Beep! Beep! Beep! Goes the...dinner bell? by Jamie Lightner

“Beep! Beep! Beep!” The fire alarm was going off again! Yes, this is a re-occurrence in our house. The kids usually just come to the kitchen to make fun of me. This time as they sauntered in with there smirks, I was saying, “Everyone out of the house!” “What, this is for real this time.” They all asked with looks of disbelief. Yup, that’s when you know your kids are to accustomed to hearing the fire alarm. I believe my kids just refer to it as the dinner bell. I sent the kids out the door and over to my moms to look for a fire extinguisher. The S’more brownies I was making in attempts to be “cool” at a friends dinner party were blazing in my oven. I was simply supposed to broil them until the marshmallows on top softened. Yeah, me and broil have a complicated relationship. Ya see. I like to multitask, and when you are broiling, it is best to stay near the flames, otherwise you create more FLAMES. I called my brother in law, who used to fight forest fires. He is the one who got all over me when I opened my oven the last time I caught something on fire in it. Yeah. Sad to say this is not my first entrée on fire. He said to just stay back, but to crack the oven door and see if the flames come out the door. Oh yes they did! When he asked if I had a fire extinguisher I had to answer, “No, I used that last time I caught something on fire, remember!!” So I told him I was going to run across the street to see if my neighbor had a fire extinguisher. Nothing like the embarrassing moment of, “Hi, we haven’t chatted in awhile, I caught my brownies on fire, do you have a fire extinguisher.” I said, out of breath from frantically running over there. My husband called me during my run back to the house, empty handed. Apparently Jake called him and told on me. He had jumped in his truck and was on his way to rescue me, but by the time I got home it looked like the flames were dying down. There was still a fire, I could have easily roast a marshmallow above my flaming marshmallows, but the flames were no longer climbing out of the oven when I cracked it a bit. So I left the door shut and just watched until I could blow the last little flame out. Oh happy NOT birthday to me. Are there special “make a wish” circumstances for blowing out a flame that you are grateful didn’t catch the house on fire. I then took the smoking pan of brownies out side and ran the hose over it. When my hubby got home he said, “How did you catch your brownies on fire.” I said, “Well, I had to broil the top of the….” As soon as I uttered the word broil he just shook his head in understanding. He knew from my previous attempts to burn the house down, that broil and I did not get along well. At least last time he was home, and we had a fire extinguisher.