It's Been a Crazy Month!

Wow, where did this month go? We've been busy around here. Mostly trying our 2nd (or 3rd) round of potty training. Elliott is doing really well, though we're not there quite yet. We are much more successful with #1 than we are with #2....still working though. I'm hoping that he will be mostly trained by the time Baby #2 arrives.

Earlier in the month I had a baby shower and received tons of cute, frilly clothes. Combined with the clothes my sister, Sarah, is passing over to me we are well stocked for this little girl. I'm feeling huge, though I'm told that I actually look small. I'm surprised at how quickly the time seems to be going and how the due date is quickly approaching. I am hoping to have Elliott and Baby #2's bedroom all set up soon.

The most exciting part of this month has been our small house fire. On May 10th my sister, Sarah, came over for a visit and to drop off some baby supplies that Paige had outgrown. Elliott and Grace were playing together amazingly well. While they like each other, they don't always play nicely with the other. Sarah and I were thrilled and were trying to just let them play.... They were playing the "fire" game. This is something Elliott loves to play. He'll carry around this small hose (we have one indoor one and an outdoor one) and tell me things are on fire. I'll say, "Oh, go put it out...fast!" He'll run to whatever is on "fire" and pretend to squirt water on it, complete with sound effects. He used to play this game all the time - not so much since the real fire. Well, they were playing and the two of them came into Elliott's room to tell me that something was on fire in my bedroom. I assumed it was part of them game and told them, "great, put it out" and sent them on their way. They returned to my bedroom and played for a while longer. Not too long after that Sarah and I smelled smoke. We looked around Elliott's bedroom first, then went into the hallway. I saw smoke billowing out of my bedroom...scary!

I ran down the hall - while holding 4 month old Paige - and into my bedroom where I saw the curtains were on fire. I swear, all I could think about was to smother the flames somehow, not to get a fire extinguisher. Thankfully Sarah grabbed Paige and got Grace and Elliott out of the bedroom as she ran upstairs yelling for Dan to get the fire extinguisher. I managed to rip the curtains from our wall and onto the bed where I then attempted to put the flames out by smothering them with a pillow. Then I had to get outside and into some fresh air. Thankfully Dan had come downstairs and was about to spray our whole bed (and bedroom) with the fire extinguisher.

Thank goodness for home owners insurance because even though the fire was small it's been costly to clean up from. Rundown of ruined items: curtains, carpet, bedding, mattress. All of our clothes had the powder on them from the extinguisher. We got a new mattress (somehow our bed frame was unharmed) and all new bedding right away. Our clothes have all been sent to a specialty cleaners and will come back to us on Tuesday - we've been living with about 5 outfits each (Dan and I, not Elliott as his were fine) since the 10th. The insurance company had people come out to clean all the dust from the extinguisher. Our downstairs has never looked so good! It's amazing what 5 women can accomplish working for about 6+ hours straight! Carpets in the hallway were cleaned. Today the painters came and painted the two bedrooms, hallway and bathroom for us. The carpet in our bedroom will be replaced.

We are really thankful that it was such a small fire, it could have been so much worse. Thankfully Sarah and I were downstairs and smelled the smoke right away. I had thought we needed some detectors in our bedrooms, but hadn't even done anything about it. We now have one in each bedroom and an additional one upstairs. I'm looking forward to being able to have clothes again - though I am getting big and not a whole lot fits anymore. I've also decided to tackle some organizing/spring cleaning. Since we've had to move virtually everything out of the bedrooms I've realized just how much stuff we have. How did Dan and I have 8 giant garbage bags full of clothes (mostly mine, I admit it)? Goodwill will be getting some major donations from us in the near future. It will be good to get rid of what we don't need. I always have a fear (however irrational it really is) that I'll become a hoarder. So, this is good for me.

Here are two pictures, taken with my phone so that quality isn't the best. You can see the burned curtains and bedding. The white petals are from the neighbor cherry tree:





Dan and I also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! I can't believe it has been 6 years already. We took an overnight trip up to Mt. Hood, without Elliott, to get away. It was nice, especially as it was just a few days after fire. We both got full nights of sleep with a chance to sleep in...fabulous! We also spent last weekend with 14 of our friends on the Oregon Coast for our annual Beach Trip. We get lucky every year with good weather. Elliott and Dan flew a kite and they also went crabbing! I got to relax and hang out with girlfriends.

Here are a few other pictures. I figure since I don't blog too often I should make this a long one...

Elliott helping Dan play The Legend of Zelda on our origianl NES game system.


My sisters and I at the baby shower: