July 3, 2012

On Why I Could Never Be Amish

So this weekend was one for the memory books.  Or not. Not sure if you all heard about the wicked storms that blew through the Midwest Friday night but they were brutal.  We hadn't had rain in weeks, like nada, so we had all been doing rain dances in the privacy of our own homes and boy did we get it.
Friday night, around 4:30, I noticed it was looking a little gloomy outside.  I had only seen a 20% chance of rain for the day so we didn't think much of it.  Until it got dark at 5 pm and the winds got tornado-like.  We hauled ass to the basement just in time for the power to go out, at 5 pm, Friday night.
Sure at first it was all fun in games as we sat in the dark basement and played with old, forgotten toys by candlelight. {I hide some of Kendall's super baby-ish toys down there in hopes of bringing them out later and she'll think they're new again}.  We made hand puppets on the wall with the "fiflight" {flashlight} shadows and even had a couple cold ones {us, not her} and all was fine with the world.  Until I started to get hungry and it started to get really dark.  To which I said to Jimmy, "what do the Amish do when it gets dark?" {yes, I'm ignorant} and he said, "go to bed".
F*ck, I can't be Amish.  I knew I should have made that homemade pizza earlier and now the dough is just sitting in the won't-be-cold-much-longer fridge.
Thank God for cell phones {yet another reason why I could never be Amish}, we called my in-laws and they had power, horray!, so we packed up and headed in their direction, thinking by the time we had some dinner, played and headed home we'd return to a fully powered home.
Wrong.
We came home to a pitch black, hot and powerless house.  My idea of hell on Earth.  I wish I could say that I handled the situation with grace and ease, knowing that it wouldn't last for-ever, but I whined, pouted, I may have even stomped a little.  My sweet husband thought this was a perfect opportunity to be romantic and lit every candle in the house and poured me a glass of luke-warm wine.  To which I scoffed and went to bed.  In our hot, fan-less room.
Morning came, still no power.  Poor Kendall had to sleep in an oven with no baby crack sound machine, all night.  See, even she could not be Amish.
Thank God I married an electrician.  By 8 o'clock we had a generator up and running and our fridge could be opened and fans were on, making it a little more comfortable.  But?  I still whined.  I mean sure we had air flow but we didn't have TV and we didn't have Internet.  The Amish are rolling their eyes at this point.
We spent most of the day Saturday at the in-laws {again}.  I took a warm shower, curled my hair with my mother-in-laws amazing Hot Tools curling iron and caught up on RHOC, it was bliss.  I even took the pizza dough over to their house and made a delicious homemade pizza.  Electricity for the win!
My husband worked hard to get our air conditioner to run on the generator and thankfully we were able to get it cooled down enough to come home Saturday night.  By then it was comical to me.  Once we put Kendall down in her only semi-hot room we sat outside with the neighbors, Solo cup full of wine, and watched fireworks from the neighboring town.  It wasn't so bad, I guess.
The thing is, we didn't have it that bad. I mean besides being a tad bit warmer at night and not having a baby monitor to hear KP {she's just across the hall anyway}, life wasn't that much different than "normal".  I mean our iPhones still worked {for the most part} so we were still "connected" and able to get the necessary updates we needed regarding the state of our misery.  See, I could not be Amish.
I woke up a few times Saturday night hoping to see the glare of our alarm clock but nope, nada. Sunday morning was hot and coffee-less and I was starting to get over it. I mean, we had a generator and that's a lot more than most people in our area could say.  We had plans to go see my BFFs brand new baby girl so in an effort to preserve all the food I had just bought Friday morning we decided to have a clean-out-the-fridge party.  Just as I was cutting up 2 boxes of strawberries, 2 bundles of grapes, 3 containers of blueberries and a bunch of celery Jimmy came running in,"THE POWER IS ON!".  I'm pretty sure I danced for 10 minutes straight.  
I may not like living with no lights, Internet, air conditioning or TV but I do love living with my husband.  As bratty as I was, and I was, he took my bitterness with a grain of salt.  He never once told me to "suck it up" or "get over it". Instead he just worked his hiney off to make this house as comfortable and "normal" as possible in spite of our power-less situation.  God knew what he was doing when he crossed our paths that January day, 4 years ago.
So, even though this weekend didn't go as planned, it was a learning experience and one that I needed to be taught.  While I do love my warm showers and Pinterest, I know that that's not what's important in life.  Being surrounded by good people who you love and who love you is what matters. This weekend we were surrounded by love, from one another and from our families, and that means more than anything electric could.  I think it's safe to say, in spite of the warm wine and hot house, this weekend brought us closer together.  And, for that, I am thankful.
Maybe the Amish are on to something?
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18 comments:

  1. Ug, I HATE when the power goes out. It went out a couple times over the winter, not for too long thankfully, it definitely was a lot worse in some areas. It just sucked because Big A would be out plowing and I would be home by myself, bored to tears! Glad it is back on!

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  2. LOL! Love it! Our power went out for a day after some bad storms and I was ready to head to a hotel. Mind you this was a weekday so we were gone at work/daycare anyways. I, too, could NOT be Amish! A gypsy, maybe?!

    April
    www.themeyermanor.blogspot.com

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  3. Glad you got your power back. Ours came on yesterday!

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  4. you, my dear friend, are a brat. and I LOVE you for it. I am equally bratty so this was comical and I was shaking my head an agreenace with all of it!

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  5. Our power goes out every time a bird farts on the wire, which is pretty annoying considering what we pay for electric...but I could never throw all caution to the wind and convert to living off of gas lanterns and fireplaces alone. I like electricity. I don't know what I would do without it. Sure i'd live...hubs would see to that. But it just wouldn't be the same. Glad your power is back on and everyone is safe!

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  6. I would be the same exact way if our power went out! especially for such a long amount of time...I'm glad it finally came back on!

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  7. I was once without power for a few days following Hurricane Wilma. I had friends that were without for weeks. I wouldn't have made it. I'm so glad you got it back Sunday and managed to make the best of it. And most of all, glad you were all safe!

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  8. You summed up our Cbus weekend perfectly, well minus the cool place to stay during the day but we made friends with hundreds at Home Depot while waiting for our generator on Saturday for 8 hours, but despite it all we had fun and flet the love!
    B loved the storms and Im thinking she might want to be a storm chase when she grows up!

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  9. We also lost power in the storms!!! Unfortunately when it storms my husby has to work so me a newborn and three dogs with no power for two and a half days and no relatives with power was ummm interesting. My husby did bring water for the animals and so I could flush the toilet!!! Priorities people!!!

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  10. I am glad that you and your family made it through the storm safe and sound. Its funny how certain things happen that make you put life in perspective. My mom decided to travel Friday not knowing she was leaving a nice cool home to go to a hot sticky no powered house. When Sunday morning came and she woke up to no power and no water she high tailed back home. The things we take for granted are quickly appreciated when we don't have them any more.

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  11. We got very lucky and didn't lose power or cable or Internet however our cell phones didn't work for half a day and not being able to use my iPhone was torture enough. My inlaws didn't have power for two days and went out and bought a generator so now at least we know where we're going if we lose power in the future.

    Glad to see that you made the best of things.

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  12. We lost our power for about 48 hours and I am SOOOOOOO happy that we bought a generator almost right after buying our house. Thankfully I didn't loose any food and though it was miserable sleeping in the heat on Friday, I was thankful that our house and cars were okay!

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  13. I could never be Amish either.
    Besides everything you mentioned and my fear of the dark, no bueno.

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  14. I'm glad your power finally came back on! It sounds like you made the most of your "Amish" weekend, though! Homemade pizza, wine in a Solo cup and RHOC!! That sounds incredible! :) If only there was pinterest to check out during the commercials! ;)

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  15. Oh man, that is horrible! But SO funny that you immediately tbhought of the Amish! ha ha.

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  16. I don't know how the Amish do it, either.

    Sorry, girl. That stanks. All of it.

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  17. I feel you girl. We lost power Friday and it didn't come back on until Sunday. I couldn't even stay at my house it was so hot. Like it was literally cooler outside on the porch than in the house. I don't know how those people without AC do it?!

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  18. I would have been a pouty fit-throwing hot mess. On top of my irrational fear of wind and storms in general it was a good thing I was not around to experience this! I just moved to the Columbus area from NJ and happened to be back East when the storm came. I heard it was awful here! Glad you survived!

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