this has been a very LONG week.... monday started out ok, not great but ok.... tuesday morning early our tree and/or driveway were struck by lightning.... i woke up about 5:00 in the morning because murphy decided it was play time.... got up, went to the restroom and was about to go back to bed when i thought i heard water dripping in the house... for those of you who know the house, we've had some problems with a leaky ceiling... i went into the kitchen and there was water dripping out of the vent but the oven was also on fire... i screamed for r, he came running in there after i shouted fire, and he used the fire extinguisher on the oven.... the extinguisher ran out and the oven was still on fire but luckily it burned out... that was so scary! in my mind i was already formulating a plan to get the kitties out of the house and it was pouring sheets of rain outside.... it turns out that the lightning hit the tree, followed the roots to the driveway, ran up the driveway because of the rebar, broke concrete off the side of the driveway and up by the garage, into the house, pictures fell off the walls, and caught the oven on fire... initially we thought that it was just the oven and microwave that were damaged but that turned out not to be the case.... the oven, microwave, garbage disposal, light above the sink, dishwasher, tv, dvr player, and dryer are not working... or are not working as they were... i think that's everything.... needless to say this has been a most stressful week for me... tuesday morning on the way to work i took a xanax.... i guess the reality of what had happened had set in and i was bawling.... the electrician came yesterday and fixed the plugs that had burt up and checked out the breaker box... turns out the breaker box wasn't grounded and if it would have been none of this would have happened.... warning- before you buy a house make sure the breaker box is grounded! the inspectors are supposed to check this out (but sometimes they don't....)... i also made fun of the fire extinguisher when we moved in, i kept saying, let's get rid of this, we don't need it... now, i was so glad we had it and will buy another one! the stress of the lightning, maybe (?) going back to school, and being behind at work has caught up to me... i am way stressed... i thought that i might not be able to go back to school because of finances well, now it's really looking that way.... insurance will pay for everything but they won't pay for the full replacement value of it... i guess you could say they pay fair market value.... so now, i'm back on the xanax.... i'm not sure if it was a wise move or not but i absolutely could not take anymore.... r is right, i should rename my blog to courtney out of control.... that is much more appropriate... especially now... i just feel like everything is surreal right now.... is this really happening? it could have been worse and i just have to keep telling myself that... at least the r and kitties weren't hurt! i'm really glad that i decided to get up that night to go to the bathroom, otherwise i don't know what would have happened.... but like i keep trying to tell myself, everything happens for a reason... maybe this happened so that we would know the breaker box wasn't grounded so that the house wouldn't burn down.... i'm trying to stay positive and off the meds but man, this has been a killer week.... way too much stress!!! the pictures that i posted show what the lightning did to the grass, to the cement by the garage (that hole wasn't there!), and to the oven....