Thoughts In No Particular Order

First I'd like to give a big HELLO/WHATSUP/THANKS to all my commenters from my Delurker post.

To my new outers, Portia, Laura, S, Vickie, Pam and Portia.  Thanks for coming out of hiding.  Please comment when you can.  Otherwise I kinda feel like I'm talking to myself....which I already do enough of.

Ahem.

To my stalkers: Carlota (my BFF woot! woot!), Lindy (my first blog stalker) and Jessica B. I love you all.  Thanks for continuing to stalk.  You make me feel way more important that I am.

And finally to my regulars Maggie and Tiffany T. Thank you for being consistent!

I know I have other readers who weren't quite ready to come out yet.  And that's ok.  No rush.

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So this weekend was a nice long weekend.  The thing is it started off horribly for a family across from me.

Around 10:30 Friday night, me and my husband watched as this family of 5 stood outside and watched their house burn.  A small fire the started in the garage quickly spread and within minutes had gotten out of control.

Everyone got out safe (thank the Lord) but they have pretty much lost everything.

This has been weighing heavy on my heart.  At the time I was able to take in their children (6 year olds twins, a boy and girl) and their teenage son. 

I was able to calm the younger kids, get them snacks and juice and distract them with Nickelodeon but it was hard to take the attention away from the fire truck lights and commotion just outside my kitchen window.

The teenager got hooked up with the X-Box and my husband let a few of his friends come in and play with him.

But still my heart aches.  Yes, I send clothes with the 6 yr old girls because it was all I had to offer.

But I still can't imagine what they are going through.  One minute they are watching tv with their father on a Friday night and the next they own nothing but the clothes on their backs.

But they are safe.  And I try to look at that positive side of this horrendous situation.

The next morning they came back to view the damage.  Hubby went over to give them a hand.  Close to nothing was salvagable, between heat, smoke and water damage everything is at a loss.

They will pull through this.  I am sure of it.  Thankfully being military they were put up in the base hotel immediately and they already have a new house (on a different street) for them to move into.

We will give what we can to them.  I have clothes for their precious girl.  I will get gift cards for them to get more clothes.  I will get toys because I can't imagine how confused these babies are.

It got me to thinking how unprepared we are for a fire.  I have never had a fire drill with Lael.  I wouldn't know where to begin.

I don't even own a fire safe.  I DO know where my extinguisher is so that IS a start but how old is it? Does it work?  I should probably check my detectors.

So many thoughts....my heart aches.  As I type this my husband is over there now helping out.  I'm not sure what he's doing but I'm sure they are greatful.

I gotta go so I can order pizza for them...it seems like such a small gesture but I know it's all those small things that matter the most.