Tuesday, October 18, 2011

It's Never Boring

This week is my 29th week of pregnancy.

This week is the week that my work schedule got all messed up.

This is the week that I am taking a big critical care class with test.

This is the week where I actually sent Noah a highlighted email breakdown of the week so he would know where he was supposed to transport what kids and when.

So, it stands to reason that this would be also be the "cd player breaks in the van" week and the "fire in the kitchen week".

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Ok, so the above paragraphs were written last week.

This week is my 30th week of pregnancy,

This week my work schedule is more normal, but feeling more stressful,

This is the week that I don't have to study because I passed my big test,

This is the week that I am not organized enough to even find my list, let alone email it (or anything else), to anyone,

This is the week in which we are still microwave-less, CD-player-less and are still cleaning up the kitchen...

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Last week I worked on odd shift. In the morning I rushed home to pick up the kids in order to get them to class on time. I ran in the house for about 30 seconds to grab something and get a quick report-off from Noah, who had gotten the kids ready for the day. Noah was taking Berean to my mom's house and I was just going to sleep in my car while the boys were in class.

Everything went as planned, but I would not recommend sleeping in one's car, except on an emergency basis.

After classes were done, the boys and I drove over to my parent's house to pick up Berean. We went home after that and settled in for the afternoon. I noticed when I got home that Noah's ice maker was on our electric, flat top stove and that the red light was on which means it is not actively running, just on standby. Shortly after we got home we went outside to play. I was sitting on the deck and the kids were occupied in various pursuits around the yard.

After a few minutes, Deacon ran up the deck stairs and went into the house. He immediately came back out and said, "Mom, you've gotta see this!" It was the tone of voice he uses when he sees an unusual spider or his brother stealing cookies.

"Deacon, I am exhausted. I don't want to get up right now. What do you want to show me?"

"No, mom, you really need to see this!"

I got up and went over to the door. I looked into the kitchen. Flames and smoke were surrounding the ice machine and moving down the counter. I told Deacon to keep everyone outside and grabbed my fire extinguisher. The smoke detectors started going off as I put the blaze out.

I had never used a fire extinguisher before and I have to say I was impressed. Yes, it made a terrible mess, but it was very effective very quickly, and there was a lot of stuff left in the extinguisher- I could have put out a much bigger fire.

Turns out, the small burner on the back of the stove was on. It must have gotten bumped when Noah put the ice maker on the stove. The cord was running across the burner. Somehow, though, nothing happened for the 6 hours that we were gone. I didn't smell anything hot or melting when I got home. As near as we can figure, us all coming home, opening the door etc. blew something onto the hot burner and since everything back there was already hot- it just ignited. The boys and I talked about how God had protected us and our home by having the fire happen when we were home, and that Deacon had chosen to walk into the house right then and had seen it right away. It could have been much worse. Our hearts were filled with thanks and praise for a God who loves us and watches over our daily life.

I did mention to Deacon that if a fire is spotted, yelling "fire!" is probably a better idea than trying to convince me that there is something "I really need to see".

So our kitchen is slowly getting clean and we are washing every dish from every cupboard. That fire extinguisher stuff gets everywhere! We bought a new extinguisher, and are now planning on expedited backsplash/tiling project. There is always something, isn't there?


3 comments:

Absolutely Fabulous Blair Girls said...

You are right - it is never boring at your house.

Something we have in common this week - my microwave also died. Found a great deal at Fleet Farm. Got an 1,100 watt, 1.3 cubic ft microwave for $104.99. Jason had been looking at one at WalMart with similar specs for $159. Glad I stopped him from buying it.

Unknown said...

Wow Julie..yes I think yelling "fire" would have helped ALOT! Glad you are safe. Is the ice machine a goner too? How about the stove top?

Have any pictures of the mess?

Thia said...

I am glad this ended as it did and hope that the clean up gets finished soon. It's always something.