Speaker 1: Misspelling with Tory Spelling and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 2: So we are back home. We had been evacuated and
Speaker 2: had headed up north.
Speaker 1: For the last week. We stayed up there, which is
Speaker 1: mind boggling. We were actually in came Rio and we
Speaker 1: head back this weekend so that the kids could start
Speaker 1: back normal routines, trying to give them normalcy during this time.
Speaker 1: On Sunday to our home in the valley, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden.
Speaker 2: It's like, okay, we're back.
Speaker 1: Everyone's safe, fires are under control. You know, I know
Speaker 1: we've all been hooked to our watch duty app. It
Speaker 1: looked like that was starting to you know, Okay, we
Speaker 1: could not focus on that as much.
Speaker 2: We could go back to well.
Speaker 1: It definitely wasn't TikTok this week past weekend. But you
Speaker 1: know which, I'm not mad at. I'm not a TikTok girl. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying it. Uh my seven year old is
Speaker 1: sick today and he's here watching me do a podcast
Speaker 1: because I life goes on.
Speaker 2: I have to work and he has to do it
Speaker 2: here with me. Will I do this? But he just
Speaker 2: gave me side eye when I said I'm not.
Speaker 1: A TikTok girl because you're a TikTok dude, what are
Speaker 1: you YouTube?
Speaker 2: YouTube or bust. He's a YouTube guy.
Speaker 1: Anyway, So you know, go back to look in at
Speaker 1: our Instagram or for as creatives out there.
Speaker 2: Pentrist is nice and distracting.
Speaker 1: I got to tell you, if you needs something to
Speaker 1: get your mind off of all the crazy shit that
Speaker 1: is going on everywhere, go to Pinterest. I encourage it.
Speaker 1: Start a board, start pulling creative stuff. You can find
Speaker 1: stuff for dinner. You could find clothing references. You can
Speaker 1: even design a home that you're not even going to build,
Speaker 1: but just a home just.
Speaker 2: To distract yourself.
Speaker 1: I find when I need like a mindless thing to do,
Speaker 1: not mindless, but just like take focus off, I go
Speaker 1: to Pinterest my aging myself here.
Speaker 2: I know it's not the coolest thing to do, but
Speaker 2: really really good. Anyway. So we get home. We finally which.
Speaker 1: The owners of the airbnb that were so kind to
Speaker 1: us in Camerao. They had a cleaning crew come as
Speaker 1: would any guests leave, and we were frantically trying to
Speaker 1: pack in get out to go back from getting out
Speaker 1: the first time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and.
Speaker 1: Funny enough, in that thirty minutes when I got the
Speaker 1: kids out when we had to evacuate originally from la
Speaker 1: it wasn't comfortable. Most kids couldn't breathe. There were fairs
Speaker 1: crawling up pants. But you know what, we fitted in
Speaker 1: like the best game of tetris you've ever played.
Speaker 2: And we got out of there because we had.
Speaker 1: To this time. It was kind of on our own
Speaker 1: time a little bit. We went to pack the car
Speaker 1: back up, it didn't all fit, didn't all fit, and
Speaker 1: I was like, well, what's different here? And I couldn't
Speaker 1: figure it out. I mean, we'd been there a week,
Speaker 1: We're a normal family. We had, you know, brought in
Speaker 1: some groceries. We were taking some of our groceries back,
Speaker 1: so we didn't want to have to leave them there,
Speaker 1: and we wanted to be able to use them for
Speaker 1: the next week for school and meal prep. But I
Speaker 1: don't know, it seemed like a lot more than that.
Speaker 1: So the car is fully packed, I mean fully packed,
Speaker 1: and I can't get the kids in.
Speaker 2: So and we did.
Speaker 1: We you know, we left without a lot of our
Speaker 1: clothes and stuff. So we had bought a few you know,
Speaker 1: we were right near the outlets, so everything's on very
Speaker 1: well priced and they need some new clothes for school anyway,
Speaker 1: So we did get a few clothes while we were
Speaker 1: there for the week. My one son came and he
Speaker 1: had no shoes, so we had to get him shoes
Speaker 1: and anyway. But yeah, so the car is fully packed,
Speaker 1: it's ready to go back to LA and the.
Speaker 2: Dogs are packed in the back.
Speaker 1: Our other big dog, he's in the car, Cats in
Speaker 1: the car, ferret smelling to high Heaven, Ferrets in the car.
Speaker 2: Check check check.
Speaker 1: Oh shit, I can't get my five kids in the car, okay,
Speaker 1: And they had a friend sleepover while we were there,
Speaker 1: so I had six kids to get in the car,
Speaker 1: and an hour before that, I felt very encouraged. I
Speaker 1: was like, because because our friend, he said, should call
Speaker 1: my dad and tell him to come pick me up.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, We're all just gonna squish back in.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get home and Dad can pick you up
Speaker 1: at our house when we get back to LA. Now
Speaker 1: didn't happen, so I literally had to. I hated doing this.
Speaker 1: It felt like bougie, but I didn't know what else
Speaker 1: to do. It was like either drive an hour and
Speaker 1: a half two hours back with the dogs and all
Speaker 1: the stuff, drop that off, put it away, make sure
Speaker 1: it's secure and the animals are secure, and then.
Speaker 2: Drive back and get the kids.
Speaker 1: And during this time I just don't I'm in the
Speaker 1: mindset of I don't want my care it's too far
Speaker 1: away from me.
Speaker 2: So I called an uber. I called an uber and
Speaker 2: the kids rode in luxury.
Speaker 1: Back to our home in Calabasas, and my oldest son,
Speaker 1: Liam went with me and he said, no, Mom, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to let you go alone.
Speaker 2: I said, thank you.
Speaker 1: So it was me, Liam, three dogs, a cat, and
Speaker 1: a very stinky ferret. Uh and yeah. Halfway back, Liam
Speaker 1: says to me, we were making good time. Liam says
Speaker 1: to me, it's it's smelling really bad. I said, well,
Speaker 1: it's coda. She's a ferret. It's not her fault. They
Speaker 1: just smell fact. And he said, no, something else smells worse.
Speaker 1: And then loan, behold our cat in his carrier on
Speaker 1: my son's lap had pooped. And I said, well, hey,
Speaker 1: we still have Remember those T shirts that I said
Speaker 1: put over your mouth we're going to go through the
Speaker 1: fires on the freeway when we evacuated.
Speaker 2: Those T shirts are still in here. Every single piece
Speaker 2: of things we have in here. Put that T shirt
Speaker 2: around your mouth nose and sit tight. So anyway, we
Speaker 2: get back home.
Speaker 1: We get back home, we pull in. The uber is
Speaker 1: just pulled in. All the other kids look in very
Speaker 1: good moods. They're hyper, they're smiling, they're happy, they're running.
Speaker 1: They want to get back to their rooms and their home.
Speaker 1: They haven't seen, you know, want to see what home
Speaker 1: looks like. And Liam and I are like.
Speaker 2: Oh god, the stench.
Speaker 1: But we get all the animals out, and the kids
Speaker 1: are just going nuts. They're like so happy to be
Speaker 1: back in their home and that their home is in
Speaker 1: one piece and everything is fine. So I'm still outside
Speaker 1: and packing stuff. I've not gone into the home yet.
Speaker 1: And I get into the home. So I walked through
Speaker 1: our front door, and you guys, I'm not an alarmist,
Speaker 1: Like I can pretty much go through any situation and
Speaker 1: still be like, okay, still going what's next.
Speaker 2: I walked in and I gasped.
Speaker 1: I literally gasped, and I didn't want to panic the kids,
Speaker 1: but I looked around and I was like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: I had heard about this while we were gone out
Speaker 1: of town, evacuated. Someone has broken into our home and
Speaker 1: has burglarized our home.
Speaker 2: There have been looters here. Look at the state of
Speaker 2: the house. There was shit everywhere.
Speaker 1: I mean, it looked like people had come in and
Speaker 1: just trashed our house.
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 1: Upon closer inspection, I realized, oh shit, oh, this is
Speaker 1: just the way I live. Yeah, And that's when it
Speaker 1: really dawned on me that when all of this settles down,
Speaker 1: I know it's just stuff. And I've seen the devastation,
Speaker 1: the loss friends, families, people displace, people that have lost everything,
Speaker 1: and when you're lucky enough that you still have your
Speaker 1: home and you still have your things, it really put
Speaker 1: into perspective that it's like, God, I have so much stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm so blessed to have so much stuff, but I
Speaker 1: need to get rid of that stuff and it needs
Speaker 1: to It's who was it who was uh, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: what was her name that did the book that did
Speaker 1: the where you literally talk to your things. You're like,
Speaker 1: thank you for serving your purpose and this was great,
Speaker 1: But now I'm letting you go and moving on. Marie Condo,
Speaker 1: Marie Condo, very wise human. So yeah, I'm really ready
Speaker 1: to do that, especially this all on the heels of
Speaker 1: me doing my hoarding episode where I'm like, I really
Speaker 1: just haven't had the time, but I'm ready to let
Speaker 1: go of stuff. And then everybody around us in LA
Speaker 1: losing their stuff and needing stuff, and especially being back
Speaker 1: in town now we can help donate all our stuff
Speaker 1: that we can get out and give it to the
Speaker 1: people who have lost stuff. So I'm happy to excite
Speaker 1: and excited to start doing that. But then walking in
Speaker 1: and not recognizing your own home that you haven't been
Speaker 1: in a week because you've been in this nice airbnb
Speaker 1: that's all clean. And as I've said before, it's a
Speaker 1: time issue. Because I kept this airbnb clean. I took
Speaker 1: care of it every day. I cleaned the counters, I
Speaker 1: put things away. There was nothing left on the kitchen counter. No,
Speaker 1: everything had a place. Granted it was we have a
Speaker 1: smaller house and not a lot of room, and we
Speaker 1: don't have a pantry, and I have a lot of
Speaker 1: kids and snacks and it's hard to find places for things.
Speaker 1: But I realized, yeah, anyway, my point is I walked
Speaker 1: into my home and didn't recognize my home.
Speaker 2: Because it was in such.
Speaker 1: A state of disaster that I thought someone had eluded it.
Speaker 1: Then I looked around and all my stuff was still there,
Speaker 1: all our stuff was still there. It just was everywhere.
Speaker 1: So I said to my best friend Jess, I said,
Speaker 1: we're home, because she wanted to know when we're home safe.
Speaker 1: We're home, and she said, are you happy to be home?
Speaker 1: And I said, grateful to come home to a home,
Speaker 1: I said, but I got to say. I walked in
Speaker 1: and I thought our house had been burglarized. And then
Speaker 1: I realized, nope, this is just how we live. And
Speaker 1: she goes, Wow, she goes, that's actually the perfect way
Speaker 1: to describe your home. I said, what, and she goes,
Speaker 1: your house constantly looks like you've been burglarized.
Speaker 2: I said great.
Speaker 1: So if I wasn't backing it up myself, now my
Speaker 1: best friend was backing it up. And then I said, well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to live like this anymore. And then
Speaker 1: she had to go because she knew the next step
Speaker 1: was going to be me saying, because she's amazing at organizing, like,
Speaker 1: do you think you can come over when the kids
Speaker 1: are at school this week and help me organize? I
Speaker 1: know you're listening to us, so it's a subtle hint.
Speaker 1: Help me help me. Anyway, so we were here, I
Speaker 1: did straight enough best I could, and we settled back
Speaker 1: in the kids were anxious to go back to school.
Speaker 2: You know, everyone had been out of school for a week.
Speaker 1: And anyway, we went back to our normal routine, kind
Speaker 1: of normal, and then boom this week, Oh you start
Speaker 1: getting You memorize the sound of that watch duty app
Speaker 1: ding that comes through because I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but I have it on constantly and I kept hearing
Speaker 1: it ding ding ding, you know, first weather warnings.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh gosh, the winds are coming back.
Speaker 1: And then fires broke out again, and it's like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. So it was where near Santa Clarita and
Speaker 1: near Ventura County, Camera Rio where we just were. It's like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I feel bad. Like we were here
Speaker 1: and we evacuated and went there because we were safe,
Speaker 1: and then we came back here because we were safe,
Speaker 1: and now came Rio's on fire, and it's like, this
Speaker 1: is just a wild, a wild time. You guys, being
Speaker 1: I know, I always bring this up, but being an
Speaker 1: La native, like, we never had winds like this, we
Speaker 1: never had fires like this. This is just so many
Speaker 1: natural disasters that in La you know, I guess we
Speaker 1: were very lucky we didn't have to have them for
Speaker 1: that long and it's catching up with us.
Speaker 2: But it's you know, no one's prepared here in LA.
Speaker 1: And then you know, with the fires starting and the
Speaker 1: winds kicking in high gear, all the kids going.
Speaker 2: Back to school, it's just the air quality.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how other moms and dads and
Speaker 1: parents feel out there, but I know I was hesitant
Speaker 1: to send my kids back. And one, you know, having
Speaker 1: gone through that time of hearing the watch app the ding,
Speaker 1: the ding, you know, and red flag warnings and.
Speaker 2: Evacuations.
Speaker 1: You know, all of our PTSD you know kind of
Speaker 1: red flags, red flag warnings are peaked right now. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like just when we thought things were calming down
Speaker 1: and containment and there was so much lost in distraught
Speaker 1: people thanks to a really amazing community in LA, in California,
Speaker 1: everyone was starting to help each other go on that long,
Speaker 1: hard road of building stuff back and then to suddenly
Speaker 1: be faced with, oh my god, it's all starting again.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I just you know, and the kids, the teenagers,
Speaker 1: you tell them, you send them with their masks. I
Speaker 1: can't monitor if they're going to wear a mask. All
Speaker 1: I know is they tell me our other friends aren't
Speaker 1: wearing masks. We look really stupid in masks. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: I have one kid who has horrible asthma, so she
Speaker 1: agreed to it. But the other kids, I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: not there. I don't know what's going on. I don't
Speaker 1: know if they're wearing their mask. I don't know about
Speaker 1: your kids' schools, but all my kids go to public schools,
Speaker 1: and their schools are outdoor campuses, so it's.
Speaker 2: Not all in a main school thing.
Speaker 1: They go in and out of classrooms, and they are
Speaker 1: predominantly outside when they are not in their classroom period.
Speaker 1: And then I saw Pee was returning, and I'm like, really,
Speaker 1: they're going to make them run with the air quality
Speaker 1: like this and do laps. That just blew my mind.
Speaker 1: But anyway, you know, now I dropped my kids off
Speaker 1: at school this morning. They're all having allergies again because
Speaker 1: the winds and the fires and the smoke in the air.
Speaker 1: They're all sneezing, throats are hurting, rubbing their eyes, not
Speaker 1: feeling well. But they've missed so much school, so I
Speaker 1: get them back to school and the wind is just
Speaker 1: kicking into high gear.
Speaker 2: I watched one of my daughters walk away.
Speaker 1: She has a pretty far walk outdoor campus, and I'm
Speaker 1: watching her and her whole little body is just moving
Speaker 1: back and forth with the wind, and I'm just like,
Speaker 1: oh my god. And as a mom, you just want
Speaker 1: I wanted to scream out of the car, get back
Speaker 1: in the car, let's go, let's go, let's go to
Speaker 1: do something fun, because these kids shouldn't have to worry
Speaker 1: about all of this. We're parents, we should be worrying
Speaker 1: about all this, but they're like having to go through
Speaker 1: it with us and worry about it, and it's just insane. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the fires have spread. They're now god Ventura County, Santa Clarita, Oxnard,
Speaker 1: they're heading. One broke out on the four or five
Speaker 1: Supulvita Pass last night, like, so it's just coming from
Speaker 1: all angles. So I don't think anyone who lives in California,
Speaker 1: who lives in La specifically and roundabout there, feel safe
Speaker 1: because you know, at any time, if these winds don't stop,
Speaker 1: it's just going to start all over again. It's this
Speaker 1: vicious circle. But yeah, so that's where we're at. We're at,
Speaker 1: and I've been trying this week to like get back
Speaker 1: to normal and cooking and doing.
Speaker 2: For the kids.
Speaker 1: But it's you know, I'd be lying if I didn't say, like,
Speaker 1: every time I hear a ding, I lose focus on
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. And it's not you know, helping them
Speaker 1: with homework, it's not making them dinner. It's like glued
Speaker 1: to my watch app and I'm like, oh god, I
Speaker 1: just I don't know. I hope things calm down. I
Speaker 1: know twenty twenty five. Every year, we're all so positive
Speaker 1: and it's so much motivation to go into the new
Speaker 1: year being like this.
Speaker 2: Is going to be great.
Speaker 1: It's a reset, restart, things are gonna be amazing.
Speaker 2: And things started off.
Speaker 1: Pretty rough in twenty twenty five for a lot of
Speaker 1: people across the world, and it's like okay, And then
Speaker 1: he started thinking, like the new year just started.
Speaker 2: I'm like, goodness, okay.
Speaker 1: Well how long do I let the new year go
Speaker 1: on before I'm like, okay, this isn't the year. If
Speaker 1: this isn't the one for me or anyone like. But
Speaker 1: as we all know, in life, life has ebbs and flows,
Speaker 1: positives and negatives. We have moments of distraught, and we
Speaker 1: have moments of.
Speaker 2: Joy and life and rebirth.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, and we have each other, so
Speaker 1: we keep we keep going on.
Speaker 2: We hold each other up and and say let's keep moving.
Speaker 1: And to those that don't have people to hold them up,
Speaker 1: you just keep moving anyway. But I'm very lucky I
Speaker 1: have my five kids with me at all times. But yeah,
Speaker 1: when when huge disasters and you got to move fast
Speaker 1: and you got to get going, it does. It's hard,
Speaker 1: you know, being a single mom getting all of it
Speaker 1: together fast.
Speaker 2: You're just.
Speaker 1: When you're used to having a partner for twenty years
Speaker 1: that lives with you in the house, you know, you are.
Speaker 1: You get used to having four sets of hands, you know,
Speaker 1: and someone's strong. You know, we haven't in the house
Speaker 1: physically mentally, I'm the strong one. But I'm just saying
Speaker 1: you get used to that, and then when things happen
Speaker 1: that are beyond your control and you have to take
Speaker 1: action fast, It's just it's an interesting thing that you realize, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you really think about it again, I'm a single mom
Speaker 1: of five kids. And then when they're all asleep at night,
Speaker 1: I remind myself, fuck all the naysayers, I'm doing great.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we're all doing great. We're all doing the
Speaker 1: best we can and we're doing great and it's getting better.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's my rant.
Speaker 1: My god, my podcast was so interesting today that my
Speaker 1: kid who was fixated watching me, I.
Speaker 2: Put them to sleep. This is great, this is great.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna set up a makeshift podcast anytime I
Speaker 1: need to get that kid to bed, because that kid
Speaker 1: does not go to sleep, so like some camerameal tea
Speaker 1: like settle down, turn the TV off, wind down, shut
Speaker 1: your brain off, count sheep. And also because they were
Speaker 1: out of school for a week and like on vacation time,
Speaker 1: even though it was evacuation time, they stayed up all night.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't limit them, like they can sleep
Speaker 1: in as long as they're getting their online school stuff done.
Speaker 2: He wouldn't sleep. But now I got a backup tool.
Speaker 1: Anytime I need to put the kid to sleep, I'll
Speaker 1: just start talking, start podcasting. Oh boy, wildlife