What? No water?

As much as I try to keep things together, every now and then I fall short. One thing I am famous for? Procrastinating with paying our bills. I usually avoid paying past the 30 days and usually make my payments on the 29th day past due date....yes, I know playing with fire.

When it comes to the utility bills, I usually wait for that final notice or it's disconnection. Well, our water bill no longer sends those out. In their cutting cost, they decided to cut that out. It's now on the customer to pay attention to their bill.

I came home and trying to be the multi-tasking mom, figured I could throw a load of laundry in as we try and get the kids squared away before running Ailini to piano practice and the two older boys to scouts. As I am multi-tasking, I hear the washer chiming. I yell from one end of the house to the other "who's playing with the washer". No one replies. I yell back, "whoever it is better stop it".

I know this is TMI (too much information -- and so is this blog, but oh well)...before heading out, I go to use the restroom and notice (I pay attention to the dumbest things like this -- but not to the important things like paying for the bills...LOL) the water in the toilet is low. Then all of a sudden it clicked, "check the faucet". I turn the knob of the faucet and guess what? No water came out. Our water was cut.

I rush over to the laundry room and turned the washer off 'cause "hello" it was chiming 'cause there was no water for it to run. I quickly grabbed my cell and dialed the water improvement center. Paid my bill and was told that our water would be back on today. What a relief! How would I explain this to Haloti? He would freak out and then give me the lecture of paying the bills on time...why? Because I am the one designated to pay the bills.

I had to run Ailini to her piano and the whole time I waited, I kept thinking, "what if she the lady that took the info for my bill forgot to note my bill was paid and they didn't turn it on". As soon as we got home from her piano practice, first thing I did was run and turn the faucet on...and it's back on. Yay!!!

I keep saying I am going to get back on track, set a budget, pay everything on time...and well, hopefully this will be enough to motivate me. I've had several close calls and you would think it would be enough for me to "learn my lesson" but obviously, I think I like living a "stressful life" and haven't quite gotten it together. So maybe with this post I will get it together since I just put it all out there.

Oh yeah, and a tip to those who like to live life on the edge like me....and you live in Utah...power, phone and water they usually are good about turning on as soon as you pay. Natural gas on the other hand - they can send someone out to turn it on, but if they are too busy, they will not light the furnace for you. You can do it (if you know how) or hire someone to come out and light it. If not, the wait for Questar to come and do it can vary from a day or two out to a week. If it's winter, watch your bill closely and pay on time. Trust me, I've been there and done that.