machine gun fire

what would you call it?

kind of like hurricane igor.

who is in charge of naming this stuff anyway?

there is a black mountain behind my house
surely everyone has heard about it

we were at my parents when the fire started.  to make a very long story short, we decided to head home around 8:00 to see if we needed to get some things, including the dog, just in case.

driving down from the east side, this is what we saw

naturally, we were all feeling quite uneasy as we drove closer.  cayden was crying.  gavin kept asking about the fire.

when we got to our neighborhood it was like a ghost town.  there was ash in the air and the smell was terrible.

it was difficult to decide how serious we felt the threat was.  from our back porch we could see the homes burning on the hill.  the fire was clearly moving fast and the flames were huge.  the wind was strong and the fires movement was not in our favor.

we realized that no one was going to sleep and the smell was so bad, we decided to pack up and head out.  the mandatory evacuation area was one street above our home.  see, i marked the map for you, "our house."

{images courtesy of various media outlets}

deciding what to take and what to leave was a surreal feeling.  seriously.  how many times have you thought to yourself "what would i grab?"  answering that question is easy when you're not actually making a choice.  what do you grab!?

there were mini moments i felt slightly emotional.  the logical side of me realized these things are just things but, the emotional side of me kept visualizing all these things, our things, up in flames.

i gave the kids each a couple of bags and told them to grab what was most important to them.  of course, i made my own choices on their behalf after they made their own selections but, i didn't feel like it was my place to tell them what was important and what was not.  hence, unpacking once we finally returned home was an entertaining experience.  i noted some of my favorites except for one, i forgot to write down which was cayden having packed his swimsuit.  just in case. (click on image to enlarge by "zoom"):

jake and i laughed as we were grabbing things and then later on as we were reminiscing.  he was really concerned about grabbing winter clothes. his suitcase was twice the size as mine and i packed four people in the amount of time he packed himself (yes babe, i'm picking on you).  i didn't think twice about clothing at all.  he thought it interesting that i grabbed my grubbiest pair of flip flops (they were on top of the pile) and i laughed at the fact that i had at least a weeks supply of workout clothing but not much else.

personally, i think my list was a little more thought out.  i grabbed everyone's files that include our birth certificates and social security cards.  of course, all of our insurance information and photo albums.  i packed all of jakes old wrestling films and the lladro my grandma gave me years ago.   if i could have, i would have carried my cedar chest out too.

each of the kids has a box full of cards everyone has given them and their baby books, things like that.  i grabbed each of these and each of their "coming home from the hospital" outfits.   these were the things that were important to me.

honestly, i didn't feel like our home was in great danger but, you never know and like i said before, i've never seen anything like that fire in my life.  watching those homes burn left me feeling really uneasy.  they were engulfed within minutes.  can you even imagine!?

after school yesterday the kids and i drove around to see the aftermath.  i do not lie when i tell you that the fire line is literally feet away from several homes.  the firefighters and all involved are truly amazing.  it saddens me to see the media follow and highlight the few negative stories out of this.  like the guy bitching about not being able to get back to his house for just a minute or people saying they didn't respond as quickly as the should have.  shoulda coulda woulda.  

of course i'm grateful to my parents for letting us share their home.  my poor dad.  his worst nightmare come true; one of his kids and her family moved into his fifth wheel, sleeping in his backyard.  we laughed at this.  

the kids were nervous to go home.  gavin especially.  so far, the air is still really stinky but, the rain is falling now so hopefully that will aid these poor firefighters who are surely very tired.

thanks to all of you in our lives who called to check on us.  cayden told me yesterday that it made him feel "love in his heart" that so many people called to see if we were okay.  i second that statement.