Untitled...??

Alright, so I made light of a potentially serious situation, but isn't that the FUN of blogging about it?!

Last Saturday, I went to New Orleans with some other women from our church. We were asked to clean up one of the hospitals. (That whole situation was very encouraging, but I'll write about it later.) When I returned home, I found a BLACK stock pot of burned something or other on the ground outside, and when I opened the door, a wave of smoke hit me. My husband just looked at me like, "what? is it the smoke?" Um. YES. It's the smoke!! WTH?!

Apparently, he left a pot of black beans on the stove to soak, and then he left with the kids for a few hours. When he came home, the house was filled with smoke, and our gas stove was on high...you guessed it, right underneath the pot of beans! You can see where it actually started to scorch the ceiling.

Despite our desperate attempts to rid our house of the smoke, we had to call the insurance company. The damage came from a protein fire, and it takes a special chemical to break it down. Otherwise, our house will continue to hold that smell in the walls, furniture, ceilings, appliances, and clothing!! Now we have to stay out of the house for 72 hours while they o-zone our house, we had to kennel the dog and crash at a friend's house because there are NO HOTELS within a 200 mile radius until January 2006!

All I can say is that we are SO LUCKY it wasn't worse. That night, I saw my baby walk into the kitchen, look up at the stove...and then turn the knob on high! I was floored! I immediately pulled all the knobs off, installed a CO2 monitor, changed the batteries in the smoke detectors, placed a fire extinguisher next to the stove, and took stock in Febreeze.

our insurance went up by 10%.
our deductible is $1,000.
we smell like a house full of smokers.
my baby is to blame.
beans are a protein.

*Needless to say, I caught a glimpse of what the hurricane victims have had to go through, and IT.SUCKS. My heart aches for their pain and suffering. I still cannot even imagine...