Two AWESOME Mini-Disasters

I'm assuming by now that I don't have to warn you about upcoming randomness. Maybe I should, but I think you all know that Hannah Peterman writing anything implies randomness. Therefore, I will skip the apology and jump right in.
There were two exciting disasters that have happened to me in the past week. Okay, so "disaster" might be an exaggeration, but these events were memorable enough for me to write about them, so here it goes!

The first happened when my eleven-year-old  brother decided he wanted to make tortilla chips. These require an oven... something that should have been a huge red flag to me and my mom. But, Blaize was hungry, and the chips are simple enough. You cut tortillas into wedges, lay them on a greased cooking sheet, spray with cooking spray, and season. Surely Blaize was capable of that, especially since I was sticking around to "supervise!" I told him how to preheat the oven, then let him do the rest while I continued on my extensive quarterly test. He was quite successful in all the steps, and the chips had the makings of being absolutely DELICIOUS. He hadn't dropped them on the floor once! One last step was left: baking the chips. Blaize carefully carried his chips to the oven and slid them in. Here's where the second red flag was waved frantically in my oblivious face: Blaize was watching football!!!!! He'd stopped in the middle to make himself a football snack, and while the chips baked, he intended to watch football! Football, ovens, and eleven-year-old boys should not be in the same sentence together. But, I didn't think twice about it, and he went in to watch his beloved sport. Here's the problem: football-watching-people seem to have time-management issues while they are watching. Apparently, five real-time minutes only feel like one to the eager football fan. Ten real minutes, then, only feel like two in football minutes! While this is great when you want to pass the time, this proved problematic to Blaize... or maybe more accurately... his tortilla chips. Five football minutes later (20 real minutes) Blaize recalled that his chips were still in the oven. He swaggered over to check to see if they were done, opened the oven, and started screaming.
"Hannah, they're on FIRE!" Blaize shrieked. (his voice hasn't quite deepened enough for me to say that he "bellowed" or even "yelled.") I whirled around and saw flaming tortilla chips in the oven! Needless to say, I was freaked out, but Blaize was panicking.
"Let's throw water on it!" he urged me. But I figured water wouldn't be the greatest on one of our newest electrical appliances, so I scooted over to a kitchen drawer and grabbed the oven mitts. Then, I ran across the kitchen to the oven, yanked the door all the way down, and carefully gripped the tortilla chip pan, and made my way to the sink. I have to admit, I was scared. The flames were pretty tall, and I'm not a fire person. I hate candles and matches, and even putting wood in our fireplace gives me the shivers. But this is the part that made my day: Blaize was scared, too! Not that our house would burn down, not that he wouldn't have anything but watery chicken pot-pie for dinner, but for me! He didn't want me to get hurt! Back to the magnitude of this in a moment. Anyways, I dumped the pan in the sink, and poured water on them. It seems that the fire didn't appreciate that very much, and disappeared shortly thereafter, leaving BLACK, powdery ashes in the shape of tortilla wedges. But Blaize was so sweet. He admited that he was actually worried that I would get hurt!!! This meant a lot to me, because normally the only way Blaize shows affection or care towards me is by asking me to come build a fort with him outside in the 20 degree weather. His message rarely gets across as love, and is normally rejected! But for him to tell me (in a round-about way) that he cared made my day. Sound weird on paper, but it did!

The second incident happened when we were driving through a small town. Before I continue, you must know that Petermans NEVER get nose-bleeds. It is just un-petermanish! As a result, my family was totally unprepared when I got one in the middle of a car trip! I didn't notice anything, until blew my nose and saw blood. Then I looked down at my white adidas sweatshirt, and saw more blood. Then I saw the bloody blanket in front of me, and realized I was making a mess! I needed a tissue, but, because Petermans do not get nose-bleeds, we had none along. Natalie handed me the best thing she could find: a piece of blue notebook paper we use for school. Now, while that paper is GREAT for school, it wasn't working very well for my nose-bleed. My dad decided to stop at a small-town general store. There was a problem, however. This small town general store was closed for lunch. And it was 12:30. My parents were upset because their daughter was bleeding, and I was freaking out because I was getting blood all over my clothes! So, my dad did the next best thing: (which also happened to be the thing that mortified me.) he asked a random guy who was scraping the ice off a random car in a random driveway where he could get a tissue! Naturally, this random guy (who turned out to be a deputy sheriff) offered to get us a tissue inside his house. This "tissue" turned out to be a full roll of toilet paper from his bathroom! Needless to say I was embarrassed, but relieved to have a tissue!