The Simple Scents of Life

1:45 am...and we were snuggled comfortably in our beds. Maybe some were snoring, but none of us took notice. We had two rooms at the hotel. My parents and some of the children were down the hall sleeping...most likely snoring.

During a rather pleasant dream, a startling, loud, and most obnoxious siren blasted from an alarm on our wall. Christa and I jumped up thinking it was the alarm clock. Suddenly, a deep voice began speaking over the siren telling the guests of the twelve story hotel to leave their warm beds, and head for the nearest evacuation exit. As soon as he began speaking, I grabbed the Emma (who was in my bed) and told Jessica she needed to wake up.

I walked into the living room and woke up Abigail and Caleb and informing them of the emergency. They yawned, said okay and laid back down. Emma was only half awake and wouldn't let me go, so I went back into our room to get the girls who were looking for clothes. Christa picked up Abigail and together we all left the room. On our way out, I told Jessica to get the key. She followed out behind us and shut the door, of course, forgetting the key inside.

My parents came out from their room, and we all stood on the balcony waiting to see if the alarm was real. We've been to several hotels and have had so many false alarms that we always wait if possible. And we were only on the fifth floor, so getting down would be no problem. I looked up and saw Mrs. Oakley waiting as well on her floor. We told my dad that we left our key in the room, so he took Emma down to get another for us, taking the elevator. :) We watched as the firemen and officers came through to investigate what had caused the problem. My dad talked with some people downstairs and came back up telling us we could go back to bed as it was a false alarm.

We went back into our room, put the children back into bed, and began to wind down after all the excitement. Emma was so upset that she wanted to sleep with my Mom, so I took her down the hall, put her in bed with Melissa and grabbed Grace to take her back with me. As I laid her in bed, she started crying because she was so frightened by the siren. We assured her it most likely wouldn't go off again. As soon as we stopped talking, it went off! I told the children to stay put, and went out on the balcony to see what they needed. The head fireman, waited for the guests to quiet down and then told everybody that it was a false alarm and we could go back to bed. Grace was crying all over again about the alarm, so after much comforting, I was able to get her quiet and almost back to sleep. As soon as we stopped talking, it went off again! But this time it was a woman's voice we heard, telling us that everything was okay, there was a false alarm and we could "resume normal activities." Grace was of course terrified. Abigail came and crawled in bed with Grace and me, and we went back to sleep until 6:45 this morning. Can you guess what happened then? The alarm went off...but this time is was only my alarm-clock.

Yesterday, we had a splendid time with the Serven clan. We went to their home after church, and had a wonderful time feasting, singing, playing and visiting with such dear friends. They taught us new songs, and in turn we taught them new songs. We are going to miss them so very much when we have to go back home. :(

The Oakley's arrived up here on Saturday and we have had such a blast spending time with them again. We can't wait for them to be able to come back home.