Bugging Out

For all of you who in fascination follow my life, I happen to be at my in-laws' house right now. Because they get the National Geographic channel, I just got done watching a couple episodes of a show I've been wanting to see for quite a while: Doomsday Preppers. I have learned quite a few things, even from watching just these episodes.

Things I learned: people like to say "bug out." Earlier this year, I upgraded my 72-hour kit by simply starting to refer to it as my "go bag." If I want to stay fully prepared, I will need to begin to refer to it as my "bug out bag." The more things I do or own that start with the words "bug out," the better prepared I will be for a worst-case scenario. In fact, some people on this show even had goats that were trained to bug out. Unfortunately I don't have any livestock, but I definitely look forward to working with my parents' chickens, eventually transforming them into fully trained bug out hens.  

More things I learned: I need to buy a secure vehicle, such as a used school bus, in order to travel to my bug out location if the end of the world occurs. Apparently people won't think it's odd that schoolchildren are still attending classes. Also, I need to get my food secretly delivered at night. I recently bought about 50 bags of mini-wheats, and in case of hyper-inflation/coronal mass ejection/nuclear holocaust, all my neighbors who saw me carry them in from my car could possibly storm my house to get at my precious supply. And speaking of nuclear holocaust, one guy on the show seemed to think that the logical central location for a terrorist to detonate a nuclear bomb would be Omaha, Nebraska. Unfortunately, it's also where my in-laws live. Time to bug out.

The Beast Birthday Ever

Today is my birthday!

The Morning: After sleepily consuming the best breakfast in bed Austin has ever made me (he hates eating in bed so doesn't really get why it brings me joy) I wandered into the kitchen just in time to help Sammy put on her Belle dress she got yesterday for her birthday. "Is Dad the Beast?" I asked jokingly, giving up on my attempts to get Sammy to wear clothes under her flimsy dress up. "No," she smiled winningly, "you're the Beast." I was a little annoyed. Today is my birthday after all. "Go put your plate by the sink." "Yes, Beast."

The Afternoon: Later in the day, we went down to my parents' house and left the girls with them while Austin took me off for a little birthday surprise fun. I anticipated the nice lunch (I ate a chicken heart! (Thereby taking upon me its mighty strength!)) but was totally not expecting the trip to the indoor shooting range. It was a great idea of Austin's. I got to try out several different types of pistols to see what I preferred. We also had a little fun with a semi-automatic rifle--it took me back to my Halo-playing college days.

We aren't really gun people and didn't try to act like we knew it all. I personally learned a lot and left feeling more comfortable with firearms. Although from reading the online reviews this place* doesn't have a great customer service reputation, three different employees were nice enough to help us plus a random older gentleman who spent 10 minutes instructing me on stance, grip, loading, unloading, etc. I'm not sure, but this might have had something to do with the fact that I was at a shooting range dressed up in a skirt and little puffed sleeves. (Life lesson #761: Don't wear camo to a shooting range, you'll just blend in with the rest of the crowd...)

Tonight: We had planned to go to the waterpark later in the evening, but all the shooting and eating was kind of tiring. I tried to put the girls to sleep at 5:30, but for some reason they weren't thrilled about this. They finally went to sleep and now I am blogging because at the end of the day, I really like to write and Masterchef isn't on...boooooo. I'm off to eat Pralines and Caramel ice cream from BYU and drink fancy water in a wine glass! Ciao!

*It's called "Get Some" Guns and Ammo. They answer their phones, "Get some." ??

The Pessimist is Always Right

I was packing up the family yesterday to go down to mom and dad's house for the Fourth, and right before we left I looked out the back window and saw this. Aaahh! Thankfully the wind wasn't blowing the fire our way, so we will remain calm and carry on.

Waiting for my House to Burn

We have a beautiful view out of our back window...miles and miles of mountains, waving prairie grass, splashes of green oak and pines, and not a house in sight. (Just don't look to either side of us.) Unfortunately, this loosely translates into a view of a major fire hazard steps away from the lush green grass of our backyard. This weekend, while driving home from a great week with my sis in Arizona, I witnessed the awe-inspiring sight of miles of flame rolling slowly towards the freeway. It really made me contemplate our own risk--I decided to put everything I would want to save from a fire by the front door in case we had to leave quickly.

This decision has led to little explosions of clutter all over my house today as I've sorted through stuff and picked out what I would take, and left the rest to put back neatly later. So far I have two items by the front door: one Tupperware of scrapbooks, important documents, journals, and tax stuff, and one box of Christmas ornaments. Also I would grab my computer, my 72 hour bags (not that I would need them, since we'd probably flee to my parents' house, but I have to justify owning them somehow), and oh yes, my children. Is there anything else I'm forgetting? I feel like firstly, we own too much stuff, and secondly, we have fire insurance, so I'd probably be fine with seeing everything else burn. Looking around at my messy house, I'm wondering if my fervor of cleaning and organizing efforts today was overdoing it. Do I really think my house is going to burn up? Couldn't I just turn on the sprinklers? On the other hand, if a wildfire ever hits, and if I ever finish de-cluttering, I'll know exactly what each pile of ash is when my house burns to the ground.