Thanksgiving......Ends with a blast......

My house is a complete disaster at the moment and I really should be cleaning it up before I go to bed,but I have got to make some time to post about this years thanksgiving because I don't want to forget details of it later on. It was a nice thanksgiving. My sister and her husband came over to my house in the morning and put the Turkey in, (because they are the cooks of the family) and I just basted and watched it cook and did the small things like potatoes and dessert. My dad didn't come this year, it was Jane's side of the family's turn for him so we didn't have the pleasure of having dad around, but our small gathering was nice. My brother Keith said the prayer before dinner and he did such a fabulous job. You can tell when someone is praying from their heart, not just spewing out words so they can eat. He meant what he said and it was touching. (love him!) So of course we ate till we were stuffed and enjoyed each others company. After everyone had left, Kevin and the kids and I decided that we would have our first fire in the fireplace in this house. Kevin went out and got some wood and started getting the fireplace ready, and I was getting drinks ready for us all in the kitchen. As I'm standing in the kitchen, I hear this big "POOF!" sound, and then Kevin yell something. I knew something bad happened. Kevin came around the corner and his hair looked like Einstein. Sticking up everywhere and all burnt. The house was quickly filling up with smoke and the fire alarm started to go off. Then the security system alarm started going off. The kids were freaking out, crying and Jake couldn't breathe because of his asthma so he was crying and went outside, smoke was going out our windows, (why didn't any neighbors hear or notice this?) At that time we figured out the flu (flute?) whatever it's called, was not open, so that explained the blast. Kevin had went downstairs to turn the gas on (it was turned off due to putting a fireplace in the basement recently) so by the time he came upstairs the fireplace was filling with gas and had no where to go but out when he lit the lighter! So instead of the gas and flames going up they came right at him. Our fireplace is real log burning, but a gas start. So he rushed to turn the gas off, but we still had burning logs in there and didn't know how to get hands in there to get the flu open! I was about ready to call the fire department and Kevin got it open with some fireplace tool. (Thank God!) After getting that open, I called my sister and told her, we need to take Kevin to the hospital. Thankfully she lives close by and jumped in her car and came over (thanks Cindy!) Kevin ended up spending the night in the hospital. I don't think I've ever seen the ER work so quickly! They had him in a room and yelled "trauma something or another" over their speaker and we had like 4 people in the room within minutes! I was impressed. He has second degree burns on his arm, hand, face. After 3 injections of Morphine in his IV he was finally feeling some relief from the pain. Needless to say, I had to come home without my husband that night. They made him stay. They actually wanted him to go to the burn center but he said no. The next morning Gracie was walking around saying, "Daddy owdie!" (owie) She is so sweet. His arm is looking pretty bad, he had a huge, and I do mean huge blister on the top of his arm that popped yesterday. I wish I had taken a picture of it. (Grace called that a bubble. (Daddy bubble!) It's isn't looking pretty but he insists that he doesn't "need" to go to a follow up appointment with a burn doctor. (typical Kevin!) So hopefully nothing will get infected and he will heal OK without scarring. It's awful this happened to my husband on thanksgiving, it really is, and I feel bad for him that he has to deal with this and it keeps him from doing things, but the blessings are that none of my children were near that fireplace when that flame came flying out of there. I can't imagine one of our babies going through what their daddy has gone through in the past few days so I am praising God that my sweet kids are safe. I am also thankful that Kevin didn't get it worse then he did, our house didn't burn down because if anymore gas would have built up in there I'm sure it could have been MUCH worse, so I know God was watching over us that night.
I have SO much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and everyday for that matter. We are blessed with four healthy children, I have a husband who loves me, a sister and brothers that live close that I can see often, My dad visits often and we have a great relationship, a beautiful home, wonderful neighbors, many friends, honestly what don't I have to be thankful for?! The lord has been very gracious to us. As someone at Walmart said to me one day as I was shopping for primer, "We are not worthy!" God is so good to us, and I need to keep that in mind more then one day a year. Everyday is a day to praise him and thank him for what we have. Well, Kevin is starting to clean up, (which is an odd thing at this time of night) so I had better get up and help before he decides to quit. Happy Thanksgiving it is...........