The Weekend....

It started out as a good weekend with good intentions and quickly turned bad. The plan were that we would head out to Culver and have a picnic with my Dad and his girlfriend Dee (a little weird to say girlfriend when they are both around 60...anyway) and then we would take the kids swimming at Culver Beach which is free after 7pm. As soon as we pulled up to Dad's I heard thunder and didn't think much of it. Dad said he heard that their was a storm a' comin (I quote) but that we had time for a picnic. We had some rain and ate under a "shelter" area and quickly noticed that things were getting really bad. I told the kids no swimming and they actually asked why!! I said we will go across the road and get ice cream, as soon as we pulled up the power went out, no ice cream. The kids are now feeling like it is the end of the world and complaining so much that I was at my end! Can I control the weather? NO! We left Eby's with no ice cream and headed down an alley noticing that the wind was really bad and then about 30 seconds before we were under a tree it fell right in front of us. At this point I just wanted to go home and see if my house was ok, we thought that we could make it back. Mother Nature had other ideas... Now Eby's is about 10 minutes from my Dad's so my plan was to hang there and settle the kids down. The 10 minute ride turned into 30 and we had to stop twice and go around trees, over trees and over a wire, which we couldn't even see until we were past it. After finally getting to Dad's who has no electricity and a house full of antiques (scary combo) we listened to the radio and heard South Bend was getting hit. To me this brought back so many bad memories of the fire and not knowing if our home was ok, I just kinda shut down.

When we got the all-clear that South Bend was ok to drive in we headed home, not really knowing what to expect. We finally made it and the first thing we see is our neighbors home was hit by a huge tree, Leeper park was a mess and we couldn't even get down our road because of even more trees! We brought everyone in and realized that we had no electricity and trying to figure out how we are supposed to take care of 7 kids with no electricity.

Saturday--- I am totally expecting to wake up to the air conditioner humming and Phineus and Ferb being blasted out of the kids rooms, instead all I hear is my cat's meowing because I forgot to feed them and Tobey snoring. We had to give all 7 baths in not very warm water and realized that we should probably feed them, can't make pancakes, the milk was questionable already and decided that doughnuts were in order. Guess what? Nobody else has power including Martin's and Krogers. So after that we came to the conclusion that with no electricity and we can't open windows because of Tobey, that we needed to head out of town. So off we went to Lake Michigan and the kids loved it. We managed to have a great time and we were in hopes that electricity may be on when we get home, no luck.

Now, stuff is getting serious...Tobey is overheated all the time and I can't control it and Edwin is simply going nuts on us. Everyone is fighting and all of our food is already going because the kids keep opening the fridge and freezer. We are getting low on money and stressed to the max. We decide that we can handle Church but we had to get up at 6:30 to give everyone freezing baths ( they actually thought this was fun!). We got to Church somewhat on time, and I think that I breathed for the first time in 2 days. After Church we dined on Speedway hot dogs and took the kids to the park. Now by this time I am running on empty and getting a little sick of parks and stuff! But it was Fathers Day, so we came home and played in the sprinkler and toasted the biggest marshmallows we have ever seen and ate a ton of chicken which mother nature thawed out for us.

Then it comes to me....the Autism card. Let me explain the Autism card...I don't use it that much but in extreme situations (which this was quickly becoming) I will, simply for sympathy sake tell people about the boys Autism. Example....sorry he said he was going to shoot you, he has no gun but he does have Autism....please don't press charges! So, in a last ditch effort we call Aep and tell them 2 sons with Autism, can't open windows, no alarms...we need help as soon as you can. I will be danged in 1 hour we had a guy out here. The liberal in me feels a little guilty but I am the hero of the neighborhood! And my boys are back in the coolness of air conditioning!

Now even as miserable as I was, here is some jewels of wisdom I learned from the storm of 2010!

• I have an awesome husband who tried to keep my spirits up when I wasn't feeling the adventure of it all.
• The neighbor who had a tree on his house is WAY to obsessed with his yard ( he was raking on Friday night with lightening all over) and the tree coming off a roof is great entertainment.
• A guy who lives just 2 houses down is an amazing singer and guitar player who entertained us with his gift nightly.
• I have some really cool neighbors and I am blessed to know them and I should make an effort to get to know them better.
• Even with all the complaining, (and there was a lot) my kids are amazing and it made us an even closer family. I think that we are going to start a once a week TV and computer shut down. As long as my Farmville doesn't need harvested...haha.
• And last but not least I am thankful that God brought us through that storm because that was one scary ride home!

So, sorry it was so long but not near as long as last weekend I can tell you....and I hope that you made it through the storm ok, the sun is shining.