Pioneer Days

Well, we made it. Last Thursday I had to make some quick changes, but still managed to get Leslie on a plane and off to California for her family's family Christmas party. That was the beginning of an eventful few days. Rebekah was sick and so I wasn't going to be able to put her into day care. She also would need lots of extra love and care.

After getting Leslie onto the plane I got a call from a vendor as I made my way over to pickup the kids from school. He asked if I was ready for the big wind storm that was heading our way. I had only vaguely heard that it was coming and I asked him if I should be concerned about it. He snorted and said that the weather service was predicting it would be the worst wind storm the area had seen for decades. I veered over to Costco and picked up a pack of extra "D" batteries in case I'd need them. My second bit of fun came when JJ called me on my cell phone and told me that he would be moving some of his things over to Taylor's house. Did I mention it was JJ's 18th birthday? Well, he was apparantly making good on his statement that he would be moving out when he turned eighteen. I told him Happy Birthday, and that I loved him and asked him to call me when he knew more of what he was going to do. I finally made it home with the kids and made it through all the coaxing, reminding, supervising, yelling, and heavy sighs that make up our nightly routines of homework, dinner, cleanup and bedtime. After giving Rebekah some motrin for her fever and getting ready for bed the power went out.

Friday started off with the day being dim and overcast and no power for lights. I couldn't find a battery powered radio for news, but managed to fire up my laptop with a test "cellular" card that let me get an Internet connection and get some news. The news was that over 1 million people were without power. I also found that all of the kids schools were closed. It would have been a fun time with the kids except that Rebekah was ill. I wound up having to use my cell phone since the home phone wasn't working. The kids liked the time off school and enjoyed all the candles burning for extra light. I wouldn't let anyone open the fridge and kept hoping that the power would come back on before we had to ditch the contents. The good news was that we made it through the day without too much complaining. The kids had a chance to catch up on their reading and some board games. I got them all to bed at a good time and with some high hopes that the power would come back on. At 4 in the morning the lights came on in my bedroom and woke me up. I didn't mind it one bit....