Just to keep it real

Here are a few little tidbits from a not so typical Tuesday.  Just to make sure we stay grounded in all of our blessedness.

Freddie lost his second tooth Monday night.  I was so proud of how mature he was being...at least after Fred pulled the tooth out.  As we hustled everyone to bed I quickly realized that the Tooth Fairy is a little less than stellar on short notice.  Maybe she hasn't been as dutiful with Pinterest lately, but her ideas on cool-things-to-do-for-the-second-tooth-lost resulted in a dollar under the pillow.  And not a pretty, new, crisp dollar.  A folded one, that may have been found in Freddie's wallet.

Nonetheless, it was a dollar.  If memory serves, my teeth were never worth more than 25 cents.

So, on Tuesday morning as I struggled to roll myself out of bed, I remembered the tooth and knew Freddie would be so excited to see what the Tooth Fairy left.

As I waited with great anticipation while he searched under the first pillow, feeling the excitement building as he lifted the second pillow, I anxiously searched his sweet little face as I knew he would be filled to the brim with his find!

As he turned to me with his eyes rolled not quite all the way back in his head he said....."One dollar.  That's all she left."

Ahem. You're kidding me, right?  I think I may have even said that to him.

I searched my memory for wisdom from the half read "Parenting with Love and Logic" book.  I prayed a quick prayer for the right words and we discussed why she would only...leave...one...dollar all the way downstairs.

In the end we decided maybe it would be best if he didn't worry about leaving the next tooth under his pillow.  That way he wouldn't be disappointed.  Surely that is an acceptable response in my parenting book somewhere, right?

As the day wore on things seemed to be pretty typical for us until Kim called.

I was on the way home from school with Freddie and Kim, Logan's nurse, called.

She doesn't call.  She may text or email...but she doesn't call.

I answered and heard, "Hey, so there is smoke coming out of the washing machine.  It's filled the laundry room and it's starting to fill the downstairs.  I tried calling Fred, but I couldn't reach him.  It's a lot of smoke."

And just so you know, even though it makes perfect logical sense, if you call 911 in Charlotte they will connect you to Mecklenburg County 911.  We don't live in Mecklenburg County....or even NC.

In my defense I was driving and didn't want to take the time to pull over and try to find York County SC 911.

So we were finally connected to York County SC dispatch and they were beyond wonderful.

I am also very grateful to have a local fire department...Kim could hear the sirens when they pulled out of the station they are so close.

The Fire Chief informed us that we dodged a bullet.  Had everything progressed for even a few more minutes we could have had a very different outcome.

Kim earns her wings for the day...to add to her collection.  She stayed calm, remembered to turn the washing machine off and before she did anything else she got Logan up, in his chair with all of his needed meds, by the door so the smoke wouldn't bother him and she had a plan for what to do to take care of him.  She also cleaned up the mess left from the washer.  No, none of you can have her....she's ours.

And by the time Freddie and I arrived it was all taken care of.  With the exception of a few Tae Kwon Do kicks the two Freds put on the washer before it made its way to the dump.

We're a washing machine down, but Nana's laundromat is open for business.

Just a day in the life...