Ruby's Kicks: A sad, sad story.

Earlier this morning the girls were out playing in the backyard as I watched from the back door. Ruby would occasionally come and hit the door excitedly as if to say hi, get a hug, and then she would be off again. So about 30 seconds after one of these cute encounters I hear Lyla yell, "Ruby's playing in the water"!! So I quickly run out there and find Ruby on the side of the house, sitting in the middle of a puddle of mud and water, splashing around like it's bath time. GAH!!! She was COVERED in mud in her brand new outfit she got for Christmas and brand new WHITE shoes we got for her this past weekend. So I quickly run to grab her and I strip her down, Nate grabs her shoes, and I get her in the tub for a bath while Nate scrubs away at the shoes.

I get Ruby all clean and warm again and Nate successfully cleans the shoes so they look brand new! Nate sets the oven to 150º and turns it off and sets the shoes inside so they can dry quickly. Disaster resolved.

Anyway, as dinner time approached I was feeling a little stressed out and tired and I had two little girls who were feeling especially needy, I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner, and my patience was running thin. So finally I decided on a baked potato bar and set the oven to 450º. I start to clean some dishes that had piled up in the sink and realize that the oven was sort of smelling a big. I thought it might have been because the oven was at such a high temp. I decide to double check my temp to make sure that you really bake potatoes at that temperature and realized that I needed to cool it off to 350º. So, I go to reset the temperature and open the oven to cool it off a bit and realize smoke is pouring out of the stove top. So I quickly think "Crap, was there already food in there?" and I throw open the oven door.

Smoke comes POURING out of the oven and as it starts clearing away I realize "Oh my gosh, the SHOES"!!

So I quickly grab a pot holder and try to take the shoes out and they are STUCK to the rack! I start panicking and yelling for Nate to help and he runs down thinking one of the girls must be choking or something (I hate to see what I would be like in a real emergency) and by the time he gets there (less than a minute after I opened the darn oven) the kitchen and the hallway leading to it was just filled with smoke and smells like burning rubber. Awesome. Anyway, we pull the rack out, take it outside, open all doors of the house and go through all the "How the heck...", "What on earth..." and "I can't believe I did that" stuff. Hopefully we can find another pair Ruby's size... she LOVED those shoes!

Anyway, here is the damage...

the poor shoes

Luckily, after the oven rack cooled off, the remains of the shoe rubber peeled off easily.

Destroyed