What I wanted to post yesterday.

What were you doing 9 years ago yesterday? I know what I was doing. It's forever burned into my brain. I'm mostly writing this down so I can keep it some place. This is what happened according to my memory.

Chrissy and her 3 kids Nikki, Sky, and Jadeyn lived with us. Chrissy and I were in a Christmas musical and my parents were here to watch us. Sunday night long after we had gone to bed my mom came into my bedroom to tell me my dad was having chest pains and they wondered what to do. CALL 911! My mom walked back into my room(where they were sleeping, we were in Bug's room) and said Bob she said to call 911. To which my dad replied, No, I just want her to take us to the hospital. OK LETS GO! So off dad, mom and I went to the hospital. I personally thought they should have moved a tad faster for us walking in there with a 60 something man having chest pains. We were there all night. He did not have a heart attack. So because of this they stayed at my house another day because we had been up all night. So Chrissy and Dh were at work and I cooked dinner and left to go teach a sign language class. My parents served dinner and were doing kid duty. Rescue Rita had Bugs and was bringing him home. She stayed to visit with my parents for a while. While they were talking dad smelled something burning. Rita said I know the boys are allowed ( big boys) to have candles in their rooms. Maybe that is it. My dad brushed it off for then. He smelled it again and said Nope, gotta check it out. As he turned the corner down stairs he yelled You know you don't play with fire! As he picked Jadeyn and Sky up off the pile of things they were sitting on in the closet the fire flashed! My dad yelled fire and get everyone out. Heir apparent and Drummer boy were out and about. T2 and Skater and Bugs were here. My mom got everyone out (this part is not mine because I wasn't here) and dad had grabbed an armful of burning stuff and threw it out the front door. T2 got the fire extinguisher for dad and it didn't work, they tried to get the hose but it was frozen. The neighbor got his hose and stretched it across the road and my dad and Rita worked on spraying the fire until the fire department got here. My mom says it took 20 minutes to get here. I don't know, we live a block from the fire house. My neighbor on the left gave my dad a pair of shoes to put on and the neighbor across the street took my mom and the kids to her house. At some point my friend Tame' tried to call me and kept trying until she got me. I was driving home. I pulled up to firetrucks and an ambulance in front of my house. I got out of my van and just wanted to die. I have always felt our house was a gift from God and have never not been thankful for it. (some day I'll tell that story) I already knew everyone was ok. I think it might have been Feb before I took a whole breath again. I went into the neighbors house to hug my kids. Everyone was so scared. The fire investigator wanted to talk to me and the adults in the house. Climbed into the ambulance to talk and my dog Suzie was having a hard time breathing so they put a mask with air on her and then Rita started really coughing so they gave it to her. My dad brushed them all off and said he was fine. He had been carrying things on fire out of the house but there was not a burn on him. They asked all the questions and got them answered. There was no need for an investigation as we all knew how it had started. The fire Marshall came and finally said I could go in the house with him. The smell was over whelming! Oh it was awful. I went down stairs first. I could see where the fire started and where it flashed. What the fire hadn't got, the heat and water did. There were pictures on the farthest wall that were melted. I kept looking down and could not figure out what I was walking in. It looked like puke and I was just beyond disturbed. The fireman finally saw my face and said, it was the 50 pound bag of dog food in the closet - WET and tracked all over. Oh it was awful. Then I went upstairs. It was heat and smoke that got the upstairs. It was black and just overwhelming. When I walked into my bedroom my king size bed was in pieces all over the room. I turned again to my fire Marshall escort and he said the dogs went under the bed. My mom was yelling for the dogs so the firemen got them out. They had 2 little dogs with them and we had 2 little dogs. The firemen got them out. The damage was great but mostly downstairs. The windows were broken for ventilation and the water, heat and fire damage. My 2 parakeets were dead but everyone else was fine. The nicest man came for the red cross to walk me through what to do next. I still could not get a hold of Dh and Chrissy. Someone called my pastor and he came and was with me. Some of what the firemen was telling me finally got through the fog that was my brain and I went and found our file on the house and gave him the insurance file and he called and made all the arrangements for me right then. Then Dh and Chrissy showed up. Chrissy's kids were so relieve their Mama was here. The Red Cross gave us a night in a motel so we gathered a few things that STUNK. My parents got all their things out of here. Off we went, all 13 of us to 3 rooms at an AWFUL motel. BUT we were thankful - honest. The owner was just an ugly racist man. We all tried to get to sleep. I think the kids slept but no adults did. We meet with the insurance and the contractor they called and the clean up company at 9 AM the next day. We had to find a long term motel and we weren't willing to stay where we were so my mom did some research for us and found the Hawthorne Inn up the highway from us. I sent my parents on to my Uncles and then on to home. I asked them to take my sister's big dog Sparky home with them. He couldn't go to the motel with us. So we sent him to the farm. Rita contacted our church and we had meals delivered to us for the whole time we were in the motel. My sweet cousin sent us the most precious tiny decorated living Christmas tree. It was a very hard time. We have very sweet memories of the time we spent there. Heir and Drummer didn't stay with us all the time they stayed with friends as they were closer to school. We saw and talked to them every day and when they needed a pool or hot tub fix they came to the motel to play with us. Service Master's did a good job with the clean up of everything in the house that was worth saving and the contractor's fixed it all up. I cried when picking out carpet. Everyone said I would love doing that and I didn't. It was to many choices and I was just overwhelmed. We were able to come back home in January.
I know I'm missing parts but it really was a stressful time.
Peace

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for laughter. I LOVE to laugh. I love my sides hurting from laughing so much. My kids make me laugh every day. I have a few very funny friends. My dog Scout and T2's dog Bolt are hilarious together. Dh doesn't mean to very often but he can just crack me up! I love funny movies. One great movie memory is with my lovely sister and Anita. Chrissy LOVES happy endings and we were watching Green card. We had been laughing so hard at different times and were loving it. THEN it ended differently then we thought and my sister was crying at the movie. Anita and I were laughing so hard at Chrissy crying. I still LOVE that movie because of the memory.
I do not hardly ever read the paper. It's just like the news, it's all bad and my Dh will tell me what I need to know. I do read some news articles on the net. I do read a few blogs of friends and just some interesting people. One of my FAVORITES to read is http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ It is so funny and I love starting my day out laughing! I wish we could find a way to bottle laughter and dispense it like pills.
I love hearing my boys laugh. I love grade school boy jokes that are as old as old can be, Knock knock jokes from a 5 year old who really doesn't get it. I love going to Hallmark and reading shoebox cards. Anita and I almost got kicked out of a Hallmark store because we were out of control. OH it was FUNNY!
I remember being in Tennessee with my Auntie and were sitting in the backseat of her car and laughing so hard driving down the road trying to not get caught laughing. It didn't work.
When life is dark I love thinking back and remembering that the good times Do outweigh the bad. It's just hard to remember at times.
Peace

Wordless Wednesday

Sad Tuesday

Today was a day of overwhelming sadness in our part of the world. It was the memorial service for the 4 police officers that were gunned down 7 days ago. It is so sad. My heart goes out to the families. It will be a long time healing. The Lakewood Police Dept. is forever changed. I do not understand that kind of hatred that would make a person do what that man did. Just doesn't even compute in my brain.
The little old lady golden came back this morning. We think she just is going out for breakfast. She certainly has Dh's number. She puts on her pitiful face and walks up to Dh and he falls for it. Bugs thinks he has seen her in the next neighborhood over. She is a pretty girl. We really hope she is just wondering for breakfast and really does have a family and a home.
Peace

Monday

Today was flipping freezing!!!! When I woke up it was 12' - TWELVE DEGREE'S! Just so wrong! The sun was out and it was just gorgeous. IF you didn't go outside.
We had a visitor this morning. Dh took The Littles to school and then came back by the house and as he was coming in a beautiful golden retriever came up on the porch to say Howdy! Dh brought her in so he could look at her tag. She had a license but when I called the number they said they had no info on that number. She was well taken care of but it was so cold this morning. Dh gave her some breakfast which she chowed down FAST. Then she had a drink. We were going to put her in the back yard with Walker for the day until we figure out what to do with her. Dh was going out to his truck to grab something she bolted out the door with him and then left! We hope she was headed home and got there safe. She wouldn't come or even look back when he called for her. Makes me think of Milo and Otis. I hope she didn't have far to go.
I was at one of my Hen's today. Yesterday was 2 months since she had knee replacement. She is doing so good! No walker or anything. I am so pleased for her. She was in so much pain before.
I hope you had a good day.
Peace

It's a new day.

A very boring update. Thursday I saw Charlotte after her chemo. I admire her so much. She has never complained, not one time.

Friday, not a good day. Some days life just really sucks. BUT I don't have cancer so...... :)

Saturday my friend Paula asked me if I would go with her to the Victorian Christmas in Puyallup when she got off work. I said yes and away we went.

It was so nice. First off a small service announcement, People do not always want to copy your idea, sometimes they just like to take pictures of their lives and things they do. Don't be dorks! When we walked into the buildings there were huge signs all over about not taking pictures of the booths. VERY weird to me. I got yelled a this Fall in Leavenworth for taking a picture of a booth. Nasty people. Anyway....... I walked for hours, Paula used her scooter. So many things to see. It was really crowded and very beautiful. There was a church there that did a beautiful Christmas musical along with a dance school with beautiful little girls dancing. Made me very verklempt and sad to not be a part of a choir anymore. It was just really beautiful.

When we were leaving and walking through the parking lot I saw this...

This person is DEFINITELY on Santa's Naughty list!

Today was family dinner. Heir apparent was the only one available today. Roommate and Mindy both had to work. It is always nice when we are together.

I hope you have a blessed week.

Peace

Wordless Wednesday