Liar Liar, OH MY GOD, FIRE

Wow.

Wow.

WOW.

In an instant, your entire world can change.

In an instant, everything that you've taken for granted pretty much your whole life, can literally go up in smoke.

In an instant, you can be upstairs getting one kid dressed, while downstairs, another kid decides to blow out the candle that Daddy lit earlier in the day.

In an instant, while you are helping with socks, the smoke alarm can go off.

In an INSTANT, you can hear your child start screaming hysterically from downstairs.

Wow.

Wow.

WOW.

If you don't have a smoke alarm -

Get one.

As soon as possible.

If you don't -

If WE didn't -

I still may have run down the stairs quickly enough to see flames to the ceiling in my living room.

I still may have been able, to grab the burning "scented sticks in a bottle of scented FLAMMABLE ALCOHOL" before it exploded all over my living room.

I still might have had enough time to grab the bottle and throw it in the kitchen sink, and douse the fire on top of my entertainment center, before any "real" damage happened.

Maybe I would have had the time.

Maybe.

If you read Scott's blog yesterday, you would have read about a seemingly very nice, normal guy, with a seemingly very nice, normal, wife, with a seemingly very nice, normal, life -

who just lost EVERYTHING to a fire.

God, I am blessed that we had that smoke detector.

I am blessed that this happened during the day, when I had a chance to react.

WE are BLESSED, that a spur of the moment decision by my 5 yr old daughter, did not lead to us losing our house, our possessions, our pets, our lives.....

Tonight we had obligations that kept me from testing our fire extinguisher.

I am actually shaking my head at myself as I re-read that last line,

but it is true. Tonight, we had obligations that kept me from testing our fire extinguisher.

After reading that same sentence again -

rather then waiting for tomorrow to make sure it works,

I am going to do it now.

Wow.

Wow.

WOW.

But for the grace of God.

PS - I am adding to this post, as I was just contemplating life as I currently know it while sitting in the bathroom (where I do some of my best thinking)

Thank GOD I had the presence of mind, to assess the situation and respond correctly.

Thank GOD, I had to presence of mind, to calm both of my hysterical children down (one of whom did not even see what was going on but freaked anyway)

Thank GOD, that instead of freaking out myself, that I was able to turn this incident into a lesson for both of my kids, in that I comforted them until they were ready to hear the facts. the facts that a "little" fire such as it was could have easily turned into an uncontrollable fire, and I told them what they should do if GOD FORBID such a thing happens -

'STOP DROP ROLL" if they are on fire

YELL AND GET OUT if any thing or any ONE is on fire.

We won't be burning any candles for a while in our house.