The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia

I need a job and ya’ll are going to daycare! I yelled that statement more than a few times yesterday. A trend has begun in our household and it is really beginning to get on my last nerve.

Carter and Kate are fighting like cats and dogs. There is no happy medium with these two. They are either loving all over each other or scratching each others eyes out. I knew that someday I would have to breakup fights between them, but I really thought I had a few years before I would have to say “leave your sister alone” and “get off your brother”. The sad thing is that Kate is usually the one who hurts Carter.

Late in the afternoon they started to calm down. “Alvin and the Kickmunks” as Kate calls them had came on TV and all was right with the world. Don’t judge me, I do not use the TV as a babysitter, but simply a moderator. My kids are not as mesmerized by the TV, but they do watch it early in the evening before “bath and bed prep” begins. It’s their security blanket.
Peace had spread throughout the land and I began to cook dinner. I noticed that it had gotten darker outside (it was 5:15) and it looked like it might storm. Mark got home about an hour later and we had dinner. Again, it was peaceful and the world was at rest. Little did I know it was the calm before the storm, literally!

Around 7:30 it began to get even cloudier and darker outside. To quote Garth Brooks, “The thunder rolled and the lightning strikes”. About fifteen minutes later the power went off. I expected it to come back on quickly, but forty five minutes later, I gave up on that theory. The first hour was great. We all gathered in the living room and I told the kids stories by candlelight. Soon I began to wonder how people ever survived without electricity.

We are obviously not the poster family for the www.ready.gov website. We had one candle in the house and one flashlight with no batteries. I think we took the batteries out and put in one of the kids toys last Christmas. An hour and fifteen minutes had passed and the fun was over. It was dark, hot, and we were all on the edge of sanity. Kate was whining for the “Kickmunks” and Carter was beginning his role as the antagonist. Where is Mark during this whole “family reunion” you might ask? Asleep on the couch! The man could sleep through anything!
Finally, I gave up! I ordered everyone (under 4’ tall) to bed. Carter and Kate piled in the bed with me (we left Mark on the couch). Twenty minutes later the kids were fast asleep and two hours later the lights came back on in Georgia!

I will never take my electricity for granted again. God Bless Benjamin Franklin and his kite!