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

Visitors

The week after school got out my Mom and Aunt Gina came to visit us. It was so fun to hang out with them and show them around Chicago. They couldn't believe that in June it was still a little cool and even with all of the walking no one was sweating. We did get caught in a downpour rain storm on our walk back down Michigan Avenue but we made the best of it. We were so happy that they could visit us and hope we didn't wear them out too much!!

Everytime I go downtown I can't pass up this view of the city. It's perfect for taking pictures and I always do.

Can u tell it is the windy city?

A rare picture of me and my mom without any kiddos.

By the way, see that blue purse I'm carrying. There is a story about it in the next post. Take a good look!

They were having Swedish Days the week they were here and we went, walked around, did some window shopping and let the kids ride some rides. I thought this was such a funny picture of the kids on the kiddie roller coaster.

Pictures from Georgia

After the worst car trip we have ever taken, we arrived in Georgia. I'll spare most of the horrendous details but they involve, screaming babies, horrible weather, standstill traffic due to construction, an unexpected hotel stay because of the standstill traffic, and a baby who didn't sleep at the hotel. It was bad, really really bad. We arrived at my parents house, looking like refugees at 4:20p.m. on Saturday and we left our house at 2:00 p.m. on Friday. We turned a 12 hour trip into a 26 hour trip!
Once we got their though, it was great. I don't know if Rick and I have ever felt so loved. We had our entire week scheduled out to visit friends and family and we still didn't make it to everyone. We definitely don't have pictures of everybody but here are a few.

The Westerby's moved from Ohio to Atlanta a few months ago. It would have been great to live in the same city for once but it wasn't to be. We loved seeing them and are glad that they are liking the south so far and that we get to see them when we go home to visit.

What great friends they are!

This is everybody except Esther. She was already asleep. When I look at this picture it makes me laugh. We have been friends for a long time (like 14 or 15 years). I remember the days when it was just the four of us. Now our group pictures are much larger!

My kids (and Rick & I) love Aiwyn and it is so fun to watch them play together. She just joins in all the craziness of our family. They had a lot of fun playing in a food coloring bath.

Sunday dinner with the family.

I had forgotten how loud the decibel level is when everyone is there eating, talking and laughing. So fun! We were only missing Adam, Megan, Carson & Allie.
My best friend Charlotte from Jacksonville and her family drove up to visit us. It was part of a birthday surprise for her but I think it was an early birthday present for me too. We hadn't see each other in 3 years. I love her and her family so much. It's so funny that you can meet and become best friends in 5th grade and still be so much alike all these years later. Our husbands think it's pretty funny how similar we are.

Our families (minus Will, he was taking a nap)

Us and our girls. We actually were going to take a picture of just us but both of the girls just stood their too. Funny!

Aunt Gina came up from Florida to see us. They were having such fun on the swing telling stories.

Grandma & Papa with some of the grand kids

It was so nice of them to let our circus stay with them. As my mom said "I have no problem sleeping when y'all are here." We wear people out!

Nana & great grand kids

We had such a good time catching up with all of our sweet family and friends. We miss everybody so much!!

Christmas morning

Christmas Eve had perfect Christmas Eve weather, snow and lots of it. I'm not a lover of the snow but it was just perfect.

This was before we started opening presents...

and this is the aftermath.... (can you see baby Will?)

Merry Christmas!

Some service

On our snowy Christmas Eve, we were able to do some service at a facillity for the handicap and help the residents open their Christmas presents. It was a really great experience for us and I hope for Jimmy. When we got there, each family was assigned their own special person to help. Our family got Jimmy. He had such a great smile and loved the Twillight series, the Bears and Carrie Underwood. It warmed our hearts to get to know this sweet guy, who could only communicate by smiling. And like almost always with service, we got way more out of it than Jimmy did.

Christmas morning was filled with presents, homemade cinnamon rolls and p.j.'s the entire day. It was a relaxing day that we all loved.

Today, Rick got ordained a high priest. He was called to the bishopric a few weeks ago and was set apart today. Rick and I both feel really good about it. So it looks like he will be doing a lot of service and I will need to beef up my church bag.

The first few weeks

Here are some pictures of the first few weeks. Make sure and watch with the sound on...sweet song.