From Trash to Treasure

ID brought home his "creation"( a sculpture made out of trash) he made at school the other day. He was incredibly proud of it and was so excited to have it. I'll try to decribe it; a used Fiji water bottle laying on it's side, glued to a paper plate with straws taped to the side, next to that on the plate was a used paper towel roll with a #3 b-day candle taped to it, all of this taped to the top of a white balloon, which was then taped to another paper plate (it really would be much easier if I had a digital camera so you could see for yourself!). The only discription that is truly relevent is the balloon. Apparantly on the way home from school, ID found a 4 point hook in his daddy's truck, I have no idea what this hook is used for, but to ID it looked just like a fishing hook. So as soon as he got home, he drew up a fish and some bubbles, then taped them to the balloon underneath his hook (RD had attached the hook to some pipe cleaner attached to the paper towel roll). Very inventive to look like the fish was in a tank and about to be caught. Well of course what happens to balloons-they pop! The day after he had brought it home, the tank had popped. ID was extremely unhappy, tears and all! But mom came to the rescue! I gave him a new balloon- a blue one with a skull and cross bones on it! He was exstatic to say the least. Now it is not only a fish in a tank about to be caught, but it is pirates who are catching the fish! Truly a treasure!
The entire reason I have shared this overly lengthy story is to share with my family an understanding I gained and shared with ID after we had repaired his ruined creation. I explained to him this simple reality that sometimes bad or sad things happen to us (or our things) only so something better can take it's place.
He really seemed to get it and felt much better about his new creation. So much so that the next day when our stup-I mean silly cat popped the blue balloon, ID didn't get so upset. We simply replaced the balloon again and hung it up out of the cat's reach!
My family members came to my mind after this ordeal with ID. Between mom and dad lossing their job, BAD about to be out of a job, RY possibly lossing his job, and EM and elka's completely stressful move and now having to deal with renters, yuk and with many obsticles yet to get through, it seems our family is going through quite a transitional period! I have to say I'm feeling slightly nervous for RD right now! But I have to hope and believe this is all leading up to something much better for everyone! (Any body thought of us all moving to the farm and creating our own family compound? Ha Ha, just kidding elka!) I hope I can hold onto this attitude when my family trial comes about. Everyone is in my thoughts and prayers.

Another rude awakening!

Sunday, the day of rest?
I had another highly rude awakening just yesterday, luckily RD got to experience this one too! We were nestled all snug in our bed, taking a much needed Sunday afternoon nap when all of the sudden yells of ID rang through the house. RD heard the blaring of the smoke detector first and then registered the words "FIRE, FIRE" as ID ran into our room(I wish I could simulate how loud he was yelling). RD was out of bed first making a dash for the door only to run into a badly misplaced hamper, in turn crashing to the floor in quite a heap. I jumped out of bed just as he hit the floor with a huge thud (the floor shaking much like our recent quakes)! I ran out of my room, quite dazed, completely expecting to see smoke. ID and AD had made it out the front door by this time, who knows where JD was. RD was with me as we ran down the stairs. The smoke detector still blaring with no hint of smoke anywhere. We frantically ran all over the basement to look for what was setting off the alarm, but found absolutely nothing! RD finally disconnected the alarm and the kids had come back inside (I still cannot remember where JD had been through all of this).
Luckily this was a false alarm and everyone is fine. RD has the worst from it; a fairly skinned up knee and quite a few sore muscles and joints. I just wish I could have seen the scene from an outsider's view. It had to be quite hilarious to see us running about not quite awake, looking for something that wasn't there!

This is a test, this is only a test-or maybe not!

I'm sure most have heard of the earthquake that shook the Midwest this morning! It was about 4:30am, I had actually gone to bed at 10:00 last night so I could get a good night sleep! But that was not to be so. I woke up to the bed shaking, the windows rattling, and it looked like the entire house was shaking! I was instantly alert and I interpreted it to be a tornado. I'm sure there was a loud noise also. I jumped out of bed and ran to the boys room to wake them up. I shook JD first in the top bunk and then proceeded to pull ID out from the bottom, which he then fell to the floor. I frantically told him to go downstairs. Then I shook JD some more. Then I thought of AD in my bed. By this time I noticed nothing else was happening, so my heart rate dropped slightly. I think ID had actually gone to the kitchen. I hurried to my room and scooped up AD. Then I met up with ID in the kitchen (JD still sound asleep). ID was asking why we had to go downstairs and I was a bit confused. I realized nothing else was happening so I let ID go back to bed and laid AD back in my bed. But don't think I was able to go to sleep so fast! I began wondering if I had dreamed it all up. I turned on my kitchen radio to the TV stations. No one was saying anything about it, so I almost gave up. Then a breaking news came on and announced a 5.4 quake about 127 miles east of us in Illinois or Indiana (it has been knocked down to a 5.2). Then I turned the TV on and the news was just coming on about it. People had been calling the stations non-stop to find out what was going on. At least I wasn't the only confused one, but I do wonder if anyone else mistook it for a tornado!
This was definitely a small glimpse of one of my biggest fears; that something catastrophic would happen in the middle of the night while Frank is at work with me alone with the kids. Luckily everyone and everything is fine. Nothing even fell off the walls! Frank rode it out at work. He thinks it was neat. This only reminded me of the importance of having our food storage and especially our 72 hour kits. I hate being reminded this way! But I am committing myself to do better with it and at least get our kits done!