Matt and Jessica Allen: What a Week!

We are feeling God's protection over our family this week! The past several days have been very exciting around here. Exciting (FUN!) because of Beck's birthday and our anniversary. And exciting (WHAT THE ???) because of two, yes TWO, visits from emergency services.

It all started with our sweet Kyle getting stung 13 times by yellow jackets on Thursday. He was playing on his playscape and climbed through the tunnel, unknowingly right into a nest of yellow jackets. It was awful. Awful. I grabbed him and rushed him up to the back patio, then ran back down to the playscape where Beck was standing all smiles, with no idea what was going on. Thankfully, he didn't get stung too! If you've never heard your child scream in pain like that before, just know that it's one of the worst sounds ever!

I grabbed both boys and ran inside to check out Kyle. In spite of his hysterical crying, he was able to tell me he only got stung on his arm. It swelled and swelled because of the stings. I called Matt and he in turn called 911 just in case Kyle had an allergic reaction to the stings.

The paramedics came and thankfully Kyle was a-ok. No allergic reaction, just a sore, swollen arm. He was over it by the time they arrived and was more interested in their equipment than anything else. Such a brave boy!

Our brave, worn out boy

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On Sunday evening after all the birthday celebrations died down, Matt and I were sitting on the couch chatting when the doorbell rang at 10pm. Since we weren't expecting anyone, we were hesitant to answer, knowing that it probably wasn't something good. As I whispered to Matt, "You should probably go get your gun," he went ahead and opened the door to no one. But he heard someone talking. He walked out on the porch and saw a teenager on the phone, who said to Matt, "Dude your fence is on fire!"

What?!

Matt ran out and looked at the side of the house and sure enough, it was aflame. Note: the fence, air conditioner, and gas are all lined up right outside the boys rooms.

So he yelled to me to get the boys and I ran into Beck's room. I took at .25 second pause to freak out at smelling smoke and seeing the glow of flames through his window. I grabbed him out of bed by his arm, poor baby, and ran to get Kyle. I grabbed Kyle in a football hold, put both boys by the front door, then grabbed the dogs and my phone (which were pretty much in arms reach).

The boys were so confused and barely awake. I had Lewis by his harness (thankfully he had it on for some reason), Beck under one arm, Kyle under another, and Sammy at my feet, ushering everyone outside to the driveway. I plopped them down, called my neighbor and she ran out to help.

Meanwhile, Matt and the neighbor are using the hose to put out the fire and we can hear the fire trucks getting close. Note 2: our neighborhood is across the street from the fire station so it only takes about 90 seconds for them to get here.

The firemen put out the fire just in time...another couple of minutes and the roof would've been on fire right above the boys bedrooms. Scary stuff! As I said at the beginning, God has protected us GREATLY this week! We are so thankful that our neighbor happened to be outside at 10pm and saw the fire, we are so thankful that it did minimal damage, and we are so thankful NO ONE GOT HURT. Praise the Lord!

So, it's now Tuesday afternoon; I've been trying to complete this blog post for two days. It's 87 degrees in the house and we finally just got word of the hotel we're going to be staying indefinitely. We tried to get the insurance company to hook us up at Great Wolf Lodge, but they said no. It didn't hurt to ask, right?!?

Here are some pictures of the fun from Sunday night.