A Blaze..

So Thursday night about 10:00 P.M. I'm laying in bed watching TV when all of a sudden I hear sirens galore. Now...we live right off a busy highway and the sound of sirens is not uncommon. However, that night they sounded extra close. I look out my bedroom window to find the lights in my neighborhood. I immediately think...Oh gosh...one of my elderly next door neighbors has had a heart attack. Seeing how both men on either side of us look like their in their 70's your mind would have jumped to the same conclusion. I'm preparing myself to aid however I can. I look out the front door windows to find the sky lit up bright orange! The house 3 down from us is massively on fire!!! I yell to Casey and we go running outside. Every firetruck in Henry County is in our little cul-de-sac. I have never seen a fire like this...HUGE! and not slowing down. At first, I'm in shock. I was pretty sure a family still lived there even though I'm sad to say I had never talked to them nor knew if they had moved out or not. From the crowd and the slow speed of the firemen I assumed nobody was inside. The flames were enveloping the roof and blowing out of a top story window like nobody's business. They started hosing it down with what seemed to be pretty wimpy water. It dissipated some of the fire briefly, but soon the blaze was even more rapant. The flames on the side of the roof was so close to their neighbor's house I was so afraid it would catch fire. Thank the Lord it didn't. Nor did all the embers flying about all of our yards. It did melt the vinyl on one side of a neighbor's house. Once the firemen realized they weren't getting anywhere with the wimpy water they raised up on ladders and used powerful hoses that I'm sure if you were standing in their path would cut you in two! After probably 15-20 minutes the flames were gone and almost nothing was left of the roof and upstairs. It's amazing how fast a beautiful house can disappear before your eyes! Pretty much the whole neighborhood was standing in our yard or cul-de-sac to watch. We're such a nosy society when something out of the ordinary happens. Luckily nobody was hurt and come to find out a teenage girl, who's mom is a nurse who was working nights at the time, got a bad note from her teacher and decided to burn it. When the flames got out of control she decided to put the fire out with PERFUME! Not the best idea! The fire erupted into a huge blaze and her poor little brother who was taking shower had to run out of the house with just a towel. During the fire we didn't see them, so we thought no one was home. We found out the whole story the next day. It's very sad and the neighborhood is collecting money for them since they were renters and have no insurance. Just wanted to share the exciting things happening in McDonough.

This is the aftermath...

Who doesn't love water??

Seriously...water is a great thing! It tastes good....It's refreshing to swim in....It helps you feel clean...It's a hydrating necessity...Actually we couldn't live without it. The majority of our bodies are made of water. It makes so many beautiful flowers and plants grow. It provides ice cubes that Chloe LOVES to chase around on the floor. What could be better???

Probably....not freezing in the pipes when it's 12 degrees outside!!!! Yep...we had ANOTHER...actually THE SAME pipe bust today! Can you believe it? Almost a year to date we were dealing with a flooded house on our brand new 2 week old hardwood floors. Yesterday morning I came home from work in 12 degree weather...brushed my teeth....turned my electric heater on...put my warmest pjs on and went to sleep. I woke up about 1:30 in the afternoon and went to get a drink of water in the kitchen. I grab a glass....turn the faucet on and Alas...nothing...nada. I freak!!! I go to the washer right next door...Nothing...nada! Ok...I tell myself..stay calm...there's no water like last time. It's all frozen in the pipe. It's still way below freezing outside so you can catch it and turn the water off before it floods. Casey was student teaching and wouldn't be home for a few hours so what did I do. If the hubby's not home to answer questions....go to the next best thing. The internet! I didn't know how to turn the water off, but some helpful websites said to thaw the pipes out with a hairdryer or heater and it would take hours. Now I don't know about you, but I don't have the arm strength or stamina or TIME to hold a hairdryer for hours! I placed the electric heater close to the opened cabinets underneath the sink and waited. I was praying the pipe wasn't busted and the water would flow like the Nantahala. When Casey came home he merely went to the garage and twisted a knob. Ummmppph. Easy! We just waited all night...but of course the weather got even colder as the night went on, so we decided to try again tomorrow. Today...the water thawed and the pipe was leaking. At least the water was turned off and we were able to drain the water outward using a baking pan. Those things have more than one use in my book now! For some reason there was still some water trickling out of the pipe enough to soak a towel within an hour or so. Now last year due to the flooding and uneducation we hired a plumber (who we thought the insurance paid for....*note* They Don't!!!) So $900 later (plumber and $500 deductable) we had a tiny new pipe and an entire kitchen of brand new hardwood to replace. *Sigh* This year...My smart husband and $17 later fixed our pipe and will have water at last praying the glue dries and no more incidences occur. Thank God for smart and competent husbands! It's amazing how much we depend on something so basic and in abundance...well for the most part. I went to make mac and cheese last night and forgot...No water! I flushed the toilet by habit and forgot...No water!! I am so thankful to have a roof over my head....heat in my house....food in my fridge....and water in my faucets...frozen or free flowing. I was reminded to stop and be thankful for the simple things in life!

Our Christmas

We had a great Christmas filled with lots of family time...lots of food...and lots of fun! My birthday was the 22nd and I got to celebrate it with my whole fam. My brother, Jon and his wife have 3 kids and they came from Athens for the WHOLE week of Christmas. It was SO much fun. It was like being a kid again. Casey and I...my sister, Ginger, my nephew Zack and my new niece Murphy, Jon, Amy, my niece Abigail, my nephew Jacob, and my niece Ashlie all stayed at Mom and Dad's the whole week. Plus we had 5 dogs among us!! Another blessing was that I was scheduled to work Christmas day but I was able to get off due to low census. Yay!! I haven't had Christmas Eve and Christmas day off in 7 years!! It was awesome. We spent the week playing games...Risk...Apples to Apples...Balderdash...and a little Mafia thrown in. If somebody out there's never played Mafia...it a must!! Casey surprised me with an awesome camera for my birthday and Christmas. A Nikon D40!! Now I can take pictures like they were made to be taken. I created a video montage that has a ton of pics but we were there for a week! Some of my family are more welcoming to the camera than others. Murphy was all about the camera! Man...that baby was ALWAYS wanting her picture taken. Hee...Hee! My sister and I took her to see Santa at Lenox the day before Christmas Eve and she slept through the whole thing! The boys in the house had fun playing Wii golf or pretty much Wii anything! Jon and Jacob got fun boxers for Christmas and wanted to show them off! The kids also got Rock Band which now totally makes me want to learn drums. We had a ton of presents to wrap on Christmas Eve and Casey had the job of all Jacob's presents. They were sitting on the kitchen table all awaiting their wrapping debut. Casey and I were having a wrapping competition based solely on speed! He was wrapping everything on the table just like he was told. Come Christmas morning my 13 year old nephew opened a half-eaten box of his sister's wheat free cookies!! Merry Christmas Jacob! Hence the picture to come! Hee...Hee!

We also went to the Colson's abode over New Years and just got back last night. It was great to spend time with everyone and had fun playing LOTS of crochet. Casey's dad and I teamed up with Eric and Casey and they beat us 4 times!!! Grrrr! We'll get our revenge one day! Now we've come home and the holidays....my favorite time of year...is over. Back to work, school, chores, and everyday life. What a great year to be thankful. We have a new member of the family who is so stinkin sweet! Casey and I are about to celebrate 5 years of marriage and his graduation soon!! My dad is almost done with chemo/radiation. Praise the Lord! He's having a pretty rough time this week. Prayers for strength, energy, normal labwork, and no infections would be great! Hope you enjoy the pictures!! There's a lot of them, but I enjoyed working hard to share them with you!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Brooke's Wedding

I know....I behind on pics as usual. This always seems to take me a really long time and I don't know why. Maybe it's the slow computer putting out more pop-ups than I can count. Maybe it's the abundance of pictures to sift through and download. Whatever the case may be...they're here now. The Saturday before Christmas was Brooke's wedding. It was great day and a beautiful wedding. I found it's easier to put the pics on a video...takes less time when there are more than a few. Enjoy!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com