My license has been taken away!

No, not my drivers license...my license to burn a candle.

Some of you may remember the incident some 10 years ago where Mike and I literally caught our bed on fire?  I learned that down comforters are very flammable and that you should not burn candles near them...and Mike learned how to run to the bathtub with a flaming comforter to douse it in water!  A Valentine's Day we'll never forget!

Ever since that Valentine's Day, I've been super paranoid about having candles too close to our bed.  The closest ones are on the dressers across the room.  I still burn them, but I prefer to use the sentsy style warmers to melt wax.  "Since lighting the bed on fire didn't cause your candle burning license to be revoked...what incident has caused it to be revoked?", you might be asking.

Mike has been busy with a huge project at work and last night I wanted him to be able to just come home and relax and forget about work.  Daddy Steve and Namaw asked the boys to spend the night (and go to the local Christmas festival with them), so we had the house to ourselves.  I ordered dinner to go from Olive Garden, got dessert (tiramisu) from the grocery store, and rented a movie from Redbox.  I also borrowed a massage table from my parents and set it up in our bedroom.  The plan was to eat dinner, give Mike an hour long massage, and then watch a movie together in front of the fireplace in the living room.  Before Mike got home, I lit the 2 big candles in our bedroom (the ones on the dressers).  I planned to lite the tea light candles just before I let him into the room to give him a massage.  I shut the door...not wanting Mike to go in there until I told him about the surprise behind the door.

Well...when Mike got home plans changed a little.  We decided to sit in the living room and watch the movie while we ate dinner.  We were so stuffed after dinner we didn't want to move!  I told Mike that I had planned to give him a massage and he asked to take a rain check until the morning because we were having fun just relaxing on the couch.  Fine by me....I just wanted a night for him to catch his breath...so I didn't really care if we deviated from the plan.  We turned on another movie and proceeded to fall asleep on the couch.

****AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAARRRRRRR****

We were suddenly awaken out of a deep sleep by a LOUD noise!  It took a second before we came to our senses and realized it was the smoke detectors.  ALL of them were going off!  We both ran towards the boys' rooms...and then remembered that they weren't here tonight.  We were so confused!  Why would the smoke detectors be going off?  We didn't see smoke anywhere.  Suddenly all was quiet.  I said, "Do you think the outside Christmas lights have caught the roof on fire and our attic is burning?"  Mike didn't think so, but went to check.  Nope.  Wasn't that.  Strange!  We sat back down  (still groggy from sleep) and turned our attention back to the end of the movie.  All of the sudden.....

****AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAARRRRRRR****

Aaaaah!  Why were they going off again?!?  They're so loud....loud enough to wake the neighbors and their baby!  I headed towards our bedroom to look at the alarm system readout to see if it would give us a clue as to what was going on.  When I opened the door I was hit with the realization....I hadn't blown out the candles that I'd lit before Mike got home from work!  I've let candles burn for hours (even overnight....again another reason to revoke my license) in the past and haven't thought twice about it.  Well...when I opened our door it was a different story!  There was smoke filling the room and flames shooting up from where one of the big candles was sitting.  I hurried over to blow it out while Mike opened windows in an attempt to quiet the smoke detectors! 

I have no clue how such a big candle burned down so quickly...but there was only about an inch of wax left at the bottom of the candle with about 4 inches of wick shooting fire up in the room!  What used to be the candle had run all down the back of the dresser, down the wall, and onto the carpet.  What a mess!!!

We learned several very valuable lessons last night. 

1. Our smoke detectors are so loud they will wake us up from a deep sleep.
2. When 1 smoke detector goes off in our house...they ALL go off!  This means if there was a fire by the boys room, we wouldn't have to worry about not knowing about it until it reached a smoke detector near us.  If smoke is near one smoke detector...the whole house is put on alert.
3. It's not fun to clean wax off of walls, dressers, and carpet (but an iron and a paper towel are like magic erasers).
4. Staci is only allowed to use candle warmers....not candles with flames.  Almost burning down the house twice is more than enough.  I don't want a "3rd times a charm" with this talent.