Let me start with a backstory here: Kaitlyn texted me yesterday and stated she was staying the night with a friend after the fair. I STARTED to send notice to MP and let him know she wouldn’t be home last night, but it was 4:00ish pm and he was busy, playing golf for work. Apparently, it builds TEAMS AND RELATIONSHIPS, Y’ALL. So since I knew I wouldn’t be able to reach him on the phone, I decided to just tell him later.
Well, “later” happened to occur at a time when Swaid hated the world and Brogan cried a lot over a lost Happy Meal toy. I can’t make this up. I finally got her consoled and MP came in at the EXACT minute I began to feel myself losing all patience with Swaid and I just had to walk away. Being the loving father he is, MP put his work down, took Swaid outside, and they jumped on the “trampleeeen”. This gave me just enough time to make chocolate milk, microwave chicken nuggets, and dump some Doritos onto plates. Because sometimes nutrition is over-rated. As Brogan ate, I prepared her bath. But THEN Swaid came in and decided he wanted to take Brogan’s bath and she was cool with that so HE ate dinner and then took her bubble bath. It's just easier for me to bathe them individually. That way, no one can fight over Barbie Mermaids and plastic dump trucks.
By this time, I’d relieved MP so he was back upstairs working. Both kids were happy and fed. Swaid was bathed and tucked in. And then I got Brogan ready for bed. Again, I forgot to tell MP that Kaitlyn was staying the night out and again I started to tell him, BUT I realized I had not eaten and it was like 8:00pm. So I ate Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I don't have to justify this. By THIS time, all was right with the world again, but Swaid had had a late nap and he wasn’t ready for bed, like AT ALL. Instead, he and Brogan wanted me to watch Minnie Mouse's Masquerade Ball on dvd in his room. So I complied and we all piled into his queen sized bed. As soon as the movie ended I remembered again that I needed to tell MP that Kaitlyn was out. But I didn’t because I promptly fell asleep with both kids.
Cue dream sequence music:
It's somewhere between 2-3am, I am barely awake, but still quite asleep. I hear a loud popping noise that soon sounds like someone dropped a metal spoon in the garbage disposal and turned it on. I hear commotion in the kitchen and hear chairs being shoved across the floor. At first I think it’s just Kaitlyn, but then I remembered she was staying out. THEN I wondered if we were being robbed. I don’t know how long this had been going one before I woke up, but I eventually got up to check it out and found MP putting a fire out in our kitchen. At 2:30am.
It was then that I actually woke up and confirmed that MP had, in fact, just PUT OUT A FIRE IN OUR KITCHEN AT 2:30AM.
The first thing I said to him was, “Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you that Kaitlyn is spending the night out.” He said, “I have been awake for over an hour WAITING on her.” For a minute, I thought he was mad, but he wasn’t. In fact, I suspect it was at that point he realized that BECAUSE I’d forgotten to tell him about Kaitlyn, he got concerned and got up to make sure she hadn’t texted saying she'd been in a wreck or something. And BECAUSE he got up, he found the fire in our kitchen.
Basically, I’m a HERO.
**I know I'm not the REAL HERO in this story. You guys, I don't forget ANYTHING. It is so unlike me to forget to tell MP that KK wasn't coming home. Like, UNHEARD OF. It is no coincidence I forgot to tell him. It was no coincidence that MP got out of bed to check on her and found a FIRE. It is no coincidence I'd chosen that night to sleep with both my children. I am a very light sleeper, so chances are I would have heard the noise, but I would have panicked and like, thrown WATER on it or something. Seriously. I don't do well under pressure. Praising the Lord for His hand of protection over us all.
You're probably wondering what that is. Well, the wrought iron stand you see holds our 55 gallon fishtank. This is where Goldie, our fancytail, and Jerry, our catfish, live. There are several other fish, but they don't have names. And yes, we have an actual catfish as a pet. And I feed him cat food.
Apparently, the condensation build-up under the tank just happened to make contact with the pump cord. The water ran down the pump cord into the surge protector. And it started a fire with real flames and errythang. Our house was filled with smoke and now it smells like burnt plastic. That baseboard may need to be replaced and the wall will most defintately need to be repainted, but it doesn't appear that there is any actual damage inside the wall. Praise God.
MP was fast thinking enough to open all the windows and doors and fan the smoke away from the smoke detector in the hallway. He didn't want it to wake me and the kids. I love that man.
And I was only 6 minutes late for work this am.
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