The Day After

Today the workers came early.

Today the kids made eggs for breakfast.

Today I surfed for carpet and furniture on Pinterest.

Today Marty, Chris and Nick played video games together in the basement and Dan and I worked on the computers upstairs and listened to them all laughing together.

Today we all worked together picking up chestnuts in the yard, cleaning up the basement, vacuuming the house and moving trash to the dumpsters.

Today Dan fixed the holes in the floors from construction.

Today Nick and Chris practiced the piano and Marty practiced the violin.

Today Marty and I went to WalMart to buy a costume for Monster Mash.

Today Chris had friends come over.

Today Nick went to play at a friends house.

Today Marty was picked up for the dance and Dan and I took Chris to a party and Nick went to dinner with a friend and Dan and I went out to dinner and now we're going to watch a movie.

Today was a normal Saturday.

Except that today we received dozens of texts and e-mails and phone calls and treats from friends. And lots and lots and lots of love. And amongst all the normal we never forgot that today could have been so much different. Today could have held so much sorrow and heartache.

But instead Today was a normal day.

Last Night

Last night this handsome guy played in his first High School orchestra concert.

Marty and Thomas

Today

Today I slept in. Dan got the kids breakfast and out the door and I could hear them saying their goodbyes and I thought that I didn't like not saying goodbye and not giving them a hug when they left for the day.

Today Tiffany called and I haven't talked to her in a long time. We talked about our kids and laughed as we got caught up and then made plans for a couples trip. Sometime soon.

Today no workers came and the house was quiet for the first time in over a week. I took my time getting ready.

Today I went to breakfast with friends. We laughed so hard I cried. Several times over. After 2 hours we still didn't want to leave.

Today I met a new neighbor who is building a new house. I saw her over the fence and was so curious I ran over and introduced myself. She was wonderful!

Today I ran errands -- did some shopping and gift buying and tried on a cute sweater. I bought the mascara mom said Rachel said we should all have. I wanted to make sure it didn't smear when I laughed so hard I cried. Like earlier. I bonded with a friendly saleslady.

Today I made Chris play in the yard and chatted with Marty when he came home from baseball.

Today I went to Rite Aid to buy some treats and some new batteries for Courtney's old calculator that she needs me to send to Washington. And then went to the post office to mail it.

Today a worker came in the late afternoon to start adding door trim.

Today I came home from the post office and found Nicholas carving a pumpkin. He wanted to give a birthday gift to a friend "wrapped" in a pumpkin. He'd covered the counter with plastic, got a bowl for the guts and had already cut off the top when I walked in.

Today Marty said he was headed to the football game and I said I'd see him there.

This is normal.

Today I grabbed a handful of chocolate and was surfing on Pinterest for shadow costume ideas and carpet colors. 

And then 5 minutes later Marty called to say he had been in an accident. He said everyone was okay. I said if there was much damage to the cars we should call the police. He said his car had been flipped upside down.

This is what I saw in the middle of the day:

This is 5 minutes later.

Everyone was okay. The firefighters and police officers and the witnesses that saw it happen were amazed that 3 kids crawled out of the car.  Kids number four and five decided at the last minute to go with another friend.

We feel very blessed today. Marty's two friends had to go to the hospital to get checked for injuries.  One needed stitches from several glass cuts from crawling out on the glass.  The other has severe whiplash.  Everyone is sleeping home in their own beds tonight. Parents and friends have been so loving and so grateful for everyone's safety. And that this accident wasn't a tragedy.  We are feeling so grateful that the phone calls we received were from our own kids saying they were all right.

I am so grateful today.

Lead Me, Guide Me, Walk Beside Me

Last Summer as we toured the museums of Rome and Florence 

and saw Michelangelo's magnificent David, we discovered that Nicholas 

wasn't familiar with the story of David and Goliath. 

As we quizzed him further, we realized he wasn't familiar 

with many Bible stories that we assume all children know.

So we've begun teaching a bible story every Sunday using the Gospel Art Kit.

A few weeks ago we read about Abraham (of Abraham and Isaac) 

whose own father tried to sacrifice him to the Egyptian gods. 

It's kind of a scary story. 

In the end he prays and an angel comes and saves him 

and Jehovah speaks to him and tells him to get out of the land.

However, this week in my scripture class, we discussed 

a scripture that I had missed in the summarized Gospel Art Kit version.

In Abraham 1 (vs. 15) after Abraham lifts up his voice to the Lord, 

the Lord hearkened and heard. (He hears our prayers and answers them.)

But we know from all the further trials Abraham endured,

the Lord didn't take away Abraham's problems. 

However, in a very intimate expression, the Lord promises:

(vs. 18) "...I will lead thee by my hand."

The Lord wants to not only help us,  

but to hold our hands and lead us. 

As a Father leading a child. 

We have to ask for his help. And then when we do, 

He will walk with us, guiding us through our trials, holding our hand.

Nick's Best Day of His Life

Nick won a chocolate basket at Cottonwood's Halloween Carnival! The carnival was last weekend but he had to leave early so didn't hear who won the drawings. Do you remember how much you wanted to win something at the school carnival. I'm pretty sure I never did.

We got a message last night that Nick was a winner!

Nick's Day:
1) The chocolate basket was waiting for him when he got home from school today. It is HUGE!
2) Tonight is "Just Read Night" which means he doesn't have homework and instead reads his favorite book for 50 minutes.
3) Dan came home from work early to practice baseball with Nick because Nick got invited to play in a tournament with the super league team tomorrow because a bunch of their regular players are out of town this weekend.
4) One of Nick's best friends came over to play baseball with Dan and Nick and gets to stay late because Nick's reading is already done.

Nick announced that Today is the Best day of his life!

My Phone and a Bowl Full of Barley

Today my phone did what it's wanted to do so many other times but I'd caught it before it could. Today it jumped in the toilet. I heard the clunk and I grabbed it out fast. It worked! It worked!

I dried it off well (and then washed my hands well). I jumped in my car and it connected to my bluetooth just fine and I had a conversation with Dan--through the Bluetooth. But then I saw the battery was dying so I plugged in the charger. And it immediately went black.

Did I fry it? The display worked, but I fried the speakers. Once I took Dan off of Bluetooth in the car and used the phone independently, Dan could hear me, but I couldn't hear him. We tried playing music and I couldn't hear that either.

When I got home I put it in a bowl of barley because I didn't have any white rice and I was using the rest of the brown rice for dinner that night. P.S.... Barley has a lot of husk dust that I'm sure isn't good for phones.

An hour later it still didn't work and wouldn't charge either so I hurried and backed it up to the Cloud.

Marty thought it would still be under warranty, but I assured him warranties were for phones that stopped working for no good reason. Not for phones that went in the toilet.  Chris said I could lie. I said I don't lie.  Nick laughed that I'd dropped the phone in the toilet.

Dan called Verizon to see if it could be repaired, but they confirmed that iPhones that have been submerged and stopped working are worthless. Apple won't touch anything that's been wet.

So he took it out to the garage and got out his handy compressor and blew air into all the small little holes. Some water came out.

And guess what? It started working again!!!

It's charging right now and it plays music and the Audio works again!!! Yipeee!

Dan's totally my Juke Box Hero!