The day our town almost blew up.

No, really, it almost did. 

It was Thursday, April 26, 2018. We live in Superior, Wisconsin, a little nothing town at the tip of Lake Superior, nothing to write home about. One thing we do have in town is a giant oil refinery. Everyone in town drives by it on occasion (us everyday) and growing up we've all had the, "if that ever went, we'd all be dead" conversation, but for the most part, nobody thinks about it. Nobody wishes it gone because it's probably the biggest employer in town and you know how that is. But on Thursday, pretty much the worst case scenario happened. 

Around 10 in the morning, my mom and I were outside with the little girls. It was a little breezy, pretty chilly, we weren't going to be out there very long. Just long enough for the littles to play on their new climber Matt and I bought in anticipation of having a fence this summer. 

 We were playing without a care in the world, they were having a great time. 

 It was just before we were set to come back into the house where out of nowhere, we heard this LOUD boom. Having no idea what it was, I thought maybe it was a huge crack of thunder or maybe train cars banging together, but it was just once so I didn't think anything about it. Then we started hearing sirens coming from every direction and I think my mom made an off remark about the refinery. 

 Turns out, there was a line explosion at the refinery and it was on fire. This is the view from my back yard at about 1p.m., right after I had gotten a phone call saying we were in the evacuation zone, followed up with a call saying my children were being evacuated from school to a nearby business and you could/should pick them up immediately. 

Matt went to get Olivia at the middle school and my mom went to get Jackson, but his school had already been evacuated since it's so close to the refinery, so she sat in traffic for two hours to get him. By the time they were home, both were shaken up and you can tell Olivia had been crying- they could see the massive amounts of smoke and she didn't know what to think. 

We decided that we'd wait it out instead of evacuating right away so we went to Duluth to kill some time.  

 These are just various pictures of our drive out of town. 

 Matt's work is less than a mile away from the refinery and he said it shook their entire building. 

 We decided we would go to the children's museum until dinner time since our membership is still valid, and that was a really great idea. 

 There was hardly anyone there so we had pretty much the whole place to ourselves. 

I thought for sure people would flock to places like this to kill some time. We went out to eat and saw a lot of friends who were in the same mindset at us, not sure if we should stay or go.  

At dinner there was another explosion and they had pulled back firefighters from the fire so they had started asking for police help from other surrounding communities to knock on doors and get people to leave. It was a city wide evacuation at this point, but our neighborhood and my mom's were the priority.  

 Our drive back was even stranger than the drive out. 

 Almost nobody was driving into Wisconsin (Duluth is in Minnesota) and I heard that they eventually shut off access into Wisconsin, but I don't know that for sure. 

 We decided we would go to Matt's parent's home for the night, as annoyed as Matt was. School was cancelled for the next day, Matt's work was closed the next day, and honestly, I'd rather be safe than sorry. 

 These next two pictures aren't mine but were on Facebook and I thought they were just really interesting in their perspective and scope. In this one you can see how huge the refinery is, it isn't Texas huge but it's pretty large for our little area. 

This is the road going into the refinery, we drive down this every day and it was just obliterated by the smoke. I mean, the road is still there but it looks like the end of days. 

We ended up coming home on Friday because the evacuation was lifted in the early morning, and I was just grateful we had a place to go that didn't cost us money. I wondered what people who didn't have the resources to get out did, and if they got any sleep that night. The aftermath has been actually pretty OK. Our water was safe to drink, they say our air and soil are fine too but I am a little doubtful on that myself. I've had a headache ever since but who knows, my body is not a very reliable barometer of things around me. 

Everyone is giving praise to the rescue and emergency personnel and to me, that's expected. That's your job and I'm grateful they can do it, but you know- it's your job. What I was most impressed with was the school. You hear schools get a lot of flack about not being ready in an emergency but our district was on it and once the evacuation call was made people were out of the buildings and on their way. I was really impressed with how much communication us parents had throughout the day and for not dealing in emergencies like this, they really had a well thought out plan. Parents were going all "mama bear" on Facebook and at the pick up area and it's like, calm down. I get it, we all handle stress in different ways, but I felt like the entire city had a plan and had things under control as much as they could. I wasn't worried and I would have been OK staying, I just worried that if the wind switched we'd be dealing with another crisis. Mother Nature is who I'm afraid of. 

Overall, what could have been a massive crisis turned out to be a memorable moment we'll likely all remember. Only a few were injured, thankfully nobody died. We all know people who work at the refinery so it would have been tragic for us all in a way. 

Thanks + More Crafty - More Snow = Less Ghetto?

To get you started this evening (I swear on my right boob that I have funny in this post) I am posting a vlog. You can see me stumble through a terrible thank you to some of my readers. I suck at that but I figured THAT would be better than me doing my regular "thanks- you are cool". So.. ok. And I didn't preview it because you people freaked me about telling me I sound weird. Now I'm all self conscious when I say "about" and such. One time I actually said "a boot" and now I'm getting teased. Whatever. So I refuse to see what I look like. HA!

(Edit to add: Forgive the static. I decided to listen to it and guess what? THIS IS PROOF I'M NOT CRAZY, Matt!! It does make a static noise! Any techie people?? Help me prove my husband I'm not a retard.)

So I haven't had a chance to show you what is in my shop. And my "link" button isn't working so you're gonna have to just go to www.scrapinsara.etsy.com (which links.. WTF blogger? WTF?) and check them out. But I have an entire greeting card set (more coming soon):

 And cutie Valentine's cards. I have a few different ones and I made myself an extra set of these.

OK. So we are all familiar with the ghetto state of my van window, right? If not, you need to click on that link and be ashamed of yourself for not knowing what's going on. Anyways. So right now the only thing keeping my van from being robbed of it's seats and random shit in there is a huge sheet of plastic and some duck tape. Well, I'll tell you one thing- neither of these things will keep you warm but they WILL give you the experience of scraping the inside of all your windows so you can see out them. And I've also discovered that I think I have freakishly small arms because folks? I'm struggling. I got my boob stuck in my steering wheel today and it hurts. I'd show you a picture of the huge red mark that is still there but I think that's porn and my blog will get flagged or something. Anyways.

So today it snowed and shit and I didn't think anything of it. Until I went outside to find that some of the tape is not longer sticking so I had a snow drift. IN MY VAN. Guess how awesome it is to shovel out the interior of a vehicle? Um, it's not. Seriously pissed me off. So I put even more duck tape on it and I hope to god that it not only stays sticked to the van door part but that if it does fall off... my seats are still in there. I heard that some people will steal your seats and stuff. I don't know if that's true but sad day because I don't know if I have a clause for that in my insurance.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow morning brings me. :/

But I will tell you one thing- I will never have this problem again. Granted, if we're being honest my window will probably get shot out again. BUT I told Matt we are going to have a special account with my deductibles sitting in it. But until then.... I'm without a window and $125 short. Oh payday.. where art thou??

Potentially Fabulous

Hey yall- top o' the morn to ya.

So let's talk about what I have going on this week- this is me assuming that you care. But you obviously do since you are reading this.

1. Harper Collins: I got a VERY exciting email yesterday from a Senior Editor at Harper Collins. I know, I totally spit my soda all over the computer screen at work and my desk is still sticky. The most exciting thing? They found and read my blog. I know, right? They found my review of THE LEISURE SEEKER and loved it, and contacted me saying that they loved it. I am so excited. I even got some tips on writing and publishing- so guess what lambs? I decided to for sure write a book. I even started last night, got two pages done in 30 minutes. My brain is swimming and I'm still so excited. I can barely contain myself. A sign from the heavens? Maybe.

2. Olivia is back: Olivia spent the last two nights at Matt's parents' house and is back today. I'm at work so that sucks for both of us. She cried when I had to leave which makes me feel like the worst parent ever. I couldn't even make her stop crying with bribing. I don't know what's worse- the fact that I have resorted to bribing or the fact it didn't work.

3. My house is clean: I know, hold the presses. I actually made time for cleaning yesterday- in the hopes that doing physical activitiy would dull the excitement from the Harper Collins email. It didn't, but my house looks and smells lovely. I would consider this a bonus.

4. I have to get my lazy ass to the post office to mail packages. James- I swear I will put it in the mail today. I'm such a loser and I'm sorry. Angie and Lindze- your packages are coming too, and Elena- yours is being made tonight with the hopes to mail it this week as well. Hopefully nobody was holding their breath otherwise I'd have 4 dead people as a result of my laziness. That would suck.

5. The guy from the bagel shop by my work that commented on my boobs last Wednesday? Was there again today. I must have had that, "Don't talk to me because I'm feeling bitchy today" look on my face because all I got from him today was a wink and a wave. Oh- and of course, the blatant stare at my chest. Oh well. I should be thankful that my boobs are obviously something to look at. Or maybe I should thank Victoria's Secret for making a fabulous bra that makes them look perkier than they really are.

6. I have got to get my ass going on my Etsy shop. My goals this year- 2 sales in the Etsy shop and garner more "followers" on my blog. Maybe if I'm lucky they can coincide.

7. Why do I need followers? Well according to a fabulous source (can you guess who??) I need a "platform" in order to approach a publisher. They want to know how I know people will read/buy the book. I don't teach or do public speaking for fear of making an ass out of myself so the next best thing is a blog. Wait...does public speaking mean like when you tell people to fuck off (in various, sometimes nice ways) in public areas like stores? Because I do that ALL of the time. Spread the word lambs! I will have a little somethin' somethin' for the first 50 followers. As soon I as I hit 50, I'll come up with something. :) Sweet.

OK- so I am going to get some stuff done, sit in my hole of an office and spread joy to fellow co-workers. Who may not be here today since I am the only one on the second floor at 8:45 in the morning. Strange.

South Superior Birds Retaliate

You know I'm all about cutting costs where I can. This summer I decided that spending $20 on a bag of bird food that lasts MAYBE 3 days is obscene. Some of these birds are looking pretty big, with the one that doesn't fly well anyway struggling even more. He will probably get killed by the psychotic cat from next door or hit by someone on a bicycle. If birds could read I would have a sign that said "Not All You Can Eat" because I am going broke trying to ward off famine on local birds. Plus, the kids like to watch them eat.

My solution? Walmart actually had bags of bird seed in the $1 section. No joke. I thought- god has seen my struggle but appreciates the sentiment so is putting bird seed on sale. THANK YOU! I was so excited, thinking the birds are going to be all happy to have a bird feeder stocked and loaded all of the time and I will become the Old Country Buffet for birds.

Well guess what? Those unthankful, ungracious bastards of birds are NOT happy. They made their gross bird noises next to my open windows at all hours, bang into the windows, etc. And now because I haven't responded to them, this is what I see this morning:

Let me assure you- my van was COVERED, this was just the first one I saw. No matter where I move my van- I am now a target.

The birds are also doing their destructive pooping on my daughter's second floor window. The screen was covered and I had to spray that off from the inside because guess what? It fucking smells to high heaven.

I apologize birds if this food gives you the runs. Really. It's gross, I get it. But you know what? I'm not rich. You are no longer getting the expensive stuff- find another home. Stop shitting on all of my stuff because that will get you nowhere. I'm in this house for a long time bitches so I will win this war.