I always get weirdly nervous turning the heat on for the first time each fall. With Matt gone last week, I just wasn’t ready to turn the house heat on. Plus also propane is stupid expensive.
Anyways, we had our two trusty space heaters running their hearts out Thursday morning before school when we started to smell a gross plastic burning kind of smell. I immediately thought it was the heaters and unplugged the older of the 2. The smell persisted, but we left for school and I didn’t think anything else of it. I worked upstairs finishing the dreaded mom job of switching seasonal clothes and had no problem smells. We had horseback and then I picked Maggie up to watch the girls as I had Auxiliary training at the Stake Center that night..
Chris relieved Maggie when he got off work at 7:15 and Aux training was wonderful. As I drove home, about 15 minutes away, Chris called and said that he’d discovered the source of the smell and he’d sent a picture of one of our outlets that was smoking. I still wasn’t too worried, Matt had told him to call the fire department, and i agreed, but said maybe call the non emergency line. After we hung up I looked at the picture and immediately texted back to call 911 and find a fire extinguisher. My heart was racing and my prayers were coming fast and furious.
I pulled onto LG Parkeay as the sirens went off. The first of three fire trucks showed up about 5 minutes later. Chris was bringing the 3 very sleepy girls outside as the firemen had directed him to. It was 10:30 and i didn’t want to bother any neighbors, and my car was still warm, so I brought the girls into the Camry parked across the street from the house.
The guys came in and checked that the fuse was off (Chris had turned it off), unscrewed the outlet, and used their thermal imaging device on the wall. It was warm up to about 6 feet up the wall. 😬
Several neighbors came to check in on us, including Louise, who insisted the girls come over and fed them graham crackers and milk until it was safe to come back home.
The outlet plug is completely melted and the terrible smell has lingered. It even started eroding the drywall. I’m no fire expert, but given the heat of the wall, condition of the plug and wires, smoke, and the live ember that was in the outlet, I think we’d have had a fire within an hour.
I am so in awe of Heavenly Father’s hand in our lives. There were so many tender mercies. So many what if’s. What if I’d decided not to hassle with the babysitter shuffle and just not go to the training? What if I had gotten home 30 minutes earlier? What if Matt had been home, and somehow didn’t find the smell? What if Chris didn’t care? And the list goes on. The outlet is directly below Delaney’s room, it could have been so, so bad. I am so very grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and His constant care and protection. What an amazing, faith affirming experience.
Chris stayed the night with us to make sure us helpless gals were all safe. I realize I come off looking like a brainless damsel in distress in this story, and that’s just the way it sometimes goes. To be fair, i didn’t spend a lot of time downstairs Thursday, and I’m not all that observant.
So in light of our after midnight bedtime, and the whole almost burning the house down and endangering 4/5 of my children (plus Mags! ✅), I let the girls stay home from school. I needed my babes close. We all slept in and then before Chris headed to work we marveled over the events of the night again. Gah!
After such spectacular momming, I decided just to keep up the good work and get out of our stinky, cold house and escape to one of our happy places, the movies. We saw Smallfoot and it was cute and silly and funny. Perfect antidote.
Matt was going to stay in WV Friday and hike and sightsee, but he ended up getting up at 5am and getting going. He wanted to be close to his babes too. And we were all so happy to see him.
My dad asked why the hero didn’t get to see a movie with us, and we decided he deserved some deluxe tacos. So when D went to Sephie’s party, Matt and I headed out to return his rental car, pick up a few things from Wally (smoke remediation spray for one thing), and lastly take the hero his taco. Love this amazing (hero) boy. Hope he knows how much! (I tell him all the time, but you know)
The electrician came by. He determined the problem was faulty wiring by the builder. The wire wasn’t properly coiled, and over years this has been the weakest outlet. Then on top of that, the malfunction never tripped the breaker. It could have been so bad, have I mentioned that?
I have praised God again and again. I want my kids to know, even when things are crappy (like adding another home safety improvement project to an already mile long list of home improvement projects) that God is soooo good. I want them to see the blessing before the garbage. I want them to see Heavenly Father’s hand everywhere in their lives.
As we chatted again about how much Heavenly Father loves us, Addie made a really great connection. We keep every Christmas card sent to us and each Sunday we pick a new card and pray for that family all week. Except some years we’re out of town for 8+ weeks and we get behind so we pick 3 families to pray for. Anywho... among the 3 families we picked last Sunday was none other than the Matt and Michelle Ray’s. We were very intentionally praying for our family all week, and I think that added to the blessings of protection we received. And Addie’s the one that put that together, I just love that sweet, spiritual girl.
