You never know what a day may bring...

A couple of weeks ago Marc and I went out of town for a few days. Marc had a work related trip and wanted me (and the baby!) to go with him. I am a homebody and I don't like leaving my children, but I knew it would be good for us to get away. The place we stayed was beautiful.

This was a real gingerbread house! Below is a list of some of the ingredients!
Everything was decorated for Christmas.

I took this picture for Matthew. He loves Christmas lights and I knew he would think this was really cool!

Myles has a new obsession with toilet paper. It is hilarious to see him frantically grab it and run! At home he is usually gated in his playroom. I think he enjoyed having the run of the place!

This was a huge spiral staircase.

The trip was very relaxing. There was a paved walking trail throughout the whole community that was also used for golf carts. I took Myles in his stroller and walked a lot of it. The houses were unbelievable. I didn't know until later that some of the homes were owned by professional baseball players. They were beautiful, but really... who needs a home that big!? Unless of course you are filling it full of children! :>)

The day we left we had to go pick up a new dairy goat that McKenzie recently bought. We laughed at ourselves leaving the Ritz and later pulling a trailer with a goat in it! Honestly, I think I prefer the simpler life! I was so glad to get home and see my other children. McKenzie had done a wonderful job taking care of them and keeping the house going.

I went to bed that night and the next morning Marc woke me up to, "Wake up, the well house is on fire." Once I got my eyes open and realized what was going on, I was just relieved that it was just the well house! I have been through so much in the past year or so that as long as my children are ok, I can handle it! I ran into the kitchen and saw the blazes in the building. Matthew had been out doing chores and was starting to water the animals when he saw smoke coming out of the building. He ran to tell Marc and of course they immediately called 911. It was a pretty helpless feeling to stand there watching it burn while we waited on the firetruck. For a moment we tried to use the hose only to remember that the WELL was on fire, we didn't have water! By the time the firemen got there and put the fire out it was pretty much burned to the ground. The cause of the fire was wiring with the well.

We had a lot of stuff stored in that building and among the stuff was paint and paint thinner. You could hear the cans exploding. I thought about Matthew being right at the backside of the building when it was burning on the inside. I was so grateful that nothing exploded while he was standing there. When the fire was still just burning on the inside Marc thought it was the refrigerator that was on fire. He reached in to unplug it. I later was saying how dumb that was, that he could have been burned. McKenzie made me feel terrible when she said, "I think it is sad. That was daddy's stuff! He was just trying to save it." All of his tools inluding his power tools were stored in there. But it was all just stuff. The only thing we were all wondering and not wanting to say was "Where was Mariah's cat." She kept asking where "Oreo Kitty" was because she knew she had been sleeping in the well house at night. Matthew looked for her and couldn't find her. Mariah was about to cry when McKenzie came walking in the house with her!

She was one happy girl!

We had to go to a hotel for a couple of nights while they installed a new well. Hotels on vacation are fun. Hotels ten minutes away from your own bed are NOT fun! The first morning we got up Malachi said, "I want to go to the beach!" To him hotels mean you are at the beach!

Playing cards late one night in the hotel lobby. Yes, the whole ordeal really messed up Myles' schedule!

She managed to find a computer to use.

Matthew "entertaining" Malachi.
Lots of "together" time! :>) Even with two hotel rooms and two bathrooms, it was still VERY crowded!

It was so wonderful when we got to go back home. On top of the fire and no water, the heat in our downstairs went out a couple of weeks ago. The kids all sleep upstairs so it wasn't too bad. We have had colder than usual weather lately. A couple of days after we got back in the house we woke up to no water again. The well (that is normally housed in a building) was frozen! Later that day it thawed out AND the heat guy came and put the new part on our furnace. It is amazing how grateful you are for things that you normally take for granted when you have had to do without them for awhile!

All of this has been a huge pain, but once again it just makes you realize how much you have to be thankful for. I can see how the Lord's hand was on the whole fire ordeal from the beginning. It didn't happen while we were out of town. It started in the morning after some of us were awake. If it had been in the middle of the night the fire would have spread onto the leaves and could have easily burned our house. I am SO thankful that no one was hurt in it. I am thankful that it was the well house and not our home. I am thankful for several sweet neighbors that shared showers and laundry rooms! And I am even thankful that Oreo Kitty was spared! God cares about the little things too!