The Twizzler

I do believe in the wind gods!  I do!  😀

(Wind graphs from wx.ca.)

Here are some shots of Kenan.

“Why won’t Shana play with me?!”

Industriously colouring a giraffe finger puppet:

“DADDY’S HOME!!!!”  😀

Some pictures of Shana…

Enjoying the indoors on a cold day:

Enjoying the outdoors on an equally cold day:

Shana with her two best friends:

Today two people have taken over our kitchen.  They are going through every item of food and throwing away any that were open or packaged in pretty much anything other than glass.  Likewise all plastic containers (like Tupperware) are in the throw-away pile.  Every item that’s thrown away is meticulously described on a sheet of paper which they will submit to the adjuster.  Presumably we get paid back for them and we go shopping, but I’m not yet sure how that part works!

Besides throwing things away, they are also scrubbing every square inch of the walls, ceiling, counters, cabinets, windows, fridge, even behind the fridge, with various chemicals to clean up the smoke residue, including all food containers and dishes that didn’t get thrown out.

Even with all that effort (they’ve been at it since 9 am, with a third person helping them out for a few hours) there are some areas they just can’t reach (above cabinets that almost–but not quite–touch the ceiling) so they’re coming back on Monday to “fog it”.  Some kind of harsh chemical they spray in the cracks.  We have to be out of the house for a few hours until the fog lifts I guess.

Monday they’ll also clean the couch and chairs, the lights, the floor, and possibly more, depending on how the smell is.

Most of our readers have probably heard of our close brush with a house fire last weekend.  The story would be much more fun to tell if it was caused by an electrical fault, a plane crashing on our roof, or an angry neighbour gone whacko with a barrel of gasoline.  Instead it was completely our own fault.  And it started with the famous last words, “Don’t let me forget to turn that burner down…”

Three hours later we got back home from church.

Ouch.

It’s amazing there was no fire.  Probably because the lid was on the pot, so the chicken never got enough oxygen to actually get any flames going.  It’s amazing how much smoke one little chicken can make though.  The smoke was all through the house (aided no doubt by the furnace) and our eyes still sting when we walk in the house (especially the kitchen).

The good news is it’s all covered by insurance.  A cleaning crew came in today to take a look, brought in two huge hepa air purifiers, and removed the over-the-range microwave to try to clean it (they don’t have much confidence it’s salvageable, but that’s fine by us because we’d rather replace it with a regular range hood).  They’re coming back tomorrow to scrub down everything in the kitchen.  

We’ve done loads and loads of laundry and completely cleaned the kids’ rooms from top to bottom ourselves, and our room is next.  Pillows are at the cleaner’s and jackets to follow shortly.  We’re checking with the insurance if they’ll cover detailing the car, as it smells too.

Quite the experience!  It has been a tiring and stressful week of cleaning and phone calling, but we’re thanking God for keeping us all safe and that the damage wasn’t worse.  We could easily have come home from church to firetrucks and a burnt-out shell.

Here are the kids showing off by one of the big air scrubbers:

I can’t take any credit for the making of this igloo, but the neighbourhood kids are having lots of fun playing in it!