Fire...again!

As most of you already know, Santa Barbara is on fire....again. The picture above shows the current evacuation areas...we're not a very large town, 90,000ppl at best...and 30,000ppl are currently evacuated with more scheduled to happen soon. That's a third of our town! Dozens of homes have been burned. Some 36 schools are shut down (some due to air quality). It's absolutely mind blowing. The worst of it is, this is our 3rd major fire in the last 12 months! The last fire (Tea Fire) in November burned more than 200 homes down. The current Jesusita Fire (named after a popular hiking trail where the fire was thought to have started) is said to be the worst emergency Santa Barbara has faced in 25 years. The latest update said the fire is about 10% contained - not the most hopeful statistics, but better than 0%. The temperature is expected to get to 100`F again today, so the firemen are working hard this morning to try and get some of it under control.

With all that said, we're thankfully on the ocean side of the 101 Freeway - which looks to be the safest place in town. So we have not been evacuated and I don't think we will be. We've actually planned to leave today for my little sister's college graduation down in Orange County. As bad as I feel leaving our community in a time like this - there's nothing much I can do to improve the situation, so I'll selfishly take some "fresh" Orange County air and a chance to sit by the pool and relax this belly of mine.

We had a bit of a scare yesterday. My body seems to really love going into labor. I had some early labor episodes with Sarah and have had some earlier on in this pregnancy, but yesterday was a little much. It started about 4pm on Wednesday...my body for no reason went into having consistent contractions for several hours. Even laying down didn't calm them down. Right before bed they started to mellow out, but a few hours into sleep they woke me up and I was up the rest of the night with painful, strong contractions. I was having all the signs of early labor - cramping, pressure down low, nausea, lower back pain, etc etc. I called the doc and she made us immediately go to the hospital to get monitored. Thankfully, my cervix hadn't dilated at all - so I was able to go home after a little over an hour of being on the monitors. I've basically been on my back ever since...trying to get my uterus to calm down. Like I said, I guess my body just loves labor! HA. Either that or River is especially excited to come join us this side of the world :)

It was a bit of a treat - as well as a definite hurdle crossed - going to the hospital and having a positive experience. Our last time there was filled with such sad and painful memories. Even being hooked up to all the monitors was a source of joy because River was as wild as always - kicking and moving non-stop, making it hard for the nurses to get the best reading. I love this little guy already :) I think he takes after his dad....haha.

Anyway, enough drama for one blog entry....hope this finds you well! Thanks for all the prayers - it would be great to have a downpour of rain right about now!