Thursday, January 10, 2008

2007 Went Out in a Puff of Smoke...Literally

On December 31, 2007, I was awoken by the sound of vomiting in my bed. This is not an uncommon sound in our household, I mean, we have three children, three cats and two dogs, someone is ALWAYS vomiting. We had also been through a serious stomach virus the week before. I sleepily jumped out of bed in order to dodge the projectile vomit and instructed Jackson to get up and go to the bathroom. Time to wash the sheets again I guess.

After I got him settled in, I headed to the phone to call the boss, I would not be making it to work that day. My boss was none too happy, I mean it is New Year's Eve and I work in retail. Actually, I had not even realized the date at that time.

Later that day, I had noticed a smell in the house, but thought it was the heat. You know how the furnace gives off that smell sometimes. Even later, I noticed the smell again and went and investigated, but found nothing. I had not lit any candles, so I again chalked it up to being the furnace. Well, at about 1:30 I looked up from my computer and noticed that the house looked a little bit hazy. I was thinking, "Is that just the sun shining in from the window? Are my eyes that tired that the house is hazy looking?" I headed into the living room and told Dylan that something definitely smelled and we had to figure out what it was. It was stronger than earlier that day. I went to my bedroom and opened the door and it was filled with smoke! The outlet on the wall had been smoldering all day and that is what the smell was. Now the wall above the outlet was black and the wall was hot! I tried not to panick, I mean, all three children were looking at me as if to say, "Okay, mom, what is the next move?!" I picked up the phone and called the hubby, asking him what I should do and if I should call the fire department, all the while, I am thinking, "I don't want the fire deparmtent to see my house this messy! I ran downstairs and turned off all the power to the house, no, not just to the bedroom, the whole house! Panick? Me?! No!

I could see smoke up in the attic and was afraid there was fire inside the wall and that it was climbing. I climbed up into the attic, hurting myself, because, really, how long has it been since you hoisted your own weight up into an attic loft with a door the size of a cabinet door?

Turns out we caught it in time before it could do any real damage, but if I had gone to work that day, there would have been no house to come home to. We would have lost everything, except our lives, which are precious of course.

I thank God for Jackson's vomit, for without it, we wouldn't have a porcelain throne to pray to.

Malia

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