Woo hoo! We have power again!!!! I can't even begin to describe how nice it is to be able to have lights on when you pee. Okay, that was probably too much information, but you got it nonetheless. Above is a picture of the tree that fell on our power lines. The tree is actually still on the ground, they just chopped off the top so they could fix the lines.
Our power was restored late Saturday night (day 7) and we couldn't have been more excited! We did, however, learn a lot of good lessons but we also learned that we were also pretty well prepared too!
My friend Keri wanted to know how we "survived" through all of this (I say "survive" lightly since it really wasn't THAT bad. It wasn't fun, but it wasn't bad). First and foremost: We had friends with power. That came in real handy since we didn't have hot water to bathe ourselves. I tried to wash my hair in the sink one time with cold water and I think I came out greasier looking than I did beforehand. It's really hard getting your big head under a faucet! So yeah, it was really nice having friends who would let the kids and I come over to bathe ourselves and use the computer for a while. By Wednesday, however, we were really tired of constantly going over to other people's houses. I didn't realize how unnerving it can be to constantly shower somewhere other than your home. I have definitely discovered that I am a homebody.
Another reason this wasn't too bad was the fact that most stores and restaurants were open pretty quickly after the storm. You could still go out and get something to eat or whatever else you need. THAT was REALLY nice! It also helped that we were really prepared as well. My mom and mother-in-law are to thank for the nicest things in our emergency stash that we used: A
red cross radio that actually picks up the sounds of TV stations (that's right, I could still listen to Oprah) and those
shake flashlights. The radio was awesome. You just cranked it for a minute and you had power for quite a long time. It even had a really bright light so the kids could walk around with it wherever they went. The other wonderful things we had in our emergency storage was a TON of candles. I had bought 6
sterno emergency candles a long time ago and I'm so glad I did! They are really really bright and last forever! Plus, they are unscented so you don't have to worry about any overwhelming smells. We also had a bunch of tea lights and of course scented candles, but they weren't used as much. I also had a bunch of old pie tins to set everything in to catch the wax and everything. Don't forget to always make sure you have tons of matches and lighters that are stored with your emergency stuff. That was nice knowing we always had enough. The next great thing in our storage was
sterno canned fuel and
sterno stoves.
While it's not very good for "cooking", you can do lots of things with it: you can easily and quickly heat up canned foods like ravioli and soups. You can also fry eggs and make pancakes (albeit one pancacke at a time, but pancakes nonetheless). Ramen is also a go on this stuff. The cans are really cheap at wal-mart and last a really really long time. the key here is to ALWAYS cook with a lid on your food -- everything goes sooooo much faster. It takes a really long time to get water to heat up and kinda boil. I needed to heat up a bunch of water to do dishes and it took a while longer than you would expect. What's really nice about sterno canned fuel is that it is a clean burning fuel. You can safely store it (I have been storing 10 cans for 4 years and they still work great) and you also don't have to worry about using it indoors (unlike charcoal).
We also already had a bunch of
small LED flashlights. These things are fantastic! They only use one AAA battery, but they last FOREVER and give off a large amount of light. We bought a bunch at wal-mart a long time ago never realizing how great they would be for emergencies. Every time we left the house, I would put two of them in my purse so we would be able to see where we were going when we got back at night (our apartment is at the top of the building). Since each flaslight is only about 4 inches long and a 1/2" wide, it was very easy to carry. Plus, since most people keep the larger flashlights in their home, size "D" battery's were the first to go in stores. There were plently of AAA batteries left however.
The one thing I learned from that I need to be better prepared for is to always have a supply of "ready to eat" type of foods. I always have 2 giant boxes of ramen and about a gazillion jars of peanut butter, but you need other things too. I didn't have any cans of soups or ravioli because we never eat those things. However, when your power goes out and all you have to cook with is a sterno stove, that's what you eat! So today i'm going to make sure we have a stash of those things just in case we are actually stuck in the apartment next time. If we had been stuck, we would have had plenty of water and food, but we just wouldn't have had much variety.
It was really nice knowing that we were pretty much prepared for such an event and looking over all of my emergency supplies, I'm happy to report that we are already prepared for other kinds of emergencies. It was definitely comforting to know that we were going to be OK during all of this with little stress.
Kelly is a black kitty cat. I know she looks like a mouse right now, but she DOES have a cat tail on!
Isabelle went as a pink bunny rabbit. I'm not sure why she wanted the weird smiley face painted on her, but she was adament that she needed it.
I wasn't sure what I was thinking when I got this costume. Yes... I am a california raisin. Okay, I guess I DID know what I was thinking when I bought that costume, but my thinking was definitely flawed. I saw it in a thrift store for $4 and thought "Hey! That's an easy costume and really really funny!" I was especially sold when it came with it's own "I'm drug free" ribbon. So yeah, in theory it was a great idea and very funny. However, in practice it was NOT a great idea and NOT very funny. It smelled really bad even though I washed and febreezed the heck out of it. It's made of foam, so it wasn't exactly breathable material and the two eye holes it gave me provided very little vision. The only thing funny about it was that it scared the little kids half to death. Literally. I had two 3 year olds that were seriously on the verge of crying I was freaking them out so much. That possibly could have been worth wearing it.
