Crochet Me Crazy

After the gas scare in the camper, we found out another potential catastophe we were unaware of until tonight. Our water heater had quit working before we left for our trip. Jeff was working on it today and tonight trying to figure out what the problem was. He finally ended up finding that we had had a mini fire that melted the wiring to the water heater! It actually burned the wires and the metal box the wiring was in. Thank God, it apparently went out when it burned through the wires. Since we live in a virtual tender box this is not good. He can replace the wiring but is concerned about what might have caused it. We don't want to hook it up again and then have the same thing happen again with worse consequences the next time. I'm sure Jeff will figure it out though. Anyway, we do have hot water as long as we use gas. We just won't be able to hook it to the electricity. We need to do a drill with the kids and make sure they can get out their fire escapes if they ever need to.

I worked in the visitor's center today. It was surprisingly slow in there today even though the park is busy. I'll be in there again Wednesday. Tomorrow I'm going to TRY to take the day off...we'll see how I do with that!

Sorry to all of my crochet readers... I realize this hasn't been too much of a "crochet" blog lately since I haven't been doing to much of that lately. I wish I had time to do it more for my sanity. The girl I'm working with at the visitor's center wants me to teach her to crochet. She knows a little bit but she's going to bring her stuff on Wednesday for me to help her during our down time. She has a blanket she had started a long time ago and can't remember what she was doing on it now. I'm going to look at it for her and see if I can figure out the pattern so she can start on it again.

In the meantime, this is all I have gotten done on the baby blanket I'm working on. I found out that the young couple that bought our house is having a baby. I didn't know who I was making this for but maybe this blanket is for her baby...we'll see if its a girl! It's not much to look at right now but it will get better!



This is the book the pattern comes from and what the blanket will look like when I'm done...

Hmmm...in the past two days we've had an altercation, several sets of lost kids, an injured dog that jumped out of the back of a truck, lynch mobs of mad people at the office, a snake bite, two head injuries, two car accidents, and life flight has landed in the park twice and that's just the stuff I know about! The park was closed by noon yesterday because we were full to capacity and the cars were lined up out to the highway. Going to be an interesting summer.....

Happy Memorial Day.....

My prayers are with our soldiers

This is where I work:




Very easy and low stress place to work! There were only 4 sets of riders today. Hopefully it will get busier but even then I still just hang around while they are out on the rides for about 45 minutes. I only have to take money and answer the phones to set up reservations. Alison went with me today. She helped a little bit holding horses. I think she'll be getting to go on some rides that are short riders too.

Now, here is a picture of Alison working very hard today....

Alison was very worried when her Daddy left last night to drive back to Houston. He didn't get to leave until after 1 am. We had a few setbacks here at the RV before he could leave. Something was wrong with the propane and he had to get that working before he left and then get the refrigerator running again. This trip pretty much is ending up costing us our last dollar but we have no choice in the matter. We didn't intend to have to make two trips! We can't go to the grocery store and all our food in the refrigerator is gone. Alison and I are going to live in Ramen Noodles and I'm going to cook up some of the meat from the freezer I hope I can salvage that thawed. I'll make a grocery list for Jeff to stop and get groceries on his way back home. Jeff just called to tell me he is almost there and he is thankful for the delays or he might have been involved in a bad accident. He said he was driving and he started seeing a dim flash of light in the middle of the road so he started slowing down. When he got to the light, it was a man in the middle of the road trying to warn him. There was a truck that had hit a cow in the freeway. The truck had flipped off the road...then a car had hit the truck, then a motorcycle hit the car. It was dark and people couldn't see it coming up. Jeff pulled over and got out with his flash-light to try to help warn people coming. He checked on all the drivers and he expected there to be someone dead. He was surprised that everyone was okay. The truck's roof was completely ripped off and looked like a convertible but the man was standing there bleeding and said he had a head-ache. Jeff said it was a terrible scene...the cow was a huge black cow and still in the middle of the road. Anyway, thank GOD for the delays Jeff had before he left or he might have been in that wreck if he'd come along just a few minutes sooner!

Things like this renew my faith...this trip shook it a little bit.

Now the story about the trip....
I guess the first clue was when Jeff went to go pick up the trailer that we rented on Sunday night. He couldn't get the trailer lights to work. He said they were all screwed up and he ended up having to just re-wire the whole trailer lights. He spent hours messing with that on Sunday night before we left on our trip. Then, on the way to Houston, we were pulled over by Texas Highway Patrol but we were not speeding. I'm sitting there with our little dog Belle on my lap....right as the officer is walking up to our window, Belle pees all over me and goes limp! I lift her up and she's a rag doll. I'm freaking out and shaking like a leaf because I think my dog is dying. I get out of the truck and she seems to get better. I set her down on the ground and she starts to act normally again. The officer had pulled us over because the trailer plates don't match the trailer and there was some other problem with the registration. He said they are normally supposed to seize the trailer until the registration can be confirmed. We told him we had rented it from a small outfit. He checked it and it was registered to the man we rented from but the plates were for a different trailer. He was a nice officer and said he would give us a warning but we could get stopped again on the way home and it would depend on the officer on whether he would let you by or not. We dontinued on our way and got to Houston without event. We got all the things done we needed to get done. The weather in Houston was unbearably humid and Jeff and Michael about killed themselves loading up the trailer. We had to clear and entire storage unit. After they get done and coming driving up, Jeff is shaking his head...there is no way that trailer is going to make it back. It can't handle the weight. So here we are stuck with all this stuff in this trailer that we can't haul back. With limited finances and driver's we can't rent a box truck. I have to drive my car back. So, we ended up renting a different trailer from U-Haul. Jeff and Michael loaded as much as they could on there to lighten the load on the other trailer and I followed Jeff last night in my car. He's now back in Houston to bring back the u-Haul trailer, sleep, and now pull back the original trailer with the lightened load back here with the rest of the stuff. Now, all he has to accomplish is to get back here with that trailer without event!

I was pretty much in tears once Jeff drove up with that trailer and we realized it wasn't going to make it. We had saved the money to make this trip from the jobs Jeff had been doing. Now, with the extra gas and rental, I had to break into the last reserves I had tucked away to make it until Tuesday when we get our un-employment check. At least God showed me that he's still there and watching over us so I feel better now. I'm heading to my new part time job today and Jeff thinks he can get a painting job this week. There's a park ranger job opening a guy here told us was open so he's going to talk to them about applying for that. I do know one thing...I'm grateful to be here where we are instead of in Houston while all of this is going on. We are going to get through this and be better off in the long run.

Oh..yay...my neighbor just brought me a pint of milk. At least we can eat cereal until Jeff gets back with groceries!

Anyway, at least Alison had a great time visiting with her two best friends in Houston.





That's silly string in their hair! They had what they call a "Candy Party". I took them to the dollar store and they loaded up on candy and silly string. Then, they sat in the yard being silly and eating candy!

My beautiful daughter is the light of my life...I look at her everyday and am so thankful for her sweetness, innocence and beauty....

I guess living in Houston for so long I got used to the heavy humidity and the swarms of mosquitos trying to carry us away. This is the first trip back to Houston since we left and I know its no longer home for us. I'm so happy to be back. The night air is cool and there is a beautiful full moon out. No mosquitos...just the sound of ... nothing but crickets and the wind in the trees. Of course, we had an adventurous trip which has become the usual for us it seems. It's a long story and its still not over because Jeff and Michael are unloading our stuff into storage and then turning around and driving right back tonight. I'm too tired to write about it tonight. I'm waiting for the water in the hot water heater to heat up before I take my shower. Then, I have to haul everything in the refrigerator away to the dumpster. Something apparently happened to the electricity while we were gone and everything is rotten. It's a good thing I really didn't have much in there anyway. I've got my car now and I'll be heading to my part-time job tomorrow!

I'm the goat sitter right now. The kids went to the river. I'm sitting here holding him while he's sleeping and he's have little goat dreams. He keeps twitching and letting out little "baaa's" It's so cute!

Alison was babysitting the goat. He's so cute and sweet.

We are driving back to Houston tomorrow. I can't wait to get my car here! We will be back by Friday for sure. I start working this Friday at the stables. Looks like I'll be working the visitor's center on Mondays and Wednesdays and working the stables on Thurs, Fri, Sat. My first checks I get, I'm going to immediately start taking money out of them to set aside to pay for Alison to take ballet in the fall. I forgot to mention that we went to the local ballet school here in the little nearby town last week. It's surprising they even have that in such a small town!! Last night the recital was in the school gymnasium so we went to that so Alison could see how the dancing was. It was definately totally different...we sat in that un-air conditioned gymnasium packed like sardines for 1 1/2 hours! LOL Alison said Ms. Sonya (her old dance school) would have had a fit at some of the dancing and loose ribbons and hair flying everywhere! I, of course, know nothing about ballet so I'm not a good spectator. However, it was way better than we would have expected for such a small town and they are blessed to have the school here. Alison can get instruction she needs there but I think it will be up to her to do it herself...meaning they may not be as strict or correct you constantly like they did at her other dance school. Tuition is cheaper and you get a lot more class time. Alison is looking extremely forward to starting dance again.

On the way home from the recital last night, we hit a huge deer! Nothing we could do to stop. Our truck has a Ranch Hand bumper on the front so we didn't have any damage to the truck. Alison was so upset for the rest of the night. She felt so sorry for the deer. Guess she hasn't been in the country long enough yet.

Oh my goodness...I forgot to mention about the the baby goat! Last week someone dropped off a newborn baby goat at the park headquarters. They said they found it wandering along the highway. One of the park rangers took it home and his wife has been bottle feeding it. Well, today Alison is very excited that she's going to get to take care of it today.

I will have to bring this post to an end now....I had a picture to post but I don't have time. I just got the cabin list and there are TEN CABINS CHECKING OUT TODAY!!! I won't be cleaning all of those. I told them that I will help but I have to do some things around here to get ready to leave tomorrow.

I can't sleep late! I was going to sleep in this morning and here I am up anyway! The day before yesterday I woke up before the sun came up and I started thinking about stuff and couldn't go back to sleep. Every so often I start thinking about stuff and get a little tiny bit "panicked" Jeff finished a job on Tuesday and doesn't have another one lined up immediately. He has one he can do in June. He's been here this week and helping me do cabins. When I get like that, I just have to stop myself and that little children's song "Count Your Blessings" starts ringing in my head. I'd rather be in my situation than my child dying of cancer or some other hard life circumstances.

Count my blessings..

1. God - He's here to guide, protect and take care of our needs
2. My family - My husband and kids are healthy and safe
3. I have a roof over my head
4. I have a free place to live that is beautiful
5. My kids are happy despite it all
6. I basically have everything I "need"

I only have one need and that is curriculum for the kids but I feel a little better since we have an insurance refund coming that will pay for that. Michael finished up his and Alison only has a few lessons left in her math. The kids are going to keep working through the summer....especially in math. Michael is behind grade level and Alison is ahead in some subjects but they are on there own levels which is fine with me. I don't advance my kids unless they know it...what good does it do? Alison brought a bag of her change into the mercantile this week to buy herself some candy. The lady at the counter didn't expect her to know how to count out her change! I told her that Alison knew how to count it out. She said the kids here don't know so she always has to do it for them.

We saved up some money from Jeff's little jobs and we are driving back to Houston next week for a quick trip. We are renting a enclosed trailer here from someone local because its cheaper than renting a U-Haul. We are going to empty the storage unit that Jeff has his tools in and bring them back here. We'll save about $30 a month renting a storage here instead of Houston. We would bring more but we can't afford to move it all yet. I'm bringing my old car back here. Can't wait to get that because my little car gets good gas mileage. It's going to save us a lot of money in gas driving into town for groceries, etc.

Last night we got a mild taste of summer here in the park....only a taste though....its' going to be 3 times worse next weekend...sometimes I wonder what I've gotten myself into. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me how crazy it gets here in the summer, I'd be rich! I'm not quite really sure what to expect...people just keep saying you'll be glad summer is over. There were lines of people waiting to get in until late last night. People sitting around in their lawn chairs. An office girl told us people will camp in front of the office for days to try to get first in line for the site they want! Jeff and I were driving around checking for permits last night and we had our first guy with an attitude. People seem to think they are special and can drive in the park and set up camp without a permit while everyone else waits in line. The whole thing is a very frustrating experience for a camper I'm sure because people have to wait in line for hours and you can't reserve a specific camp site. You pick once you get up there to the counter. Well, that's one reason I would never camp here in the summer when we used to camp here. It was never an issue for us. Last night, Alison and I were outside and we could hear the music from the dance and there were so many campfires going all over the park that's all we could smell even back where we are. We heard over the radio a report of a fire. We went to go see what was going on. There apparently was a fire across the river. We could only see the glow but I guess the fire department had it under control. We were amazed when we looked up on the mountain and saw flash-lights. I couldn't believe someone would climb that mountain at night.

Jeff took the day off from doing site checks this morning. He's been doing them every single day for two weeks and he wanted to sleep-in for once. We slept until 8:30 this morning. Jeff went off to start another project but before he left he got my external hard drive accessible to me. The kids did their school work and I cooked potato soup for lunch. The kids worked on their tents and then it got VERY hot today so they've been swimming all afternoon.

I even made green sauce today...a favorite of ours that I haven't made since we've been in the RV because I had to pull out the food processor. I had time to look on my hard drive for some possible choices of crochet stitches to make my hammock with. Here is a picture of the old one that I am basically going to re-make.
It won't really look anything like this at all but I have the bars and hardware and the old one to look at how to put it together and how big to make it. I also decided to make a crochet towel topper for myself.


Here is the written instructions for the pattern:
Crochet Towel Topper
This is the method I used for mine.
What I like about this is that there is no sewing the topper on. You start out with doing a blanket type stitch over your towel and then you just start crocheting onto those stitches.
I just got back from the river to check on the kids and now I'm cooking supper. I am making Reuben Sandwiches. I have found a much easier way to make these. I used to cut the corned beef (canned) into slices and put it on buttered Rye bread, top with sauerkraut, and then Swiss cheese and then grill it in a pan like a grilled cheese sandwich until its all warm and melted. Now I've figured out that I can just heat the can of corned beef and a whole jar of sauerkraut in a skillet. I add 8 oz of shredded mozzarella cheese now instead of swiss cheese because its cheaper. We toast the bread and load them up with the mixture and YUM! Much easier!

Whew...we cleaned 7 cabins today! Thank God is was a day that Jeff was here to help me. He's been doing all the mopping of the floors. I wipe down kitchens and bathrooms and the kids wipe down beds, furniture and windows. Plus, it was raining. There was a big front that blew in and it got really cool and very, very windy this afternoon. We had to strap everything down and put up the awning. The power in the whole park went out for about 3 hours. I took the opportunity to take a 2/12 hour nap and the power was back on when I woke up!! I never take naps...hopefully, I will be able to go to sleep tonight! Thank goodness there's no check-outs tomorrow so we have the day off tomorrow. We've already put in the minimum amount of hours we are required for the month.

The kids are out in the back yard right now setting up more tents! LOL They already had one back there and then Michael found a HUGE tent someone threw away. Our neighbor Ruby turned up with more tubes, another tent, and rolling collapsible cooler with the tags still on it that people threw away. Especially in rainy weather people throw stuff away. They are going to have a little camping compound back there.

I actually had time to sit down and crochet tonight for a little bit. I put several rows on the baby blanket I started. I don't think I have done enough on it yet to justify taking a picture of it. What I really need to work on is the plastic bag shower bag I started! I only have to add the straps and I will have a completed project. It's settled then, I'll make that my priority next time I have time to crochet.

I got caught up on the laundry this afternoon. Alison was feeling a little bored and lonely because Michael was into playing on the computer today. So I went into her tent with her and we worked on some scrapbook cards. She likes to scrapbook and she makes cards but doesn't have a lot of room to spread out all of her supplies. We had the idea that she can set up all her stuff in a tent and have plenty of room and not have to put it all away every time.



Then, tonight we decided to bake cookies. We used the oven next door at the maintenance break room. We shared some cookies with one of the men from the custodian crew. They all stay late until 10 pm ever night.

Another thing is that our neighbor came over tonight with a baby goat with his umbilical cord still attached! Someone had turned in this little goat into to the park office that they found on the side of the highway. We called our friend from the stables to see if she wants to take him in. If we don't find anyone to take him in, Alison is going to have a big job helping our neighbor feed this baby every few hours by bottle! He was adorable and just happy and still as can be to lay in your arms.

It's poured down rain this morning but it cleared up nice this afternoon! I trained in the visitor's center yesterday and today. Pretty easy but boring job. It'll pick up this summer I'm sure. Lots of questions I don't necessarily know the answers to! HA! One thing I know is that I stay pretty tired most of the time.

Jeff finished up the job at the stables yesterday. He was here today so it was nice when I got home from working that they had cleaned the RV!

Here are some pictures of the project he just finished. This house is very old and everything in it is very un-level so he had to work with it.






I haven't had any time to work on any crochet projects at all. I've just been too busy and I'm too tired at night.

A little of Jeff's handy work:




Alison slept late in this morning while Michael and I went to clean cabins. Michael wanted to haul some branches to the dump so I drove the truck and he loaded and unloaded the branches.

Tomorrow morning, I'm heading to the Visitor's Center to get trained.

It's been a relaxing day today. I got up early and went to see if there were any cabins to clean and there were no check outs today so there weren't any. Alison had gone to work with her daddy today. I piddled around here most of the day and took the dogs for a walk. Nothing much to show except I whipped out this little mat for my silverware drain basket. This looks much nicer than the washcloth I was using.

If roses grow in heaven
Lord, please pick a bunch for me
Place them in my Mother's arms
And tell her they're from me
Tell her I love her and miss her
And when she turns to smile
Place a kiss upon her cheek and hold her for awhile
Because remembering her is easy
I do it every day
But there's an ache within my heart
That will never go away

Happy Mother's Day to my mama!

I had to post these pictures because it is such a rarity for me to get my son to pose for pictures! He just came in with this hand picked bouquet of flowers for me. It's really pretty.






My babies are growing up on me!

I want to wish all the moms out there an early Happy Mother's Day in case I don't have time to say it tomorrow. What a blessing it is to be a mother!

Alison was sneaky and managed to buy me three roses today while we were in town buying groceries without me knowing it.



I wish I was able to call my mother today to wish her a Happy Mother's Day. She passed to the other side just 6 months ago. I miss her very much!

Tomorrow, even though it's Mother's Day, I will be cleaning cabins. Actually, the whole family is going to clean cabins tomorrow. Tomorrow is a big turn-around day on the cabins so there will probably be a lot of them to clean.

I got up early this morning and dug in this morning. I got a funny looking little truck loaded up with my cleaning supplies. Alison helped me and we cleaned 3 cabins after people checked out.
Certainly not "fun" but it wasn't too bad. I'm either a really bad person for the job or a really good person for the job...depending on how you look at it. I tend to clean very thoroughly when I clean and I kept telling myself this is not the "Ritz Carlton" I'm cleaning here. These aren't fancy cabins and they are old so they've seen years of use. There was no way to get them clean to my standards. There's no A/C in them either so I was sweating like a pig and its not even summer yet! The lady from the visitor's center came and talked to me and wants me to drop in to train and see if I want to do that. Maybe, I'll clean cabins one day a week and work in the visitors center one day a week and then work at the Stables and get paid the other days of the week. Then, we walked the dogs since they had been cooped up all day and I took pictures in the wild flowers.


Then, Alison and I went and cooled off in the river for bit. I went to the wash room and washed 2 loads of laundry, cooked dinner, and then we went and dropped the kids off to swim in the swimming area and then picked up a camper that Jeff met this morning while doing his rounds to take him to the other side of the park to look at the camp sites over there. He didn't have a "dingy" on his motor home and its too far to walk. We're just now settling down for the night and its almost 10 pm already! I'm tired!

Another bit of good news is that we found out today that they have an ice machine next door at the maintenance area that we are free to use. Our family drinks a lot of water and we don't have ice in the camper. We keep one of those big coolers filled with water and ice on a table ouside under the awning. That's pretty much all we drink and we've been having to buy a $5.00 bag of ice every few days when it melts. Ice is premium around here! Between the free laundry and the free ice, we're probably going to be saving at least $100 a month by staying here!

Jeff got paid for the screen porch portion of his job. So we're tucking away a little money to buy some homeschool curriculum for the kids. He got the tile down in the bathroom today. He starts on the job fixing stairs Monday and Tuesday of next week. Then, I do believe that he'll be tiling the screen porch he just built after that.

Our park host neighbor (she's been here for years) has a bunch of stuff she has collected that people leave or throw away. People throw away tents and she's giving the kids a tent so they can set up camp in the back yard. She gave us three lawn chairs (our are 10 years old and pretty shot). A neat thing that she gave me was a hammock. It is (or was) a very nice crocheted cotton hammock but it was ripped. It's funny because I have been browsing around for patterns and have been thinking I want to make a hammock! I'm going to end up using the wooden parts of it and I'm going to re-make the whole thing. Another new crocheted project is coming soon! Now, if I can just ever have time to crochet again!

I'm feeling a little "discombobulated" today. Just a lot of things to try to juggle and I'm not really sure just what to do but I feel like I should be doing something! We finally got to meet with everyone we were supposed to meet with today about getting our ducks in a row here at the park. We have our radios, our shirts and our "Gator" issued to us. They seem to really love park hosts here and there is lots of things to do and they need a lot of help. I have a feeling this is going to be a very interesting summer! If someone is breaking rules, we can say something to people but if they give your an attitude or don't comply, we just leave them alone and radio law enforcement to take care of it. Jeff got up early this morning to do "site checks" before he went to his job. We picked up the list tonight and tomorrow's list is a lot longer since it's Friday. The summer should be really something because this is a very big park. I may be volunteering in the visitor's center or cleaning or checking cabins...not sure yet. Seems that you can do or not do whatever you want. I'm going to go along with another lady tomorrow to do the cabins and see what to do. Jeff worked yesterday and then came home and mowed some of the front entrance to the park for a couple of hours. Tonight it was pretty fun. Jeff and I hopped on the "Gator" and went around the park checking bathrooms. We had to deal with our first complaint when a lady stopped us to complain about someone's loud music. (Not the fun part) Jeff went up to ask them politely to turn the music down and they actually complied nicely (which we weren't too sure they were going to do). I'm not much on doing that type of stuff. I'm very much a mind my own business kind of person.

Michael is taking this park hosting very seriously...he's been running around picking up trash and learning the trails. The more people that know the trails, the better, because inevitably somebody will get lost this summer. He's not wanting to swim or do things with his sister like he usually does because he wants to do his park hosting responsibilities... so Alison is feeling lonely and missing her friends. She's wanting to start planning a friend to visit but I don't know that I can manage it if I'm working nor can I afford to pick anyone up to meet anyone anywhere. I'm just having to give her the cold, hard facts of reality. I guess it's good for a kid sometimes but either way, its not fun.

Some good news is that I found out they have a private laundry room for the park hosts here in the park! I went down there last night to see how much it costs. I was very happy to find the machines are regular machines that don't cost money! I think this is going to save us a lot of money! I washed two loads of laundry last night and the dryer actually dried my clothes! I'm convinced they set those coin dryers not dry as fast so you have to put more money in them! I haven't had a load of laundry dry completely in a 45 minutes cycle since we moved out of our house until last night!

Our yard that they had all mowed for us when we moved in has already grown since yesterday! Since we're park hosts now, I think we're on our own with the mowing and weed eating it now - lol! Don't get me wrong though, I'm not complaining! We didn't get to go to park host orientation today. We went down to the office like we were supposed to but our contact was not there. They didn't seem to worried about it. We'll try again tomorrow.

I went with Jeff to look at a job someone has for him today. He need to repair some steps and rebuild a stair case on a river house. Probably be about a 2 day job. He's going to have to fit this one in real quick before it books up for summer.

We ran into a thrift store that we saw open that I've never seen open before. We didn't have a lot of time to look but I did find two sleeveless tops and Alison got one top .... all for $1.00!! LOL

I started another baby blanket with some yarn I got Saturday. The yarn is a very pretty light purple. I'm not too sure who this blanket is for. It's just a pattern I have been considering making for a long time. It's time I made that blanket! It's a lot of single crochet though so it might take me awhile.

We woke up this morning and moved to the state park. We have a nice, private site back in the maintenance area of the park. It was a tight squeeze past the trees moving in and the top rubber of our RV got torn a little bit from branches. Jeff is going to have to fix it very soon. We ended up having to get ropes and pull the tree branches back to get by without further damage to the RV. Now we are in and all set up. We will be park host here until at least the of August or beginning of September. Tomorrow, we'll go to orientation.

Front Yard

Back yard


We had a close brush with death yesterday. It's one of those things that can't be explained and I still haven't figured out how it happened. I woke up yesterday morning and went straight to the kitchen table and sat down. Jeff got up right after me and went to the stove to boil the water for coffee. He heard and saw the gas on the stove was turned on! We could smell the gas near the floor of the camper. I ran and got the kids up and we went outside. We turned the "super-fans" on in the RV (they suck air out of the camper) It had to have been on all night because we hadn't touched the stove and no one was awake when we found it. I can't figure out how it got turned on because the day before, we were gone all day to town and no one used the stove that night when we got home. The kids don't use the stove because they don't like lighting it. Jeff and Michael were up several hours after me the night before watching a movie. I can't believe they wouldn't have smelled it. The dog crate is right beside the stove on the floor and even they were okay. We do cover their cage with a blanket at night to keep them from getting scared and barking. It would be near impossible to turn it on by accident either because you actually have to push the knob in and then turn it to get it to turn on and the handle for the oven sticks out further than the knobs so it would even be hard to lean on it and turn it on. Well, we're all safe and sound so I guess I'll be checking the knobs even more than I already do now!!