in the middle of a firestorm

many of you might remember my extended family members who were right in the middle of the fires in California a few weeks ago. I got this email shortly after they were allowed to return to their home. If you ever wondered what it is like to be in the middle of something like this, please read on as my brother-in law describes it in his own words....

Evacuated again, third time in three years - and this was the worst!

House had flames within sight on 3+ sides - several hundred yards tops each
way, maybe 75 yards at the closest. Smoke was so thick in our yard that, at
one point, I couldn't see the end of a 20-foot driveway from the doorway of
the garage. Even before it got that close and that thick, half-burned leaves
were dropping in our yard, still warm. Fires were within 20 feet of a half
dozen homes within shouting distance, and several yards were burned. Winds
topped 40mph, with gusts up to 75mph! Helicopters dropped water more than 9
times behind a single house, but the flames kept coming. Two houses burned
down, but that was a few neighborhoods away.

Sent the rest of the family out of harm's way well before noon. I stuck
around, packing up pictures from the walls, spraying the bushes and trees
and patio with both hoses, and gathering info from neighbors, cops, and
firemen - or what info I could; radio, tv, and internet aren't very useful
in circumstances like this - ya gotta be on the ground. I left by 430 -
which was good, because it apparently flared up and was dropping embers in
our yard as late as 9pm.

Spent the night @ a beach hotel, made a mini-vacation of it, and came back
home today. There
are only a few plumes of smoke visible, and the firetrucks haven't been in
the neighborhood for almost 14 hours, woot.


for those of you who were keeping a good thought or a prayer goin their way, thank you. There were many internet friends who were hopin for the best.. fortunately the best possible outcome ocurred and everyone is fine. Lets just hope they move out of that hell hole sometime soon!

we are family

Our visit to florida was turned upside down with a 1 am call to 911 when my visiting uncle (who was fine a couple hours before) fell ill. 2 DAYS in the ER later.. and finally a room available, we find out he has a pulmonary embolism. We are very fortunate that it didn't happen on the plane, and that they were able to find it in time.. But what was supposed to be a kinda veggin out with the family trip turned into running across town several times a day and trips to the hospital. We went down to visit with them, and were gonna do it wherever they happened to be, even if it meant the ER. He is now resting and on massive blood thinners as they try to get it to dissipate.. In our travels, we came across some fun stuff. including the house that I posted a picture of from my camera phone.. here are some better photos of the display.













see the creepy santa photos continued on the post below

creepy santa

and here is the creepy santa that actually made some small children cry.. we were actually a lil scared as well!

santa's nightmare!

here's a house we found in florida.. it looks like santa threw up!

Oh Christmas tree.....

(this post is in two parts, as blogger wouldn't let me post all the pics in one post)

it's that time of year! the time when we break out all of our ornaments and decorate our holiday tree! Usually we get a 7 and half foot tree, but this year we went for a smaller version.

here she is before she got all spiffied up!

we have many ornaments that have sentimental value to us. Each year the very first ornament we put up is the one that we got the very first christmas we were together..


then there are the two ornaments that represent our beloved furbabies who are no longer with us.. my dog watts, and butter's cat "little man" (he's got one of those registered names, but we called him little man)



the gingerbread cookie that we made on our holiday with our nephew last year.. it was the first time he had ever made gingerbread cookies, and I saved a few of them to make ornaments out of.. how martha stewarty of me huh?

oh christmas tree pt 2 and VICTORY!!!!

(this is the second part of my christmas tree post, see above)

When one of my favorite cousins passed away after a courageous battle with breast cancer, I found this ornament at hallmark, and decided to get it and honor her every year. A part of the proceed from the sale of the ornament go to the Susan G. Komen breast cancer center, so it was also a way to do a good thing.
I miss her.. and cry every year I put it up.


We have assorted other little fun ornaments, like the one that looks like our other dog..


and of course, ornaments that have been handed down to us by our parents, and butter's godmother, who started getting her silver crosses as presents wen she became too old for dolls, so we have quite a few of those around the tree as well. and of course new ones that we pick up every year.
Here is the finishing touch.. the angel...


in other news, the office decorating competition took place last week... and I am more than happy to announce that WE WON!!!!!!!
oh yeah, what's that smell? oh yes, it's the smell of victory.
Our theme was christmas under the sea. (kind of a play on the fact that they just opened this huge aquarium here this past year.) apparently we weren't the only ones to think of that, cause a couple of other departments had the same sort of idea.
we turned a long windowed partition into the side wall of an aquarium, hung many fish from the ceiling inside said aquarium, had a boat bottom attached to the ceiling so that it looked like there was a boat above the water. fish nets, shells.. lights.. photos coming soon.. but the main competition was a department who chose "teddy bear land" as their theme.. I have to say, adults with fish and aquariums are calming and soothing, adults with literally hundreds of teddy bears around....kinda creepy.. not only were there hundreds of teddy bears, and a christmas village, but on the day of the judging, they had someone dress in a teddy bear costume.. ya know.. like a team mascot looking costume.. this person then did a little choreographed dance to try to win the judges favor.
we "borrowed" one of their smaller bears, and created a stir when a shark in our aquarium was swimming around with the back half of a teddy bear stickin out of it's mouth.
We were quite pleased with the win! the trophy will now be prominently displayed for the next year!
I will post some pictures of the competition to my flickr account in the next few days.. will make a note when they are up so that you can take a look for yourself....