Car Fire Today

Today I was driving home from Sammamish HS and saw a huge cloud of black smoke. I thought an appartment building was on fire. I then came to the corner on Kamber Road and saw a van in the middle of the road on fire. I then parked at the cemetary turn off and got out of my car. This van was totally on fire. I saw a lady on the side of the road. And another man on the drive up to the gas station. They were both hurt. There were some people helping them and I could see the people in the gas station on the phone. I assumed they were with the police on the phone.

I did not know what to do. I looked to make sure they were being helped- Check- then looked to see that 911 was being called- Check- then I checked my purse for my camera I usually take with me everywhere.- No not there!  Bummers...So I grabbed my cell phone and took a photo with that. Not great but better than nothing.

I was there before the police or firetruck arrived. I waited to see that help came. As the police came they started backing people up.  I needed to get home as Andrew was home alone at the time. I had to go way around to get home. When I got home the helicopters had arrived on the sceen. So Andrew and I headed back up to show him the Van.

As we got back up there we started talking to neighbors and then the news crews started showing up. First 4, then 5 then channel 7. One by one they started talking to me, then they all interviewed me on camera. Kind of a wierd feeling. I tried to get Andrew in the shot with me. I told the same story 3 times.

I really did not see anything important. I was just one of the first people there after the fire started. Well maybe the 4th or 5th.  It is kind of strange to see this huge fire and no fire truck or police there.

So I was famous for a few minutes in my little town of Bellevue. The phone started ringing and texts and facebook postings of people seeing me on the news. I even heard part of my interview on the radio. Wow, wierd. :-)

Here are a few links to the story  and some photos. Some from the web and one that I took with my cell phone.

http://www.king5.com/news/Three--114235824.html

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/114235904.html?


http://www.kirotv.com/video/26550632/index.html
 
This is the photo I took.

 Andrew took this photo from his DSI- I am not sure why it does not look good here. I looked OK on facebook.

 Web photos from other people and helicopter

 
I think 3 people in total were hurt from the fire. It was terrible to see them and hear them calling out to each other. One guy was saying " I Love You" and " Are you OK-Stay calm". Yikes...I wonder if there was some foul play going on. It is not normal for a car to explode like that and be on fire so quickly. I wonder if Meth was involved? 
 
Peace Out- I have to be a normal person tomorrow. No more being famous- I did not get any work done today. Well maybe some :-)

Car Break In

I woke up Saturday morning to a stranger at our front door.

It was really early....Ok it was 8am. If felt really early....He ended up being our neighbor 5 houses down. He found my car registration in his front yard bushes. Yikes....I knew then my car had been broken into. Nice..... I went out and looked and sure enough someone had gotten in and stolen my portable GPS device. Ugh..... My car got broken into a couple of years ago also. Last time they stole Vincent's scriptures. I am sure they thought it was a purse.

I called 911 and a very nice officer came. It looks like they came in the passenger side of the car. It had been raining that night. We found a partial hand print on the car door. He did not have the right equipment to do prints on the wet surface. So he called in another officer to help out. He happened to be in the area. Gary had the serial numbers for the GPS for the officers. He is so Awesome!  He has all the serial numbers kept on an online site. Just in case. What a guy. :-) 

Having two officers show up to help was great. My friend who works for the police in Seattle said they do not come out to take statements for that kind of crime. They take information on the phone.  I guess in Bellevue we get better service. Yeah. 

 Bummer they could not find a good print. They gave it a good try. Thanks guys. 

 I am sure all of the neighbors were trying to figure out what was wrong. No major drama. I was very happy that they did not break a window or vandal the car. I must have left the door unlocked. On that side of the car the motion lights do not reach 

We will be taking a second look at our lights and maybe get some camera's for outside. After our mail theft and now break in's on the cars. I am afraid of what will be next. Better safe than sorry. 

Our nice police officers did say that our neighborhood was still a safe area. 

That is good. 

Vincent slept thru it all. Sandy was very nice to the officer when he came in.  She just sat next to my feet and watched him. Andrew was shy and stayed in the back ground. I got out the camera!  Might as well document the moment. I am sure the police think I am weird. I told them I had would post this on my blog. 

Magnetic Balls part 2

Ok here are some cool shapes that I have made with the fun and addicting Magnetic Balls. I know you are all very impressed.

The square took me forever to figure out then we went to Youtube and they showed us how. I was close on my own. But I am not sure how long it would have taken me to one day figure out.

I hope you all get a chance to play with them. Come and visit and I will let you try mine. Or just come and visit anyways.

Peace Out!

Magnetic Balls

Ok this is my new time waster. For Christmas we all got some magnetic balls. The Kids got Gary a set for a surprise and Gary got all of us some as a surprise also. Kind of funny!

Well we all have them now. And they are really fun to play with. Andrew and I have gone on line and found video's of how to make cool shapes. Some are really tricky. They take a while to get used to playing with them.

It looks like they have been out for a while. But we are slow and behind the times. We are just catching on to them now. Gary's set is called Buckey Balls. It seems like a few different companies make them.

So if you have a desk job or some free time on your hands I would recommend picking a set up. They are great for those Oh So Fun Conference calls.

Here are some shapes I made. :-) Ok I will post my pictures after this video post. I can not seem to add photos to this post. Ugh....

New Year's: Look Not behind Thee

Great video on how to start your year off right!

Happy New Year! - Julie

Karen Snow's Wedding Reception

Mr & Mrs Andrew Bound

Karen and Andrew got married last summer in England. As you can see the wedding was fabulous. I loved seeing all the great photos from the wedding. Very much a Regal event. 

No we were not there. But I borrowed a few pictures from their Facebook pages. Shhh :-) 

I did not get a great photo of the happy couple at our event. I wanted to show how cute they are. 

Growing up the Snow family was in our stake. Our families would often do things together. The kids ages were similar to our family (not as many kids as us). But over the years I had lost track of them. So it was nice to see them again and catch up on their lives. 

 I loved this picture of the girls. 

Lori-Suzane-Karen-Shery

 Ok Back to reality- well at least back to Seattle. Karen and Andrew came home and had a very nice reception at the Edgewater hotel. I at first thought I would not know anyone. It was fun to see I was wrong. There was lots of people that I knew. And Gary was a good sport for going. 

Bobby - Cary- Gary

 Bobby and his new fiance!  They are very cute. 

 A table full of lots of people our family loves!

Platzke's- Wrights- Conover's- Pingrees- Hicox

 Suzane-Cary-Lori

Thank you Karen for inviting us to such a fun event.

I hope you and Andrew are very happy! 

Funny side note: Andrew grew up in the same small town that Gary went to boarding school at. Ha...I told Gary that they might have something in common. 

It is a very small world these days! 

Dinner at Carmens!

If you ever get invited to go to dinner at Carmen and Ovidiu's house....Go!

About 15 years ago we met the Elene's in our neighborhood. They moved in about 2 houses away. Vincent and Casandra were about the same age and became fast friends. They would play all the time at each others house. 

Carmen also took care of my Grandma Westra when she got older in her home as a care taker. She did a great job and we felt so lucky to have her so close to our house. 

They have since moved on and built a better house for taking care of people in. We still like to keep in touch and when we are lucky we get to go over to their house for dinner. 

Carmen can cook up a storm. We always enjoy meeting some of their Romanian friends. We are very happy that our friendship has lasted. We love seeing Cassandra grow up and become such a great young lady. 

 Gary with the fisheye effect! 

 Julie- Carmen- Cassandra

 Enough good food to feed an Army! The Primerib was awesome! 

Hopefully this is a video of the dinner party.