Long Night...

Last night, we did not have had fun :) no really - we didn't...

We went to bed and were woken a few long short hours later (2:30am) by our fire alarm. At first we were a little groggy to realize what it was... and I said "Derik, are you awake enough?" meaning... "do you hear what I'm hearing? or am I crazy?"

YES - he said

After "touring" our home (there was no fire or smoke or anything that would make it go off that we could see/think of...) and the alarms were still repeatedly going off... we thought, "well maybe it's our heater kicking on and off that's causing them to go off, maybe it's too hot?" - we really had no idea.

So, we turned down the heater (on the coldest day in Austin in more than a decade), and blasted all the fans in the house... the alarm stopped.

Good... back to bed.

20 (or so) mins later... it goes off again! So, seeing as how it's the COLDEST day in Austin in more than a decade (did I already say this?)... we did not want to go in our garage to get a ladder. So, Derik got one of our dining room chairs... stood on that. Still, he could not reach it. So, he used the chair as a step up onto our DRESSER! He kept pressing the button and it stopped.

Whew - back to bed.

20 (or so)mins later... it goes off again! Derik (being very mad happy about this) once again makes the leap onto the dresser... takes the BATTERY out... pushes the button, the alarm stops.

ok... back to bed?

20 (or so) mins later... it goes off again! (see a trend?)... I'm exhausted. I feel bad for Derik because it is now close to 4:00 in the morning... he has to be at work at 8 (I don't have to until 1:30p) - we're very tired... he gets a random shirt and starts "fanning" the alarm... (while jumping up and down - quite hilarious now) it goes off...

Derik says - "Do you think we should we go back to bed?".... :( haha I don't know?

so, we go back to bed...

20 (or so) mins later........... yep............ so I said - "WHAT is the brand of our fire alarm... I'm looking this up on how to turn it off!" (of course I said this in a loving way...) I look it up - it says to press and hold the button (with the battery out) for 10-15 seconds... it will reset. Put battery back in... and it should stop. IT DOES!!! YES!..... BUT... it starts chirping every few minutes twice... like BEEP BEEP.... pause pause pause.... BEEP BEEP...

I say - "I don't want to, but we might have to go to the store and replace the battery - it's probably dead." ugh... ok... I slip on some sweat pants, hoodie and slippers (I know, bed head glasses and all - lovely) and we go to warm the car and leave.

It's now 4:30 IN the morning! We go to Wally World - well because Wally is open 24 hours... We get out in the cold (did I mention it was cold?) I walk into wal-mart (looking DEFINITELY like a Wal-Mart customer with my slippers and all - haha). NO one is there... it's dead... I say - "ok, there's the battery center - GO!" We are on a MISSION here people!!! Find a pkg of 9 volts... make our way to Checkout #5 - the lonely little check out lane light on in all of Wal-mart... and NO one is there! We waited for a few minutes before our lovely lady decided to show up.

"Sorry, I thought I was paying attention - haha" (in southern twang)
I was thinking in my head "Well you weren't - haha"

Anyways... we tell her why we're in Wal-Mart in the ungodly hour of 4am buying BATTERIES of all things... and she tells us HER fire alarm story (I didn't really need to know, but then again, maybe she didn't need to know ours...)

Make our way BACK out into the cold - it was one of those hurt colds that chills your bones you know!? And I was TIRED... we make it back home (our fire alarm didn't go off the whole time we were gone - ugh!) Replace the batteries... and we get back in our WARM bed...

at 6:15am - it goes off AGAIN! and no I'm not kidding... Derik is waving that little shirt like crazy to get that thing to turn off... All I kept thinking of was Pheobe on friends during her night with her fire alarm... hahaha! and I also kept thinking... "when Derik leaves in the morning (in just 1 short hour) how am I going to get up on that dresser if it goes off again!?" hahaha! oh my gosh!

Thankfully it stopped... and THANKFULLY - I never had to step foot on our dresser... it never went off again... but oh my GOODNESS am I exhausted... poor Derik, I hope he takes a nap when he gets off work!