Catching up

I've been lax with my blogging. We've had a few things happen lately.

If you've read the blog at all this week, you know that the kids and I went to Amarillo for a few days while Steve was in England. When we got back home, it was about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. I was unloading the SUV and came in at one point to be greeted with this sight:


Julie had gotten into the pantry, grabbed an open box of cereal, and helped herself. Wonderful. Fortunately it was the store brand and only $2 a box. I vacuumed it all up. Easy come, easy go - especially when you don't lock the child lock.

So things went along well until last night. I was letting the kids watch videos in the office while we were waiting for Steve to come home, when Caleb comes running into the living room and says, "We were throwing T-Rex in the office and he's on top of the lamp and he's on fire!" I bolted into the office, hurdling over toys, furniture, and children, to find Caleb's favorite stuffed animal, his T-Rex, on top of the halogen lamp. The lamp was on and the stuffy was smoking. My first thought was, "Pooh fire!" (long story involving my cousin Zachary when he was little, bunk beds, a Pooh bear pillow, and a halogen lamp) but I also remembered my Uncle George saying that when he took the pillow off the lamp, it burst into flames because of the rush of oxygen.

So I unplugged the lamp and carried the whole thing out to the front sidewalk. I turned on the hose and played fireman. Fire out. Six-year-old in hysterics. I get Nana on the phone and he bellers to her for a while as I try to find out where Steve is. He shows up about 10 minutes after the fire and takes Caleb out to see T-Rex.

On the phone in hysterics. I personally like Audrey's look of "Oh my!"

R.I.P. Paddington the T-Rex