Fire Recap

This week flew by for me, big time. 

Monday we were sadly saying our goodbyes to my wonderful-awesome-totally crazy- energy filled b/c they actually sleep-fun and loud -sisters who came for the weekend. (hee hee) 

How cool is that?  They ditched their own husbands to join my hubby, me and our brood.  Very cool, I must say. 

So, did you notice my blog post about a, uhm...fire?  (if not, click HERE. I'll wait...)

Well, those sisters of mine were here and thanks be to God that they were!!!  We believe that WAS the reason they were to come up to visit us on this specific day and night and weekend.  What a crazy and terrible thing we had to have happen.  Let me explain...

Saturday night, all kids were sleeping, hubby was sleeping and even baby was asleep in her bassinet (which she does not do too often...she likes her Momma a whole lot).  So, that leaves 3 sisters up talking, of course, with wine, of course and that 7 dip thingy except it was not 7 but more like 5 dip thingy.  Anyway, it was super yummy (Thanks D!) and we were goofing off, chatting it up till late. 

11:30pm to be exact.

Then sweet baby started crying and b/c the considerate (ha!) wife that I am, I did not want my hubby to wake up so up I ran to gather my little sweetie and soothe her back to sleep.  As I am sitting in bed, I hear my sisters run, and I mean RUN up the stairs, knock quickly and abruptly at our bedroom door and say

"There is a fire...in your backyard!!!"

No time for me to think to look outside, I wholeheartedly believed what my sister was saying.  Who wouldn't, right?

At that moment, our thoughts were totally focused on getting our 7 children out of our house, far away from our house and as I did that, I glanced back to see an orange/yellow glow behind our house and our neighbors house with very high flames (looked about 10-12 feet probably).  I scurried them all into our van and awaited my hubby as he ran back inside to get a few things.  I knew we were still too close to our house so I drove the van up the street a little bit.  I was petrified, totally!  I was shaking as I heard and saw my sisters screaming "FIRE!!!" to all our neighbors as well as banging on their doors to alert them.  All of my kids were freaking out.  One had her head hid between her knees with her ears covered, another one was shaking so badly it looked as if he was having a seizure, another one stared blankly straight ahead as if he was blind.  The baby was still on my lap, ASLEEP THROUGH ALL THIS!!! Thank God she was sleeping!  I don't know what I would have done if she was up crying and screaming.  I started to bang on my horn and yelling "FIRE!" as well.  I keep on honking my horn for, what felt like 5-10 mins.  It was so scary.  Then the fire trucks came, 5-6 fire trucks and about 30 or more fire fighters.  It was quite the scene.  It took them 2+ hours to calm the fire, put it out, and drench our whole backyard wooded area. 

This is what it looked like once we got the "OK" to get back into our house and the firemen were putting away all their equipment and hoses.  It was around 1:30am, I think.

I am so thankful the kids all were OK (except one who slept on our bedroom floor-I don't blame her!  I am surprised they all were not in our bed!!!  I was freaking out!) with going back to their own beds and went back to sleep. 

I am thankful for those hardworking firemen who protected us and put out that nasty fire.

I am thankful for a sisters weekend and up late laughing and talking, for if we were not, there is NOWAY we would have known about this fire!

I am thankful for a very kind neighbor who called us and ended up leaving a message wondering if we were OK and if we needed to come to her home.  She called at midnight and of course, we were not here to answer her call.  Thank you God for good neighbors.

I am thankful that our other neighbors (well, at least some of them!) actually heard us beeping and yelling and banging on their doors.  Some were not concerned in the slightest -why, I have no idea! Weird... 

And I am thankful that we are all safe.  Thank you God.

God bless,
M