Nichole Booth's hands were stained with ash from picking through the blackened and twisted pieces left of her life after an inferno engulfed everything she owned. She tried not to cry in front of her four children. But in the few moments she can steal away, the tears spill down her cheeks. Like so many others, Booth took the first steps toward rebuilding her life Monday, a week after a firestorm destroyed her San Diego County home and business.