ribs, deer, and fire

Ribs, deer, fire and anything else that is in my camera.

Chris and Lacey got to come over Sunday evening for dinner and Emma actually let Lacey cut her nails. Shocking I know but for my wild girl to sit there still and permitting someone to cut her nails is a big thing. So Lacey if I could hire you once a week to cut her nails and scrub Sam squeaky clean that would be great.
We had ribs for dinner and both the babies cleaned their bones... I mean like shiny clean, there was not a glimmer of meat on either of theirs and us Mamas were so proud. Above Emma has got the total baby red-neck thing going on with b-b-que sauce all over her face and meat in her teeth. And below there is Alex who according to Lacey is the messiest he has ever been.

Ok so I went outside this morning to take some pictures of the fire damage (read below story) and there is this deer in our front yard. It just stood there and gazed at me, watching me take its picture and then slowly wandered off as if I was no big deal and was rather bored with me.

Ok onto the fire.... Well it started at just before 5 and I am in the kitchen cooking dinner, Leah is at the table doing homework, Emma is driving me crazy in between her playing and Sam is outside picking up the trash and cups from our front yard. The peaceful scene inside was interrupted by Sam's shrieks coming from outside, Sam shrieks a lot and so for the first one I just ignored but after the second one I went outside to tell him to stop yelling only to open the door and see all this stuff floating around in the air. My first thought was that Sam had come across a bees nest and was being stung to death and then I saw the flames, right next to the porch. My heart went into heart attack mode and all I could think of we are going to lose our porch. We are surrounded by dead weeds and I did not know how far they went under our house. Flying like a mad women I got the hose and put the fire out, meanwhile our neighbor's brother came over to see if we are ok and to let me know that they had called the fire department who were on their way. So when the fireman arrived I am looking under the porch to make sure that everything is out, Emma is on the porch holding the hose while getting everything wet, Sam and Leah are crying hysterically and Hawthorne is barking his head off. The firemen made sure that the fire was completely out while the fire chief drilled me about the incident. First he asked me if I was their mother (pointing to the kids) I do not know why but it is always in these incidents that people ask me if I am their mom. It is never when they are being cute or obedient, you know those times when you actually want to say that you are their mom. Oh no, I only have to claim them as mine when people are looking to see who they place all the responsibility on. Well as much as I wanted to say, "no I am babysitting and have called their mother who will be here in a while" I took the ownership and faced the wrath. The fire chief proceeded to ask me if Sam has done this before and if I need help with him. No people not the kind of help that they will give him ditches to ditch or teach him how to wash a car thoroughly (that help I would accept any day) but the kind of help that involves the state and all the glories of that. So thanking the firemen and barking orders at Sam to let the firemen know that he is not a 15 year old that is starting fires and running wild, but a five year old that got the freak of his life and learned his lesson about matches. I went in and fed the kids their dinner, poured myself a generous glass of wine and breathed for the first time in over an hour. Despite that Sam was asking me to play war with him a couple hours after the whole thing, I think that he learned his lesson, adding another chapter to his chronicles, and giving his mom's heart a total work out. Yep life is crazy.