House Guest

Do you know what is scary? Waking up at 5 in the morning because your smoke detector is going off. I suppose that might be scary at anytime of the day, but it seemed increasingly threatening when it woke Travis and I up this morning. Travis was in such a hurry (and I'm sure his body was still asleep) that when he attempted to open our bedroom door he couldn't get it to budge. He tried unlocking the door, which in turn actually locked it because we don't lock our bedroom door. After much fumbling, he finally got the door open and searched the house. There was no fire to be found. Thank the stars. But then we hear my sister Ariel from our guest bedroom mumbling something about her candle burning out. Come to find out she must have fallen asleep with a candle burning and when it finally burnt out, it filled her room with smoke. That set off the smoke detector, much to our morning excitement. Travis immediately removed all smoke detectors from their braces so that the horrible high-pitched beeping would cease. This means that if there is a real fire today, nobody will be alarmed. Hopefully that doesn't happen, since Ariel obviously can sleep through a fire.

My sister asked us in the middle of January if she could stay with us for a week. By the end of that week she asked if she could pay rent and stay for a month. (It's more like she is using our guest bedroom as a closet, that she visits a few times a week.) I want to help my sister, so we agreed. The terms were she had to get a second job and save up for her own apartment by the end of February. Here we are 8 days until the end of the month and she has done neither. I wish that I could help my sister more, but I feel that by letting her stay with us longer we are just enabling her to avoid getting her own place. I don't think she does this on purpose. I think it's more an act of laziness. I truly hope that she can get back on her feet soon. If not only for Ariel's chance to grow, then for Travis and my sanity.

Ya, and try falling back to sleep for an hour after waking up to that adrenaline rush!