An Anniversary to remember......

but not for the reasons you might think! ;)
Tim and I had big plans to do a belated 25th Anniversary celebration this year and go away for a night since I am not nursing anyone ( was it really only a year ago I was nursing a baby? It seems much longer).
But since that wouldn't work out this weekend, we decided instead to just go out to lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant and stop for a Cold Stone afterward (of course!)
We put the littles down for a nap and left Naomi in charge. We knew Noah would be home from work in a half hour to back her up. As we were leaving the sky looked a bit menacing, but I had just checked the weather. It said there was a severe thunderstorm watch but when I looked at the hourly forecast it only gave 20 or 30% chance of rain.... which was puzzling, but not all that much for Michigan. (My friend Donna backs me up on this one :)

As we drove throw dowtown MC, we were suprised by the hoards of people down by the river. A couple signs on the corner tipped us off to the reason "No saving spaces for fireworks until 3PM Thursday". It was right at 3 o'clock and everyone was descending upon the riverfront to "save their spot" :)

By the time we reached the freeway it was sprinkling. By the time we reached the restaurant it was pouring. By the time we sat down to eat the sirens were going off.
We called home to a panicked Jackson. Tim gave him a pep talk and called Naomi. He suggested she go downstairs, so she dutifully woke up the babes and took everyone downstairs, cool as a cucumber. We sat watching the tv, seeing "Severe Thunderstom Warning" on the news, wondering if we should chance dashing home, making frantic phone calls to Noah and Dylan.
Both got home, and we finished eating and got some ice cream

Upon arriving home we realized the power wasn't entirely out but wasn't entirely on, either. Just enough for a little light and some fans. No laundry, no vacuuming, etc. Rats! ;)
We woke up the next morning to the same situation. Some bike rides around the neighborhood alerted us to the reason why. A tree had completely uprooted (one of many, we later learned) and downed two power lines on the street over. But we made do. We did errands, went to the park, came home and ate dinner. The refridgerator was losing coolness rapidly, so a call to Neana solved that problem. She had a nearly empty freezer AND power. Thankfully, I hadn't gone big grocery shopping lately, but once we cleaned out our three freezers, I was amazed at how much was actually in there. ;) Still, we loaded a bin full and gratefully headed over to drop it off.
That evening was the fireworks, so we headed downtown ( sort of ....we try not to go right down by the river with all the kids..too crowded) and had a grand time. As we were riding home through our neighborhood we noticed a house that was lighting a coleman lamp in front of their window. And it looked very dark. It was very dark. No power at all now.

It was really very cozy lighting candles. Your house looks so much different in the candle light and dark in a pleasant sort of way. The weather had cooled considerably which was another blessing, so we didn't even miss the fans.

The next morning I called the electric company again. Their original estimate had been between 11-1 am the night before. Now it was between 6-8 pm today. I wasn't sure if I should believe them.
Really, things weren't too bad. There were a few grumpy people because of lack of internet access or tv :) but I was overall enjoying it, trying not to think of the growing laundry pile or grungy carpet. My concern was feeding 10 people out of a little cooler. I guess there are worse problems in the world than running to the store to get supplies for every meal. I was really starting to think this was going to be a long term situation.
But, just as we were finishing dinner on Saturday the lights came back on. Naomi and Ella and I had taken a walk earlier and finally saw the crews working on the power lines. It gave us hope things would be back to normal soon, and we weren't disappointed. It's funny how your grumbling toward a certain entity turns to wanting to hug them once they fix your problems. :)

So that was our powerless adventure. Somehow, I have much fonder thoughts about it than the one we had several years back. Probably because it was so darn hot during that one and NO WATER.
Boy, we are spoiled. I know it.
And thankful for all the little blessing interspersed in this now seemingly trivial inconvenience. :)