Yesterday the day seemed to begin normally.  Until my 12yo daughter cam and said there was no hot water for her shower.  I dismissed her saying we have been running the dishwasher and the washing machine, just jive it a few minutes.  About 10 minutes later I tried the hot water in the kitchen to no avail.  And that still small voice who is SO much smarter than I am said "go check the water heater..." and I did.  what I found was a FLOOD a full 2" deep in the garage.  In my haste to get to the offending appliance and shut the water off I twisted my ankle, then wrenched my back...not a good way to start out the day.  So WHAT on EARTH can I be thankful for in this mess?  Lots of things.  God has used natural disasters and blown up water heaters to teach me HE is still in control and HE will take care of us.  So on with the story.  I did what any certified Navy Wife would do and looked for the shut off...while calling my husband.  I turned off the gas (big red knob, clearly marked, THANKFUL THING #1!) and proceeded to shut off the water...a more difficult task since the last time those knobs had been turned had to be at least 20 years ago!  But I managed to get the Niagra Falls flow of water slowed to a trickle.  DS 11 stayed inside with his brothers (no daycare kids today THANKFUL THING #2) and DH said he was on his way home (THANKFUL THING #3) I then called DD out and we began emptying the garage.  "What a mess"..."there are bugs everywhere"..."this is ruined" came the flurry of muttered complaints from my lips.   I didn't even realize until DD said "Well, mom at least it wasn't in the house" hmm... "You are right honey"...not too much longer the complaints came out again...and another  reminder form my budding young woman "At least it isn't 100 degrees today and there is a nice breeze"   WOHA!  Hold on a minute, she's right but when did the pod people come and leave this girl with me?  She is doing manual labor in a warm damp garage and she is reminding ME to be thankful?  WOW!  So my daughter is THANKFUL THING #4.  To wrap this drama up here are the rest of my THANKFUL THINGS...
DH made it home...
Our neighbor loaned us his wet vac...
A man WITH plumbing skills from our church met me at the store to pick up the new water heater AND he helped install it...
That saved us $1000.00 (no that is NOT a typo!...
We have a new water heater...
Our garage is cleaner and more organized than it has been since we moved into this house!