First day of Kindergarten "UP IN SMOKE"

m I in trouble???????

Sydnie is a pink cupcake with crystal sprinkles!

Her first homework.

"Mom how many more day's?" We started the countdown at 15. Sydnie was so anxious to start kindergarten. She is the only child that has expressed such enthusiasm. The buzz in the air was evident Aug.25th 2008. Sydnie knew she was hours away from her big day. She showered, had breakfast, got dressed and then posed for her "first day of kindergarten pictures." Ahhh finally... Sydnie is our smallest child. John and I are both tall, we wonder how she can never manage to move out of the 5th percentile for height and weight. Finding school uniforms was a challenge, but isn't she darling? She is in the 100th percentile when you evaluate and measure her personality. The "first day was really a 2 hour orientation. She didn't care, she was in kindergarten!! We left the school and I gazed at the mountain that we live on. It looked like a small controlled burn was in progress. We stopped at the grocery store for about 30 mins. and when we came out, this is what we saw..........

I couldn't drive fast enough, our house is somewhere in this smoky mess. The closer to home I got, the bigger the smoke became. It was clear that this was a wild fire not a controlled burn. John and Ashlee were in SanDiego. Within 5 min. of arriving at home, our neighborhood had all of the sights and sounds of a war zone. Helicopters, Fire engines, police cars, airplanes flying low. We stood at the bottom of our culdesac and watched the first day of Kindergarten go up in smoke. There was news of evacuating, I always thought I was prepared for this, NOT!!!

This is our roof line.

This plane was dropping fire retardant powder on the mountain. It was flying soooo low.

What did I grab???? My camera....If I couldn't save the house I would take lots of pictures of it burning down. (Duh!!) I was paralyzed. I didn't think our house would burn down but who am I to make that call? I spoke with John and he suggested I start loading the car in case we needed to evacuate. I found myself running in circles literally. I pulled it together and got pictures, laptop, external hard drive, estate planning docs. And my jewelry (can't survive an emergency without the bling!) It was a wake up call. I'm prepared for a disaster that would allow me to stay at home. But if I had to flee, our stuff is all over the house and it's impossible to remember every thing you would need to grab. "What I know for sure...." Things after all are only things. Its great to save pictures, they cannot be replaced. But everything else, well we live in America where we have more stuff to consume than is good for us. But, this was a great wake up call, and If I can save the sentimental's in the future, then its high time for me to be more organized. We survived the fire. We were safe and did not have to evacuate. WHEW!!! A shout out to all of our family and friends who were on stand by to help me out in a moments notice and who were calling to check on me every few mins. Thanks. I know that I am not alone even when John is out of town.