Next time....wear gloves!! That must have been really scary. I have gotten cut pulling bird netting out of filters for cleaning. That stuff is thin and does not give when it gets hung up on something....but skin does. I had quite a scare on Saturday too. I was cutting PVC pipe with a chop saw, something I have done a million time in the past. Well, this time I was not holding the pipe quite good enough and as soon as the blade hit it, the saw snatched the pipe from me, slammed it into my hand and the pipe got launched about 15' feet away. The pain was intense and instant. For a moment, I was afraid to look at my hand, fearing I had lost a finger to the blade of the saw. Luckly no fingers were lost...thanks God for a GREAT instant blade break on that saw! I do have a horrible bruise right at my thumb joint, but nothing broke and I got a good reminder to respect that saw a little bit more. Cindy

We were without power for 21 days in 2004 after Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne. My husband lost his saltwater reef tank, all the soft and hard corals and fish he had collected and nurtured, we lost everything in our freezer and fridge. We could stay here during the day, we do have a pool but after the first week it was not able to be used for any human use. We had to stay in a hotel that had power at night. My greenhouse had a foot of water in it but surprisingly I lost no plants, it receded pretty quickly as we drain downhill to a creek in the back of the property. We have vowed to get a generator every year for the last 4 and now we are going to. Thunderstorms here in North Central FL blow up quickly and out of nowhere due to the sea breeze convergence zone that sits right over us. We are in the almost exact center of the state, 45 minutes from each coast, and when east coast and west coast seabreeze meets, we get lots of fireworks. There was a very severe storm here on Friday, it was raining torrentially and I had to go pick up my daughter from summer band at the school...on the way home down our road we almost had to stop and pull over because I couldn't see the road, but then a huge bolt of lightning struck right on the side of the road by the car! We saw where it touched the ground and it made flames for a brief instant. The whole road and the car shook, and the crack of noise was deafening. My ears were ringing. AFter that I was scared to pull over in case a tree fell or something. We found out the next day that a local park ranger in a nature preserve area called Paynes Prairie was killed when a tree blew onto their car during that storm. These summer storms are nothing to fool with no matter what state you live in, and they are almost impossible to predict sometimes. Just glad you are safe and have power back!

It is so hard at that age. When they get older, they know it's coming, too, and can get to the toilet. But toddlers/preschoolers, it just spews wherever they are! They don't understand, they just see/feel their body doing something very scary and painful. It's hard. Poor Grant! I'm glad he got his rest and is getting back to himself. The worst night I had was when #4 was about 18 mos, which made the others 3, 6, and 9 at the time. About 4am one of them woke up sick, threw up, about the time I had that one settled back down in clean sheets the next one woke up and threw up. And it continued until all 4 of them had thrown up 3-4 times. It was just constant well into the next afternoon. At first I thought I must have fed them all something bad and went through the kitchen trying to consider the possible problem, but some friends reported the same bug with their kids and DH and I avoided it. Oh, the laundry! Every blanket, sheet, pillowcase, and big beach towel in the house was a mess. I think I avoided that one somehow. A little girl on DD's gymnastic's team was sick (nauseous, didn't throw up yet) this weekend at while at the gym. Her mom warmed up Sprite in the microwave for the girl to sip before she took her home. She said it works for her kids every time.

Ouchy....!!!!! I can relate.... I've never been on stage...but I once slid across one of our picnic benches. I caught a part of the bench that was drying out and the wood was sticking up a little. The part sticking up was pointy and stuck into my leg. It drove a piece about 4 inches long into my leg. and the end of it where it broke off was about as big as a pencil. Denny wanted to take me to the ER to have it removed. I said no and made him do it. He had to do a lot of digging...I have a high pain tolerance or I would never have been able to sit there and let him. patti