Power

Peanut's Angry Face

This is how we have all been feeling over the last 92 hours.  We lost power due to a derecho storm that blew in from Chicago.  It was a quick storm with a ton of lightening and 80 mile an hour winds that caused over 1 million people to lose power in VA.  It was an experience, for sure.

Day 1 - priorities were finding coffee and breakfast so we drove around for 45 minutes looking for someplace that was open.  We couldn't find any place open, huge trees were down, lights were out everywhere...after a long time and a tip from a friend we ended up in Alexandria at McDonalds.  Then we went to a park near Papa Bear's office and just sat.  We just wanted to have a plan but we never expected that it would be another 80+ hours before we got power back.

Day 2 - priorities were finding food that Peanut could eat (corn-free) when we were still limited to a few fast food places that were open and staying cool.  The heat index was 103 and we were melting.  Literally.  So we went to the pool and camped out from 12-5 and then had dinner and all went to sleep in the basement.  The boys slept in the playroom, Sweet Pea slept in a pack n play and I got the spare bed.  Papa Bear was relegated to a couch on the main floor so that his snoring didn't wake us all up.

Day 3 - priorities were staying sane.  Papa Bear went back to work (and I can't lie, I was a bit jealous) and the kids and I were at the pool for the morning.  I napped Sweet Pea in the basement but kept the boys in the car watching DVD's so that they wouldn't wake her up.  W

Day 4 - I was close to losing my mind and a friend helped out by taking Little Man to swim team and pancake breakfast so that I could run some errands with the littles.  We got power back while we were at the pool and spent the afternoon throwing out hundreds of dollars of food, washing dishes and laundry.

Lessons learned - we need to have an emergency pack of food that Peanut can eat because it is next to impossible to keep him corn-free when grocery stores are closed and we have no refrigeration.  Battery powered sound machines are key and when necessary, we can practically live in our van if needed!