a crazy night. I mean what other silly little things could've happened? Hopefully I'll catch up on my sleep someday.
The most surprising part of it all was how helpful and cool Max was during the whole thing. It was like I suddenly had a big kid who could contribute and help rather than just a baby!
I told him he's going to make a good scout someday soon.
(heres' the future scout with the backpack he got for Christmas and all the "supplies" he fills it with. Always prepared. You can see his awesome monkey flashlight in the middle of the stuff.)
Winter, yuck.
