Near miss #1: We discovered a worn hole in one of the tires on our van. It was obvious that it had been there for a while. Two days earlier I had driven a friend, her daughter, and A6 to Chattanooga for a field trip. (And on Wednesday I’m planning to bring the kiddos to Grandma, 2 hours away!) After 4:00 pm on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, we found that our tire shop was indeed open and could replace the tires before Monday when Brian leaves for a business trip.

Near miss #2: While I was watering the flowers last night, Brian heard a different sort of sound coming from basement. When it didn’t go away, he took a moment to investigate. He found water spraying into the basement, which is unfinished, but is used as the kid’s play area and for storage purposes. For some yet-to-be-diagnosed reason the pipe that brings water to the outside spigot had sprung a leak. I had only been watering for around 15 minutes, so even though it took a couple of hours to clean up it could have been so much worse. I think we acted fast enough to save the rugs. They are currently airing out in the garage. The only real casualty might be the Christmas tree. When it dries out completely, we’ll have to plug it in to see if the lights still work.

Near miss #3: While in the middle of the clean-up process, Brian walked outside to check on the kids, who were remarkably helpful, btw. They had been staying out of the way by playing outside. Brian steps outside and sees that they have resourcefully tied a jump rope between the two Power Wheels vehicles. He watches as one vehicle circles around the other, effectively making a noose around A8’s neck. Thankfully, no one was injured because of Dad’s quick reaction time. Needless to say, the jump rope has been banned from all future usage with Power Wheels vehicles!

Today, we are taking it easy and counting our blessings. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for!