Where There’s Smoke…There’s Fire.

Here’s another one: When it rains…It pours.

What a day we had yesterday.

What. A. Day.

By 7:30pm, I could hardly hold my eyes open.

It all started when I realized Baby Girl had spots on her skin that were bleeding because the eczema was getting so bad. She looked absolutely awful, so I had to assume she felt pretty bad too. I made an appointment to take her in yesterday morning.

I also HAD to take the van to the shop. The brakes were SO bad, the mechanic said he didn’t even know how our van was still STOPPING! We also needed a new belt and two new tires. However, with six children, doctor’s appointments, and two different schools to pick up from, there was no way around renting a vehicle while mine was in the shop. SOooo, I called Enterprise, and they picked me up! 🙂 They met us at the car place, picked us up, and took us back to Enterprise so I could sign the papers. Sounds pretty easy right? Wrong. When I walked into Enterprise, you would’ve thought I had just walked into an American Airlines ticket line and all their flights had just been cancelled. I waited for FORTY-FIVE minutes just to sign a paper and swipe my card…..with FOUR kids……so frustrating.

Then I rushed home, by now it was 9:40am and Baby Girl’s appointment was at 10! All I had to do was grab a few diapers and snacks and run back out the door. Suddenly I remembered that the appointment was at 11:00 and not 10:00, so I had a little while to get ready and pack up the kids. I always leave my bedroom door open when I’m in there, so I can hear the kids and keep an eye on them as well. I turned my flat iron on in my bathroom and began to smell something strange.

“Is my flat iron dying? It smells like something is burning.”

Do you ever do that? You think you smell something, so you stop for a second and breathe in through your nose several times to see if your mind is just playing tricks on you.

Nope, no tricks, something was burning.

As I opened the door into the kitchen, all I could see was smoke!! I knew this day would come. One of the toddlers had turned a burner on (I have a forty year old, avacado green, push button stove…very easy to tamper with). On the stove was a cookie sheet full of beautifully decorated Christmas cookies that we had made over the weekend. Sugar cookies and ginger bread men, all dressed with icing, sprinkles, gum drops, the works! Now, they were in flames, reduced to a giant pile of gray ash with colored edges, probably from the sugary sprinkles. Yes, my kitchen was officially on fire. I blew and blew and blew until the fire went out (yes, I do have a fire extinguisher, but for some reason, the thought never even entered my mind!?). Then I opened the window in the kitchen and ran out the back door with the charred cookie sheet. I looked over at the window and smoke was billowing out. “Oh please Jesus, don’t let anyone see the smoke and call the Fire Departement! I really don’t have time for firemen this morning!”

It was about 49 degrees outside, but I opened every window in the house, packed up the kids, and left for the doctor. I never did use my flat iron! Haha!

After spending TWO and HALF HOURS at the “doctor house”, as sweet Owen calls it, we found out poor Baby Girl has bronchitis, EXTREME eczema, and an ear infection. She’s now on antibiotics and oral steroids. They’re also referring her to a dermatologist. Hopefully she’ll improve quickly while on these meds.

When we finally got home, the house smelled like toasted marshmallows and my hair and clothes smelled like I’d been camping.

I picked both boys up from school, dropped my three at a friend’s house and took Biggest Brother and Four Year old to the dentist. We were there for an hour and a half. Baby Girl was very good and both boys got a perfect report from the dentist! 🙂

I had just enough time to pick up my kids from our friend’s house, pick up Josh, pick up OUR van from the shop, and drop the rental back at Enterprise…before grabbing fast food and heading to church for Christmas practice…….

Ahhhhhhh, now you see why I was exhausted!?

I slept GOOOOOD last night.

Moral of the story: If you want that nice woodsy smell but don’t have a wood burning fireplace…just set your kitchen on fire for a few minutes and the smell will last for weeks to come.

(DO NOT REALLY DO THIS…THERE ARE PLENTY OF CANDLES THAT WILL SAFELY SIMULATE THIS SMELL). HAHA!! It definitely could’ve been much worse.

This day cost me over $550.

And after all that, I’m still smiling! Remember my motto?

LAUGH IT OFF OR BE CONSUMED!

Happy Wednesday people! 23 Days until Christmas!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 7:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.