Either that or we move to another house! The wicked winter storm that came through last Wednesday took our power out for 4 days...four long and dark days. It also took down trees one of which landed squarely on top of the van smashing the hood. And why did it have to coincide with Jared leaving town with Caleb and Liam for a long awaited ski trip to Utah, oh, that would be because EVERY time Jared leaves town something crazy happens. The list includes bee attacks, near bear attacks, plumbing leaking, plumbing leaking a second time....through the ceiling no less, kid crisis with blood that I've blocked out and now 4 days sans power and oh yeah, that smashed hood on the van (Jared was still here for that part as well as the first night with no power). Now, for those of you city folk, you might be thinking to yourself that I should buck up and deal with a little lack of electricity. I mean, I did have 12 inches of snow to bury my food in for 48 hours before it turned to 60 degrees again, I did have gas to cook my food with, and I did have a gas fireplace that kept the house at a cozy 64 degrees, but I did not have WATER. We have a well, which gives us very tasty water, but with no power that luxury is sorely missed. Actually, I'm thrilled with bottled water during crisis, so it's not taste I find most annoying......it's the blasted toilets and cleaning up of the dishes and anything else. Do you know that it takes about 1.5 gallons of water to just fill each of my tanks and every time someone goes to the bathroom there needs to be a flush! Because, for the record, peeing is NOT allowed in the house during power outages except before bed and during the night!! But I have a family of regular, multiple times a day poopers and even though it was just the three of us for most of the time, we went through a bathtub full of water and 15 gallons of stored water...just for toilet flushing. I store cleaning water in old liquid laundry soap containers (1 gallon each) and I went through 4 of those, one each day.
To keep myself from going crazy from no water and Ruby hair all over the place, we did have some adventures. I knew that the weather was going to hold for a few days before returning to 60 degrees, so I loaded up the ski gear and headed to Wintergreen for the best ski day we've ever had there. The new snow made it possible for the entire mountain to be open and for the snow to be ever so lovely. By the end of the day there was some slushy parts, but for the most part it was ice-free and dare I say a little powdery? Jonah was awesome and went down a black diamond twice, then wanted to go on his own run while Gavin and I did it again. So I agreed and we met him at the bottom of the hill where the two runs came together. Of note, this is not Utah Black diamond....the runs take you about 3 minutes to get down regardless of which path you take. He was so proud of himself for being able to exercise that bit of freedom that he did it two or three more times. Gavin is not so adventurous in that way, more of a worrier, so never wanted to take his own path and he stuck with me and we had a great time.
The next night we had great friend take pity on us and not only serve us a great dinner, but let us stay until 9:30 watching Avengers (I didn't mention that the storm meant school was cancelled for 3 days). That was so nice to not have to be in the dark all evening.
The next day we woke to still no power, so I arranged to them to play at a friends while I went to the gym to exercise and get a needed shower. They ended up spending about 5 hours there playing and having some "life-time favorite events" while I ran errands. The dad took the boys (they have 2 boys and 3 girls) on a 6 mile bike ride and Gavin could not stop talking about it....to the point that I was having mothers guilt for not having taken him on a ride like that myself.....I mean, I'm a bike rider for crying out loud! In his words, "it was the best bike ride in my whole life". He then poured salt in the wound when he told me that he much preferred her quesadillas to mine because she doesn't used refried beans just cheese! But come on, isn't this the kid that just made up a ditty on the piano about how he hates melted cheese! I'm actually pretty thick skinned about stuff like this and was just happy that he had such a great day because being stuck at home with no power again was not really ever going to be that fun!
That night I headed to Panera Bread because I didn't want to make a mess and I really had no food that sounded good at that point. I was also hoping to charge my electronics so I could at least watch a movie on my Macbook when the boys went to bed. So I got everyone situated with meals and all of our stuff (phone, DS games, and Macbook) charging, and wouldn't you know it, but the wi-fi was down from the storm! Seriously. Lame. My mom called and we chatted for a few minutes and then headed home with no chance to catch up on anything, but a fresh battery to watch Inception. I love that movie even though it makes me have weird dreams all night long :).
The next morning about 11:00 I was riding my road bike on the trainer when the boys came running in to excitedly announce that the power was back on! Finally......we are back in business. I immediately told them to go and flush every toilet in the house just in the event that the power went out again and this was just a false alarm. It wasn't and I enjoyed a nice hot shower in my own bathroom!
Jared is flying home as I write and we are all very excited to see them and hear about their adventures.
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