Halloween

Today is Halloween and we are still down the hill at Chalon's. It has been fun but very crazy with all of the kids and their different needs. We get to go home tomorrow and I am very excited for my own house. I have to admit that it is pretty easy to get used to not having a lot of furniture but the one thing I really miss is a washer and dryer. I would not like living in a time without those luxeries.

Yesterday Cameron and I went miniture golfing for a break from the routine. It was fun to get out. I saw one of my old students from colton. I was weird because I haven't been a teacher in so long that I don't think of myself that way anymore. I didn't recognize her but I guess that is what happens when you have 200 kids coming through a day. I think it would be nice to teach only 30 kids for a whole year instead.

Sunday Church

We went to church today and met with our ward and the Lake Arrowhead Ward. It was a very nice meeting. Our Stake President said that in the Southern California fires 57 families have lost their home within the church. We are still not 100% sure of everything in Running Springs as they have not assessed the property damage there yet. He said that one family got a reverse 911 call and just had time to get in the car and down the street before their house was engulfed and destroyed. So we are very lucky right now. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and our branch president gave a talk about accepting whatever help we need and giving whatever help we can give in the coming weeks.

I know that I will make some changes to the way I do things and I have one big reccommendation. In the event of an evacuation grab your dirty clothes laundry basket. There will be somewhere to do laundry where you go and it will have what you need since it is the clothes that you wear.

We are thinking we will still be here for most of the rest of the week. But Lake Arrowhead gets to go home today. Lucky them!

Still Evacuated

Well Cameron did not have work yesterday due to the power going out. We are not sure why the power was out there. WE spent the day trying to figure out what to do. One thing is that being evacuated can be boring. We got an incredible package in the mail with lots of stuff for the kids to do and even some clothes for us. Thanks to my wonderful sister and her husband for that!

Mike (Cameron's dad) also visited the mountains yesterday. He got the inportant stuff from our house for us. Butterfly wings and a princess costume and then a bucket of dirty laundry. Hopefully we will have enough stuff for our evacuation now. It will probably be at least another week but we are very lucky because our neighborhood is still standing. Mike said that if you look from our house you can't even tell that there was a fire. What a blessing. I guess we were indeed led to the right house when we were picking houses to live in last month.

We went to an apple orchard yesterday in Oak Glen and enjoyed the cool air and the atmosphere that they created. We are ready to go back in the mountains just as soon as the fire is all out.

We are still in Highland

We had a calm day today. I cleaned the house a little and the girls worked on some "homework". Then we went to Norton air force base to collect the mail. After that we went over to orange show to the evacuation center. The red cross is amazing! Go red cross. It seems that everyone is doing fine there. They checked us in and took our information. Then they gave the kids some coloring books and stuffed animals and fed us. They even had a razor for Cameron so he can stop being the hairy monster :) Our last stop was the church where we worked on some humanitarian projects.

As of now our house is fine. Mike is going to be going up the mountains to check out the damage and hopefully get our halloween costumes. I think the fire may decide to leave most of the town standing. Although there are plenty of houses that were completely destroyed.

It is still smoky and it will probably be awhile before we can go home.

smoke in the air

We woke up to smoke in the air that was thick enough to cause the smoke alarm to go off. Not a good thing for scared little kids. We got the alarm to turn off and now have the house fan constantly on. Hopefully it will keep the smoke down a little. We are going to apple tree to play with toys because all the schools in Redlands are closed!

The good news is that for now Cameron's parents house was spared. It was confirmed! But at least two if not three people lost their homes from our ward over night. I am sad for them. We don't know the condition of our house. It may be okay and it may not. There are some reports of houses being lost on keller peak and we are not sure where they are refering to.....

Fire Progress

Today we collected food for the fire fighters in the mountains. It was Erin's project and Cameron helped quite a bit as well as Chalon. I think it was nice to let the kids have something to do. There was a lot of food collected and then someone in charge came to collect the food. He gave us a report that as far as he knows Cameron's parents house is okay. That is great news. Hopefully the fire will stay away from it from now on. We will see. He is going to drive by the house and see it tonight if it is possible. we will post a confirmed report.

I am also hearing from friends in San Diego. The Abreu's house was saved but the ranch did not fare as well. Dan stayed and fought the fire with Sean which is probably why it is okay.

The fire is headed towards our house tonight. We would appreciate all prayers that the fire will stay away from structures.

Thanks and please post if you visit our site so I know it was worth it to post.
thanks
Melissa

Evacuation

We woke up Monday morning to sirens and high wind. Not a good combination. We kept hearing sirens as it got light and then found out there was a fire in Lake Arrowhead. We figured that this fire was far away from us so we decided we were okay and Cameron got to work. At 8:00 he called me after barely sitting down to his desk and asked the status. I realized that there was now another fire in Green Valley Lake-the town right above where we live in Arrowbear. I told him to come home and that I was going to go pack. Then I made a mad dash through the house running as fast as I could to collect our important belongings. I got the pictures, my wedding dress, and computer. We also packed some clothes (although they do not match very well,) and a few toys for the kids. I did not really have time to think much about the fact that we would have to live where ever we went. I was just trying to get the important stuff. I got a phone call from the sherriff's ordering a mandatory evacuation around 9:30. Cameron arrived home on fumes because he forgot his wallet and couldn't buy gas down the hill. After he got home we sent the kids down the hill with Chalon and continued to pack. We soon realized we would not be taking everything and just decided that we should go and help others.

At that point Erin (Cameron's sister) called and said they couldn't make it up the mountain due to the road closures. So the 'people' we helped were his parents. I drove down the hill in my escape with no gas (the car Cameron had driven to work.) The gas stations were not working due to the power being off. I made it just fine to the gas station and found out that we would be staying in Chalon's empty house with her and her girls. (She just closed escrow on Friday and was not planning to move in for awhile.) Cameron helped his mom until around 1:00 and then they drove down together. Right now we are there and safe but there is a chance we might be evacuated from our place of safety later tonight as the fire is coming down. Not to worry anyone but please pray.

We will have a website on the favorite websites that you can go and check.

It is also here www.rimoftheworld.net

We will post if there are any changes.

Pumpkin Patch and gymnastics

Sue, Ali, Ashling and Melissa went to the Pumpkin patch on Tuesday afternoon. It was a fun experience where we were able to pick out some great pumpkins. We also went through a tree maze, and the girls jumped in a bouncy house. Ali was bit by the cute looking little pony which made her convinced that she never wants to ride a horse. We are not sure why it bit her but they put a sign up afterwards to not pet the pony.

Later we visited one gymnastics studio and then on Wednesday I took the girls to another studio. They both loved the gymnastics. Ashling and Ali both had their first opportunity on a regular very large balance beam. Ali even did a foward roll on the beam (with a spotter.) The girls were very excited to do gymnastics again and my schedule seems much busier now that I have to take them to gymnastics during the week too.

A short vacation to the land of the steep

Dad (Mike), Ali, and I all went up to Bishop on Friday and camped until Sunday while fishing, exploring, and soaking in the scenery. We camped at the foot of Mt. Tom, an impressive peak which APPEARS to stand independent of the rest of the range, and which is nearly 14,000 ft. tall. In fact the peak is attached by a ridge, which would make approaching from the west a possible future hike! It rained Friday night while snowing down to 7,000 ft. which made for a beautiful sunrise on Saturday morning with a clear blue sky.

We caught lots of fish. Let me re-phrase. Dad caught tons of fish, I caught some fish, and Ali helped me catch three fish. It is interesting that we can go to a spot which has been fished three times over in one day, and we even saw people fishing in that spot- And yet we were still able to pull out beautiful fish from that spot! I guess being trained by one of the "Eastern Sierra's Best" (in his own words), it is hard to not catch fish.

Please see the link (soon to come) for viewing the photos from this trip. Make comments about the photography!

One Nice Fall Day

It was mostly a lazy day today. I got pretty good sleep last night, and spend most of the morning doing chores in slow motion. Winter is just around the corner, as evidenced by the fact that Sierra's water was frozen this morning. In fact, yesterday just before dark we had some snow-ish material falling from the sky. The only place any accumulation to be noticed was in the corner between the windshield wipers and windshield of my truck. I digress.

The afternoon was much the same as the morning, except that late in the afternoon I took the family for a walk on a trail I discovered just up the street from our house. We followed the trail through early autumn colors and fallen bark-beetled trees amid the healthier and greener trees that survived the drought. The trail is pretty and offers 1/2 mile access to Keller Peak vicinity. It was nice to just grab the dog and go, and I am sure we will venture down this trail many times in the future.

Sick House

I took Ali to the doctor yesterday and they said she had pretty severe bronchitis. They put her on a breathing machine and then gave her an inhaler. It was nice how calm she was while she was sick but now that she can breathe she is once again very busy and looking for trouble. She didn't get to go to school today so the girls have been busy playing in the backyard and doing homework. They are now eating a picnic in their little play house. We love our new house with the big back yard. We will post some pictures soon of the house.