A bit behind

So A LOT has been happening around here...where to begin???

Carbon Monoxide Alarm going off...
Let's start with us being waken up at 1:15am on Monday, Nov 16 by our carbon monoxide alarm going off very LOUDLY!! It was the scariest thing as it is a woman's robotic voice saying "carbon monoxide, carbon monoxide" and then this loud alarm sound goes off...over and over! We of course were all asleep so being waken up to that sound was startling to say the least. I sat up and was trying to focus on what was going on as I was so disorientated...I woke up Kent and asked him what that sound was. He was totally out of it and I was VERY confused as too what was going on...I thought it was Kent's cell phone making sounds ha ha. I got up and went out in the hallway and right outside our door on the ceiling is the smoke detector/carbon monoxide alarm...it was LOUD!! I was in shock once I realized it was the carbon monoxide alarm and I ran back into our room and told Kent to get up that we needed to go get the kids and get out of the house that there was carbon monoxide in the house. The poor guy was just standing there so confused! He ran downstairs to get the boys and I was terrified as that is where both the boys sleep which is right where the carbon monoxide would be coming from and who knows how much they have taken in.

To back up a little... we had been having furnace problems. The furnace kept going out in the past week and it had finally died on us the day before (Sunday). Kent had called a friend who is a plumber/furnace guy and he told Kent what to do to get it to kick in to give us heat for a little bit and then to turn it off (purely to just warm us up). So Kent did just that as it was cold and we couldn't get the parts we needed cause the store was closed as it was Sunday. So we got a fire going as well and that helped a little bit (the fireplace is downstairs as well). Kent got the furnace to kick in right before we were all going to bed and he had it on for about half an hour and then shut if off...and the gas. He put the fire out in the fireplace and came to bed. This was all around 10 pm.

back to the alarm going off....Kent got the boys up and they all came upstairs. My heart was pounding and I was shaking...once I saw that the boys were ok I called 911 (I had checked Brynley and she was Ok as well). She told us to get out of the house and get away from the house as it is a gas and it is very dangerous. So we all got in the van and pulled across the street from our house. Thank goodness for DVD players as Bryn was wide awake and ready to play LOL. The fire department was there within about 8 minutes. The carbon monoxide levels were very high in the house and these detectors saved our lives. The highest readings were coming from our fireplace and downstairs...but it of course was all over the house as well. Come to find out when Kent had put the fire out he had closed the fl00 on the fireplace as it lets in a lot of cold air and with us having no furnace to keep us warm he shut it to keep the cold air out. The fire dept said this is a common mistake people make.

As we sat in the van watching the firemen go into our home with all their masks and protective gear on all I could think of was how thankful I was. It was all so surreal! Ever since we bought this house 3 years ago I kept thinking "we need to get carbon monoxide detectors". Over and over it would enter my mind (now realizing it was the spirit prompting me) "get the carbon monoxide detectors". It kept getting put off as they are really expensive. I would tell Kent that I kept getting this awful feeling and that we needed to get these detectors installed ASAP. Anyways, literally about 2 months ago Kent's brother Jeff came over and helped us install some that we had got. One at the base of the stairs in the basement and one upstairs. Once they were installed I breathed a sigh of relief. NOW that this is all happening I am just in awe of how all of this has come together. So, so thankful we got them put in. Because I KNOW if we didn't have them we all wouldn't be here today!

Carbon monoxide is what they call a "silent killer" as you can't smell it and it kills families every year. 8 years ago this month we had a house fire and lost everything...so when these detectors went off it was chilling to have to be going through something like this. You know what scares me even more is that the alarm didn't wake up any of the kids. They were ALL sound asleep. How it didn't wake them up I don't know as it was SOOOOO very loud! But the fire dept says that this is very common as well...not good!



Tyson sick-

Look at his eyes...poor little guy was so so sick!

Tyson had the H1N1 (we think, as he wasn't actually tested for it) and he was a VERY sick little boy for 7 days. He had a fever of 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit and we had to take him to the hospital as he was kind of delusional and he was worrying us. He came home and under Dr's orders he was to be quaranitned for 7 days and to go NOWHERE and do NOTHING!! He had to wear hospital masks whenever someone was around us and he spent most of his time in the basement away from the rest of us. We made him very comfortable down there...he was quite happy LOL. He recovered quickly thankgoodness and he is just fine.

Honor Roll (Nov 25/09)
Our Cole came home very proud last week with a letter from his Middle School in hand. We were a little concerened before we opened it and we asked him what he had done. LOL Much to our surprise we opened and were SO happy to read that he had made the Honor Roll...YEAH!!! He was one happy kid and he got lot's of praise for doing so well. We aren't too sure where he got his smarts from as Kent nor I ever made the Honor Roll (Deb says Kent did ha ha...but Kent says he didn't)