In good times and bad, and fire safety drills

I started this post on Wednesday, and by "started" I mean I loaded a picture and video clip, but didn't quite get around to writing anything.

It's been an interesting week. Mostly good. Though I was really hoping to include a photo of me behind the wheel of my car, but I can't, because it's still not fixed. So I guess that story will have to wait until some time next week.

But I choose to focus on the good, which included wedding anniversary number 14 for Jeff and me. We tried really hard to be creative and re-create one of our wedding photo poses. But instead I ended up looking like I was blinking, and I can't help but notice how badly the picture frame behind us needs to be straightened.

To be fair, the original photographer was a professional. And our current photographer is eight and a half. 

Other exciting news of the week: it was fire safety week for first graders, which meant we got to do a family fire drill. Those are so much fun! We haven't gotten to do one of those since AJ was in first grade. 

This time around we weren't quite so organized. During dinner one night this week, Sydney reminded us we were supposed to have already signed the slip saying we'd done the drill and sent it back to school with her. Once again, it's the curse of being the second child. With AJ, we carefully plotted a time to catch the kids off guard and Jeff snuck out of the room to trigger the smoke detector. With Sydney, after she reminded us, I looked at Jeff and said, "Now's as good a time as any," and then did my best to make fire alarm sound.

The good news: the kids remembered to head to the mailbox, AJ did not yell at everyone to get into one line, the dog responded relatively calmly and waited for me to clip on his leash, and now that the cat is gone, no one feels guilty about heading out of the house without her.

So all in all it was a successful drill.

When we returned to the house, Sydney demonstrated what else she's learned as part of fire safety week:

I noticed she added a move beyond the traditional "stop, drop and roll" and asked her why she covered her face with her hands.

"So smoke wouldn't get in your face."

Smart kid. Let's hope we never have to do this for real.

Now if I could just get my car back, all would be well.