ABC's of gratitude

Last Thursday evening, I went to our Relief Society meeting for our ward. The whole night was about Family Home Evening. They had several sisters talk about what has worked for their families in different stages of there lives. The one idea that stuck out for me was 'the ABC's of Gratitude'. You think of things that you are thankful for, starting with every letter of the alphabet. I thought the kids would enjoy it and thought we would do it this coming Monday night.
Then on Saturday, Rick and I went to the temple and then to lunch on our belated anniversary date. We had a great time and then when we got back we decided to start cleaning the garage. Rick decided to burn some branches he had cut down from a tree in the the firepit in the backyard. Since it had been raining earlier in the day, he put a little gasoline on the branches to burn them and when he went to light it it blew up. I heard the sound from the garage but didn't know what it was.
A few minutes later, Rick walked right past me in the garage into the house and asked if I could come in without the kids.
When I walked in the house, I was horrified!! Rick looked bad. He said (in the calmest voice because he was in shock) "The fire blew up when I was burning the branches and I think we need to go to the emergency room."
My neighbor thankfully was driving up as we were pulling out of the driveway and she took the kids for us. We got to the hospital and at this point Rick is shaking and in awful pain. The nurses gave him as much moriphine as the could before they started their torture. Although nessesary, it was the worst thing I have ever seen. They have to cut away skin, pour freezing cold liquid (not really sure what it was), and scrub everything with some sort of soap stuff too. It was awful. Awful for Rick to have to go through and awful for me to watch and not be able to do anything.
He has 1st and 2nd degree burns on his arms, hands and one leg. He also has burns on his face but they are thankfully not as bad.

Some of the good things that happened:

*The kids weren't in the backyard to see Daddy get hurt or to get hurt themselves.

*My neighbor took the kids so that they didn't have to go to the hospital with us.

*Rick is going to be just fine and after a few weeks should be good as new with maybe a few new battle wounds.

Some funny things that happened:

*The nurses had cut Rick's shirt off of him when we got to the ER, so when we left he didn't have a shirt. Rick said "he could leave Matthew McConaughey style". After the nurses stopped laughing they gave him a scrub shirt to wear home.

*Rick said "he was sad to see his modeling career end". He was especially going to miss the money.

*Since Rick is in the bishopric, he said "Poor Rob (the 1st counselor), he is going to have to stand up at church tomorrow and say "please excuse the bishop because he is on vacation and please excuse Brother Meyer because he blew himself up."

*Rick said he was pretty upset because this really messed up his tan he had been working on all summer.

So on Tuesday night we had our ABC's of gratitude FHE. I think it meant a little more after the weekend we had. I'm so grateful that he is o.k.

Here is our list:

A - animals, air, apples, aunts
B - Ben, Bible, Book of Mormon, babies, Bishops, books, beach, breakfast, balloons
C - cookies, cupcakes, cooking, church, California, car, cheese
D - Daddy, diapers, doctors, dogs, dinner, dirt
E - Easter, eternal families, eggs, electricity, eagles
F - friends, family, forever, freedom, feet, faces
G - grandmas, grandpas, grass, Georgia, Geneva, glasses, Gina
H - Holy Ghost, hands, happy, home, Heavenly Father, hospitals
I - Illinois, intelligence, ice cream
J - Jesus, jokes, jobs
K - kids, Key Lime pie
L - love, laughing, lakes, light, legs
M - muffins, Mommy, money, milk, medicine
N - Noodles, names
O - Olivia, oceans, Oberweiss
P - Prophets, peace, pools, priesthood, passy
Q - Quiet
R - running, repentance, religion, rights
S- Sun, sand, summer, Santa, safety, salary
T - temples, tast buds, telephone, time
U - uncles, umbrellas
V - Voices
W - Will, Wyatt, water, words
X - ?
Y - youth, yellow
Z - zebras, zoos