It's been a somewhat eventful week at the Kurtz home.

Wednesday was Matt and I's anniversary. I can hardly believe it's been 8 years....man, where does the time go? I had mentally prepared myself that it would just be a nothing day as we really didn't have any extra money for anything. However, Matt came home from work with flowers, a card, and orders for me to get ready. He readied our children and whisked them away to my girlfriend's house and we went out for a lovely dinner. Afterwards we walked through the mall, what a treat without children!! After an ice-cream cone on the way home, we settled in for the night. It was s wonderful surprise and a refreshing time for the two of us.

On Thursday, I had thawed out some chicken that really needed to be cooked. (Don't worry, this is not another maggot story!) So I decided to throw it on the grill for lunch. As I am out back grilling, I notice some smoke. I wasn't startled because our neighbor burns things all the time. However, I noticed that it was coming from our neighbors garage (not the neighbor that usually has fires) The smoke was getting thicker and blacker. I yelled for Jonah to get me the phone and I ran (well as best a eight 1/2 month pregnant woman can) to get our neighbor. She comes flying out her house and yells over her shoulder to me that there are two gas grills and cans of gasoline in the garage! We share a driveway and our houses and garages are extremely close together. So again I ran to the house, this time to gather my children and get out! I was babysitting my brother as well so I hauled him as fast as I could to his wheelchair, all the while yelling for my kids to get in our car as fast as they can. Now they can see the smoke and are panicking. I finally get everyone loaded and we head over to the church (which is behind our church). We watched as the fire trucks arrived and they drug out their hoses and gear. The kids thought this was all very fascinating except for Molli who was crying that our house was going to burn down. I must confess that I was praying that God would not allow that to happen myself! After a while, we were cleared to return home. Our neighbors garage is pretty totaled, but thank the Lord, our garage and home are safe! Very exciting!