First of all, I apologize that I haven't read any of your blogs and had to take a giant leap and mark all 957 (slight exaggeration.. but not much) posts on my reader as read. It's been insane and this will probably be my only post for a while until some of this craziness sorts out... but it will be a LONG one.

So, here it goes:

Rewind to New Year's Eve...

We wake up to a normal day. Jake was off to work. The kids and I get up, have breakfast, play a bit, and eventually it's nap time for the tots. So I lay them down and as soon as they're asleep I suddenly feel as if I was slapped in the face with a giant case of exhaustion/migraine/itchy eye H-E-double hockey sticks.

A few minutes after I too had dozed off on the couch, I'm awakened by my cell phone. It's the daddy-o... "Hey, come over for lunch." So, I drag myself up, load the kids in the car and head over to the parentals to eat (this was around 1:30.) I immediately start feeling better in every department except the massive headache. Gideon seems to be having a headache to, but I didn't think anything of it... too much junk food, too many late nights... the holidays, ya know?!

The day continues normally until I get a call from Jake around 3:45... He's home, AND.... the Carbon Monoxide detector is going off!! I freak out... "Get out of the house!!!" I say. "Stupid thing doesn't even work, I can't smell anything." He says. "You can't smell it... GET OUT! I'm calling the fire department." Says I. "Tell them not to bring the big trucks, okay." Says the Hub.

So, I call, and they bring the big trucks and the CO levels throughout the house were 43 ppm. Which, 3 to5 ppm is about normal. So we have to leave. The paramedics are all worried about me and the tots since we'd felt like trash all day so they drive ALL THE WAY to my parents to check us out, and then give us permission to drive OURSELVES to the hospital. So I drive to pick up the hub from the safe zone of his skate ramp... only to go about 3 blocks before getting a call from the gas company reminding us that someone has to be AT THE HOUSE to let them in to determine the cause of the leak. So... I take Jake home, and off I go to the hospital by myself with the 2 kids.

There was ZERO wait this time. I told them the paramedics sent us b/c of CO and they rush us in. About 15 people help get us in the system and take all of our vitals. Mom gets there to help me and then we get the news that we all have to have an Arterial Blood Gas. If you haven't had one of those. I would never wish it upon you. Basically, they stick a needle in your arm, bypass your veins and dig around in there til they get an artery... REAL PLEASANT. After this guy misses twice on me, he supposedly calls in the pro to help with the kids. She got Gideon's on the first try but it's a miserable thing holding your two year old while he cries his little eyes out and looks deep into your eyes wondering why you're not making it better. Needless to say I was bawling. Big old giant tears falling on Gid's face the whole time. I couldn't even get it together enough to hold Ashelyn, so Mom helped. That's when I wanted to kill this lady. THREE TRIES ON MY 6 MONTH OLD?!?!?! Really!?!?! Jake finally got there after try #2. I'm pretty sure she might have had a death wish. It was awful. Then she missed one more time on me and then FINALLY got mine.

So while we were awaiting the results. Jake gave us the low-down from the gas company. Old furnace was the minor problem but still needs immediate replacing. (Goody!) but the BIG problem was our stove. (Ya, our brand new... bought it 6 months ago... Stove.)

Luckily, all the results came backs good enough that we were able to go home with the reassurance that the remainder of the CO would naturally work it's way out of our system...
No hyperbaric chamber for us... thank heavens.

So, the rest of the week has been spent on hold with warranty people, yelling at them for making me hold too long, yelling at them for having to re-tell the horrible story over and over, and making it very clear that I wasn't paying a penny for anything. Followed by dealing with idiot repair men and more phone calls to warranty idiots.

Let me tell you, it's been great. The stove has been fixed. (The gas company was even nice enough to come out on Saturday to double check since the idiot repairman didn't remember his CO meter.) So right now, our house is being heated by electric space heaters, which keep it remarkably warm but make me REALLY nervous with the kids, until we figure out how much our home warranty will cover and we can get the new furnace installed.

Fun, fun, fun.. Hope your New Year was a million times better than ours!