Storytime: The worst night of my life

So, I am going to begin blogging some of the significant things that have happened in my life in the past, so that when I post on current things in my life, all will know what thing from my past I might refer to, and also better understand the things that have shaped me through out my life.

This is being cut and pasted from my old myspace page.

So, last Friday, June 1 (2007), Steven and I closed on the purchase of our new house. This is our second home, and the one we plan on starting our family in. We have been so excited about this move, and we did so well on the sell of our first home. We slept Friday night at the new place, after working all day Friday, moving and painting and cleaning. Then we rose Saturday to do more moving, unpacking, settling, and some minor modifications (my step dad was installing a new back door, with a doggy door for all of our animals). We worked hard all day, and then around 5 went to our friends house to watch their two kidos so they could go to a wedding. We were so exausted from all we had been doing that we crashed on their couch as soon as we got the kids to bed. They arrived home at about 1, and after visiting for a couple of miutes, we headed on back to our house. We arrived in our driveway by about 1:20 am, and immediatly heard a faint beaping sound. We ran to the front door, unlocked and opened it, and were met by tons, and tons of black smoke. We both ran in, I ran into our beedroom first, and staying close to the ground, and almost immediatly saw our cat, Gizmo...he was dead, (from this point on the night had an out-of-body feel to it) I ran back to the living room, screaming, "Gizmo's dead! Where are the dogs?! Mandy, Oliver, come here dogs!..." While shouting I ran for the back door and opened it and my two babies were standing on the porch, shaking and scared to death. Steven and I were both dialing 911 at this point, but he got through first. Then we called my mom, and then all we could do was wait.
We lost everything that was in the house, which since we had just owned it for like 36 hours wasn't much of our memorabelia or "junk" but was all of our large furniture, my dishes, and nearly all the items that go in my kitchen. We also lost the interior of our new home. It is completely destroyed.
Thank God for insurance, and the love, support and prayers of friends and family. We are doing okay, but its tough. We are living in a hotel suite, and being told that it will be 4 to 6 months until the restoration of our home will be completed. That seems like an eternity right now...I'll keep posting as we know more, and I'll upload some of the photos of the damage once I get a chance...