Thankful for angels

I've had many moments in my life that I've seen God's hand or that of an angel in my life. But once, when Dominic was little, stands out first in my mind. I've tried to find the story in the blog and I think I wrote about it on my previous blog. But God used a toy and Dominic to make me stop the car right before several cars and a semi had a mishap. We would have died or been horribly injured if not for an angel.

Today will now forever stand out in my mind as one of those times too.

We have been slowly, but surely renovating our bathroom. Our vanity cabinet was in great shape, but just not the right color (pink is not my thing). So Jon and I hoisted it up onto some saw horses and he sanded it down. Last night he sprayed the first coat of paint on it. Jon told the kids to stay completely away just in case the cabinet came off the saw horses. It would crush them.

The weather forecast said storms today, but it was hot and sunny all morning. Apparently while I was vacuuming Jon tried to call at least 4x to get me to move the vanity down onto the concrete because some major wind was on its way. But the vacuum was too loud and I kept on cleaning.

A couple of minutes later the wind hit while Caitlin was standing beside the cabinet. I know exactly where she was because when it toppled to the ground she froze and started screaming. I could hear her through the closed door and over the vacuum. It was a terrifying scream and I left the vacuum running as I ran to see what was wrong. She was frozen in fear two inches from the fallen vanity. If she'd been only a couple of inches further over it would have been a completely different story. My heart still pounds just thinking about it.

So today I'm thankful for two guardian angels who are kept very busy at our house!

Secret Weapons

There are four wild and blood thirsty boys in my back yard. The weapons and ammunition they've accumulated is astounding.* The shrieks and blood curdling screams are enough to scare the enemy way before they could see the massive amounts of weapons. 

Caitlin is a VERY slow eater and finished long after the battle had started. So when she went out to join the boys at their game she was a bit intimidated and overwhelmed with the sheer volume and energy. She ran screaming back into the house - "I'm not playing that. I don't want to die."

But moments later she returned with her secret weapon.

"Here I come guys! I have my magic wand that makes bats. They are boy eating bats. They are going to eat you, so you'd better run!"

That's my girl!

*Don't freak out. They have some plastic silver wear that is doubling as knives and assortment of water guns, sticks, chop sticks, and gumballs.

Time Gone By

Dominic was telling me about how he'd slammed into another kid at school and both of them skid across the ground. He was laughing as he told me so I made the comment that it must have been pretty funny.

"No, it wasn't. It was kind of horrible."

"Then why are you laughing?"

"Because it's past tense. Ms. Beth-Anne said sometimes you laugh about stuff when enough time has gone by. So that's why I'm laughing now."
I guess several hours is enough time!

Budding photographer

The weather is beautiful after several days of rain and clouds. So I ignored the mountains of housework and Caitlin and I headed outside to take a walk. I'm participating in the Photo A Day Challenge so I took my camera with me. Caitlin wanted to take pictures too.

We had so much fun. I told her, after the first time she asked if she had to take a picture of the same thing I did, that an artist always goes with what speaks to him. So she needed to take pictures of whatever she wanted, not whatever I was taking.

I was shocked to find some really great pictures when I downloaded them to the computer after our walk. So other than the first picture of our little photographer all the pictures on this post are Caitlin's.

 All of these are pictures taken by Caitlin. She was able to focus the camera pretty well for a 4 yr old. And I loved the view from so low. Gives life a different perspective.

A self portrait

Dirty boys

I watched several of my neighbor kids today and most of them were boys. So after an entire afternoon of playing you can imagine how dirty they were. When they all went home I had Dominic strip at the back door and go take a shower. He was insistent that he wasn't dirty enough for one and kept asking why he had to have one every single day.

"Dominic, you are nasty and I can't have you getting in bed that dirty!"

"But why? You aren't sleeping in that bed so why do you care how dirty it gets?"

He really doesn't get it, does he?

Mixed bag

Today was one of those days that is so mixed up and crazy that the label depends entirely on my outlook. I'm choosing to be positive today so it was a great day. =)

I dropped Dominic off at school and headed to Nashville. Mom had another doctor appointment and thought we could meet for lunch. Her doctor's office was only an hour away so we thought we'd shop and then get lunch before I had to head home.

Baby girl was so weepy and clingy that I was beginning to wonder if she was trying out for the part of a dryer sheet. It was crazy! But despite the wine whine and static cling it was a really fun morning. I dashed home to pick up Dominic so we could make it to Bible study in time. There are a couple of moms in Bible study so we let our kids play in the church gym while we study. Until last week it's worked very well for us. Last week they left the gym (without us knowing) and then couldn't get back in. The principle of the school texted his wife to let us know he had some "lost" children. So after a very, very early bedtime I'd hoped they had learned their lesson. They did! They chose something different this week.

They decided to have a water fight INSIDE! Every single child was soaked and it took a couple of mops, some rags and a bit of work to get all of the water off the floor. Needless to say, there were some very unhappy moms and another very, very early bedtime.

But when you see this face (he finally lost that tooth while kayaking on Sabbath)

how can you stay mad?!

 Or go in to tuck in baby girl and find this. 

Her explanation was that it was to dry her wet hair while she slept. Wow!

I have the cutest kids! Granted there were moments today that the cuteness wasn't hitting my radar. But I love them dearly and am so thankful that God gave these very children to me.

My first 1/2 marathon was in Knoxville this past Sunday. So our plans were to head out early Sabbath morning so we could go to church with my cousin Matt and then have a picnic and visit the zoo that afternoon. We would spend the night with my cousin and then head to the race early on Sunday.

But on Friday night Caitlin decided to have a upset stomach. She threw up once. Since my cousin has two little kids we just couldn't chance getting them sick. So Jon stayed home with her and my dad, Dominic and I headed to Knoxville.

 

After church we headed to the Knoxville zoo. We had passes and thought we'd check it out. It's about the same distance as the Nashville zoo, but we still haven't made it over for a visit.

I have several pictures of animals, but ironically the two main things that Dominic loved were not even zoo animals.

He played on this lion forever. I had to make him get off so that other kids could have a chance.

 

 But he was having fun, so I let him go for it.

 The knees of a boy who knows how to have fun!

 My sweet boy!

 His favorite was this jeep. It even got a mention for the next two nights during prayer time.

He could have played here for hours. It was hilarious and so cute watching him make up stories and act them out.

 Leaving the zoo on the train.