Leelee's Place 2: Water Bills, Birthday and the Flu

Well, where do I start. I think I'll start with Thursday. I went to yoga and then came home for a lazy afternoon. Yea, right! About 2:30 Hester called and said that her electricity been shut off. We immediately started calling the power company trying to figure out what had happened. Apparently, the previous tenants had never put in for a disconnect and they cut off the power for non-payment. Hester asked about her application and they told her they were running three weeks behind! She asked when they could get her electricity turned back on and they said in three to five business days! Well, that wouldn't work as the evening temperatures usually fall into the 20's. We called the landlord to see what she could do to help us out, so she got on the phone as well. In the mean time I took another look at our last water bill for $399.12 and noticed it was due by Feb. 2nd. I called back to the water company and asked to speak to a supervisor. Again I told her the situation with our dilemma and that we had gotten every thing fixed. She looked up our account and said,"Oh, yes. You would definitely qualify for a leakage adjustment. Your normal usage is averaged at 29 units a month." According to our last bill our usage for last month was 117 units! She said to bring our bill and receipts down to the office an she would do an adjustment. I immediately told Kevin, "Let's get down there right now. Bring the checkbook." Now I would have been happy with a 50% discount. We got down to the City Department and asked for Vicki. I told her I had just talked to her on the phone. She asked for our address and name on the account, typed it in on the computer and then asked for the receipts. She said she needed to make some copies. She came back and gave me back my copy and then started calculating. I was watching her and trying to see what she was doing, but couldn't really tell. Finally she said, "Okay, you owe $74.14" I couldn't believe it!!! I wanted to shout from the rooftops! I asked her,"What did you say?" She repeated, "You owe $74.14." I told Kevin, "Write the check." I wanted him to hurry up before she realized she miscalculated and changed her mind. She told us we would have to go over to the cashier window to pay. We promptly did and wrote the check and got a receipt. Now we will just have to wait until next month to see if we are back to normal. Then Hester called and said she and the boys were over at the house waiting on us that the boys had homework and really couldn't do it with out lights. We decided to go eat an early dinner at Furr's first because I had my photography class that night. We got back from dinner and the boys started on their homework, I started getting ready for class and Hester and Kevin started looking for an extension cord to plug in her refrigerator so all of her food wouldn't ruin until we could get the electricity back on. Hester left to go back to her apartment and Kevin was driving me to class. Hester called me on my cell phone and said the electricity was back on when she got to the apartment. She came back to get the boys and they went home to their apartment. Then Friday they were supposed to work on their pine derby cars for the Boy Scouts race this weekend, but my nephew called and said his son Azariah was home sick with the flu. That threw a little kink in the plan as none of us wanted to be around him. Hester was supposed to work as a hostess that night for a local restaurant so we would now have to keep the boys since Azariah was sick. We went out for dinner and then came back to the house. Blake and Kevin stayed home and Ethan and I went out running errands. I had to get gas for the trip to Lubbock on Saturday and I needed to get Sophia a birthday present. When we got back to the house the boys were watching t.v. in the front room and Kevin and I we in the den. Next time I looked at the clock it was 10:30. Hester was supposed to get off at 9:00 so I called her on her cell to see what was going on. She said she was on her way here to pick up the boys. The boys had fallen asleep while watching t.v. and we had a heck of a time waking them up. They took home my bag of craft paint to finish painting their cars for the race on Saturday. First thing this morning when I woke up, I could barely talk and was majorly congested. We started to call off going to Lubbock for Sophia's birthday, but Laurie sounded so disappointed. So Hester, me, Tzipi and Madison made the trip down. We were supposed to be there at 11:00 but didn't get there until almost 12:00. We got there in time for cake and then the kids played outside on the swing set/fort. I took some great pictures of Sophia. We then stopped for a quick bite of lunch and then headed back to Amarillo. Once we got back to the house Kevin and the boys were in the middle of a movie so we ordered pizza so they could finish their movie. They just left about an hour ago and I am feeling even worse and am calling it a day once I post. I keep saying I'm going to have to go back to work to get some rest. I'm seriously considering it. Let me know what you think about the pictures of Sophia.

I think this one should be titled, "I'll have my cake and eat it too!"