Manic Monday

Well, my Monday was a bit manic. I thought my posts regarding fire were all over, but another one popped up today and scared me silly. Ben left early in the morning for his moral instruction classes and I was here with the kids doing school. After our fire last night, we had a large tree that was burning and smoldering all night long. We tried and tried to put it out, but our water was so low, that we just couldn't. We asked our nightwatchman to keep a vigil on it through the night. This morning I woke up and my house smelled like a smoke stack. We have a big trash pit that was smoldering all night too and so I went outside and sprayed the pit down with water for 10 minutes to put it out. I noticed that the big tree was still burning strong. I went into the house and about an hour later heard a roaring fire. I rushed outside to see a big group of cypress bushes near that burning tree just blazing with flames. I got the hose turned on, but the water pressure wasn't enough to help. The wind was so strong and the flames just got bigger and bigger. It was really frightening. I finally gave up on the hose, rushed to the courtyard to get some buckets and was SO relieved to see Hillary! He watches our house on Mondays when we go to town, so I screamed his name and told him the cypress was on fire. He rushed to the front with me and we got buckets and together were able to fight the flames. Wow...that was a really scary start to my day! Joe is not the only firefighter in our family anymore! Ben and myself have joined the ranks too! haha. Just kidding really, but I have a new appreciation for firefighters. I inhaled quite a bit of smoke today, and my lungs were burning! I can't imagine what fire survivors feel. I didn't even inhale that much, but it still hurt. I'm thankful that the fire didn't spread through the trees towards the house. It could have been much, much worse! We did lose a bunch of our cypress bushes which is kind of sad. It took us five years to grow them to the height they are. But, I'm thankful it was just a few bushes and not our home...or a family member! Ok...unless our house burns down, I promise not to write another fire entry this year!! :)


Emma was one highlight in my day. I am a creative team member for a digital designer. When she comes out with a new kit, I get to create a layout with it that she will use to display her digital kit being put to use. It is easy work...I create one layout per kit and I have full access to her digital store for free. Quite a trade! My husband likes it b/c I don't spend as much money on scrapbooking products either! Anyway, there is a product release this Friday and I was racking my brain to find something to create with this kit. It is pretty theme specific so was kind of struggling. An idea finally came to me, and I grabbed Emma for a photo shoot. Without giving too much away, I will say that one of the main colors in the kit is purple. So, I had Emma get her royal, purple robe on and sing me some opera. Several weeks ago she informed us that she wanted to be an opera singer when she grows up. She is so cute. She loves to sing operatic style all through the house. So, I snapped a picture of her singing Jesus Loves Me in her signature opera style. I am really happy with how my layout turned out and will share it in my Friday post when the kit is released.

Well, I had really intended for my 365 blog posts to be short and sweet, but I am learning that I'm a verbose person when it comes to writing. It is just that our days seem so full of memorable activities. Is this life in general? Or is it partly b/c I'm a missionary living in West Africa?