Crazy Week

This past week has been a crazy one but it's also been filled with many tender mercies from the Lord.

Monday I came home to find our apartment complex surrounded by the SWAT team. When I tried to pull in the officer told me I couldn't get in the parking lot and they were in the process of evacuating one of the buildings. Ours of course. They evacuated Mike and the girls out the back side of the building because there was a standoff between a man (charged with stealing firearms) and the police on the front side. Crazy! Thankfully we have wonderful friends who not only let us crash at their house out of the cold for a few hours but also fed us an amazing dinner. In the end the man came out peacefully and didn't have any guns on him. His brother lives in our apartment complex and tipped the cops off that he would be coming over (so at least the robber guy didn't live here). The tender mercy in this situation- I was outside the complex when they closed it down. If I hadn't been, we would have been evacuated with no car and two small children in the 30 degree weather.

The next crazy point of the week was our hot water heater. Beginning last Saturday we realized it had stopped working and called maintenance. They re-lit the pilot light so at least we had hot showers for Church on Sunday. Monday morning I went to shower and there was not hot water again. They realized the problem was with the part that keeps the pilot light lit but had to order the part. The maintenance guy would periodically come by and re-light it, but essentially we never knew if we would have hot water or not from Monday until Thursday night. Tender mercy - we had hot water every time we really needed it (more on why we needed it below).

Wednesday afternoon, Hazel threw up. Not that big of a deal - she throws up a lot. She was a pukey baby and any time she gets a little cough she tends to puke still. Well Thursday night she threw up again and again. Then Eliza started. The dreaded stomach bug! Poor Eliza got the worst of it. I ended up taking her to the doctor Friday night just to make sure she wasn't too dehydrated. Thankfully she was doing okay. Tender mercies in this one - we had hot water every time baths were required, we have a washer and dryer in our apartment, I only got a very mild version of it so I was able to take care of the girls, and we've all feeling better now. Best of all, since the girls are better but couldn't go to nursary so as not to spread germs and Mike is busy with Elder's quorum stuff during third hour, I got a sub for nursary and actually went to Relief Society today!

I'm so thankful for all those little blessings that make weeks like this one bearable. I'm also thankful for an awesome husband who helped out a ton and took care of two sick, puking kiddos all day Friday.