A Good Day Turned Bad

Yesterday was a lovely/awful day. I woke up early with my kids as always and immediately started getting ready for church. I recently have recommitted to finding the right church for us so that I can continue my spiritual growth and raise my children up to love Jesus. SB informed me on the way out the door to head to work (that's right, my husband works on weekends..the OT is SO worth it!) that Punk had been up very early coughing and decided to head back to bed because he didn't feel well. I was concerned for him, but pretty upset. This meant that my goal to try a new church was squashed. I still went ahead and showered and got dressed "just in case".

At 9am, I called my mom, who had intended to join the kids and I on our new church adventure, and told her that unfortunately, it looked like I had to stay home. Once she found out that I was dressed she told me that since she hadn't started to get ready yet, she would come stay with the kids and I could go check it out and let her know if it was worth it to go back next week.

Let me just say, I was SO thankful for this and when she showed up at 10:15 I headed out on my merry way to attend the 10:30 service. It was WONDERFUL! This church does an amazing job at acknowledging visitors. They provide a packet of information on their church and after the service invite visitors to go to a reception in the church office where the Associate Pastor waits for you and answers all of your questions. (You even get coffee, doughnuts, and a coffee mug filled with Hershey Kisses to keep!)

Not to say I was swayed by the gift, but the other churches I had tried out last fall did NOTHING to acknowledge visitors. I had even filled out the visitor cards requesting more information and never received so much as a phone call! So THIS was JUST what I needed to feel comfortable and welcome.

I returned home so excited to share with my mom that not only did this church make me feel welcome, but the sermon was AWESOME, the people were friendly, and there were plenty of young families (which was majorly important for me since I have all these kids!). We then headed outside since it was warm and sunny and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around my yard checking out what plants were popping up. (This is my family's first spring in our new house so it's going to be surprise to see what landscaping we have.) Later, we decided to sit on the front porch to chat.

It was then that I started to get a few whiffs of natural gas. At first I just ignored it because I thought I was just smelling things, but then my husband came home and I asked him if he could smell it. He said no, but he had smelt it a few days before, but didn't think anything of it. My mom then said she could smell it and SB went to check the basement where the meter is and said there was an odor down there.

CRAP!!!!

So we proceeded to call the gas company's emergency line and they sent a technician out right away. Turns out our entire gas line from the street to our house needed replaced, as well as our meter. The man informed us that yes they would have to dig in our yard, but promised that it would be a small line dug and by the time they left we'd barely notice they had been there.

We spent the night without heat and hot water because of course they turned everything off, and awoke this morning a bit chilly, but otherwise okay and ready to have this mess taken care of.

About an hour ago the gas company showed up. With. A. BACKHOE!!

I now have a totally dug up yard, dirt ground into my carpet because they have to keep coming in to check things out in the basement. And a crying 3 year old because she is positive that the backhoe is going to crash through our house.

Fun times. Let me tell ya!