Year of the Visitor: Part Seven

The exciting saga continued last weekend with another special guest in the Murphy house.

Stacie and her husband Kyle moved to Edinburgh, Scotland last fall for Kyle to start grad school and for Stacie to be a lady of leisure. j/k, j/k, she's working very hard in the HR department of a large accounting firm. James and I have known Stacie for ages from going to the same church when we were younger, but I hadn't seen her for about 4 years and James hadn't seen her since high school.

The Sale's had planned on taking the train up to the Highlands for the weekend, but at the last minute Kyle was informed of some mandatory school meetings he had to attend, so Stacie braved the long train trip on her own. We were sad that Kyle couldn't join in on the fun of the weekend, but his meeting could possibly land him a new job after graduation, so we totally understand why he couldn't come!

I was a slacker and didn't take any photos, but Stacie did, so check out her blog post for photos and the description of our fun weekend.

One thing Stacie was kind enough not to mention was the fact that we had NO HOT WATER OR HEAT the entire time she was here. Geez, why do these things have to happen when guests come!

We're not used to the whole using oil as the main source of heat and hot water, so we forgot to check the tank and see if it was time to refill. Wednesday night I said to myself, "wow, it's kinda chilly in here, and I wonder why the dishwater isn't getting warm." It didn't take too many more thoughts for me to realize that we'd run out of oil.

I had to laugh when we woke up the next morning to SNOW. The oil company estimated that the oil probably wouldn't be delivered until Monday. I didn't explain that we had a visitor coming because I didn't think the lady would care, can you imagine how many stories like that she hears from people hoping to have their oil delivered super fast? Many prayers were said for the oil to come in time so our friend wouldn't have to spend a weekend in the frigid cold.

Prayers were answered when the oil was delivered as we were on the way home from the train station!

But, the celebration was premature. There were more problems, most of which I don't understand, but the short of it is, we didn't have heat or hot water until Monday. Stacie was such a trooper. Thankfully, we have a gas stove and borrowed some space heaters, electric blankets, hot water bottles, and friends shower.

Lesson learned: make sure all utilities are in working order before visitors arrive.