Currently September

9.10.2019


I'm not going to say how on earth is it September, but really. What in the world.

Our oven caught fire on Friday night. I got home from work and was rushing to get dinner ready before I left to drive to Texas. Jordan was going to keep the kids while I went to Texas to go wedding dress shopping with my sister, mom, and sisters-in-law for my sister's wedding in March. 

Jordan had gotten home from work a little late and was in the shower,  and I was making spaghetti and pasta sauce. Jordan came out just as I opened the oven door to put some garlic bread into the preheated oven, and I heard a clatter clatter clatter. I looked and saw four crayons on the bottom of the oven starting to melt. I assume a certain small child with red hair had shoved them into the small opening by the handle, and when I opened the door they all fell in.

I shrieked and grabbed an oven mitt and tried to roll them out, but they got caught on the bottom, and I kept having to close the door so they would fall through the bottom and then open it again to get another crayon. J wandered over, so I grabbed him, and Jordan took the oven mitt from me and rolled the last crayon out. We put the garlic bread in, and Jordan said, "How did they get in there? What happened?" I started to explain when out of the corner of my eye I saw something orange.

We both turned around and saw literal flames spiking up inside the oven.

Jordan threw open the door and grabbed the garlic bread out, and we saw a red crayon tucked in the very back of the oven that had completely melted and subsequently caught on fire. I'm super calm under pressure and started shouting WHAT DO WE DO???? I grabbed my phone and Googled "what do I do if a crayon catches fire," but all that came up were links to Pinterest articles about making a craft out of melted crayon hearts. NOT HELPFUL, GOOGLE.

So I then Googled "what do I do if I have a fire in my oven," but all that came up were links to articles about putting out a fire that starts in a skillet on top of the oven. AGAIN, NOT HELPFUL.

We decided that since the oven was already hot and we have an electric oven not a gas one, it probably wasn't a dire situation quite yet. I mean all things considered, a hot oven is probably (?) the best place for a fire to start if you're going to have a fire start somewhere. Jordan turned off the oven, we kept the door closed (not feeding the flames an air source?), and the flames flickered lower and lower until they went out completely.

The good news is that our house didn't catch on fire. The bad news is that I had already roasted Brussels sprouts, so our house smelled like a lovely mixture of Brussels sprouts and melted crayon.  That combination of scents was.... interesting (read: it was weird and not great), but I suppose it's better than the smell of your house burning to the ground.

On a less stressful note, here are a few currently things for September...

MAKING: things in my Instant Pot! We bought an Instant Pot a while ago, and we've used it a bit, but honestly I'm a little intimidated by it and haven't used it a ton. But I feel like I need to utilize the Instant Pot for quick meals like it's intended for! So I've been looking up a few ideas and wrote down some that my friend said were really good and easy. If you have any good Instant Pot recipes, send them my way. I recently tried this, which was super easy and I had everything in my pantry already (which is why I made it). It had an interesting flavor, and I didn't drain the can of tomatoes, but I think next time I make it I will. We ate it on top of couscous with a side of steamed vegetables. 

TAKING: my pre-natal vitamins. They are the same ones I took when I was pregnant with J, and they are huge, and I have to choke them down every time, so it's not my favorite. Fun fact about me: when I was growing up I had the absolute worst time swallowing pills. My  parents would cut them in half, hide them in applesauce or yogurt, have me swallow with milk.... it was a whole ordeal to get me to swallow any pills. I can swallow pills now, but it still feels like a mental block I have to overcome every time I do it.

DISCOVERING: lots of new-to-me podcasts. I've gotten a few recommendations from friends, and I also have listened to some episodes where podcasters I like are guests on another podcast and found new podcasts I like from there. Here are a few I've found recently and been enjoying: 

New to Me

Old Favorites

CONSUMING: macaroni & cheese. I wouldn't say it's a straight-up pregnancy craving, but mac & cheese just always sounds good. I bought a container of the Panera at Home Mac&Cheese to eat for lunch at work, and I forced myself not to look at the nutrient list because I'm sure it's super bad for you. But I ate it over two days, so I tell myself that makes it better ;)

SAVING: some money in our grocery budget by not getting any more Hello Fresh boxes. We've been getting 1 box a month for almost a year and loving it, but they recently enraged me by charging a $6 Oklahoma State tax and never informing me about it and then being really difficult when I wanted to get an explanation from customer service about why they didn't feel it was necessary to give their customers a heads up about the extra charge on my bill. That might sound ridiculous, but this wasn't the first billing issue I've had with them, and I get upset about things on principle. Although $6 is not very much money, it put me over the edge and I cancelled in a fit of rage. Jordan was sad because he likes getting Hello Fresh, so I'll be trying a few other subscription box things if I can find a good deal. Has anyone tried anything good? Let me know!

p.s. Thank you to everyone who has left comments on my recent posts. Blogger is dumb, and apparently people are having problems leaving a comment at all, and the comments aren't coming to my email anymore! Ugh. So annoying. I'll try to reply back in the comments, but please don't feel like I'm ignoring you if you don't hear back! I am reading them and I hope Blogger can figure out its issues soon. 

On that note, thank you, thank you to everyone who comments and who reads! I know I have pulled back from blogging regularly this year, but I truly enjoy this space, and I appreciate everyone who checks in to read about our little family :)
Angi said...

Have you tried gummy prenatals? VitaFusion makes a good one. I can’t do giant pills when I’m pregnant either. The only downside is they can’t put iron in gummies, but unless you’re anemic you’re probably getting plenty of iron in your food.

AnneMarie said...

Oh my! I am so glad that you all didn't have a crazy house fire and that things got under control. My family had a kitchen fire a few years ago, and it was not fun for them. They were all okay (other than some burns my mom got) and the house didn't burn down or anything, but with the smoke damage and ash and whatnot, it was a hassle to deal with. Glad that you guys don't have to go through that, especially since you're pregnant!

OK, so if you're eating lots of mac n'cheese, I feel obliged to mention the Creole Contessa slow cooker macaroni & cheese recipe. Have you eaten it before? If you haven't, do yourself a favor and google it. It is most certainly not the healthiest thing (not only does it call for 6 types of cheeses, but also heavy cream, milk, AND butter) but it's amazing. It's our "special occasion" recipe (since specialty cheeses are more expensive, we only make it every few months or so. However, some of my husband's coworkers claim you can save money by using only 2-3 types of cheeses and get a similar result).

Also, I don't know much about meal subscription services, but the principle of them charging that without a heads-up would probably make me rage quit too! I just don't like being forced to pay extra money I hadn't planned on. When I spent a college semester abroad, it seemed like a fairly normal thing for the administration to say (while on a school trip or something) "Oh by the way, we all need to pay such and such as a gratuity/tip to this one person for this random thing" and that always made me so mad. Like, I'd be fine with giving a tip, but the principle of this being expected for random things, as well as being told exactly how much to give, really bugged me.

Sarah said...

i'm glad your oven fire wasn't more severe! fire freaks me out and i'm always paranoid that my son will do something to our oven or put a toy in it or something since he's now big enough to open it. (i don't let him!)

and since you mentioned mac & cheese i'm going to shamlessly link drop to my fave homemade version https://thepajamachef.com/2014/12/10/art-smiths-macaroni-and-cheese/ It is THEEEEEEE best, and now i think i need to make it this weekend.

Jenny Evans said...

Got to love those helpful little people. Good thing they're so cute.

Rachel said...

Mac-n-cheese is delicious! I suck at prenatals. Actually, I took the giant prenatal vitamins faithfully everyday up until I actually got pregnant the first time, at which point, if I didn't gag on them going down, I'd find myself vomiting 10 minutes later. I've ended up importing my own gummy vitamins from the USA because they don't sell gummy prenatals in this country.
And the oven fire story is crazy! Didn't even know crayons could catch on fire in an oven but hey, I guess that is good to know although maybe not from the experience of living through it.

Sarah @ Sweet Miles said...

Hahaha your oven fire!!! Omg it sounds like a sitcom scene. I'm glad your whole house didn't catch fire! If it makes you feel any better, one time I put aluminum foil in the microwave...which didn't turn out so great! I need to check out those podcasts - love Risen Motherhood of course, but I haven't tried those others. Most of my current podcasts are true crime - loving Generation Why at the moment!!

The Lady Okie said...

I hadn't considered the gummy ones! I just have such a hard time with pills. I totally think it's a mental block of some sort that started in childhood and I never got over.

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