A Close Call

Friday morning began like any other day for my parents. My dad decided to go flying in his plane, which had lately become his favorite pastime. He picked up a passenger and headed to a small town just outside of Indianapolis, IN to look at a possible job situation.

As he was attempting to land in the small grass landing strip, he realized he was coming in too fast, and chose to go back up in the air and turn around to try again. This is not uncommon, but he was unfamiliar with this airstrip, and in the blink of an eye, the tail of his plane clipped some power lines nearby and sent his plane pummelling to the ground. He crashed, upside down, on top of 3 vehicles in a used car lot. He and his passenger, with adrenaline rushing through their bodies, ran from the wreckage as fast as they could, sure that the plane, which was leaking fuel, would soon burst into flames.

Two people at the used car lot barely escaped being hit by the plane, and were soon used to assist my dad and his fellow passenger, who by this time, were in the beginning stages of shock. Steve said that he couldn't see anything through the blood that was pouring out of his gashes into his eyes. He was rushed by ambulance to Methodist Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis soon afterwards.

His injuries, while quite painful, were minor, considering the accident he had just endured. He has some broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a punctured lung, and deep lacerations over most of his body. Part of his lip was missing, leaving an empty hole, which needed to be repaired. And his rotator cuff (which was torn earlier this year), is now worse than ever. But, for the most part, there were no major injuries reported. His fellow passenger fared even better. He only suffered some minor scratches and bruises, and was released from the local hospital he had been taken to, glad to have a new lease on life.

Dad is currently staying at the hospital for observation a few more days before he will be released to go back home. He does, however, have some recovery time ahead of him. He will not be able to work (he is a painting contractor), and may never fly again. There is still an investigation going on through the FAA, detailing the crash and trying to figure out what went wrong.

Overall, however, we are all so very grateful to have him alive and well (for the most part). God's merciful hand was in this situation the whole time. He crashed in Indiana, within driving distance of most of his family members, who were able to rush to his bedside while my mom was frantically trying to drive from TN to get to him. This accident brought back some pretty painful memories for the whole family... one of Steve's brothers died in a small plane crash several years ago. Needless to say, they were all very relieved that they did not have to relive that horrible situation again.

We are all very grateful to have Dad back with us after such a scary ordeal. We appreciate all of the prayers that went up on our behalf, and we know that the Lord heard those prayers and answered them by sparing the life of our beloved husband, father, and grandfather.

For those who are interested, here are some video stories of the crash from a couple of the local news stations in the area. Not all of the facts are accurate, but for the most part, they will give you an idea of just how blessed Dad is to be alive!!!

Funny Thing About The Dead Sea...

R has been studying about Ancient Egypt, Israel, the Middle East, etc. during homeschool history lately. This morning, she asked me how the Dead Sea got it's name. I explained to her that the river flows into it, bringing with it all sorts of junk, but that there is not another way out so all the muck and junk just stays there, building up so much that nothing should be able to survive in it. So, it is called the "Dead Sea". She was very interested in this fact.

Later in the day, I was trying to clean the house, and kept finding junk that everyone had just thrown all over the house (like a dirty old shirt and stinky shoes under the dining room table, dog food pebbles on the living room floor, and cheese cracker crumbs in the bedroom carpet).

So, I started grumbling about it (okay, fine. I was on a pregnancy hormone rampage), upset by the fact that nobody seems to be capable of cleaning up after themselves. It almost felt as though they were trying to play a very annoying game of hide-and-seek, putting things in odd places, and guessing how long it will take me to locate it and "right" the "wrong". Ugh. I was a bit perturbed about it, to say the least.

But R, trying to apply the newly learned knowledge to a current situation, and completely unaware of the fact that I was ready to bite the head off of the next person to get in my way, pipes up.

She proudly announces, "Hey, mom! Our house is like the Dead Sea! Junk keeps piling up in here, and nobody bothers to clean it all out!"

Well, at least she is learning something in homeschool this year... :o)

"Cleaning" the Lanai

With a large family, which includes wild, crazy & messy children, as well as filthy animals (I'm talking about the dog...not my husband -- this time), the lanai and pool area can tend to get a bit dirty. Okay... a LOT dirty. So, every so often, I make the children clean up the messes they make out there.

On this particular day, I decided to allow them to have a little fun while they were cleaning. It ended up making more of a mess, but the good thing about having a lanai and pool area, is that you can just hose it all down and make the messes disappear! :o)

Here are some pics of the kids' adventure at "cleaning" the lanai...

It started out innocently enough. I let the kids use shaving cream to wash the outside table and chairs.

Pretty soon, though, all three kids were covered, head to toe, in shaving cream...
This is no ordinary boy... he is a regular wild and crazy guy! Just look at him pose! Watch out, ladies! Ooh la la! :o)
Little Miss Copycat... She MUST be just like her big brother and sister... OR ELSE! :o)

My friend, Bronie, often tells her blog readers how she deserves the "Mother of the Year" award, due to the interesting things she does for her children when they find themselves in a pickle.

Well, Bronie, this is one of those moments for me.

I sat there and watched him do it. He didn't understand the rules of shaving cream and the delicate membranes of the eyes.

Did I know what was going to happen? Yep. Sure did.

Did I try to stop him? Nope.

Did I run immediately and get something to assist him? Nope.

What did I choose to do instead? Grab the camera and tell him to say "cheese!"
He had been really enjoying himself until this moment. Needless to say, however, soon after this picture was taken, B learned an important lesson about not putting anything in or near his eyes. Poor little guy. He'd been having so much fun...

But, it's like I said earlier... the good part about it all, is that we just had to get the hose, spray him down and the "ouchies" miraculously disappeared! :o)