Friday??? Are you sure? Okay, I’ll believe you, but I sear it was Monday, like, five minutes ago. Anyhow, it’s time for Friday Five! Here’s mine!

1. My dream is to be finished with this book.  But every time I get far enough back into the book to get traction, the neck pain comes back, or life drops a load of manure (that’s a much nice way of saying what I was REALLY thinking) on us.
2. Speaking of pain, I have my second opinion schedule for next Wednesday. Well I had it all set up for Monday, and Wizard moved his Physical Therapy around so he could be there, and THEN the doctor’s office called and changed the appointment of my second opinion. Poor Wizard is not happy. He wants to be there, even though I’m fine either way. I can handle this second opinion fine on my own.
3. We saw Baby Slayer on Wednesday. He was asleep when we first got there, then woke up and played with us for two hours. He was smiled and laughed with us both, but when we left, he reached for me…I swear my heart quadrupled in my chest. It was soooo hard to get in the car!
4. Sunday is the Bridal Shower Brunch for my almost daughter-in-law! We’ve been working on this shower for weeks and I can’t wait. We love Middle Son’s finance, and are very much looking forward to the wedding in October.
5. And for the shower, I have only one more easy thing to do that I decided to do at the last-minute–because it’s easy. Are you laughing yet? No really, it should be easy. See it all started when I was trying to think of something cute to go around on the topper I’m using for the top-tier of the cupcake stand. And I thought…oh seashells would be cute. But then I thought, oh wait, what if people think they’re edible? I mean they are on a cupcake display (okay cut me some slack, I raised three boys, and boys do some really questionable things!). So then I decided to look for pretty chocolate seashells. I found beautiful ones for over $50.00. I thought I can make those! So I found a video on making chocolate swirled shells (picture white chocolate with blue swirls)…and then I bought all the stuff, only they didn’t have the right kind of molds, so I had to buy fondant molds…anyway, I spent a little less than $50.00 and I don’t even know if I can pull this off. LOLOL!! We’ll see! If they don’t turn out, I suspect the shower will turn out find without chocolate seashells.

Now it’s your turn to share five things about your week! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

So I went blond today. Okay **I** didn’t go blonde, I choose a blond hunk. But see here’s the problem for me. This guy? He looks a bit like one of my nephews.  Yes, my nephew is an adult, but I never look at any of my nephews as hunk material, because…Ewww. That would be like looking at my sons as hunks and Double Yuck Ewww…

So I don’t know…. But here he is for all you to evaluate with your Hunk Meters since mine is malfunctioning with the whole nephew resemblance thing.

What do you think, is he worthy?

This weekend had a plot twist So far,  it looks like this will end well, but a family member got suddenly ill and ended up in the emergency room on Sunday. Wizard and I went, dreading bad news, but by the time we left, things looking positive.  Fingers crossed it stayed that way!

Honestly, it become a running joke, all I have to do is open my book file to work, and life starts pitching curveballs.

I’m still trying to convince the red, raw spots in my mouth/throat to heal. It’s just plain weird, but I believe the doctor that it’s very likely from inhaling smoke, heat and stress, along with the fact that I tend to have dry mouth from meds. Even Maggie was off for a while, and just started eating normally a few days ago.

I’m not even going to test fate and vow to work today, I’m just going to see how it goes, and work if I can

So how was your weekend?

This week is definitely better than last! Here’s here’s five random things about my week:

1. A few weeks ago I ordered a dress from Dressbarn for my niece’s shower. It arrived crumpled and with a button loose. I washed it according to manufacturer’s directions to get some of the wrinkles out, and the hem fell out during the wash. I took it to the cleaners, and they fixed it. I contacted Dressbarn, described what happened, gave them my order number and attached a copy of the cleaner’s receipt for the repair. They refunded my purchase price! I am so pleased with their customer service!
2. I saw my GP doctor. First, I have raw spots in my mouth and throat. He took a look, and there’s no infection yet. He thinks the smoke from the fire aggravated my mouth and throat. He gave me an antibiotic prescription to only fill if I get worse. I’m all for avoiding antibiotics until I absolutely need them.
3. Then we talked about my neck. Okay it’s not pretty. Well what he actually said, “It’s pretty bad”, and “this is pretty serious.” Um…duh? LOL! He’s arranging a second opinion, which he said he always highly recommends for major cervical (neck) surgery. I’m looking at a possible double discectomy with fusion in my neck. My GP spent a lot of time with me, both answering questions, and asking his own questions which helped me get my head around this a little more. Right now, my plan is get the second opinion from the spine surgeon (so that we have both a neurosurgeon and spine surgeon looking at same set of facts), and if they concur, then I’ll consider it. If they disagree, I’ll resort to an alternative therapy: 
4. My poor book got pushed aside again this week with fire cleanup (ash is still falling) and various things. Today should be better. But I hunted down and ordered two gifts that I’d have done last week if not for broken A/C, fires, etc, and I found the last thing I desperately needed for my almost daughter-in-law’s bridal shower coming up in just over a week. Now I’m crossing my fingers that everything is delivered on time. I’m finally feeling more in control of that part of my life.
5. And guess who is five months old today?? 

I love this little guy so much!!!

So that’s my Friday Five. Now it’s time for you to share yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

We have A/C again and this week is soooo much better than last week! Hopefully I can get back into the book around my birthday lunch with Biker Witch (delayed thanks to the fire) and seeing my doctor to talk about a second opinion. Okay now onto Wednesday Worthy.

I like this guy’s face, but not enough of him is showing in this shot:

Still not enough showing, but now…I instantly get a glimmer of a story about him as a U.S. Marshal protecting a witness.

But that’s me, what about YOU, do you think he’s worthy?

So have you all had an interesting weekend? Ours was busy recovering from the firestorm that the firefighters miraculously held back from our house, and dealing with the heat. Here’s a few still shots of the fire, which, as Wizard and I have mentioned a thousand times, camd with in 500 feet of our house and right up to our neighbors. What you’re seeing in these pictures is where Maggie and I walk every morning. I easily posted a dozen pictures of us on this street.

This is the exact phenomenon Wizard and I dreaded for 22 years, and it finally happened. Our town is a valley, and our lake a natural runoff for all the hills/forest/mountains around us. Think of it like a bowl. So what happens in a fire like this is that once it crested the ridge of the Cleveland National Forest toward us, in the afternoon, a “downdraft” can happen that quite literally pulls the fire in a blazing run right down toward our homes.

That’s exactly what happened. We watched it on TV, and I asked Wizard, “We’re going to lose the house, aren’t we?”

For the first time, he looked at me helplessly. “I think so. It’s over, Jen.”

And I fought to keep it together. We were safe, we had Maggie with us and our family around us. And then by a miracle I can’t understand, the firefighters took a stand and stopped the firestorm. They didn’t just do it here, but in other neighborhoods too long this stretch of the forest too.

THEY ARE HEROES.

I can’t say it enough. There are signs all over our community thanking them.  People hug them when they can get them to stop long enough. We are so grateful.

Otherwise, we are doing fine except for heat-related misery with no A/C. The repair guy or gal will come today and we hope to have it fixed. We’ll see.

I haven’t written. It’s been impossible, I could barely answer a FB post without constant interruptions plus exhaustion. I hope to get back to that today if possible. I’m also going to make an appointment with my GP, and I have to get a second opinion going for my neck problems. The surgeon we saw seemed very competent but I’m not ready to do that drastic of a surgery. A second opinion will help a lot, I think.

So that was my weekend, but I’d love to hear about your weekend and how you’re doing!

It’s a miracle, but our house, and all our neighbors houses, are still there. We are safe and Maggie is with us.

Here’s the longer version if you want to read it: Okay, so first, sorry this is late.  It’s been a wild ride this week. Here’s the timeline: (Please excuse all typos, I’m typing in the early morning, it’s dark and I’ve had maybe eight hours sleep in five nights).

–Our air conditioning broke over the weekend in a serious heatwave. We can’t get the company we want out until Wednesday afternoon to determine if we can fix it our must replace it.

–Monday, when we were taking Maggie to boarding to get her out of the heat for her safety, we saw a massive fire had broken out in the hills behind our house. I walk at the base of those hills every morning, and occasionally hike up into them, but not during snake season.

–Tuesday, Wizard goes with me to neurosurgical consult. We know my neck is bad, both of us have some experience in reading MRI’s now, LOL. But Holy Cow, this surgeon wants to do VERY dramatic surgery. I’m in shocked and Wizard is concerned. We say, whoa, we need to think, research and maybe get a second opinion. This surgery is bordering on dangerous, so yeah, whoa.

–Wednesday morning, fire jumps ridgeline. And now it’s a serious threat. Voluntary evacuations go out in reverse 911 calls. We pack up just pictures, documents and a few days clothes and wait for A/C guy. Finally I got pick up Maggie, and by the time I get back, fire is exploding. Mandatory evacuations go out. I leave, Wizard reschedules A/C and we get safely to his mom’s house with Maggie. I think this is the day the man is arrested for setting the fire.

–Thursday Morning, fire lays down a bit overnight. Special K brought Baby Slayer over to hang out and keep us company. Our hope soars, but by one o’clock in the afternoon fire has exploded again. It’s racing down hillsides, and this is first hand account from my neighbors: They heard the roar of a firestorm coming. Flames tore down the hill to the street behind ours, jumped it and set a fence on fire. Neighbors were there with fire hoses hooked up to hydrants (one is a firefighters wife, this is partly her account). They were sure they houses were gone. Then the firefighters swooped in and somehow stopped it right there and saved all the neighbors. Guys if it hit my neighborhood, it would have swept through several communities. People and animals would have died. We saw it on TV, and for the first time, I started to cry and Special K evidently called CPA Boy, he came over with youngest son and stayed with us until we knew our home was saved. We still don’t know how they stopped the firestorm, but Thank God!

The hillsides are, from what I’m told, completely burned by our homes. We’ll try to get in to look today, but likely can’t stay without A C.  Smoke and ash are everywhere, and the fire is still burning–more than 10K acres now. Maybe Saturday we can go home, if possible. A C guy comes Monday.

We have a lot of heroes to thank, all the firefighters, first responders, pilots and the neighbors who stayed when the rest of us evacuated. We know anything can still happen with the active fire burning, but we are in better shape than yesterday. Now we have to pray for everyone else threatened.

Thank you to my family, all of you! Wizards mom and her husband who took us and Maggie in at a moment’s notice. My boys and girls, all of them. But Special K, she was my girl yesterday, just there with me as only another woman can be. And Baby Slayer!

And all of you. Thank you for caring. I know it’s just a house and things, and we never lost sight of the fact that we got out safely. But I’m grateful to have a home to go back too, and even more grateful for friends like YOU.