week in the life {back story}

if you followed my week in the life posts, then you know there has been a lot of rambling about our bad luck and "almost" house fire. i should've posted this story prior to beginning the daily week in the life updates...but, alas, i didn't.

so here we go... (warning: text heavy, no cute or fun photos).

it all began many moons ago, or maybe just a few weeks ago. it seems like a lifetime, at this point. i got an itchin' for some boiled peanuts (a tasty southern treat). i decided that purchasing them from our favorite roadside vendor was no longer acceptable and that it was time for me to step up and become the southern domestic goddess that would make my husband, mother-in-law, oh heck...it'd make someone proud!

though "boiling peanuts" seemed obvious, i decided i should check in with a few experts and asked my two sisters, who happen to be peanut boilin' pros, how to go about doing this... good thing i did. turns out you have to use green peanuts (who knew???). and so the hunt began...it took me a few weeks of calling and visiting every grocery store and roadside stand until i found my lovely green peanuts (which for the record, are not green...of course, right?).

somewhere in this couple of weeks is when a sane person would've just given up and bought some darned boiled peanuts. but, i found the elusive green peanuts and they were expensive and i was excited.

proud as a redneck having caught a big 'ole bass, i hopped in the car and headed home. i pulled out my biggest pot and started boiling away. now, for those of you that are not to my southern domestic goddess level, let me explain that boiled peanuts take several hours to reach their prime level of yumminess.

i was doing a fantabulous job of checking on my pet project. adding water and salt as necessary. things were going peachy. and then...

a few moments away from the oven and suddenly our precious home was full of smoke. just. like. that.

the boys were quickly ushered outside. a glance at the stove top showed the most bizarre thing we'd ever seen...the pot had melted. literally, there was liquid metal all over our stove.

the amount of smoke was unbelievable, making it so difficult to breathe. we never had flames, but the incident resulted in an unimaginable amount of smoke damage.

dear hubby spent his entire week off scrubbing, cleaning, trying desperately to restore our home to a livable state. but to no avail.

a week later, we gave in and filed an insurance claim. a few weeks later, we just spent our first night back in our clean home full of fresh, breathable air...after ten days in a hotel.

and that, my dear bloggy friends, was the reader's digest versin of our "almost" house fire.