Tuesday, August 14, 2007

The Fire Alarm That Wasn't

The lights start going off, the alarm is blaring...of course you aren't going to think it's a real fire drill, they hardly ever are, right? So we are all sitting around, enjoying the club like feel of the strobe light, when Becky calls and says she saw smoke in the stairwell...oops, perhaps we should have been evacuating.

Then, we hear an overhead page saying that all the employees and patients have to evacuate the building. We grab our stuff and head out, and as usual, everyone is standing at the main entrance to the hospital, all unorganized and frazzled, waiting for any news.

Apparently someone got stuck in the elevator, and some huge panel came over from the wall next to the elevator and covered it up, made it inaccessible. We ended up out there for two minutes, thinking we might get to go home early, when they told us that we could go back in, it was just someone who was fixing the tiles on the roof who managed to create a flame.

Now everyone was trying to get on the elevators to get up to our floor, the 5th floor, and there was just as much chaos as when everyone thought there was a blaze in the building!

Back to work for the next hour and a half, oh well, at least we got to breathe some fresh air and take a break for a few minutes!

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Camping with the Family


Our family went camping for my niece, Elizabeth's, birthday this past July. (she's the one in the pink) All the kids were as dirty as can be, especially Evan, the littlest. But they certainly were having fun climbing over rocks and running around with sticks...although I'm not so sure that was the best idea.
Nathan ended up sleeping in Eric's (Bonnie's then Fiancee) tent. Five-thirty the next morning he's pounding on the mattress pad..."wake up, it's morning!!" Eric thought it best to wake up rather than to risk Nathan attempting to start a fire in the pit by himself. He was such a good sport.
Heather, Brooke, the kids and I all spent a little time in the afternoon down at the stream, soaking our feet and watching Katelyn fall 2 or 3 times as she walked barefoot on the slippery rocks...she was wet from head to foot!!
Mom and Dad even made a cameo appearance on Friday, with Grandpa trying to take the grandkids 4-wheeling. Dyke and Nathan got to go for a spin, but then the machine stopped mysteriously and wouldn't start again. Unfortunately that signaled the end of 4-wheeling for the day. (the can-am is back from the shop and working fine now, by the way)
Mom stayed close to camp, chatting with heather, doing an ever-present crossword puzzle, and trying to stay out of the sun.
We all had tacos for dinner, and peach cobbler which Brooke made in her dutch oven, although she forgot to add the eggs, it was really good. She tried to add them in when she realized she had forgotten them, but at that point we would have had peach cobbler with sunny-side-up eggs on top!
The parents left for the evening, hitting a deer along the way, but luckily, they suffered very little damage, only mild heart attacks and a bent bumper.
Overall, it wasn't too bad of a camping experience and it was fun to have the family there...all except Amber and Jared of course. We will have to plan another camping trip next year when we can ALL go again.