Outage

This past weekend was interesting to say at least.

On Friday I knew we had the chance for severe weather to roll in. Whenever we have the potential for severe weather my laptop becomes my weather station.  For my own sanity I have at least 3 or four different windows up with different weather information. I have to keep track of the weather. I also have to have someone with me in the house when storms are close. I’ve gotten so much better with coping with a thunderstorm, however, I still have my moments. Thankfully I have a supportive family.  Hours before severe weather was suppose to roll in I decided to get grocery shopping out of the way. The last time I was at grocery store during a storm was on May 22, 2011. The thought of being in a grocery store when a storm is approaching still puts me on the edge.

This severe thunderstorm packed a punch. When the storm first hit I wasn’t really worried. It was raining, a little gusty, and had a lot of lightning. 15 minutes later it was completely different. There was a huge gust of wind making it impossible to see outside because of the rain. I was working on my freebie list for Friday when house went dark and Leo started crying. After the storm cleared I went outside only to find tree branches snapped off in my yard. It was like that all over town.  The power went off at 3:40PM. This wasn’t your normal power outage. Oh no. We were out of power for 18 hours. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the power company would have given a more realistic time frame given the circumstances.Luckily my friend Kim saw my Facebook status and invited us over. If she didn’t we would have had a really long night with Leo.

I decided to leave my house around 8:00PM. We had a much more enjoyable evening at her house. Leo regularly visits Kim for a play date during the week.  He has such a great time with Austin, Alijah, and Autumn. When I first started going to these play dates Leo couldn’t hold himself up. I can’t believe how much he has changed. On the night we stayed due to the power being out Leo had such a blast. I’ve never seen him this active during play dates before.

We went home the following morning. Our power didn’t come back on until 9:00AM. After our power outage I really appreciated having electricity a little bit more. I have to give kudos to my refrigerator. I was worried the entire night I lost the groceries I bought earlier in the day. All I lost from the power outage was sour cream, bacon, sausage, and cottage cheese. My milk somehow survived 18 hours! Amazing.

After we go returned home and cherished the return of our power we visited grandmother for her birthday. Grandma loved meeting little Leo. I would like to think Leo loved meeting her. I hope I can get him back out to see her before his birthday in December.

Like I said this wasn’t my typical weekend. Maybe this weekend will be much calmer.