Life interupted

Today is day three of studying for my Stats final tonight at 6:30.

Usually my exams are on a Monday or Tuesday and I have the weekend to study. This time I have used Wed, Thurs and today. Initially I had only booked yesterday and today off to study.

I'm sitting here this morning with a major headache, but glad I had Wed to study.

Yesterday I was off in my own little world, studying linear programming, probabilities and distributions when Glenn came roaring into the room, "Get ready to evacuate in a minutes notice!". What the hell?

I jumped up, looked out the window behind me (which had I turned around I would have noticed), and the mushroom farm behind us was up in flames. Although, the farm is at the back of our property (200 feet behind us), the very edge of our property has a ton of trees, and the tree line runs right up to our house.

This was not a small fire, the flames were at least 50 feet in the air!!!

As I ran upstairs, Glenn had instructed Alma to get the boys ready. I kind of just stood there in awe of the fire and not sure where to start. So I started grabbing diapers, bottles, then stopped. I was in utter fear. Alma said, "Lee, take a deep breath and focus."

Then, I packed up dog food, cat food (oh where the hell is the cat carrier?), birth certificates, passports, etc...

The boys started to feed off my anxiety and began to whine. I decided to head outside to get a better perspective of what was actually happening.

Once outside, there were three cars in our driveway. One was Global TV, the others just decided since our property is the only one without a gate, they could just park here. One of the carloads just happened to see the smoke from the highway, the other car was having lunch with the Fire Chief from our district. The Global guy said he saw the smoke from Coquitlam Center (!!).

I stood for awhile, not really wanting to venture to the back of our property. Once the two cars left, I wandered back to Glenn.


See those trees??? That was what scared us.



He was filming and taking pictures and assessing if we "Had to get the hell out"!!! We watched for awhile and our neighbours stood with us for awhile.

Once I realized that our trees weren't in danger in anymore I started to calm down. I lost an hour and a half of studying.

Now, anybody who knows my history knows why I freaked.

At 14, while my Mom, my sister and I were out, our house had an electrical fire. Our kitchen and laundry room were gutting and we had major fire damage. We were out of our house for three months. In that fire, one of our dogs was rescued by a Burnaby firefighter (the guy gave him mouth to mouth). His paws were burnt but came out ok. Our other dog, spent his time under our house while the fire was being put out.

At 19/20, the apartment I was moving out of had a fire. The people who went to move my stuff out while I was at work, got a surprise. The only thing that survived that fire was my cat. She jumped from the third floor. My friend's cat was no so lucky. I lost everything in that fire.

Yesterday all I could think of, was that I didn't want to lose everything a third time!

The building is now a pile of rubble, it was 40,000 square feet!!! The fire started at 12:30pm and at 9 last night, there were still flames. I listened to the heavy machinery tear down the building for a long time last night. Alma said they finally moved out this morning just before 7am.

Although we never really actually came close to having to leave, the inital panic left it's mark. I feel really bad for the owners of that farm. That is 14 years of hard work, literally up in flames. The news said nobody was injured, which is great.

I'm off to try and recapture some study time before my exam, but I will leave you with the little ones which made us smile at the end of the little bit of panic yesterday.

16 months!!!

Ok....exhale. I promised you wouldn't turn blue :)

Today my boys are 16 months and fully into toddler hood.....take a deep breath....and....release. That is how the days go.

Anyone who is currently raising their kids, or is watching their kids raise their kids, appreciate what Mothers of toddlers go through. Think about it times two.

Somedays I come home from work and all is peaceful.....but I can tell it wasn't so at some point. The lamp from the living room is now on the dining room table, the basket of diapers and creams no longer resides on its place on the side table in the living room....and other times as soon as I open the door, the whining slaps me in the face and Glenn is running to hide.

At times it is hard to appreciate that they are healthy and happy even though they were two months premature.

Especially when Gavin heads to the DVD player, when he knows you are too far away to get him, and turns it off and on, and off and on.....all the while looking at you and smiling!

Then there is Riley who has mastered climbing....the couch has had to be moved away from the open stairs to under a window. This child is on the couch and hanging from the back if it before you can blink. Then before you can get to him he is running the length of the couch. Glenn couldn't find him one day and could hear crying, he had fallen behind the couch and was stuck. Quick as lightening that child.

There are times I just get tired thinking about all they do in a day. Just as you have rescued one, the other one is doing something else they aren't supposed to.

But this is also a good age....Glenn is currently tearing apart our deck. Gavin isn't a great helper, but Riley is. As Glenn scrapes the deck, Riley will pick up the loose bits and put them in the garbage. Gavin just tends to eat it.

Oops, my lunch was over about 10 minutes ago, more soon.