{whAt tO dO whEn yOur smOke alArm gOes Off}

In light of this mornings events, I thought it would be wise to remind everyone what to do when your alarm goes off (obviously I didn't follow all these and needed the reminder also!). This was taken from a smoke alarm company:

What to do when the alarm sounds:

• Alert small children in the home.
• Leave immediately by your escape plan. Every second counts, so don’t waste time getting dressed or picking up valuables.
• In leaving, don’t open any inside door without first feeling its surface. If hot, or if you see smoke seeping through cracks, don’t open that door! Instead, use your alternate exit. If the inside of the door is cool, place your shoulder against it, open it slightly and be ready to slam it shut if heat and smoke rush in.
• Stay close to the floor if the air is smoky. Breathe shallowly through a cloth, wet if possible.
• Once outside, go to your selected meeting place and make sure everyone is there.
• Call the fire department from your neighbor’s home - not from yours!
• Don’t return to your home until the fire officials say that it is all right to do so.

IMPORTANT: Never Ignore the Sound of an Alarm!

There are situations where a smoke alarm may not be effective to protect against fire as stated in the NFPA Standard 72. For instance:
a) smoking in bed
b) leaving children home alone
c) cleaning with flammable liquids, such as gasoline

Here's reasons I found that smoke alarms (smoke detectors are particle sensing devices, not heat detectors) might go off when there is not a fire:

• accumulated dust
• bugs, especially spiders that crawl inside
  
• condensation (water vapor)
• very cold weather
• entry door, if adjoined to a heated area, is opened
• low battery
• dirty battery

Reminder - change your smoke detectors batteries at least once a year, or better yet every daylight savings, beginning and end. Every time you change the batteries get a can of compressed air and clean out the detector.

{sMokE aLaRms}

Do you get that sick feeling when your stressed and haven't had enough sleep? Almost like you are going to throw up at any given moment. This is the general feeling Chris and I had early this morning and I'm still not feeling great.

At 2:am our smoke alarm went off. Our house has the relay alarms (hardwired), so when one goes off they all do and the one in the hallway loudly says something about a Fire.

Chris literally bolted out of bed and took off down the hall. I quickly threw on some jeans and a jacket and Chris was back, saying he didn't think it was a fire and in the same breath said I have to sit down ... something about a head rush. The alarm only went off for a few seconds, by the time Chris was back it had shut itself off. It was the strangest thing.

I asked if he checked in each of the kids bedrooms downstairs. He said he hadn't so I did. Ally was not awake, although she was very restless, probably if the alarm had gone off a few seconds more she would have been up. I checked Keyan's room, he was sound asleep. This makes me a bit worried. Sammy was sitting up in her bed. I told her it was the fire alarm, and we have checked the whole house and there is no fire, so it's ok to go back to bed. Next, I check Landon. He is awake, but laying down on his bed. I tell him the same thing.

I checked the garage, etc. I can't for the life of me figure out why the alarm went off. I even cracked a window just incase the alarm was supposed to be for carbon monoxide, since the talking detectors are combined in one unit.

I'm completely stressed. Even a half hour later my heart is still racing. I was afraid to go back to sleep. I just couldn't settle myself.

We talked about what we need to do to get our kids out safely. We have a plan and the kids all know it, but actually putting it into action is a completely different story when you are coming out of a dead sleep. I was stressed that Keyan and Ally didn't even wake up. I wondered if maybe we were up for another reason. You know how sometimes strange things like that happen. It was just disturbing for some reason.

While laying back down in bed we noticed that the smoke detector in our room was blinking red occasionally (I found out later that this happens when your detectors are hardwired and it blinks so that you can know which detector set the whole thing off). We changed the battery, wondering if that would help. I know when the battery gets low the alarm chirps, but it still didn't make sense that it would completely go off because of the battery. After that the light still blinks. Chris changes the battery again, thinking maybe it was a bad battery. This seemed to do the trick. After an hour we were finally to a point where sleep might be possible! Chris was completely asleep and I had looked at my clock 10 minutes earlier, but was lightly asleep, by the time the alarm went off again at 3:30 am. This is ridiculous.

However, this time Ally is completely up, coming out her door and ready to run outside to our safe spot, by the time Chris turns the alarm off. Sad as it seems, I was really happy by this. I was happy that she didn't sleep through it again. I held her and talked to her for a minute. All the while I'm racking my brain trying to figure out why this is happening (is there a fire in the attic, no the house would have burned down by now and so on...) She was scared. She wanted to go with me to check on the other kids.

Keyan again was sound asleep. I had to tease him a bit this morning. He literally had no idea that the alarm went off. I'm going to have to check the alarm in his room to make sure it really works. All the alarms were tested when we moved in so I know they all worked at one point. Landon and Sam were up. Again had to explain what happened and told them to go back to bed. Once Ally saw that they were all ok and heard Chris tell them to go back to bed, she went back up to her room. Chris checked in on her when we got back up and she was on her bed kneeling in prayer.

While I was checking online and not finding what we were looking for, my computer internet wasn't working, so I was just using my phone, and it's too slow when your tired and stressed!!! Chris had removed the detector. At least now we know it won't wake us up again this morning.

When I got Ally up this morning she said that she was scared that there was really a fire. And when I got Landon up he says, "do I get up for real this time?"

My poor kids. I know I about had a heart attack, seriously my heart was racing so fast for quite awhile, I can't imagine what they were thinking. I'm going to have to go to the school and talk to Landon and Ally's teachers so they can understand if Landon falls asleep in class and if Ally freaks out about something strange.

After all this, I am so thankful that my house did not burn down. I'm thankful that my little family is healthy and safe. I am thankful that I now know that there is no way I will sleep through the alarm and I'm thankful for the reminder to talk to my kids about fire safety.

Too bad I can't go back to bed right now. I sure could use a good night sleep!!!

{eAsTeR weEkeNd}

I love Easter! I love that even though the world has turned it into Easter bunnies and chocolate, we can still find and teach the peace, joy and happiness that comes from what our Savior, Jesus Christ, did about 2000 years ago. The pain that he suffered, his life that he freely gave up, and the miracle that happened 2 days later would be our ultimate gift. It's strange to think that my ultimate happiness was brought about by so much pain and agony. It really doesn't seem fair, now does it? I love my Savior and am so thankful for his sacrifice and I am so thankful that we have a day dedicated to those events of long ago.

So here's my weekend:
Friday, Keyan had a soccer game against Mountain View. It was cold and wet and windy (look at Landon's hair in the pic below)!
Saturday, Landon and Ally both had soccer games. It was cold and wet!After games, I took Landon and Ally to Macey's and Downtown Provo for some candy hunts (can't call it Easter egg hunt, since they weren't really looking for eggs). They played games, got a ton of candy and had a great time!
I took Sam to her dance pictures. I'm sure they will be darling! I just wished that they would not do it on holidays or holiday weekends (they did it on Memorial Day one year).
I still hadn't gotten Ally an Easter Dress and she really wanted one. Off we went! Wouldn't you know? She picked the most non-Easter dress (it's black) she could find. It fits her personality quite well!!!
I did go to one political meeting Saturday night. It was really entertaining! I don't think anyone could ever say politics are boring!!!
Sunday, hooray for Easter Sunday! Church was fantastic - Choir Cantata, new Preach My Gospel Class and a wonderful new Laurel's adviser that gave an amazing lesson on Christ.
Coloring Easter Eggs, making a Bunny Cake and eating ham and potatoes rounded out our day. It was a great Sabbath Day!

{it'S aLreAdy aPriL}

Yikes it's almost Easter! I feel out of sorts for some reason. I think I can attribute it to being out of town 2 weekends ago and having this weekend be General Conference. I haven't had my weekly time at church to center my week, to get a new start.

I have been busy though. We are gearing up for our Republican County Convention. It's an organizing convention so we are just electing new Party Leadership, but that still requires some effort and time to get to know them to see if they are someone I want there.

Young Women's is always crazy busy. There are so many meetings!!! I sure love the girls though. I remember the first Sunday I was called and the old presidency and new presidency all bore their testimonies. I knew then that I loved the girls and it's only gotten better. They are all so amazing. It's forced me to be a little more outgoing which is always a good thing.

I'm also working on the Lakeview Elementary Yearbook. I think originally they weren't going to have one, but I think enough people voiced an interest in it. The principle found a printer who will do it on such late notice. We have to have it done just after Spring Break (2 weeks exactly). I'm not an expert at these sort of things, but I can be of some service! Using those 9th grade yearbook staff skills!!! :)

General Conference was great! We got a new apostle, Elder Anderson. I like him a lot. As always there were a lot of great talks. The last session had a huge focus of getting to the temple. I'm thankful for our bishop's challenge to get the youth to the temple monthly. It helps me to get there also. It's nice to have Chris off on Wednesdays so that we can go in the morning/early afternoon. It's never very busy then. My siblings all came over for the last session. I almost never have extended family over for conference. I liked it a lot. It's fun to see everyone progressing in the gospel. There was one talk during this session that was about members responsibilities to find people for the missionaries to teach. I couldn't help but think of Bryan and mentioned how he must be smiling from ear to ear to hear that!!! Love you, BRYAN.

{teeNagerS}

Life sure is funny! Being a mom of teenagers is turning out to be my hardest challenge yet. Why can't kids learn from their own parents mistakes? I love my kids but I have to tell you that there is only so much one can take!!! I hope it gets easier. I can see why so many parents choose to turn a blind-eye to the things that their kids are doing. It's so much easier. It's nice to be oblivious and not know what your kids are up to. I wished my parents had done more and I never want my kids to feel that way. So I guess getting easier is out of the question! I say this to remind myself, when my other kids are older, to remember that I survived it once before!