silly satan...tricks are for kids.

after an extremely busy week, i was looking forward to my much anticipated 24 hours of time with ladies and the Lord. we went over to scottsboro (about an hour from here) to a campground by the river. we had a great time and heard good messages. we woke up to a little dusting of snow, which i really don't care anything about, but it was really pretty since i could see that, mountains and a river all in one scene. i ate waaaay too much, b/c that's what you do on retreat. i got home about 4 on saturday afternoon. i spent some time with micah and the kids and asked them to all load up and go with me to get a few things at walmart and to pick up supper. when we got home about 630, we walked in the door to find smoke in the kitchen. luke had walked in just ahead of me and was screaming (micah was behind me with the bags). so i (by the grace of God) got them outside and micah started looking for the source. (now let me insert that my ouse catching on fire, whether i'm there or not, is a huge fear of mine.) the smoke was only in the kitchen and you could tell it was an electrical smell. but nothing was left on, b/c nothing had been used that day. we looked in every room and even in the attic. i told micah to go get our neighbor to help so i could keep the kids in the van with me. they thought it smelled like it came from behind the stove. they pulled it out and took the back off to find what they thought was the socket for the light shorted. so they unhooked it and taped it off and were satisfied, for the moment, that the culprit had been identified. meanwhile, i'm outside giving my kids dry cereal and cups of chocolate milk for supper.

as the night went on, micah kept thinking it was something else. the smoke was gone, but we could smell that burning smell as we walked into the kitchen (which is where the refrigerator is) and you couldn't smell it by the stove.) but he didn't know if he was just being paranoid (which i thought he probably was.) about 9:30 (after we finally got our kids to bed) he said he didn't think the freezer was cooling right b/c the ice was wet and the bread stuff was thawing out. so i told him to put the thermometer in there and check it in like 20 minutes. and it was only reading 34 degrees. so i told him to then go to the deep freeze to see what it was supposed to be (cause i was thinking that around 0 was optimal.) and it was around 8 degrees about 15 minutes later. so he takes the back panel off of that to find that the wires that went to something on the compressor were completely burned off and melted. even better. so at 11pm off my hubby goes to walmart to get bags of ice so that we can put everything into coolers (cause i had just bought a new gallon of milk for pete's sake!) and i started loading the freezer stuff into the deep freeze (thank goodness for that thing too!!)

and of course you realize that our warranty was only for 5 years and we have had the refrigerator 6 years as of march 1st. so after an awesome week of paying a good chunk of debt off and knowing what we would be getting back from taxes, and losing at least an hour of sleep, $800 later we have a new refrigerator. obviously the most important thing was that my family was safe, it happened while we were gone or at least on the way home, and our house didn't burn down. i could care less about having to buy a new appliance. it's just money. i do find the humor in the fact that satan was trying to be up to his tricks...right after i was coming home from my 24 hours with Jesus. that was stupid.

and i'd like to take this moment to interject that it's 8:45 and luke has already lost his video priviledges from backtalking and they are both locked in their rooms b/c i think luke is trying to suffocate seth. if satan doesn't get you one was, he definitely tries to get you another and i'm not impressed as i have already spent time in prayer and devotion this morning.