Days 11 & 12

Surprise! There really is an updated list following today's entry. I know, I'm slow and really uncomfortable asking for help.

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope everyone gets and gives lots of hugs today, and remembers to be grateful for life and for each other. Everything else in life is just stuff and doesn't really matter.

Day 12 - Sunday
Lady - my dad's dog - got to go to church today. There wasn't anyone to ask to take her on short notice this morning (Oops! We forgot!) so she sat with my dad through all the meetings - mostly out in the hall. I bet if anyone else had brought their dog to church they would have been politely asked to leave, but how can you tell the nice "elderly" man whose house just burned down that his dog needs to stay home? Now I wonder how many parents are going to have a hard time explaining to their kids that Fido can't come to church next week...

Thanks to Jennifer and Lyman for hosting our family Mother's Day dinner at their home. The weather was perfect for grilling chicken and eating outside, and the kids managed not to drive anyone crazy - yet. Jennifer taught Rose how to make a killer chocolate pie out of avocado, too! Yum!

After dinner, some of the family - including my mom! - watched news reports from the day of the fire (isn't DVR awesome?) I'm still fuming that there was ever any report of possible "children playing with matches." GROWL Oh sure, no one is going to believe the mom who says her kids would never play with matches. Those same people don't know their own kids half as well as I know mine (homeschool has lots of side benefits), don't know how much we all hated going in that garage, and don't know my kids' past experience with fire. If they had been home and actually had any free time that day they're far too smart to choose playing with matches in a spooky, cold, smelly garage over the chance to play on the xbox. Duh! Besides, they're all such tattletales I'm sure I would have heard about it within 5 minutes. NO, no one in our family was playing with matches. The boys did get up early and sneak downstairs - I heard them whispering and then caught them playing their most recent favorite game on the xbox. They all spent the rest of the morning working frantically to finish their homework before we had to leave. We hadn't been home for at least two hours when it started, and the investigators told me right off that it wasn't a smoldering fire. I have my own theory, if they're done blaming my children (who were 50 miles away at the time) and want to hear it.

My favorite thing that was reported in the news was all the ammunition that was going off inside the house. Gasp! It made for a great story and sure, something was exploding in there. Funny thing, though, I found only one spent shell afterward. I did find the remains of cases of aerosol cans (which had been full of an expensive machine lubricant) that my dad had stored on a top shelf in my office and school room. Ever heard an aerosol can explode? I'm betting it sounds something like a gunshot.

Whew! I need to stop fuming now. I think I'll go eat another piece of pie.

Day 11 - Saturday
It looks like my dad's old new laptop is now my mom's new laptop, is wireless enabled, and works just fine! It was in the one place that was not damaged by fire or water, and was rescued and put away. I have been trying very hard not to overuse it ever since I discovered it! And to think a few months ago I didn't even know what war driving is... *flex*

I did manage to find almost all of the lost library books for awesome prices at Amazon and Half.com, and should be able to get them all replaced very soon. Being unable to reserve or renew books online due to $300 in fines is almost as frustrating as not having computer access at all. I really am a library addict!

Updated List of Things We Need
-- moved to most recent post --