Yesterday was our one year anniversary...definitely a milestone for most, it'll be one we'll never forget!
To make a longer story short last weekend our neighbors hired some workers to remove these really old juniper shrubs that divide our house. If you don't know what those are, they're really thick shrubs with needles kind of like Christmas trees. They grow like crazy here in Washington and aren't the prettiest plants. Anyway, the guys had been struggling all weekend to remove them because the roots were so deep and have probably been in the ground for almost 50 years. To make matters worse, they found a yellow jackets nest with some pretty stubborn creatures that wouldn't die even after bottles of bee killer and gasoline had been dumped on them. (um, where's the exterminator this Californian asks? washintonians are way too experienced to hire those I guess!). Anyway, around 11 am I am waddling around town trying not to go into labor, running errands and I get a call from my neighbor Jill asking if I was home because these workers were lighting the bushes on fire, which had started an even bigger fire, with huge flames getting really close to our house! The fire department was on their way, I couldn't even imagine why they were lighting the bushes on fire and I rushed home. Brian was working an hour away so he couldn't make it in time.
I pull up to my house to every law enforcement office in town - Fire Dept, Sheriff, US Marshall, City of Yakima, even Animal Control! My neighbors were all outside and as soon as they saw me rushed to the car trying to look really calm for the pregnant lady. The fire was already out and all the fireman were in the house checking for any damage. All the officers were trying to make sure I stayed calm, it was pretty funny. Funnier, I was very calm! Next thing I know, they're showing me that there is no permanent smoke damage in our house, just smelled a little, but we were really fortunate that it wasn't worse!
Later when an inspector came to assess for any damage he said to count our blessings because he had never seen flames come so close to a house and not cause any damage. We are really thankful, especially at this point of our lives, with Olivia coming in less than 2 weeks now. I just couldn't imagine...God was really watching over our house and our family! So, needless to say, it was a memorable first anniversary for sure! Hopefully things will get cleaned up today, the smells downstairs will go away, and we'll move on. It definitely made for an interesting day in the neighborhood!
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