Wordless Wednesday: Lots of Laughs

Bad Blogger

I have been such a bad blogger lately that I thought I should devote an entire post to playing catch up. Here's some of what we've been up to this month.

Birthday parties...
Playing in the leaves...

The Basset Bash with Grammy and Grampy...

...and Huck and Marley, of course...

A fall portrait session...

Worm catching...
Swinging at the park...

...and a little hiking...

Now that I am caught up, maybe I will get back on track for the holidays.

Wordless Wednesday: Blessings

Wordless Wednesday: Seven Month Comparison

Close Call

I am typing this blog on my laptop, inside my house. That may not seem like a big deal, and it's really not except for the fact that I almost burned it down last night. Well, actually I didn't but that doesn't really matter anyway.

We're always looking for ways to make bedtime more fun for Raegan. Little special touches that make the transition from daytime to nighttime a little easier for all of us. Joe had an idea on Sunday night to get Raegan excited about bedtime. He plugged in the heating pad and let it warm up Raegan's bed for a little while before she got in, so when she snuggled under the covers there was a nice warm spot for her right in the middle. Once he put her to bed, he turned it off, unplugged it and all was fine. So when it was time for bed last night, Raegan requested the heating pad on her bed to warm it up again. I knew that Joe had used it the night before so I plugged it in, placed it on bed (with nothing on top of it) and went about finishing up a few things around the house. Tanner was asleep on our bed so Raegan and I gave Marley a bath and I straightened up around the house a little. No more than fifteen minutes passed, and I was checked on Tanner about every five minutes, so I was up and down the hallway a good bit. I had started to notice a burning type smell but I couldn't figure out where it could be coming from. I had not left anything turned on in the bathrooms or the kitchen, but I kept smelling it in the hallway. I finally remembered that the heating pad was on in Raegan's room, but I almost didn't even bother checking because sometimes appliances that heat up just have that slight burning kind of smell to them. It really wasn't that strong of an odor at all. I decided I would peek in her room just to make sure that it was just the heating pad causing the smell. As soon as I opened the door to her room, the smoke hit me like a wave. It burned my eyes and I started coughing, the room was full of it. I immediately realized that the heating pad was the cause of it, so I yanked the plug out of the wall and carried the entire heating pad (which was mostly melted by this point) outside. I checked and made sure that there was no actual fire and/or sparks anywhere, then I assessed the damage to Raegan's bed. Her fitted sheet was burned and melted, as was her mattress cover. The mattress had only a slight dark spot (about the size of a quarter) where it was just about to start burning. I opened the window and turned on the fan to get rid of the smell. I stripped all the bedding off the mattress and tossed it outside, along with the heating pad. Raegan ended up sleeping in Tanner's room last night (he doesn't use it anyway) because I was still worried about the smell. I'm sure it was all the flame retardant chemicals that kept the bedding from igniting, but those same chemicals put off some terribly toxic smelling vapors. I ended up coughing all night.

I don't know what would have happened if it would have continued to smolder. The smoke detector in her room never went off. We just replaced the battery in it a few weeks ago. It might have went off in another minute or two, but that might have been too late. After doing some research on the Internet last night I found out that the manufacturer of the particular brand of heating pad we were using (Sunbeam) has various claims against them for the same type of incidents by consumers that have used their products. There is even a class action lawsuit against them as well. I've added our incident to the list, but I also want to make sure that if anyone I love and care about has any Sunbeam products (especially heating pads or electric blankets) that you may want to think about replacing them, or at least doing your own research about their products.

I used that same heating pad all through my pregnancy with Raegan for back pain and I never had any problems with it. When Joe got home we were looking at what was left of the heating pad and reading all the warnings on the cover. No where on the cover did it say anything about not putting it on a bed. It said not to sleep with it on, or use it on an infant, etc. If I had needed it for sore muscles or something I would have put it on the bed to heat up until I was ready to use it anyway, just like I always did. Apparently something in it malfunctioned or shorted out and caused it to get too hot. I'm just glad I discovered the problem before it was too late, or it could have been an entirely different outcome.

Happy Halloween

We had our annual Halloween party on Friday night. Kim hosted it this year, and I think everyone had a great time. It's hard to believe that it's been almost ten years since we graduated from high school. But here we are...

...and here are the kids. Every year it gets more difficult to get a decent picture of all of them.

Of course Cinderella has to have a pumpkin...

My little skunk and Laura's little lamb...

On Saturday, Tanner celebrated his very first Halloween.

We took him and Raegan trick-or-treating at my mom's shop in Helen. He looks absolutely thrilled about it.

He did like rolling around on the bed with his costume on though. I think his costume was a pretty big hit, we got lots of comments on it all night. That's my little stinker.

Since this was Raegan's fourth Halloween, she's a pro at it by now. She picked her costume out all by herself this year.

She was excited to see that the horse had the same idea.

She even got to sit in the carriage for pictures.


Here is the 2009 edition of our annual jack-o-lantern. I am the self-appointed pumpkin carver around here, and I take my job very seriously. I let Raegan pick this too, so this is what we ended up with.

Yes, that's Swiper (from Dora the Explorer for those of you from another planet without kids) just looking for some candy to swipe. Happy Halloween!

Wordless Wednesday: Lunchtime

Yep, she was "nursing" her doll. She's learned from a pro.