Saturday, November 15, 2008

Fires in California

Some pictures my mom took of the Sylmar fires...

My parents back yard..you can see a little green on the bottom right. The fire stoped at the brick wall.


My mother drove this road while it was on fire!

You can see the fire line going from the back yard back up the hill.

All the ash inside the house.

More of the back yard.

The burn hole from the deck attached to the house. This picture is standing on the deck in front of the french door, looking down to the first floor.
******UPDATE!!
My dad and brother returned to my parents house about 30 min ago and said that the house is still there!!! Praise God! There are some trees in the front yard that were burnt and one in the back yard. My parents have a wooden deck off the back of the house and the furniture on it looks like it has burn damage, but the deck is fine..therefore the house is fine. They are still without power and the smoke is very thick! Oh..Barney the cat is fine. Thank you for your prayers and once again God has shown grace on my family!******

It seams like I have posted something like this once before, but this time the fires are hitting a little too close to home.

My parents have evacuated and are at my brothers house in Granada Hills. The Sylmar fires are right in my parents back yard. If you have been watching the updates at all, you are hearing about a mobile home park that has lost 60+ homes and still burning. Well, there are over 600 homes there and they are reporting that they all might be gone.

My parents live right "next door" to this. They live to the west. My mother evacuated this morning around 4:30am her time. I was awoken this morning to her call to let me know. She parked at the bottom of the hill and waited to hear any more updates.

Then the fire started to come in the direction that she was at, so she decided to return home quickly to grab a few more items and her cat. She was able to grab the items, but not the cat. This is actually my cat Barney. We adopted him right before Coby and I moved to Nashville. We thought it was not smart to bring him across country, so we left him with my parents. He truly is my mom's cat now, but when I go home to visit...Barney and I can't get enough of each other. Barney also got his name in line with Bambam and Pebbles...our next animal was going to be Fred....but Trot was already named.

So on her way out the door, she said she couldn't even see the drive way and leaving the neighborhood, the side of the road caught fire. She had to drive 'through' it but was OK.

At this point, it seams that there could be a possible 2 homes that have burned on their street and we don't really know anything else. My High School- Sylmar High is a rescue center and they are giving the updates about the homes.

Please pray for protection of their home and their neighbors. That God will change the direction of the wind and that my parents will make wise decisions with what to do no matter the outcome. I have evacuated from that home once when I was in high school and it was very scary. The fire came to the back yard fence and the the wind changed direction and our home was sparred. Pray for that again!

I will keep you all updated...brandy

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Neil's First Halloween!!!


I went as a new mommy....do I look tired enough? Coby went as a Thrasher Hockey player...mullet and all! Sweet Neil went as a Lion Cub!

So here is the night from dressing him all the way to trick-or-treating..

Trot really wanted to come!!

What in the world are you putting on that baby??

We taught Neil to Roarrr like a lion!

First layer on..

More roarrrring..

Wow mom...what's this??

I'll help you mommy...here I'll put my arm through..
Where do you think you are putting that???
on my head??

OK.... it's not that bad.
Daddy...your mullet is scaring me...
This feels good mommy...I'll sit very still

He was trying to look at what I was doing cross-eyed


Oh yeah...I am the cutest Lion Cub EVER!
Hey...no pictures till I am out of make-up!!
Mommy...you did a good job!
Who's there daddy??

I want to see...

Can I go with them??

Daddy said I have to wait just a little longer to go out.

My friend Savannah and I went out to about 50 houses!
I had soooooo much fun!!
Having lots of fun!
Neil had a blast!!! I was thinking of practicing with Neil and showing him how to walk up to the door, knock and say trick-or-treat and thank you and all of that stuff that a 'perfect' little Lion Cub would do...but we just didn't have time.
So we winged it and Neil had a BLAST!!! Our neighbor across the street Savannah and Miss Becky went with us and it ended up being a wonderful evening!!! We started around 6:30 and came home around 8pm.
Savannah and Neil went up to every door, they both knocked (Neil knows how to knock on the door) and after putting his bucket up there and getting candy, Neil would roarrr like a lion real loud and then say 'bye-bye' and walk away. I think he got the hang of it!
Sorry for all the start to finish pictures, I promised the Grandmas and Grandpa that I would send a lot! Hope you all had fun and your tummies are not hurting too much this morning!!!