As you all probably know already, things are pretty scary in my neck of the woods right now. If you are the praying type, please send some our way. For the firefighters. For the winds to die down. For the thousands of people who have been displaced and/or lost their homes. I am very fortunate in that the fires have not affected me all that much, aside from the overpowering smell of smoke that has permeated my house, the burning eyes, and the hassle that has been my commute since Monday. These things are all minimal compared to what others have endured, and for that I am lucky. Here are a few pictures that I took to give you a little bit of an idea how close to home this has hit for me.


Here is the view out the window from my desk at work on a normal(albeit, smoggy) day:

















Here was the view yesterday:

Taken from the exact same spot at my desk. You can't even see the mountains through the smoke.



















Here was my view today:
(Looking out at the hills to the left of the previous mtns., but still from my desk.)
This is a little too close for comfort for me. They evacuated homes just two blocks from the office that I work in. Even though I had a couple of co-workers that were quite nervous about the proximity of the flames, the doctor said we would stay until we were told to go.


















And lastly, here is a picture of the sunset I snapped on my way home from work today. The smoke causes the vibrant colors. It almost seems wrong to find a bit of beauty among the tragedies that have occurred.














I pray that these fires go out soon.

Something Strange is Going on around my House

The strangest things just happened. First I noticed a bee in the house. It was buzzing around the lampshade. I calmly(ha!) mentioned it to my husband, and he took care of it. Then I saw another one! Wierd! And then! A wasp! In my house! And then another one! I'll stop with the exclamation points now. As soon as Joe killed one, another one would appear. I was really freeaking out at this point. Where are they coming from? What do they want from us? Then I realized they were crawling in through the doggy door. Eeeeeewwwww......it's like something from a horror movie! Of course we removed the doggy door immediately, and killed all remaining insects in the house. Are they coming inside to escape the smoke? The smoke is pretty thick out there. If anyone knows, please share. It is creeping me out.

There is a large fire burning pretty close to my house. The smoke and ashes are terrible. The smell is overwhelming. I closed all of the windows, but it still smells like a campfire in our living room. Joe said I should try and pretend we are camping. He's a funny guy, my husband. I know we are not in any real danger, but it is scary. I pray no firefighters are injured or houses lost. It may affect my commute tomorrow, as the toll road I take to work is closed at the moment. I wish the wind would stop. Other than that, it was a nice day. I had breakfast with two of my friends that I met through an infertility support group I attended two summers ago. There were five of us originally. One girl got pregnant and dropped out(her loss), two became preganant after IVF, and the other one is pursuing domestic adoption. Only the three of us live locally still, and we try to get together every three or four months or so. Jenny has the handsomest little boy, and Lynn has the cutest little baby girl I have ever met. I would post pictures, but I don't have permission and I won't post pictures of other people's children without their consent. You'll just have to take my word for it. Extreme cuteness. I managed to shake off the insecurity and negative vibe I had from the last two days of work. My motto this week is going to be "Suck it up." Oh yeah, and "Stop making stupid mistakes". Hope your Sunday was good.