National Smoke Out Days...

So, mom came on the 8th, she got here at 10:30am and we just caught up, etc. until it was time to go see Marshall. We left my house at 12:30 and had been in the car about 7 minutes and my cell phone rings...it's Tammy (Philip's girlfriend), "Where are you?" I know that I'm not late because we had until 1:00 to get where we were going..."I'm on my way". Big sigh of relief, "Can you stop and pick up Kat (Philip's mom) and the mac and cheese?" Sure why not...we had to do this because the Rec Center that we were going to was not open for our event and they were frantically calling everyone to come let them in! We got to the center safe and sound by 1:00 and then we all stood around until someone came with keys - the lady who booked it forgot to write it down and then took off to Florida for the weekend! The football banquet was a lot of fun, trophies for all the kids and a few got perfect attendance awards too (practice and games) - Marshall got each...good food from Sticky Fingers (BBQ), and the sodas/cake were donated by grocery stores (the kids sent thank you cards to them). After the banquet Marshall, mom and myself went out Christmas shopping - I got all the cousins ornaments, and am almost done with the rest of my shopping too (I know you all hate me)! Then it was home to order pizza and work an Marshall's essay. He had an essay due the previous week and decided not to do it and as a courtesy the teacher gave him the weekend to do it - awfully nice of her! It was the "National Smoke Out Essay" he had 4 questions to answer and it was to be a minimum of 200 words. What fun he and my mom had as the only non-smokers in my house coming up with all sorts of ways to "discourage" people from smoking. :-)

On the 9th we kind of lazed around most of the day, went to the mall and out for lunch then finished off by watching the newly released on to DVD "Kung Fu Panda". It is such a cute movie, this was my third time seeing it...but adorable just the same. Mom left with Marshall at 5pm and made her way on to the farm, I finished being lazy and got to bed as I had work the next morning.

The 10th and 11th were trying days for me at work. Our team member who had went out for surgery was back and it was difficult to get her back into the swing of things, especially since we have changed some things since her departure. Hopefully, the rest of this week and next week is all it will take to get everyone settled back in. Today is the 12th, I woke up this morning at 5am and immediately went, "What's that smell?" I looked out into the living room and it was hazy...I asked Jason if he had lit a fire or something - no. Checked Natosha's room, nothing. So definitely coming from the living room! The fire log we had lit last night had smoldered all night from the inside out - not hot enough to go up the chimney so it came into the house! I took a pail of water and poured it into my fireplace, picked up the log and threw it outside, broke into a few large pieces and sure enough...the inside was charred, but the outside was barely touched! Needless, to say - the AC unit fan is on as is every exhaust fan, so it sounds like I'm sitting in a tornado or something even as I am writing this. By the grace of my 5am wake up call we are all fine, throats and eyes a little dry, clothes and furniture smell funny but we are all okay!