A little excitement in the middle of the night

Really, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

Around 2am, we had an unbelievable storm. A few loud peals of thunder woke me up. I was lying in bed, wondering how in the world the kids were sleeping through this when there was another crash that shook the building and set off the alarm system.

Now, we aren't talking a private home fire alarm. This thing is hardwired. It goes off in each apartment with an obnoxious noise accompanied by a flashing strobe light. I had no idea if the building had been struck and was on fire, or if it was just the shake that set the alarms off, but I wasn't about to take any chances.

I jumped out of bed, told Jim to grab the baby and headed into Sean and James' room. The kids stumbled out of bed, confused and afraid from the disorientating noise and flashing light. Jim handed me the baby so he could get dressed. The baby was soaked. :-/

I grabbed a fleece blanket off the couch and we stepped out into the hallway. The alarm in the hallway is deafening. It assaults your senses, complete overkill.

We headed down the stairs and walked out onto the porch.
"Wow", from James. It was pouring out. Sean was standing next to me in socks, Chris and I were barefoot. Jim was still in the apartment. My neighbors were all stumbling out into the hall.

There was another very close, very loud, very scary bolt of lightening, setting off a few car alarms. Sean and Chris panicked. At this point I was pretty confident that our home wasn't burning down so we stepped back inside.

Jim came down and we ushered the kids into the car. Sean was shaking like a leaf. Christopher was still in a soaking wet diaper and pajamas. I was still barefoot. It was approximately 2:10am.

We went for a ride, hoping the little boys would go back to sleep. Ha! Right. As we drove off, I remembered the cat. Um, oops. It's a good thing there wasn't an actual fire, he would have been toast. The rest of the ride, I kept thinking that our cat was going to have post traumatic stress from being left alone with that screaming noise and strobe light. I found him later hiding under Sean's bed. He is his normal happy self this morning.

Anyway, we went back about 15-20 minutes later. The rain had stopped and we expected the alarm to be off. Only it wasn't. The fire department comes when the alarm is triggered and they need a key to shut it off. No one could get in touch with the owner of the building and the fire department left (!) because they had received a distress call.

I went into the apartment, grabbed shoes for me and Sean, and dry pajamas and a diaper for Chris.

So that is why my children were running around outside in the parking lot, in the middle of the city, between 2-3 this morning.

We finally went in and wrapped the alarm up with a blanket and packing tape and went to bed. I think they finally got the alarm shut down at around 4:30 this morning.

Thank God we are moving!