This Christmas-time seems a little busier than last year, for whatever reason. I'm not even sure why. I don't really have any more on the calendar than usual. But in 11 days and some odd hours, Santa will be making his way down chimneys, or if you're like me and just have one of those gas fireplaces with no chimney, I guess he comes through the front door. The fireplace is just for looks, and great for hanging stockings. Speaking of fireplace, my bedroom almost became a fireplace Sunday night. I was hanging up some clothes that had been piled on my chair in my room forever, and I started smelling something burning. I kept trying to move stuff around and figure out where the smell was coming from, and finally figured out it was coming from behind my dresser. There was no smoke, no flame, just the smell of something slowly smoldering. There's an electrical outlet back there, which you can't get to without moving the dresser, and of course the dresser is way too heavy for me to move, and OF COURSE Michael would be out of town the one and only time this year for a car auction in Nashville, and OF COURSE my Dad was on his way down to the deer woods, so I'm starting to freak out a little. I called my Dad and he was like "CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT NOW!" So 911 I dialed, and the dispatcher said "Ma'am, I'm going to ask you to get out of the house, and the fire department is in route." Oddly enough, she hung up, which I thought they stay on the line with you until the emergency people get to the location. I didn't even have time to put the kids' coats on, I just grabbed them from the closet, thankfully we all 3 had our fuzzy slippers on, and I threw the kids in the truck and THEN put their coats on. The first thing Travis asked was "Is the fire going to get our cats?" to which I replied, "No, the cats will be fine." By the time I got their coats on, like 2 minutes from the time I dialed 911, the fire trucks pulled up, and the kids were like "COOL! The big trucks with the lights!" I swear like 15 to 20 guys showed up, and Michael, I know you're reading this, but those guys were CUTE! lol My husband's out of town and I have a house full of hot firefighters, lol! The other odd thing was while I stayed outside with the kids, they walked into my house only momentarily and came back out and asked me to come in "because we can't just go in your house and look around like that." My first thought was why not? I mean, they're the freaking Fire Department, and if there is a suspected danger in my house, they shouldn't allow me back in until it's checked out and no danger found, RIGHT? And secondly, I had to stay outside with my kids...I wasn't going to just LEAVE them there. So one of the firemen stayed outside with them while I went back in the house. They moved the dresser out, felt of the wall, which they said it wasn't hot or anything, and they went out in the garage to check the breaker box, and their only explanation was that sometimes dust can build up back there, and get hot in the outlet. I had a small lamp that sits on my dresser plugged in back there, which hasn't even been turned on in years, so why it would suddenly get hot is really weird. They unplugged the lamp, and I can't help but wonder if the thing was shorting out. It's probably a really good thing I got them out here. Just to be safe, my Dad's going to check out the outlet really good to make sure it's in good working order and doesn't pose any further threat. When I got back outside, the kids were being fully entertained by the guy that stayed out there with them. He was tickling Jacob, making him laugh so hard, and they had some stuffed animals on their truck and gave both the boys one, which I thought was so sweet! Travis even got to hold his big flashlight. To the kids, it was nothing more than an adventure, which I was glad because I really didn't want them to get scared and have a meltdown. All Travis talked about the rest of the night was "I like fire fighters!" Needless to say, I didn't want to even think about sleeping in that bedroom the last couple nights while Michael was gone, so we all slept in the living room and had a "sleepover". Travis was excited about having a sleepover, even though no one was sleeping over, lol. We made Christmas cookies at 11 p.m., ate them, watched a movie, and went to sleep. I've stayed pretty busy to pass the time, with Christmas wrapping, and cleaning, and last night my Mother-in-law came over and ate supper with us and helped me paint Jacob's "big boy room", and it looks really good! I had to put another coat on it this morning, and hopefully tonight I can pull all the tape off and get it bordered, but not sure how far I'll get with that because I've got to go to my Mom's to do my laundry because my washer is BROKE, it's been broke now almost 2 weeks, and the part my Dad ordered has YET to come in. I haven't washed clothes since last Monday, so you can probably imagine that with 2 messy little boys, I have a TON of laundry to get done today. The rest of my week is all planned out, which doesn't even include getting my Christmas cards done this week and the rest of my Christmas treats made. But it will get done! I just have to make a little "to do" list and check things off so that it'll look like I've accomplished something. TTFN!