Where there's smoke...

...there might be fire.

Especially if you leave a cookbook on the stove and turn on the wrong burner.

This is the cookbook with all my handwritten, family favorites.  Thankfully it's just the outside that's ruined.  Now I just need to find a new 3-ring binder with the same dimensions...

There wasn't an actual fire... just LOTS of smoke.  The smoke detector went off, the dog freaked out, the kids ran around griping about how badly it smelled.  I'm thankful the cover had a coated paper... had it just been paper, it would have gone up in flames for sure.

As if that wasn't bad enough, in the process of trying to clear out the smoke, I forgot to turn off the burner.  So, while I'm opening windows (which required peeling up weatherizing plastic) and doors, the remnants of the cookbook are continuing to "cook" on the stovetop.  GRR.

I am so thankful it was one of the very mild (nearly 40˚F) days we've had recently.  The house aired out nicely.

The stovetop and (barely functional) oven hood are now sparkly clean. Or, as sparkly as they can be.  This picture of the hood actually makes it look much better than it is...

Sadly, this is as good as this hood gets... it's rusty, and really doesn't work.

My kids learned first-hand why I'm always telling them to NEVER put anything on the stove (unless you're cooking *wink*).

The upside of the day... the kids got out of the house for the afternoon (before the debacle) and worked together making this snowman.  Jericho and Shiloh helped too, but both refused to be in the picture. ;)

Chase, Alex, Levi & Victory with their new pal