Come What May: Another weekend without power.

I was finally resting peacefully Friday night after tossing my cookies due to either my pain killers, antibiotics, or the lingering effects of the anesthesia (as if puking isn’t awful enough, try doing it with freshly sliced gums and a very sore jaw, and orders to not brush your teeth or even swish!), when the scary storm that I could hear as I was in and out of sleep wiped out our power once again. It started to feel a little Groundhog Day-ish, with the exact same thing happening last Friday night! We began texting friends, finding out how far spread it was, and we slowly found out the seriousness of the situation. I tried to think through the pain what our plan was going to be in the days to come. I sent KC out in the middle of the night to get some ice for the food, and my cheeks, and we got what sleep we could as the house warmed up through the night.

I was feeling alright the next morning, and decided to do a little shopping and get more ice (good thing, cause the store that seemed deserted when I was there at 8 am, was wiped clean of all ice a couple hours later, I’m sure).We asked around who had power and if they might have room for us if it got too hot in the house. As those plans were getting set in motion (which was extremely difficult with cell phone calls being dropped left and right, and networks being busy), we tried the church, thinking that might be a good place to cool off, and and to let the kids play. No good. It was out too. We ended up at a friend’s house nearby to eat our packed lunch in their cool basement, until we knew the kids needed a nap. We went back to our very hot house (record highs here, over 100 degrees), and after being there for a very short time, we knew we needed to make some long term arrangements. We decided to book a place in Virginia, with KC’s Mom’s wonderful help. I’m sure she made dozens of phone calls on our behalf. The kids took a great nap, which I was thankful for, and woke up drenched in the sweat, the poor darlings. While they slept I gathered everything I could think of that we might need for an extended weekend “vacation”, and being the list-making, planning-type person that I am, I was feeling pretty anxious about the whole thing, especially considering my fragile state. My cheeks were getting puffier by the moment, and there was no time for rest and relaxation. But we set out anyway, throwing all caution to the wind.

So, we started our few hour drive, and as were entered Virginia, found the traffic to be horrible. I happened to be chatting on the phone with a friend who lives right near where we were in stop-and-go, and was thankful to find out they were all powered up and comfortable. They told us to come by, but feeling like we should just continue on our way, we told them thank you, but we’ll just keep going. But the traffic didn’t let up, and we started to consider their offer, if only just for dinner (I packed nearly all of our perishables in coolers, hoping to salvage some of it with a constant supply of ice, so we had plenty to share). They enthusiastically said we could come and stay as long as we needed, and a huge feeling of peace just came over me. I didn’t want to sit in traffic any longer, the kids were getting restless, and they had fridge and freezer space to spare. We were definitely prompted to give them a call. We decided to stay the night, and continue on to our destination the next morning. The kids were in heaven with their adorable friends, and we ate pizza (mashed potatoes for me), and caught up with some great friend of ours. The babies went to bed very well, Ruby not even in a crib! I think they were beat. We all had a much needed night of sleep in a wonderfully cool home, and although my face was feeling tired, and sore, I was happy and thankful.

Playing with the ice.

The millers have so any awesome toys. Total kid heaven.

They thought our bed was pretty awesome.

The kids woke up happy as could be, although Ruby did end on on the floor (“Mommy, I fell off the bed!”), and we started to make plan for getting on the road again. Then we got the blessed news from Lili (they said it never got too hot down in the basement so they stayed home) that the power had returned! Hallelujah! We packed up, thanked the Millers profusely, canceled our reservation, and headed home. Something we didn’t think we’d be doing for several days. I’m so glad we stopped where we did, instead of suffering any longer in traffic. Although we’ve been wanting to take a family vacation soon, it will be nice to have time to plan a little better, and be able to do it at a time that I don’t have chipmunk cheeks. Our friends have all reached out, and I hope they know that if this unfortunate situation was reversed, we’d do the same for any of them in a second. And looks like all our ice buying and food packing paid off, since most of our food stayed cold or frozen during the entire ordeal! It makes me never want to fill the fridge or freezer again. I think I’ll buy things as needed for the next couple of week while I forget the stress of all of this. I hope all those still without power have a place to go, and get it back very soon.