the past 5 days..

This was been sort of a strange week so far. Actually it started on Thursday. We had a bad storm that evening. It was one of those storms that felt really close. There was a lot of lightning. It was still going pretty strong when we put the kiddos to bed, but it wasn't bad enough that we needed to go to the basement. Anyway, Bill and I came downstairs. I went over to the stove to do something (I don't remember what that was right now). As soon as I stepped over to it, there was a bright flash outside....the noise was SOOOO loud! The smoke detector went off. I knew what had happened...the house had been struck! Then I noticed smoke coming out of the vent fan on the stove. I screamed, the Kids were all screaming. I went and got all of them and brought them into the living room to comfort them, and Bill went to investigate. Thankfully the house was NOT on fire, it had burned out the light on the stove and cause d the smoke. We still had our power, but we did loose our main computer. The one where I have ALL of our pictures stored. :( I am praying that we can at least retrieve all the files. I would be very sad to loose all of our pictures. Wish I could say I had a back up...but I do not...lesson learned.

We went to a birthday party Friday evening. On the way to the party our car stalled out several times so we had to turn around and go home and grab the other car. Bill said we probably shouldn't drive it until he had a chance to fix it.

Ok, so while we were at the party I got several phone calls from my family. My sister , my brother and my mom had all called. (Since the party was outside I didn't hear my phone) I KNEW something was wrong when I checked my phone on the way home. They never all call on the same night unless something is up. Turns out it was about my mom's husband...he had gone home to be with the Lord. He died on Wednesday night, but she didn't get around to calling us until Friday night. I was on the phone with my mom for 2 hours. She is a mess, understandably. I mostly just listened, I didn't know what to say. Mom had known for a long time that Joe was going to die, but I don't think knowing that can ever prepare you for the loss of someone you love. There is more to this story, and I will blog about it another time. I don't want to seem like I am making light of it...it will just take too much thought to go into right now.

Most of the weekend was pretty uneventful. Although, on Sunday Bill had a conversation with his parents that we were not expecting to have yet. But it turned out for the best. (I will expound more on that later too).

Monday our credit card number was stolen...so we had to cancel our cards. What a pain! I had planned on going to the grocery store, and I needed to order all of our school books for Anna online on Monday. That will have to wait until later in the week. I am thankful that our bank notified us that someone had stolen the number before more damage could be done.

Ok, and the latest thing that happened, this morning I get a call from New Mexico (which is where my mom is). My mom is in the hospital, her kidneys are shutting down and we have been advised that we need to get down there as soon as possible. (She went into the ER late last night). Except, that's not even possible right now. My sister is having surgery on Thursday, my brother can't get more time off work, and Bill and I...well...if you have been following my blog you know why that would be difficult for us. I have no idea how that is going to work out. My mom's husband's funeral is today and doesn't look like she is going to be able to make it to that.

The funny thing about all of this is...I feel peace. I do feel a little overwhelmed, but I feel like all these things that have happened are totally out of my control. I know that God will work something out. We serve a God who can calm any storm!

I wonder what tomorrow is going to hold?...