House, Skydiving, Lion King

So we finally got back into our house, after staying with my aunt for nearly two weeks. The smoke smell is gone and our mantle is white again.

Yesterday Eric's dad, Josh, and Eric went skydiving, in that order. The first two skydives went well. The plane is so small that normally the only people that go up are the pilot, tandem instructor, skydiver, and photographer. Since Eric wasn't getting pictures this time there was a little extra room, so two solo skydivers went up with him. When they finally jumped out of the plane we could tell that one of the skydivers was free falling a lot further than normal. Since they were still so high up we couldn't tell who it was. We asked one of the workers on the ground if something was wrong and he said, "There may be." He went and got a few other workers. Some took off running, some sped off in a golf cart, and another brought out a camera to take pictures. It turns out the parachute did not open properly. It looked something like this:

We were finally able to see which parachute belonged to Eric and his tandem instructor, so we knew it was not them having the trouble. Thankfully the solo skydiver with the parachute problem did not panic (at least not too much) and was able to cut his parachute away and use his reserve. The knot in my stomach from watching something that could have ended so tragically stayed with me for a few hours afterwards.

For dinner yesterday we met up with Stacey, Wes, and Makenzie as they drove through Temple. Makenzie has grown so much since the last time we saw her. She loved Fuddruckers' Christmas music and danced the entire time we were there.

Today Eric, Rachel, and I are headed to San Antonio to see The Lion King. I'm super excited!

The performance will be at the Majestic Theater, which is where my mom, Rachel, and I saw Wicked several months ago. The theater itself is pretty magical. It is very ornate and the ceiling is designed to look like the nighttime sky, complete with stars and wispy clouds.

Eric has been pestering me for the past 20 minutes to get off the computer and get ready, so I better go!

B-O-R-E-D

My students are benchmark testing today and for the next two days as well. Basically this means that they use ALL day to take a practice TAKS test while I watch to make sure no one is cheating. In theory it sounds great--no lesson plans, peace and quiet, catch up on blogging ;) . . . But in reality, it is BORING! I think my day would actually go by a lot faster if I was teaching. Since I currently have all the time in the world I suppose I can update you on the latest excitement at our house.

On Tuesday night Eric decided he wanted to start the first fire at our new house. Being carefree like he is, Eric lit a starter log and went about his business.

Pretty soon we realized the house was getting a little smoky. Eric moved a lever on the side of the fireplace to see if that would help clear the air, but it didn't. By then we had a roaring fire and no apparent way to draw smoke up and out of the chimney. I googled "how to stop a fire in a fireplace" and soon realized that once a fire is going good, there's not much that can be done.

Suddenly the hazy smoke we had been seeing started turning into black billowing smoke and the flames were coming out of the fireplace and touching the surrounding bricks. We had only one resort--call 911. The operator told Eric we needed to get Lucy and quickly get out of the house.

A few minutes later a police car pulled up and at that point Lucy and I were quickly welcomed into a neighbor's house. Thanks Sarah! :) Shortly after making it inside, we heard more sirens. Apparently one firetruck wasn't enough, they sent four! Along with the firetrucks was an EMS vehicle. Sarah's little boy, Caleb, thought we were pretty cool neighbors, after all we did manage to fill the entire street with firetrucks!

One of the firemen used the correct switch to open the damper and then they, along with Eric, formed an assembly line and transferred bowls of water from our kitchen sink to our fireplace until the fire went out. Before they left one of the firemen suggested that the next time Eric wanted to be romantic he should just turn on the heater instead of lighting a fire!

Our house had little visible damage--a now gray mantle and blackened bricks around the fireplace--but the worst part was the smoke damage. Eric and I decided it would not be wise to inhale those fumes all night, so we packed up and spent the night at my aunt's house.

Turns out cleaning up smoke damage is an expensive, time consuming process. The company our insurance recommended cleaned the carpets, wet washed the walls, wiped down the ceiling, sent out couch cushions and some clothing to be dry cleaned, washed all of our dishes, wiped down all of our furniture, cleaned the AC unit, cleaned the bricks, painted the mantle, and ozoned the house. We're hoping to be back in our house this evening assuming all has gone well. The one good thing coming from all of this is that I'll have a clean house. :)

So here's a FREE lesson to all of you--make sure your damper is open before starting a fire or better yet, turn on your heater instead!

We've had even more excitement this past week, but you'll have to wait on that. My AP just walked in and I sure don't want to be caught typing a blog. . . .