Good Neighbors, Super Dance Teacher, and Peach Wine

As anyone that follows me on Facebook knows (because I sure complained about it enough, huh?) Tim was in Missouri for 2 weeks. It was for a class that he has to take to be eligible for promotion to Major next year and he did fantastic. (One of his instructors called him "outstanding" and actually wrote that he was "easily one of the brightest students during this cycle." Great job, Tim!) I knew it would be tough by myself with the kids just getting back from a long vacation in Colorado, which was awesome for everyone, and dealing with all of the back to school madness. I just didn't realize exactly how crazy it would start out.

My friend Shelly was staying with us for a bit and around midnight we said goodnight and I headed to bed. Right after I plugged my phone in to charge it started ringing, which never happens that late at night. The caller i.d. showed that it was the gate, which we have call my phone so we can let people in even if we aren't at home. There was no way I was going to let someone in and I didn't even answer to find out who it was.

I double checked with Shelly to make sure that she wasn't expecting anyone and then decided to go out back and look to see if anyone was at the gate. Standing on the chair I can get a decent view. I never even made it out the door before I realized something was wrong. A wall of smoke smacked me in the face and made my eyes water. I could hear the crackling of the fire so I knew it was close. That was the same time that the horrible fire in Mannford was causing so much damage and I knew how dangerous the conditions were. I looked to my left and realized that it was right outside of our neighborhood in a field. It was already tall enough that I could see it over the houses.

I'm embarrassed to say I froze. I had no idea what to do. Thank goodness Shelly was here. I asked her to come outside to see if I should be concerned. She barely glanced at it and then said, "Call 911" and ran out of the house to start banging on my neighbors' doors to warn them.

For the first time in my life I dialed 911. The responder assured me that they were aware of it and that the fire department was on its way. I ran out to start banging on doors as well.

I'm pretty sure we scared several of my neighbors to death. It's not exactly common to have two crazy chicks in pajamas running around and screaming about a fire. Once they realized what was going on I think they forgave us. The people in the house closest to the fire (it was only about 20 yards from their fence) started packing their kids and pets in the car. Shelly helped them spray their fence and they turned their sprinklers on. The embers were falling everywhere and the ash was smacking us in the face. We even had an ember land in our yard that our neighbor put out. (Thanks, Tim!)

Standing in front of our house. Scary!

Ash the next morning all over our yard.

Eventually we had woken up everyone we could and watched while the fire department got it under control, which only took about 30 minutes. We also found out that the person who called me from the gate was a neighbor across the street in a different neighborhood who had seen the fire when he put his dog outside and ran over to wake everyone up. We thanked him profusely and he laughed and thanked us back for not being afraid of the "crazy shoe-less man running around like crazy with his shirtless friend with a tattoo sleeve." :)

Once we knew that everything was okay we decided to crack open a bottle of peach wine and rehash the madness of the past hour. What was terrifying in the moment was absolutely hilarious afterwards. Of course it may just have been the adrenaline that was still pounding through our brains. "Super Dance Teacher to the rescue! With her trusty sidekick, Tonto!" Oh Shelly...I'm so glad I didn't have to do this alone. :)

Thank you nice neighbors! Thank you Jenks Fire Department! Thank you Shelly and peach wine! I hope I don't have to go through that ever again.