I am fading

My energy is slowly depleting tonight, thus I am not going to make a new post here, because I just finished a new one over here. Enjoy!

In short

Two Friday's ago our neighbors house started burning down at 10:30 at night. Our house is about 18 feet away. We had to evacuate (and I mean grab the baby, and shoes, and get out) our house, stand in the snow for awhile while dark smoke billowed upward, mingling with the white flakes, and eventually leave to a friends house where we could sleep safely for the night. Well, sleep.... actually not so much. Between a wired toddler and extreme worries about the state in which we would find our house the next day, very little sleep was actually had. My most favorite moment of the night: Corrina finally fell asleep, so Dave and I were lying dead still (2:15 am). I began to think about the state in which we left the house (mid Carcassone game with a new Dave's-birthday-gift expansion pack we were playing for the first time, trying to get Corrina back to sleep after a waking.. nightmare maybe... we were sitting at the table, drinking tea.... oh Sh*t (pardon my french, but feel the stress!) we left candles burning on our table!!!!) and to make a long story short (ha, not really) dave went back to our house. Thankfully he found it standing with no fire damage. The police and fire people were still working on securing our neighbors house, putting up boards, cleaning up, etc.... The police office allowed dave to go back into our house to 'close' things up for the night.
Some funny details of the story: a week or so earlier I had called the health department because of all the garbage (large and small) spilling out in every direction from our neighbors house. Apparently upon inspection the house was condemned. When I first got outside in response to our neighbors yelling "fire" I found one hysterical (intoxicated?!) person and one very calm person who proceeded to announce to me: "Oh well, the house was going to be condemned on monday anyway..." In my very unknowledgeable opinion, I think they burned the house down to get the insurance money to rebuild! And rebuild they are!
Another funny detail: after about 5 minutes of standing on the street, going over in our head which area of our house may catch fire, Dave decided to go back in to get the computer! A fire person found him and kicked him out, with computer in hand! Dave tried to lock the door, and they wouldn't let him... they made dave give them the keys and locked up for us!
The majority of the fire was coming out of the top story of the house, out the back windows.
The side of the house bears dark burn marks from the flames. They all go in one direction: away from our house! They reach up to the roof, and at least 6 feet across the back of the house. Had the wind been blowing the other direction, toward our house, well, we try not to focus on attention on that. Praise God we are safe, and by all accounts our neighbors are physically safe as well. Priase God that our house is fine! We are glad to not be making a house insurance claim at the same time we are making car insurance claims! That would just be ridiculous, maybe. Although, i would take that over civil war, so, if we put things into proper perspective, really this was nothing!
I did mean to share this little story in short... really...

This weekend Corrina and I got to accompany dave and his youth group (along with two other church youth groups) to a really neat bible camp for a tri-youth retreat! It was great fun. I loved connecting a bit more with our youth, and meeting tons of other young people as well! Corrina got so much attention and exercise, and I got to relax and not cook!
Now we are home, back in the swing of things, and I have my last exam for the semester tomorrow night. I hope that things get 'boring' again... I could use some normal!

Apparently my new favorite thing to do is forget to blog.  Now that I am (almost) done school for the semester I can 'remember' again!
We are alive and kicking these days. I have lists made, games planned, friends written in on the calendar! I am so into this change of season. Spring brings such fresh feelings inside my heart and mind! And I can see the freshness appearing all around me too. For instance, the grass in our new front yard is starting to surface from the crystal snow that has forced it into hibernation for so long. Many wonderful treats (beer cans, fruit snack packages, full bags of previous owners garbage) are starting to appear in the back yard too. It's almost like finding a beautiful secret garden underneath all the snow. Almost! We have been waiting a month and a half to find out what exactly will be in our backyard. So far garbage is out winning grass by a long shot, but there's still lots of melting to be completed; I'm just trying to stay optimistic with my gardening gloves close by instead of my garbage gloves. Either way, when we are done with our yard it will be grassy, flowery, and playable, with room for the car too! I bought seeds for a salad garden yesterday, as well as different varieties of flowers. I have climbing vines, cutting flowers, and even a raspberry plant! How are other people's springs shaping up?Easter came and went. It's so far back I can't really remember the events, but here are some pictures of Corrina going on her 8 egg easter hunt. I think that she only found like 6 that day, and saved the rest for surprise discoveries later that week:This is Corrina and her little friend K hanging out together at church on Easter. These two gals are just 2.5 weeks apart. Play ground time together is pretty funny. First they avoid one another, than they fight it out, leading to great intimacy which allows them to actually play together. Good times!

Oh, and these little babies I am so proud of! I LOVE french braid pigtails, and was so pleased when she sat long enough for me to get them in there!
That is it for now. Nothing new to report, nothing else to say that I can think of.
Enjoy the springing spring, where ever you are in the world!