It must be Community Helpers week.

On Monday, I found out my credit card had been cloned. Awesome, right? Last week, I tried to buy something in the school bookstore and my card was declined. No big deal...our credit union card is notoriously bad at not scanning correctly. Later in the day, I tried to get lunch at Smoothie King and the card was declined again. I called Josh to be sure there was money in the account and there was plenty. The next day, I tried to get gas and the pump gave me attitude about going in to see the cashier. I was alone, so I did...and the charge went through just fine from inside. I chalked it up to another bad scan. I bought groceries this weekend without issue. Then on the way to the GES on Monday, I stopped for gas. It didn't take my card again, but I had KayTar with me so I just paid with a different card. Then in the parking garage it didn't take my card, but that one only takes my card once out of every 15 scans...so it wasn't odd. Then we stopped at McD's for breakfast on the way home and my card didn't work. I had them try a second time...no dice. So I called Josh, who called the bank, who told him my card had been used in Ohio last week and was shut down due to suspicious activity. Oy. How did I not notice it?! Because I usually use debit and that was working fine, only the credit section had been locked down. So places that auto-run it as credit were the places that it was being declined. When I went into the gas station, I paid with debit. When I bought groceries, it was debit....and so forth. Monday night we had to go to the police department and file a report so the bank will give us our money back. Thankfully, they didn't go wild with it, because our financial aid had just been deposited and they sure could have done some damage. Instead they spent $70-something at a feed store and $6-something at Walgreens. Big spenders!

Yesterday, on the heels of an already rough afternoon involving my asthma/traffic/nearly running out of gas/being late to pick up the kids, we walked into the house after school and I thought I smelled gas. I called Josh, who is out of town and couldn't be of much assistance, and then called my dad. He came right over and said he didn't really smell anything, but he checked the gas outlets in the house and then headed to the backyard. He came back in and said, "Grab the kids and their stuff and get outside." YIKES. We had a major leak back there, the drought has caused the ground to shift and it pulled the gas line completely away from the pipe that goes into the house and gas was just pouring out. My dad backed his truck out of the driveway and took the kids to sit in it while I frantically grabbed important KayTar things like her pump bag, feeding bags, and formula. I went to sit with him while my dad unhooked my garage door from the automatic opener and backed my van out. I tried called our gas company while my dad called the fire department. It took me forever to get a REAL PERSON on the phone and then they kept passing me around. Finally, in a loud and exasperated voice said, "I HAVE A MAJOR GAS LEAK AT MY HOUSE AND NO ONE WILL TALK TO ME!" She apologized and took my information, but by that time the fire department was already pulling up. My dad told me the fire department had reported it already. I guess the gas company will actually take calls from the fire department! I begged my dad to run in for KayTar's blankey as she was getting hysterical about it being in the house. As we were sitting in the car, our cat Peanut ran in the house and poor BubTar started crying. I went and brought the cat out, but our guinea pig, dog, and snake were still inside and BubTar was so worried about them. I tried to reassure him that the firemen were taking care of the problem and the animals should be fine, but I was going through a few list of things that I desperately wanted out of the house in case it was all going to go KA-BOOM at any moment, so my reassurances were probably a little strained. Evidently my internal list of priorities is: the kids, KayTar's feeding pump and formula, KayTar's blankey, the animals, alllllll of our photos from my hard drive, KayTar's meds, and my camera. The fire department shut off the gas and checked the house for gas levels and we got the all clear. WHEW. The gas guy arrived and took our meter away. We have to have new piping laid from the fence where the meter is to the back wall of the house where the pipe comes out of the ground and enters the house. The plumber said that they have to pull a permit before starting work, so hopefully it will get done later today and we will have gas restored in a day or two. It was frustrating and a little frightening, but it could have been worse. KayTar flipped the lights on before I smelled the gas (which is a no no) and I just cringe to think what could have happened! We are all safe and sound, though, and very thankful things played out the way they did.

But seriously, if we could get through the rest of the week without any additional run-ins with community helpers, I'd be pretty pleased.