Anticipation, Isolation, Waiting, Bunkering, and a Birthday

What. A. Week!!

When Erik got his mission call to Florida, he told me that all he wanted was to experience a hurricane (because missionary sleepovers and lots of service). Last Wednesday I got "wind" that a hurricane was brewing in the Atlantic. The projected path at that time was that it was going to slam into Central Florida as a cat 3 hurricane . . . Exactly where Elder Leary was camping out in Rockledge, a mere 25 minutes from the coast.

But as you know, these things have an unpredictable mind of their own. For the next two days Erik helped people get ready and board up their homes. And on Saturday he was evacuated to St. Cloud, a town more inland to hang with a couple of other missionaries.

And they sat.

And waited.

And anticipated.

And waited even more as Hurricane Dorian stalled out over the Bahamas as a Cat 5 storm and then gradually inched it's way north and west.

They played games.

Ate a lot of food.

And even got permission to watch some movies that they deemed appropriate.

In the meantime, our mountain was burning down at home. While Erik was in isolation and bunkering down, I was racing home to see what was going on behind my house.

Our mountain was on fire and has been for two days now.

Tyler's birthday seems to always bring out the worst in Mother Nature,

the worst being a micro wind that took down a tree and fencing at our Stansbury home.

Hurricane Dorian decided to play nice and remained off the coast of Florida which also meant no big service opportunities for Erik. He called us on Ty's birthday to let us know he was back "home" in Rockledge.

Tyler celebrated his birthday with dinner downtown. We almost decided to be spontaneous and get last hour tickets to the Elton John concert happening right across the street from where we were . . . and then we didn't and went to the DI instead.


Like Erik said in his last email, this week has been quite an adventure as we've witnessed Mother Nature try to take over the world.

Clearly not my day in the kitchen

That little red fire engine was my friend today.

I was sitting at my computer in my office, smelling what I thought was burnt toast when Ash came in to say, "Uh, mom. There's something wrong."

I hurried with her down the hall to find a smoke-filled kitchen and a fire on my stove.

Quick! What's the number for 911? Ha ha, just quoting Little Rascal's for ya.

I didn't call the fire department just yet.

I was going to make bread, and so I put my honey (it's in a plastic jug; remember this because it will be important later) in a pot of water on the stove to melt it down to liquid form. Then I remembered Tyler had a phone call and I didn't want to bother him with my loud mixer. So I thought I'd wait and check my email and update my playlist for the next time I go running. And I totally forgot about my honey on the stove.

First I tried to smother it with a lid.

No luck.

Then I remembered my fire extinguisher in the pantry. Dummy me didn't know how to use it so I left it on the counter as I tried another tactic.

I thought about smothering with a kitchen towel but decided that would be probably turn out badly.

So I opted for water.

Worse idea yet.

The flames shot clear up and thankfully didn't catch anything else on fire.

Back to the fire extinguisher. I didn't take long to figure it out and finally put that fire out with one snuff.

Then I took a step back to survey the damage. I was just so grateful my house was still standing.

After about three hours of scrubbing and using a screw driver to scratch all the melted on plastic (I told you this would be important), my stove is looking just okay. I really thought I'd be buying another cooktop, but after a little elbow grease I think I'll cut my losses and keep it as a reminder to not be so stupid next time. And speaking of stupid me, after cleaning for about 1/2 hour I realized the GAS WAS STILL ON! Now why didn't I think to turn it off first thing? So much for controlled chaos.

I have to commend Ash for being so cool about the whole thing. BUT next time there's a fire in the house, she's now been given permission to run through the whole house screaming, "FIRE!"

And you know something else, our temperamental fire alarms never made a sound. Hmmmm....