Ice storms, meat, charades...It's what boring blog posts are made of!

Friday morning around 3:30 AM, we lost our power.  I know this because at the same time the power went out, our carbon monoxide detector went off because that's what it does when it's not receiving   power and the back-up battery is also dead.

 At 5:30 AM we got a text from the school saying school was cancelled.

I sent Dan on his merry way at 7:00 AM and then immediately Peter woke up.  He was thrilled there was no school and didn't even seem to mind that no power meant no cable, no internet, no computer, no TV, no heat. 

Sarah woke up a at 7:45 AM  equally excited that there would be no school and didn't even seem to mind that no power mean no cable, no internet, no computer, no TV, no heat.

At approximately 9:00 AM the rounds of "I'm bored!" began.  Luckily they keep their iPods charged so they played with those briefly and I think there was even a little bit of book reading going on. 

Around 11:00, I decided to take them to the Sheetz at the end of our road for a sandwich.

Peter was excited to get a pulled pork sandwich until I reminded him it was Lent and it was Friday so cheese pizza or tuna subs all around!

That made him angry and he told me that since he was 11 he didn't have to follow the fasting rules until he was 14 so what did it matter anyway?  I reminded him that Jesus died a slow and painful death on the cross for his sins and the least he could do in return would be to forgo a pulled pork sandwich for Jesus. 

And that made him angrier.

But we were all getting a little antsy so we headed to Sheetz anyway.  It's just a couple of miles down the road but it took quite a while to get there.  The streets were slushy but passable.  The problem was all the trees.  There were trees down in the road, on the sides of the road, all over people's front yards.

It was like a huge tornado had come through and only hit the trees.

We finally made it to Sheetz and as I circled the parking lot twice I realized that it must be the only place around that was serving food that had power.  It was packed.

And when I saw the long lines inside, I made the executive decision that we would go back home and eat lunch. 

But then yhr kids saw the F'real machine and begged for a milkshake.  Not sure if you've got a Sheetz where you live or if you've ever had a F'real  so I'll explain.  Sheetz is a gas station that sells food.  They have subs, salads, pizzas, specialty sandwiches, a burritos and tacos.  And the food is actually good.  My kids love to eat there because they can each have what they want and because they get to order off a touch screen.

A F'real is a milkshake you make yourself.  You choose the type of ice cream you want in your milk shake, take out the cup that is prepackage with the milkshake ingredients, place it in the F'Real machine, select the consistency you want for your shake and hit start.

In about a minute you will have a delicious milk shake.  They are a little pricey so we save F'Reals for special treats and I figured that an ice storm lunch is a special treat.  So I stood in line (only 15 people ahead of me waiting to check out) while the kids made their shakes.  When the kids got in line with me, I counted and there were almost 20 people in line behind me at that point and there were still quite a few ahead of me.   

We got our shakes and made our way slowly home.  We were almost home and the kids were almost done with their shakes when Sarah blurted out, "Oh no!!!  We both gave up ice cream for Lent!"

I could only shake my head and sigh....it's going to be a long Lent.

After we got back home, I flipped on the gas logs and laid down on the couch.  We were heading to a playdate at a friend's house at 2:30 so I had just enough time for a little nap.  Usually I don't take naps, but it was cold, I had already read all the magazines in the house and basically I had been awake since 3:30 so I was tired. 

The kids played charades for an hour while I napped and seemed to have a good time with each other.  A Lenten miracle, perhaps?

After our play date, we came back home to wait for Dan to come back from work.  The power was out so we were going to have to go out for dinner and none of us very excited about that.  We knew our choices would be limited to places with power and our menu options would be limited to meatless.  And, I don't know about you, but I don't want to pay money for a meatless dinner.
 
Luckily our power was restored Friday evening at 7:00 just minutes before Dan got home from work.  Just in time for me to fix a nice meatless pasta dinner.  And I say luckily because there are still people around us with no power!  I guess of the 300,000 people in our area without power, we were some of the first to get it back on.

Another Lenten miracle?!

We were supposed to attend Peter's Blue and Gold Banquet Saturday night but the church was without power so it will have to be rescheduled. 

And since it was going to be potluck, I didn't have anything planned for dinner.  So we went out and I got wings!  Nothing like a big plate of wings on a Saturday evening in Lent.  Totally makes up for a tuna sandwich lunch and a bowl of pasta sans meat supper on Friday!