Today was a bit of a traumatic day – it all started to go a little crazy when Ken left for the city to go to an appointment… he had to drive very carefully but made it safely there and back. However, soon after he left the fire alarm in the building went off… when I opened the door to see what was going on all you could see was smoke billowing down from the upstairs 3rd floor… luckily our truly wonderful next door neighbor had not left early for class and was just getting out of her place and was able to help me get the kids out. She grabbed Emanuel out of his crib and started bundling while I got started on the twins. No socks, half asleep and scared out of their minds…luckily in the midst of scurrying around the upstairs neighbor (yes the same one of previous troubled posts) came down to tell us it was NOT a fire just oil left on the stove too long… way too close to a fire for me. The smoke was still VERY thick and the kids already coughing so the neighbor and I bundled them up and she was kind enough to drive us to my mother’s. Poor Gavin cried and since he hates snow I had to carry him, Zander was a trooper and walked right out and the neighbor carried Emanuel. Add to that the snowsuits for the kids were in the van on the way to the city !!! geeze… at first when I was trying to call mom and we were unsure of what exactly was going on I could not get her on the phone but I did find my copy of her house keys. She was out shovelling in this freezing cold weather. So the twins missed their nap and Emanuel was woken from a dead sleep by the neighbor and I managed to grab baby food and diapers but not change my pj shirt. After the scare I did pull on jeans, almost walked out the door with no coat but hey we managed… this was one of my biggest fears – what would happen if there was a fire and I was home alone and I managed…
I did call the landlord when I got to mom’s, in the apartment under me there is a nurse, her daughter and her mother… my neighbor knew that the mother and her little girl were gone for a visit somewhere but not if the mother was home so I suggested to the office they go make sure as that smoke was rather strong. What got me is that the mother of the girl upstairs (the girl started this mess) went to work! My neighbor told her to call the landlord and she said she would from work… the main fire alarm went off!!! I would rather she had stuck around. Add to that the girl asked me when I was getting the boys ready to go out if she could use our stroller to prop open the downstairs door to air the place out… not a word of apology for the whole thing. Yay…
So life goes on and I am pretty sure tomorrow will be easier… Good Lord I hope so!