Fire alarms and Smoke

Wednesday morning I was sleeping in, next to my three year old son who had climbed in my bed early that morning and fallen back asleep. I was only half awake at this time because I knew my son was in my bed and my oldest daughter was already up as well, playing quietly next to my bed (she's so sweet to let mommy sleep a little longer :).

But WOOZERS! I didn't expect this surprise!

I was jolted from my sleep - as were my little ones - by two fire alarms screaming at the same time!!! And jumped up to see that the two kids in my room were okay and I didn't see any flames (via my daughter or even my son playing with something they shouldn't). I surveyed the room further to see if anything electrical was smoking because there was already plenty of smoke to smell and even more growing to see!

I saw nothing after looking quickly around the room while telling the kids to follow mommy. I grabbed them and my laptop (the only thing we know to grab in a fire - it's were all my pictures are) and shuffled them to the front room where the smoke was no so bad.

I asked them to wait in the front room while I then went to get my littlest one out of the room she was in by her lonesome. This part scared me because I still didn't know where the smoke was coming from and her door was closed. She wasn't crying and there wasn't smoke coming from her room, so I went right in and got her out of her crib!

I noticed then that the smoke was also not as bad in her room as it was in mine, but it was still worse than the front room. I grabbed my purse, my cell phone and some clothes for the kids and I stuck them outside on the ground with my laptop while I called my husband.

OF COARSE - for once - he wasn't answering his phone, so I called my neighbor down the way - no answer... then I called them both one more time and started to look for the number to the apartment manager's office. Josh called me back and then, I started to panic about the smoke and not knowing why it was there or where it was coming from.

So he got off the phone with me to call our friend that lives in the same complex and I called the manager's office. In no time our friend was there (half asleep) and a maintenance man as well. PRAISE THE LORD, someone to help :).

They both went inside and decided they couldn't tell were it was coming from either until the maintenance guy went into the attic and said that the motor blew to my central heating - fun!

I had already turned the heater off on my way out and the maintenance guy opened the windows. The smoke alarms stopped screaming and the smoke was clearing out, but the smell was still terrible! I knew I would try my hardest not to stay in the house that day with the kids, because now we would be without heat, with ALL windows open and a NASTY electrical fire type smell! Well we hung out in the front room (where it wasn't so bad) most of the day in a blanket watching movies till we went to church that evening.

After church we went to stay the night at "Uncle Joely's" house... we hung out there most of Thursday with his wife and baby. When we got home they had used an air freshener "bomb" on the apartment and there was a whole NEW choking smell! The bomb ruined the wood on one of my tables and lamps, that they graciously offered to replace. And they brought two space heaters up for us to borrow till they fixed the motor the next morning. They even bought us dinner and offered to put us up in a hotel.

All in all it worked out. I learned a lesson about sleeping in. I got to hang out with a friend I hadn't seen in TOO long. And my kids had some practice to "get out" when there are fire alarms and smoke!