Sunday, April 13, 2008

I'm Back - And the Bad News Report!

Hmm.. Notice a little something here? We have two burn barrels - one that is retired and waiting to go to the dump and the other, behind the first, which is used for burning. It's meant for burning things INSIDE the barrel, not outside, as in NOT the lawn.

So, after a couple days of pure scrap booking Nirvana (aka, nonstop nose to the grindstone scrap booking!) along with daily doses of Java (which I only drink when I travel - wink!) I arrived home to quite the drama scene...

Here's how it all played out.

  1. The girl's 'van' pulls up to the house to deliver me safe and sound to my family.
  2. Darling Son is right there.. He pulled a stealth attack. As in he snuck up right behind me and surprised me with a big cheesy grin followed by a big cheesy hug.
  3. Darling Son has an interesting look on his face. Soon Darling Daughter is at his side.
  4. They both offer to bring in my 1,000 pound luggage pieces (actually 5 lbs for my clothing bag, 500 each for 2 scrap book bags).
  5. I get suspicious. Think to myself 'OH, they love me and missed me so!', but then my mommy instincts kick in and whisper 'something happened while you were gone'.
  6. Then, they announce their news... "We have some bad news and some good news"
  7. First the 'so called' good news: "We have a knight!". Translation: They caught a field mouse and it is now residing in my lovely house.. ACK. Their father allowed this. Oh.. the mouse is a Knight because we read Despereaux together... A cute book... So the mouse is now called Despereaux.
  8. Now for the bad news: "We had a fire."
I'm sorry, did you say fire???

OK.. So let's discuss #8 shall we? The actual details are that my ever so handsome and sometimes not very 'on the ball' husband (translation: clueless!) let our son play with matches without adult supervision (this usually occurs when he doesn't listen to his father instincts - and trust me, father instincts are a whole different dimension than mommy instincts - I could write a book just on my own experiences. The main gist is that fathers believe that if at the end of the day, if the kids are still alive, then everything is just fine! No grey areas).

Well, maybe 'playing with matches' is a stretch. He actually let Jake go out and burn the paper trash on his own.. without checking to see if everything was up to code... so the result my friends, is the beautiful torched area you see in the photos above... My BOYS are so darn lucky the fence didn't catch on fire (which goes around the entire yard and ties into fences along the property which borders 2 1/2 miles of the highway!), or that the buildings didn't catch fire, or that we still have a home, livestock, a ranch and friendly neighbors! Gads... Men folk...

I researched the entire operation.. turns out the top of the trash was 'above' the burn barrel, as in gee, it falls out when it burns. Men. Sigh. See? No supervision. If my husband had looked at the trash first, then given the AOK then perhaps this would not have happened... Or say, if he would have just watched my son light the fire, then say, stayed outside to keep an eye on the burning of my yard, then perhaps the patch would only be say, 1 foot square, rather than 1/4 of an acre...

So. I'm not sure what is worse. Having a wild mouse living in the house, a torched yard, or the third offense... that the kids never bathed while I was gone! Disgusting!!!!

Things definitely are run differently when I am not here to keep on eye on everyone.

But heck.. I was scrap booking! What do I care!

I'll share photos of my latest creations later...

6 comments:

Dawn said...

AHHHHHHHHHHH, I don't even know what to say! UGH, what the heck UGH.....WOW, ugh...LOL I am glad everyone is okay and that it did not other damage. WOW, that is just crazy Andi, Glad your home!!

Cynthia said...

ACK....Men!!!! Men, Men, Men!!!

Seriously, glad it wasn't worse...

*karendianne. said...

Oh my freakin' GAWD men are so stupid sometimes I can hardly stop my head from spinnin' and channeling the Exorcist.

This was nothing but an evil Male Plot to keep you from feeling "safe" from leaving again in the future, which I totally know you're NOT going to fall for.

Sheesh. I'm thinkin' I'm kinda mad at men now. again...

noble pig said...

Ugh, bummer, boo-ya. That's the worst and scary. See what happens when the cat's away! Eeks! Glad your back to get that house in shape!

Lisa Renéa said...

lolritf, gosh, I'm sooo happy for your that this had a positive outcome! Yes, I've had boys who played with fire...yikes! Love your travel book, too. I can't believe you had the patience to modge podge the whole thing! Wow! Your serious with scrap'n!! The book is downright gorgeous!!

Sandy said...

Goodness gracious---they just want you to know they NEEEEEED you to keep them safe, right? I'm sure that's what the fire was all about....

(And I should keep up better, I was a little lost about where Despereaux had come from!)

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