What a day this has been!

So, my DH's surgery to remove his terrible varicose veins was today. We had to be at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. so he would be "the first one in the OR" according to his doctor. We get there and get checked in and get settled into a room... and we wait... and we wait... and we wait. My DH's heart is abnormally slow for a 46 year old (his pulse was 42 bpm this morning)... which the doctor knew about before today... he had his pre-op work up done on Friday and they had his most recent EKG results faxed over then. Anyway, there were orders for a cardio AND medical release that had to be cleared before he could have his surgery. That meant they had to call a cardiologist in to take a listen to his s l o w heart and give the thumbs up for the surgery, which he did. I didn't really have a problem with this, I would much rather that they be overly cautious than flippant about my DH going under general... I do sort of love the man, ya know.

At 8:52 they finally wheel him to the OR. I go straight to the cafeteria and have a light breakfast since I had not eaten at all and had been up for 4 hours already (don't forget that I'm 17 weeks pregnant.) After breakfast I go to the waiting room and settle in for what I'm thinking is going to be a 1-1/2 to 2 hour wait (per the surgeon). After 2-1/2 hours I call my mother, who is at our house with the children, to let her know that he is still in surgery, find out how the kids are, yadda yadda. We're talking and all of a sudden I hear a terrible noise in the background. A noise that is so loud that I had to pull the phone away from my ear. My mother starts yelling "what is that!" and I'm thinking, well, it sounds like the smoke alarm... but why is it going off? Then I hear her say... "Your dishwasher is on FIRE... there are flames coming out of it... I've got to get off the phone and call 9 1 1!" So, needless to say, we hang up.

Now remember, I'm sitting in a hospital waiting room while my husband is in the middle of surgery. My mind starts racing and I envision our house going up in flames! I wait a couple of minutes and then I call my neighbor and ask if she can help my mother... cause I don't know what else to do, I feel totally HELPLESS! Then I call my mother back and find out that she and the kids are following the fire department's orders and have taken the animals and have gone outside. They are waiting for a fire truck. As we're talking my neighbor comes over and collects the kids and the animals and takes them to her house. I can hear fire engines in the background so I let my mother off the phone. Later we talk (several more times) and she reassures me that the fire was contained to the dishwasher area... she contacts our homeowners insurance and made arrangements for one of those professional cleaning companies to come remove all the nasty smelling soot from the house in the morning (we have windows open now, but P U, it stinks in here!)

Long story short...

Poor DH is in mummy-land


This is the state of the kitchen where the dishwasher belongs


And this is the dishwasher, and the dishes that were washing when the fire started


What I'm thankful to God Almighty for...

DH came through his surgery with no problems! Our house did not burn to the ground, as it might have had I turned on that dishwasher and taken the kids to my parents' house, instead of her coming here! No one was injured! Thank You Lord for Your many, many blessings.