Jon's 30th Birthday weekend: good food and fireworks.

It's official, Jon is an old man. Even though his birthday isn't until tomorrow, we celebrated by going to Sumo, a hibachi-style Japanese restaurant we've been hearing great things about. The food was excellent and our cook was quite a ham. He insisted I take his picture, even though Jon told him the pictures would be going up on the internet. "Oh, would not be first time!" he replied jokingly. He had a strong accent and was a little hard to understand. He was also surprised when my sister-in-law, who is Korean, asked for the kids chopsticks (the ones with the paper and rubber band). "YOU? You don't know how to use chopstick?" Everyone laughed.



After dinner we came back to the house and had some friends and family over. Everyone was hanging out in the front yard. Around 9:30, my neighbor across the street came running over to our house and said "Leslie! My kitchen is on fire!" I could hear the alarms going off in her house, but didn't see any flames. I screamed at Jon to grab the fire extinguisher and go over and put the fire out. Jon ran over and 2 of his brothers followed. I stood in front of the house with my neighbor watching the boys try and fight this. The second Jon used the extinguisher, I could see the them jumping back from the orange glow in their kitchen as the fire blew up in their faces. To say I panicked was an understatement. I yelled at someone to call 911, but they had the fire put out just as we got emergency dispatch on the line.
By this time, everyone who was in our yard was now in hers watching this all unfold. Jon and his brother had small grease burns on their arms and face, but no one was hurt. The house was filled with black smoke, but once it cleared we were able to help get things cleaned up. I am still amazed that the situation wasn't worse than it was. Had we not had people hanging outside to help, it would have cost them minutes and probably their home. Instead, they lost a microwave, some cabinets, and will have to replace the flooring. That's it. God had a hold of the situation and am so thankful that all that was lost were material things that can easily be replaced!