Thanksgiving Miracle

In a matter of six weeks, I've seen two true life miracles.  The first was my pastor's 14-year old son who stopped breathing at 4 am one morning.  His brother, who he shares a room with, miraculously happened to wake up and notice him breathing funny and then stop all together.  The ambulance came and I believe, if I'm remembering this correctly, they couldn't get a heartbeat for something like 90 minutes.  He was in a coma for a a few days and then made a perfect recovery.  A truly remarkable story.  I'm still in awe of it.

This weekend, I saw another miracle with someone I know personally.  Ron Pelton, who lives in Maine, has a been a friend of the family for many, many years.  I got a text from my brother, Shawn, on Sabbath morning saying that Ron was in a coma because he had carbon monoxide poisoning.  His wife had gotten a call at midnight Friday night asking her to come into work for a few hours in the morning (she's a nurse).  She consented.  When she left around 6 am, everything was fine.  She would meet Ron at church.  Well, he wasn't there and he wouldn't answer his phone.  She drove home and when she opened the door to her house, the propane fumes were overwhelming.  She called 911 and was finally able to enter her house just long enough to see her husband passed out at the top of the stairs.  This was 10:30 and subsequent details suggest that he may have passed out around 8:30.  The family dog died.  Ron was rushed to Maine Medical Center in very critical condition, obviously.  The fire marshal investigated and said the amount of CO that was in the house was so high that life could not be sustained.  During this time, I did some research on carbon monoxide poisoning and it didn't paint a pretty picture.  If you survive, you are often left with a myriad of symptoms from memory loss, depression, and a whole list of physical problems.  Ron, who is my mother's age, is in very good physical shape and we were hoping that would help.  News of this spread across Facebook (see Dad, it IS good sometimes!) and there were people praying all over this country for his recovery.  We also heard details that a new furnace had been installed on Thursday night which most likely caused this catastrophe. As the hours ticked by and we all waited on pins and needles, we could do nothing but keep praying.  Finally, late afternoon, we heard that he had squeezed someone's hand and lifted a toe.  Fast forward to yesterday...he's talking, joking, and seems almost as if nothing happened.  Honestly, it's a miracle!  And you can't help but think how this story would have a different ending if his wife hadn't been called into work.  Here's a link to an interview he did on the local news today.   

I tell you, miracles really do happen and they remind us that we have such an amazing God.  And honestly, the thing that touched me so deeply from the story of my pastor's son was that as they recounted their experience, you could see the faith and trust they had in God.  They really didn't know if he was going to live or die and through that all, they had such peace that even if he didn't make it, they would be okay.  They did not waver.  Should I ever face something like this, their experience and how they handled it will be at the forefront of my mind.

Life goes on and so does ours.  I had a headache, once again, this past Friday night hence the lack of a post. I'll try to recap as quickly as I can what we've been up to since I have some Thanksgiving planning to get to!

The big thing from last weekend was that Ron and Elaine came to babysit so that we could have a couples' night out with the Bergherms, Isidros, and Whitakers.  We ate at Season's 52 and then planned to see a 9:45 showing of the James Bond movie which had just opened that weekend.  The guys went over around 9:15 to get tickets but it was sold out so the next option was the 10:30.  We got there at 10:00 and as we walked to the theater it was showing in, I noticed that it was blocked off so I remarked "Oh good!  We're the first ones here."  We were about to yell back to our companions that they didn't need to hurry and then we heard a little noise and looked to our right and noticed like 75 people waiting behind a roped off area.  Oops!  That was a little embarrassing!  Fortunately we got good seats anyway and the movie was excellent.  I had left some brownie delight at Bruce and Jennifer's that we had when we got back so by the time we got home, it was after 2:00 am!  Thankfully Ron and Elaine had decided to stay the night so everyone was sound asleep upon our return.


Earlier in the day, our David Weekley community of homes had a Thankgiving lunch at the model home so that everyone could get to know each other.  It was really neat because we got to met so many of our neighbors in one swoop.  As can be expected living in Florida, quite a few of them are snow birds and retirees which suits us just fine.  We meet two couples from western Massachusetts and along with the other guy I met a few weeks ago, that makes four of us, that I know of, from the great state.  But, the highlight of it all was meeting a new little friend named Isabella who is five and lives six houses down from us (the other girl, Olivia, lives in between us).  Isabella has a 20-month old sister, Ariana (who was home napping) so they have the two girls.  And then get this.  The father works in IT, the mom is an accountant who works from home, they've been married 10 years, her in-laws live in Casselberry, and Isabella is doing a home school program.  So yup, those are the same things as us (or about to be).  The mom's name is Cynthia and we all immediately hit it off.  It also turns out that Isabella goes to Champion Prep (a school that works in tandem with home schooling) with Blake and Zachary and has even been kissed by Zachary.  So she and Calleigh had something in common too right off the bat.  Ha!  After lunch the girls started playing Connect Four (not that they had a clue how to play it) and as Cynthia and I stood talking and watching them, I was literally in mid sentence marveling at how quickly kids can become friends when Isabella yells "SHE'S NOT SHARING!!" And then Calleigh yells "SHE'S CHEATING!!" (as if Calleigh knew the rules or something).  If they're already fighting, I guess that means they really are friends, right??  Since then, we played in their backyard on Sunday...thankfully no fighting took place.

Working on some crafts

Olivia arrived and Isabella huddled the girls up.

Brady couldn't quite decide if these dogs in one of the bedrooms of the model home were real or fake.

On the trampoline at Isabella's house.  Brady SO wanted to get in there.

He finally got his chance and he could not believe his good fortune.

This week we got a few more rooms painted by Jaime and did some searching for a dining room table and sofa table.  Honestly, I wish I knew how to make furniture because it's nuts on how hard it is to find furniture that you want.  There's plenty of nice stuff out there but we are looking for a particular color (to match our other stuff) and style and it's just really, really hard.  We finally did find a sofa table at Ikea so we can check that off the list.  Alas, we did not find a dining room table yet that I was hoping to score before Thanksgiving.

Monday evening we went and got our new iPhones activated.  What?  Did you think Duncan wouldn't have the latest model??  We did have the 4s and didn't think we would get the new one since our contract isn't up for a year but Duncan had some connections and made it happen.  When Calleigh saw I was getting a new one she asked if she could have my old one so she could play games.  That would be a big fat NO.  It's going to be sold on Ebay so I can make back the money we spent on the new one.

Brady's big news is that he's finally, finally exceeded 20 pounds so that he can turn front facing in his carseat. If I were a better parent, I would wait until he's two which is the recommendation but I'm just not a better parent, clearly.  Since Calleigh couldn't buckle hers, the plan was to give her car seat to Brady and get the girls matching new ones (Aubree had peed in her old one earlier the week which motivated us even more!).   Saturday night we went to Babies R Us and tried them all out.  Calleigh's favorite color right now is green so she was crushed that there was no green one and then Aubree got hooked on this purple one that Calleigh didn't like it all.  In the end, of course, we overruled everything and picked some Evenflo ones.  They are quite an upgrade from the cheapo (read: inexpensive, not unsafe) ones we had before so we're excited to have some bells and whistles now.  Most importantly, Calleigh can get in and out and Aubree can get in (and Calleigh gets her out).  I can't tell you how AWESOME this is for me.  Just imagine me trying to lean in to the back row from the side door with in a knee length dress as a slight breeze blows.  Yup, it's truly awesome!  Meanwhile, I can't tell you how happy I am to look in my rear view mirror and see Brady's precious little face looking back at me.  I can't help looking at it over and over.

Playing in the front yard while Daddy does the install.

It's a keeper.

 Also Saturday night, Jennifer and I met up at 11:30 at the 24-hour CVS in Apopka for the Black Friday sale.  Yes, it's still days away from Black Friday but CVS decided to start their sale on Sunday.  You may recall last year that I hit up the 24-hour CVS and Walgreens in Oviedo on Wednesday night because Duncan was going golfing on Thanksgiving morning (it's really a Black Thursday sale).  This year I had a partner which made it way more fun.  Also, interestingly, it appears that Apopka doesn't have many couponers as there were like two other people there besides us whereas Oviedo was totally hopping.  Strange.  Anyway, we were very happy with the setup and I got about $160 of products for $12.  Happy times!

Last night Ron and Elaine came again to baby-sit so we could go to the Florida Hospital Gala down at Disney.  Bruce and Jennifer were invited as well so they came and picked us up to car pool.  We were blown away with how quickly we can get to Disney from here...no more than 25 minutes.  It's like 45 from our old house.  Unfortunately we weren't at the same table as Bruce and Jennifer but we did sit with some of Duncan's colleagues and had a very nice time.  That included eating the vegetarian meal which is always very weird and not necessarily in a good way.  This time, yum!  The entertainment was Martina McBride and while she's a very good singer, we always get antsy at the end and so took off after a couple of songs.  The funny thing was today when I talked the girls about the event and this is what transpired:

Aubree: "Remember when I went to the gala."
Me: "I'm pretty sure you've never been to one.  Well, maybe when you were in my belly."
Aubree: "Yeah, I was there and I watched it through your belly button...and I had a naked body."

Duncan invested in a tux last December and finally got to wear it.  Such a stud muffin!!

I got my dress for $14.99 at Ross.  It was very comfortable.  The hair was a fiasco though.  I did an up do last year which did not work out and then the "down do" this year that I had done at the salon just did not meet my expectations.

Two things before I close.  One is that, as is our tradition, we started the Christmas season on Thursday which is my dad's birthday.  I'm SO excited to have the Christmas music on and it's been on almost 24/7 since then.  But then I was still shopping for Thanksgiving stuff over the weekend (I'm a procrastinator, clearly, since there is hardly any of it left in the stores).  I think it's confused the girls a little because last night when I tucked Aubree in (she had woken up for a few minutes after we got back from the Gala), she said to me, very sweetly, "Mommy...Happy Christmas Fall."

The second is that Alison had her baby this morning.  Another second cousin added to the ranks.  She had him via c-section at 8:40.  His name is Westin Dean Edwards and he weighed 7 lbs, 8 oz.  Big brother Tyson turned two last month.  The official count is now Girls - 7, Boys - 5 although that will go up by one in the next few weeks when Kelly has her baby.  I just realized that, strangely, there is no one else pregnant right now so I guess we'll have a lull for a little while.  Who will be next?

Look at all that hair!

A couple other pictures:

We got a new floor lamp from World Market, our new favorite store, and the kids made a huge mess.  I didn't have the heart to put a stop to it.  Major pain to clean up though.

The girls had decorated pumpkins and decided to put the decorations on themselves instead.

Of course, Brady copies everything they do but couldn't get much further than this...

....or this.

The girls in their matching shoes at Sabbath School.

Trying out a new game.

Checking out new equipment for our home gym.

I've noticed that Brady is much more likely to get into mischief than the girls were at the same age. He's constantly trying to climb up stuff.

So that's that.  Thanksgiving is at our house this year since we now have a place big enough to host.  Very exciting!  Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!