One Crazy Weekend

Last Thursday, some nasty thunderstorms rolled through Connecticut. A little after 5:00pm is when it hit our area: thunder, lightning and all that good stuff. The lights flickered at least a dozen times and our local PBS station lost its signal. That resulted in four very upset boys who were watching Wild Kratts while I cooked dinner. I just hoped that we didn't lose power because it also happened to be a 90+ degree day and that would just suck.

We were fortunate that flickers is all we had and the power stayed on. However, just minutes away in the Southern parts of town, and in several towns throughout the state, other families were not so lucky. Among the thousands of households without power was the one where my brother, sister-in-law, there 3 children, my mother and step-father live. On Friday their power was still out so I told them to come on over and hang out until it was restored.

My boys were looking forward to a visit from their cousins and I filled up the kiddie pools on the deck so we would have something to entertain the SEVEN children on this hot day. On her way over my sister-in-law stopped at Starbucks and brought me a decaf Mocha Frappuccino which totally made my day. The kids all played nicely and were having a good time. I am sure it was beyond noisy but I don't really notice when other kids are loud, jusy my own.

Shortly after my mother arrived. With her dog. So that added a whole other element of crazy to the situation. My boys were up that dog's behind the entire time it was at our house. Friday night arrived and still no power so after a yummy delivery pizza dinner, my brother and his crew headed home to sleep for the night while my mother and step-father (and dog) stayed with us. When I said I wanted my kids to have more sleepovers with Grammy and Papa, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind. But they were so thrilled that they were staying over and for me it gave me some helping hands with the kids.

Matsui

On Saturday everyone returned since there was still no power at their house. Once again the kids were all so good and got along so nicely. And the dog always had at least one of my kids hugging him or playing with him. It was a rainy and chilly day which forced us all to say inside, but we survived. Getting dinner cooked and on the table got a little crazy with my 18 month old son and my 16 month old twin nephews (yes, they have twins too!) voicing how hungry they were. In fact mine was just flat out having a meltdown. Luckily Grammy was there to get dinner on the table and once everyone had some food in their bellies, it was all good.

Finally, at around 9:30pm on Saturday night, their power was finally restored. More than 2 days without power. Grammy and Papa and pooch stayed one more night. On Sunday morning we said goodbye. Tears were shed over their departure, which I knew would happen. But the twins will be heading over to their house this weekend for their very first sleepover and night away from home, so that should make them happy.

So that was our exciting weekend. I am so glad that we live so close to my family so that we were able to help them out. I would have lost my mind if we had lost power for that long so I give my brother and sister-in-law credit for staying pretty darn calm. I hope they never have to deal with it again though.

Have you ever had a power outage that lasted days? What did you do? Did you have family or friends nearby to help?