did i tell you about last night?

we have church from 1pm-4pm
this means NO NAPS
dangerous territory, a tantrum lurking around every corner
we went to Grandma's for dinner, and of course, they didn't really eat because they'd rather play

they were so tired, Maren was just laying on the floor in the middle of the living room with her blanket begging to go to bed.

we came home by 7:15 and put people in bed, even Matt was out by 8ish.
a hush fell over the house
i proceeded to DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING except fritter my time away until midnight
even though i was exhausted and should have gone to bed at 9pm
when I decided to turn off the computer and go to sleep
THE SMOKE ALARM STARTED CHIRPING.
HERE a CHIRP .... and THERE a CHIRP...one minute of quiet....pause....chirp....one minute of quiet...pause... chirp
I declare that this is possibly the most annoying sound in the world.
I wake Jes up so that he could be manly and save us from the sound.
He got up and took the batteries out of both smoke detectors upstairs. He was tired and went right back to sleep.
Evey started fussing.
Anna was thrashing around and fussing in her bed.
Of necessity and motherly instincts, I check on them.
I was still awake.
When what to my exhausted ears should appear? chirp....pause...chirp chirp.... pause.
I thought we had fixed this.
I tried to sleep through it.
I tried to ignore the kids, I hear Evey again.
It was hot, and I was getting irritated.
I finally got up around 12:45 to fix the problem myself.
Evey was really fussing. Or was it Maren? Iwent in to check and give people binky's.
I surveyed the smoke detector in question. I unscrewed it from the ceiling. I put a new battery in it. I put it back together. Silence.

I went back in my room.
Chirp.
CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP

I am really annoyed.
It is waking up my people.
I am starting to feel sorry for myself that I am awake.
I fiddle and fuss. It is quiet again.
The OTHER ONE-- I'm NOT KIDDING-- goes: Chirp Chirp. pause..... Chirp Chirp
Finally, I have woken Jes up again with the noise of my fiddling.
He is not happy.
He very masuclinely rips the detectors unceremoniously from the ceiling and we leave their electrical tenticles to dangle and go to bed in peace. The End.
I wish it was that easy, and you would have liked to have seen Jes use his p-90x muscles to put those stinky smoke detectors in their place, wouldn't you?
But, alas, not so exciting.
He replaces batteries.
Chirp Chirp.
He fiddles (exactly what I did),
He protests (me too) Chirp chirp.
He finally disconnects the one alarm that just won't die very carefully (live wires people!)
and he goes to bed. Again. A bit more disgruntled.
I head to bed.

WAHHHHHH! MWAHHH!

Maren is awake. She is loud and cannot be left to cry else she will wake up EVERYONE.
I snuggle her in bed.
She is hot.
I get her downstairs and give her ibuprofen for her 101.5 temp.
She has a drink.
She tells me, "evey sleeping, matt sleeping, mommy sleeping."
Wrong. "Mommy not sleeping!" I say.
I put her back in bed, and wait.....squeak....fuss...quiet. AAAH! finally.
1:45. I turn off the light.
The end.