First off, thank you Charles S. for your note...could you tell I was stressing??
Chris,
I have been monitoring my broadband with a HughesNet tool. We are on Legacy and use the usage tool on customercare.myhughesnet.com
This first shot was taken right after we got on line. The things to note are on the 13th between 5:00 and 15:00 (that's 1AM and 11AM Alaska time). From then on we see nothing less than 15MB.

The second screen shot includes a couple of timeframes when we unplugged the LAN. One on the 16th between 5:00 and 11:00 (1AM and 7AM) and again on the 16th from 20:00 to 0:00 (4PM to 8PM). Note that all entries are over 15MB while being unplugged.

OMG!! Today it seems our allowance is being replenished and the modem is not blinking, blinking. I am wondering if it will continue to behave and what you might have discovered??
Thanks so much to this community and the access it provides!!!! Today I am feeling a little more in control. I will post again if we have more concerns.
Tina