God's Daily Miracles

I know I promised to post about the giveaway today. I have been quite taken back by the happenings of today though. Today was one of those days where looking back, you realize the miracles that God performs on a daily basis. It gives you a different outlook on life.

I was just out on the back patio, minding my own business, ok I was checking out what the neighbors were doing.... you caught me. There was this sound that was the most horrific sound I have heard in a long time. I ran around to the front of the house knowing there was another accident. The road in front of our house is a major one in Michigan. Really busy. There was this car sitting on the side of my driveway smoking. I took off running towards the car to try to help. A very nice man who had seen what had happened, was parked and trying to get across traffic to the car also.

I have to say I was a little nervous, I was sure that whoever was in the car was killed. I didn't see another car though. When we got to the driver side, we found a young kid was driving. My heart sank. He started moving and crying, trying to get out of the car. The man who came to help was trying to get his door opened but couldn't. I told them both to stop. If he was injured, he could make it worse moving. I called 911 and tried to get him to breathe. I held his hand and talked to his mom about what had happened. He had managed to get half out of the car and was sitting on the door. He was pinned into the car by his leg.

Thankfully, the fire department got there! I am not a good person to have with injuries. I had gotten some towels from the house since he had a cut on his leg that was "spurting". I told them to hold pressure on it to help stop the bleeding and tried to get him to slow his breathing down.

So.... what happened?! See that pole in front of the car? On the right side of the drive is a steep slope by the shoulder of the road. He went along that slope and when he hit the slope by the driveway his car went airborne and hit that pole about 10' from the bottom of it. The car slid off the pole and landed at the base of it.

I can just imagine his guardian angel, sitting on his shoulder and thinking "Holy crap! We're flying into that freaking pole!"

Personally, I think he is lucky that he hit the pole. See the tall grass? He probably would of landed in there. You can't see in the pic, but there are these humongous boulders in that tall grass. Who knows what would of happened to him if he had landed on those.

He did have passengers too.

These two little guys were in the car. He told us the ferrets were in there and very nice. We caught them and I kept them in my house til his uncles came to pick them up. Bitty one just loved them! After riding around in a shopping cart though, they were probably thinking put us back in the flying car NOW!

Guess who was throwing a tantrum when they got picked up?

I am happy to report that the driver is doing good. They did have to take him into surgery. The parking lever was impaled into his shin bone. Thankfully, that was the worst of his injuries. No internal injuries or head injuries. Lots of cuts and abrasions. The sheriff told him mom it was a miracle that he survived. A little bit over and he might have been crushed by the engine coming through the dashboard. The cause of the accident was mechanical. The front wheel bearing went and locked up the steering. He hit that pole at about 60 mph.

Just one of the miracles that God performed today. A mom will be able to hold and kiss her son goodnight. I know I gave my kids a big hug and kiss! I also told the big girl she is NOT taking driver's ed!

I pinky swear that I will post the giveaway party tomorrow!

P.S. I added this pic. See the smudge mark on the tower? That is where his car hit and slid off

We Can Get By With A Little Help From Our Friends!

One of the sweetest people in blogland has to be Marydon from Blushing Rose. She uses her blog, besides other things, to help others. This woman is truly amazing! She puts her own needs aside to help others on a regular basis.

Rarely does she ask for anything, but she needs a little help. She is helping to achieve a goal of 5,000 comments to help a wonderful little boy with a brain tumor. You can read the story here and leave a comment to help out. You have until August 18th to leave a comment. I am asking everyone who visits here to stop by and leave a comment to help her out. Tell her that I sent ya!

Don't forget to come back on Monday to find out about the giveaway!

Day Four - The Bestest Day EVER In The Whole World!

Are you ready for the BESTEST DAY EVER IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD?! Are you sure? I can come back later if you like? No?! Okay, here we go....

For the BESTEST DAY EVER IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, we went back to Sea World! We still didn't get to see and do everything even with 2 days in the park. The bitty one even said it was better than Disney! Imagine that!

The bitty one got to meet a mermaid. She even got a pearl from an oyster. A gold pearl. I need to get it set in a necklace for her. I was thinking of saving it and giving it to her for her 16th birthday. Anyways....

....while the boys rode on these....

....we went to the dolphin show. These people are freaking nuts! The show was spectacular but they are crazy diving 30' in the air into a 24' deep pool! You wouldn't catch me doing that! The girls loved it. I told the boy he needed to go and see it. That is right up his alley! I could see him doing all those daredevil feats!

Bitty one liked all the fairies dancing around. I think they were supposed to be birds though. I don't know.

Then came the part that made this THE BESTEST DAY EVER IN THE WHOLE WORLD! Guess what I got to do?! Come on guess! I got to....are you ready for it?

PLAY WITH A BELUGA WHALE!! OMG! It was so much fun! I had a blast! Besides the fact that I had to cram my fat buttocks in a wet suit. That, my dears, was alot of pulling, tugging, jumping, and cussing to get all of me into it. Where is a tub of lard when you need it?! I did manage to get all my girl parts zipped up into it though. I couldn't move, but I was in it. That's me on the far right.

They told us about the whales before we went out. They are pretty cool, like a big jiggly puppy that lives in the water. The guy said we would be sitting on this bridge over the "pool". My first question was how deep is this "pool". Just the same as the show pools, 24'. Okay guess who is afraid of water? And bridge? Did you really say bridge? No, it's more like a catwalk over the 24' POOL! I think by the look on my face he realized that he wasn't making me feel any more comfortable. So there I am a sweaty mess in a rubber suit that only made me look fatter holding onto anything to make it over this "bridge" without falling into the 24' "pool" or crying. Dude, don't even tell me to get closer to the edge either cause I will push you into the pool!

When we first sat down, the whale kept on spitting water at me. I'd splash him back, he'd spit, I'd splash him, he'd spit.... you get the idea. The trainer finally told me after I was soaking wet with freezing cold water that splashing him is the command for him to spit water! That little tidbit of information would of been most helpful before I ended up looking like a drowned rat!

They even rolled over so we could pet them like a big ole puppy! They are so cool! If you took a plastic bag, filled it with jello that is about what they felt like. They are just all soft and jiggly.

They showed us hand signals to get them to do tricks. Here he is bringing his crazy butt back to us. I could of stayed here all day just playing with him. Talk about a cool job to have!

We even got hugs....

....and kisses!

And wetter! It was so much fun! 1-1/2 hours was not long enough! I wanted to throw myself down and have a tantrum on that little catwalk over the water with no handrails. I also didn't want to leave cause after sitting in this position for an hour and a half I lost all feeling in my legs. I was tempted to ask the trainer if he would just grab one of my arms and pull me out!

I mean, look at that sweet face! Who wouldn't love him? I am spoiled now cause if we ever go back to Sea World, I'm gonna want to do this again! My husband said it would be the kids turn next time, but screw that! I wanna do it again!

So there ya go! Our Florida vacation including the BESTEST DAY EVER IN THE WHOLE WORLD! I won't bore you with our last day there. It was mostly just trying to kill time til our flight. It was raining so we camped out at Olive Garden and stuffed our faces.

Don't forget! Monday is my linky party giveaway you won't want to miss!

And yes, for all those wondering, Bob was walked back into the ocean. When the kids let him go, I told my husband "watch one of those birds grab him" but I think he was way too big. As far as we know he is crawling along the bottom looking for food as I type!

Don't forget Monday! Be here or be square!

Day Three - New Smyrna Beach

Day 3 was a relaxing day at the beach. My husband found this quiet beach on the ocean for us to visit. We didn't want a touristy spot like Cocoa Beach. Just a quiet place for the kids to play and relax. New Smyrna Beach is just the spot!

You walk along this boardwalk to get from the parking area to the beach. It's about a mile of boardwalk which seems about 80 in the sun!

It does prepare you to just jump in to cool off! Of course bitty one was worried about sharks since the 2 older ones had to watch "Shark Week" while we were here. She loved splashing around in the water very close to shore though. She is at the stage where she doesn't walk anywhere. Just runs!

The boy flopped down and immediately got buried! Note to self. If I stay still long enough the children will bury me alive!

I had to giggle at this guy. He had 2 little girls with him. They got him to make them a sand castle and then ran off to play in the water. They kept on yelling out their "change orders" to him and he was nice enough to comply!

The birds were out looking for some yummy morsels for a snack. I just kept on thinking of the seagulls in Nemo. "Mineminemine!"

When we first got here, the waves were really rolling in! Anyone remember the show "Dark Shadows"? This reminds me of the waves in the opening of the show. I loved that show! Barnabus rocked! Anyways, on the other side of these breakers....

The surfers were out having fun! Cowabunga dude! Boy, do I sound like a retard or what?!

Slowly, the tide started rolling out. I told the kids about the tide pools where little creatures get trapped. They went running from pool to pool looking for sea life.

I found this heart shaped pool and just couldn't resist!

They eventually did find this guy that they named Bob. The boy child found a stick and got Bob to latch onto it so he could take him for a walk. Isn't that what everyone does with their found crab named Bob?

You can find all kinds of oddities when the tide rolls out. I have a whole plastic bag of stinky sea finds to prove it. We found this which of course came home with us also. I think it is a hunk of barnacles, but I am not sure. We don't have stuff like this in Michigan.

A view of the beach with the tide rolling out.

The sun was starting to set which was gorgeous! My pictures really don't do it justice.

Me and the tribe began the long walk back to the car. I thought the skeeters in Michigan were vicious, but they are nothing like the Florida ones! By the time we got back we were covered with bites from them and the sand fleas! I'm still itching!

The best day of the whole vacation is tomorrow! OMG! It was the best day of my life! A once in a lifetime opportunity! I enjoyed it so much I cried like a 3 year old that I didn't want it to end! You just won't believe what I got to do!

And, no, that isn't me! There isn't enough alcohol or money to get me to do that over a 24' deep pool! I would be just a big fat red thing clutching to the rope and screaming while being whipped through the air! It did happen at Sea World though. We went back for a 2nd day and still did not see everything!

Ohohoh! I got my first sponsor! And guess what?! There is going to be a linky party giveaway! I will let you know all the details on Monday when the party starts! You definitely are going to want to get in on this! It's freaking awesome!

Until then, as my son says, "Smell ya later!"

Day Two - Shamu!

I know you all are on the edge of your seat just waiting to hear more exciting news about our vacation! I promise that day 2 is better than day 1. Get ready for picture overload!

We looked at the forecast for our time in Florida and it said rain, rain and more rain. Actually we got beautiful weather. It did rain a couple of times but it didn't spoil the fun. We spent the day at Sea World. If you haven't been to SW, you definitely have to put it on your list. Don't tell bitty one, but I liked it more than Disney! There is really something for everyone there.

I don't know what it is about my kids and sea rays, but they love them! Every place that has ray petting my kids are all over it! They could stay here for hours petting and getting splashed by these pancake gliding creatures. I think it might be that they like to touch EVERYTHING!

Next, we waited in a long hot line to feed and touch the dolphins. See?! Again with the touching! This crazy bird decided he wanted some food too and stole a fish from us which totally freaked out bitty!

Trying to get her to touch a dolphin was another thing. She also didn't want to have anything to do with touching the stinky slimy fish either. Guess who got to handle those for her?

She wanted to get more cause "Mommy! They are still hungry!" but I was already smelling like a fish market on a hot day. They don't look underfed to me either. Look at that double chin this guy is sporting!

Bitty one was so mad cause she was just 2" too short to ride on the big rides. I was the lucky one who got to entertain her crying, whining self while the other kids and dad rode this. I don't know what I am going to do when she is tall enough. Right now I can use her as an excuse to not ride the coasters. Yeah, yeah, I am a big chicken! She did like that she got to squirt them with water guns when they went past us though!

Then it was onto the main attraction....

....Shamu and friends! Jeff took the kids up front and I stayed at the back.

I KNEW you'd get wet, they didn't! I know, I am mean like that. They all came out looking like drowned rats and the bitty one yammering away about how the fish got her wet! It's a whale honey, not a fish!

It's amazing that they can get these large animals to do what they do!

I mean, I don't weigh close to 12,000 pounds and I can't jump like that! Did you know that their tank holds 17 million gallons of water?! Bet they don't top that off with a garden hose!

Told ya they looked like drowned rats!

These guys were amazing! They walked around in the kiddie section playing music and dancing on their stilts. Jeffrey says he wants to do that now. I am afraid of what he will come up with!

They rode rides.....

....rides....

....and more rides. In fact, this coaster she could ride and did so practically non stop. She would get off the ride, grab dad by the hand and drag him back in line!

He is just as wonderful as he is handsome though!

The wind kicked up and it looked like rain, so we ducked into this theater to watch a pet show that was very cute! It made me miss my big black girl at home! They did some really cute skits with the animals.

That was about it for the day. We were here from 10 am to 11 pm. Talk about being worn out! We didn't even get to see everything which is okay since we plan on another day visiting.

Tomorrow we spent the day relaxing at the beach. We found a gorgeous, secluded beach that we loved. That's for tomorrow though.

As for today, I gotta get crack-a-lacking on some yard work!

Ugh!