Good Thing the House Didn't Blow Up

Oly taking care of Naomi in the backyard
(my 3 little girls at the end of the day)

Last weekend, I was awakened by a strange sound. A huge blast! I almost rolled over and went back to sleep. Jer is gone so much, I am constantly alone at night and freaking myself out- so much so, that I'm so exhausted that I don't really care anymore. Anyway, Jer did happen to be home that night and the sound woke him up too. We wondered if it may have come from the furnace, but seeing that everything sounded/looked OK, we decided to go back to sleep. Next night- same thing. By last Sunday, I was hearing the blast not only in my sleep, but many times a day as well. It was also getting louder and shaking the windows and objects on tables. So, Monday evening I finally called the furnace guy. I explained to him this, "you know when you turn the propane on for the BBQ, and then it takes you a minute to light the match- so the BBQ blasts a little- my furnace seems to be doing this..." I was told by the furnace guy to immediately heat the house up as hot as it could go and then turn the furnace off until he could get there first thing the next morning! So, we woke up Tuesday morning to 9 inches of new snow and a 50degree house. The furnace guy (a friend from high school and jr high) did what he could to fix the furnace and told me if it does it again ever, to call him, and that we were lucky the house didn't blow up! Tuesday night it started up again. Off went the furnace- and I put a second layer of Pjs on the kids in thier sleep. Trent (otherwise known as the furnace guy), came 15 minutes after my call to him on Wednesday morning. He puttered around in the furnace room for a while and finally said I really need a new furnace. The one we have is so old and obscure they don't even make replacement parts for it. He might be able to rig something up for a quick-fix part, but no guarantees it would even work. Gave me a bid for a new furnace and duct work in the basement. I called Jer in California, and before I could even throw away my plans for my kitchen remodel, I had scheduled an emergency furnace installation for Thursday. Wednesday night, my cute dad insisted that we stay at my parents house because it was below freezing and not safe to keep the heat on at home. My mom and dad came and got the girls, and I followed with clothes for Thursday. Left a key out for Trent. Checked on the progress Thursday afternoon: old furnace out- the heating element was actually cracked as well, so if it wasn't already leaking carbon monoxide, it would have been any day (yes we have CO2 detectors and no they didn't go off). Trent told us we were lucky that the old furnace was just making loud, scarey blasts, instead of a silent, odorless poison killing us in our sleep. Wouldn't that suck for Jer when he finally came home from his trips! After the guys replacing the ducts in the basement all day friday, Olivia was hanging on their backs and coloring pictures of hearts for them, and Naomi was calling both workers Dada. I could see that our family's crazy schedule is having a strange effect on the girls. (or maybe its just the co2 in our house?) So a whole week of workers in our house... a new furnace... grateful its just a new furnace and not a blown up house... wemiss our Jeremy who is soooooo busy with school and work that we haven't had decent pillow talk since January, and I can't plan on talking to him until his next semester ends in June. If he is not out of town for work (3-4 days/week) or for school (10 days every 2 months), he is in the basement in his office studying until all hours of the morning (usually 3am). He is grateful to be in school and really seems to enjoy it and be thankful, but I really do miss him. He told me the other day, "someday we'll be sitting in our rocking chairs with nothing to do, just dreaming of this wonderful time of our life!" That is why I married that boy!