Out of the fire and into the furnace

So while you may think this is referring to the weather state of AZ, not so my friends. This is my life. :) It seems we have been in the state of putting out fires. Crisis after crisis. Or at least it has felt that way to my sleep deprived brain. Our latest and greatest was we had a hard freeze here. We knew it was coming and being from Michigan (well for the last 6 years) we figured not a big deal, we know how to handle this. Well, we're not used to uninsulated pipes, so they froze. But we had a wonderful neighbor we brought out a space heater and made a cocoon out of a quilt to localize the heat and soon we had water again. However, the gas company couldn't handle everyone running their heaters to compensate for the 18 degree weather, so they turned a bunch of people's gas off. No warning, no explanation, just bye bye heat, have fun dealing with subfreezing temps and no gas. Well, Ivan (Michelle's fiance) saved the day. His family has an extra house that they are not using, so they let us come and stay at their house. Yay for warmth!! And I didn't feel guilty about ordering chinese, or pizza, yes! And another really great neighbor of our's called and said the gas company here is turning back on the gas and pilot lights, (b/c apparently they are the only people competent enough to turn on a pilot light, heaven forbid civilians take their hand at it) tell us the code to your garage and we'll go in and wait for them and get your gas turned on. Thank you!! We're all grateful for heat, and for warm weather, and for running water, and for my own house with my own stuff and clean floors! And I've realized that I do not miss the cold. Good lesson to learn since we're here for a while.