How to Get a New Oven

November 13- Are you ready for an embarrassing story? Dave had been out of town for a conference and was due back later that evening. I was making dinner and talking on the phone with my friend at the same time (bad idea). I had been preheating the oven for dinner, when I smelled something funny and suddenly memories of the previous day flooded my thoughts. I was expecting two ladies over to work on a project and my kitchen wasn't its cleanest so I was scrambling to hide the mess. The high chair tray was dirty and with no time to clean it, I shoved it into the oven. I've never done this before! But I remember growing up that my mom was constantly storing things in the oven. There were several occasions when things were melted (bags of tortilla chips, my brother's plastic toy truck, etc)...I hope you okay I shared that, Mom. :) Because I've never done this before it never occurred to me to check the inside before I turned the oven on. And yep, when I smelled that horrible smell I opened the oven to find the high chair tray was a dripping melted mess and it also added oxygen to the existing flames. I explained the scene to my friend and kind of laughed..."oh and there are flames". But as the flames grew my laughter turned to panic and that panic turned to fear. She started to freak out and said "do you have a fire extinguisher!". I closed the oven door and ran to the garage and put her on hold for a minute while I took two squirts of the extinguisher to the oven. You wouldn't believe the mess and the smell that came from that dang thing. Of course all the alarms in the house are going off by now and all the kids wanted to come see what was going on. So I hung up with my friend, locked the kids in the toy room, opened every window and door to the house, and fanned the alarms until they stopped screaming. Then a new emotion hit me...anger. I was SO MAD at myself. I HATE making dumb mistakes. And I was angry that the highchair tray was toast...literally. I was also mad that this might make Dave think less of me. I'd like to think that I am a capable woman, but this doesn't add to that reality at all. So I cleaned up the film of fine powder from the extinguisher and waited for Dave's return. He walked in the door and I gave him a big hug. Then I asked him "how much do you love me"? To which he replied "uh oh, what happened?" I showed him the oven and he was quiet. I could tell that he was upset, but he could also see that I was just as equally upset, so he was kind to me...like always. We tried all that we could to clean that oven. I chiseled for hours, but nothing got it all off. So we went to The Home Depot and got a great deal on a new oven. But good things have come from it. My kitchen has been clean for two months now! :) And I know that I can handle using a fire extinguisher. :) Anyone have an oven catastrophe story they want to share? It would make me feel better! 

All the tan-colored stuff is the plastic remains.