At about 4:30am on the night when we had no gas, I woke up with a single idea in my brain. How many payments did I make to the wrong account number. Turns out, that I paid that supposedly overdue bill 3 times. Not only was I not delinquent, but I actually should have had a ridiculously large credit on my account. Basically, the gas company just kept taking my money on a closed account, but on the open account thought I was delinquent. Then, without warning (and I checked to be sure that there were no phone calls), they turned off my guess. WTF?

Anyway, I never went back to sleep that night because I was planning, plotting, practicing all of the arguments and horrible things I could say when 8:00am rolled around and the gas company offices opened. Turned out that I didn’t really need any of those arguments. When the woman on the phone found my old account, I had a $300 credit. She knew that they were in BIG BIG trouble. So, she immediately grabbed her supervisor who called me back with this plan:

1) Reconnect gas today
2) Write me a check for all over payments
3) Pay my bill for this month
4) Cut my cost per therm in half for 12 months

It was a good plan. Yes, I was still pissed. Royally, royally pissed, but people make mistakes. They made it right with me. It doesn’t help all of the other people who have their gas shut off and don’t have the resources to solve the problem. I’ll be making a donation this holiday season in their honor.

Anyway, will it tide you over if I give you an adorable Hailey story?

Hailey: Mommy, I’m good at math.

Me: Of course you are. Mommy is good at math. Daddy’s good at moth. So, of course, you are good at math.

Hailey: No, that’s not why I’m good at math.

Me: Ok. Why are you good at math?

Hailey: Because I’m Italian.

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Bonus Story:

From the bathtub…

Hailey: Stop doing that (in whinest voice you can imagine)

Sophia: I not doing it

Hailey: Yes you are.

Sophia: I not doing anything.

Hailey: Yes you are. I can see you. I have eyes in the back of my head!

Hailey: Mom, are you going to pick me up early today?

Me: Yes, because you have swimming class today.

Hailey: Awwww…not swimming class.

Me: Wait. I thought you liked swimming. You were the one that wanted to take swimming class again.

Hailey: I do kind of sometimes but not every day.

Me: Well you only take it two days a week. If you don’t like it, you can stop after this session.

Hailey: [verbal huff]

So much for my Olympic dreams!

Anyway, Daddy was busy cooking dinner (I knew there was a reason that I married him). He came though. So, I told him (very calmly…of course). Take the girls upstairs, get me a shot of any type of liquor, 2 motrin, and let’s set this thing ourselves. Of course, by the time he got back, I had fixed it myself Lethal Weapon style. Not really by slamming myself against, but whatever that makes for a better story.

So, now I’m just totally annoyed at myself. If I was a curser, I would be f-ing cursing up an f-ing storm. It’s the FIRST DAY!!!! Who dislocates their shoulder on the first day? Who dislocates their shoulder at all???? So double f-ing annoyed.

I guess that I have a choice at this point. I could suck it up, toss back that shot he brought me and get on with the vacation as if nothing happened. Or I could send Luke 50 miles off the island to get me a sling and mope about it for the next 6 days. Tough choice.

PS: PLeas forgve the spellng errors but i chosee the shot

Me: Bennett and Sophia, can you just be nice to each other?
Bennett: Fine. But I’m not marrying her.

Best Catch Phrase Clue:

Me: He’s the guy that fell off the horse and died.
Katie: Christopher Reeve
Me: Wait. What?!?!? No. He was in Little House on the Prairie
Katie: Michael Landon? Those are two different people.
Me: Whatever…you got it.

Best Photo:

Best Parenting Moment:

While the adults were eating dinner in the dining room one day, Bennett came in complaining that Sophia had hit him. I had already pre-established with the Songers that I thought it would be helpful if Bennett or Corbin just flat out decked Sophia when she hit them. Seemed like that is what is needed at this point. So, when Bennett came in we kinda sorta told him that he should just hit her back. Oops. Is that bad parenting?

Anyway, he marched back in the other room and started doing fake kung fu moves behind Sophia’s back while she was distracted. We yelled to Bennett that he had to wait until she hit him first and turned around. It took about two seconds for Sophia to hear us and turn around to push and kick Bennett. He then pushed her back, and we started this little toddler fight. It was hysterical and ridiculous and probably the worst parenting ever. I wish I had gotten it on video though because it was great until we actually had to be responsible and stop the scuffle before it escalated.

Best Hailey Photo:

There are more pics from the 4th on our Flickr account. They came out really well.

Hailey visited Mommy’s office for an afternoon. She colored quietly for two hours even after we gave her an ice cream sundae. Fifi had to stay at school for obvious reasons related to her ability (or inability) to sit still for 2 minutes let alone 2 hours.

We have had crazy rain every day resulting in quite an early harvest…

We also had some birds build a nest on our porch which was super exciting for the girls. The babies have hatched, and I let the girls eat dinner by the window so that they could watch them.

This video shoot had to be done while the store was closed so we had to be there really early. How early? 5am. No joke. 5am be there. Not be in the car at 5am. 5am call time. That meant that I had to get the girls up at 4:30am. The thought of this caused me great anxiety. Extreme anxiety. I counted the hours of sleep I would miss. I carefully calculated the exact moment when the girls would become unbearably cranky. I wondered whether they would take a nap thereby letting me take a nap. All of these things I worried about. Because I don’t do staying up late anymore. And I certainly do not do getting up early.

Anyway, I’m just appalled at how old I’ve become, and how not adventurous. Well, the whole morning went off without a hitch. Well, a couple of bad attitude hitches, but not bad overall. Hailey got to make a bear for herself. And I swear this bear completely epitomizes my oldest child. I’m not going to give you any hints as to what this bear looks or sounds like. Tomorrow I’ll post some pictures and maybe a soundtrack. In the meantime, feel free to guess.

Sophia also survived the day.  She was playing outside when I arrived, and she barely noticed that I was there.  There were no tears when I picked her up which is quite a miracle.  We’ll see how it goes tomorrow, but they are having water day on Wednesdays so that’s certainly something for them to look forward to.  We even purchased some water spray bottles for them to play with this afternoon.

Oh, and we grew a giant zucchini in our garden that I wasn’t even going to build