On The Bright Side

We had a real adventure last night. At least, that's what we're telling Caleb.

Yesterday afternoon our power shut off, which is not unusual, but it only came back on in half the house. The rooms that were not working were very sporadic: the master bedroom, the living room, the toy room and our dryer (but the washer was okay). Most of you are unfamiliar with the layout of our house, but the master bedroom and the living room are on opposite ends and two different floors - so it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to be out at the same time.

So I did what every electrically defunct wife does: I told my husband. :) He went down and checked the breaker box - nope. He turned the main electricity thingy (and yes, that is the technical term) off and back on - nope. He finally called his dad for advice. Fortunately his dad was curling, and one of his teammates was an electrician. After a conversation about which electrical thingamabobs and doohickeys had been checked, the electrician (a mere 1,600 miles away) diagnosed the problem that one of the "legs" coming into our house was not functioning properly and we needed to call our utility company. So we did.

Two hours later, a man in a truck showed up, trudged through the foot of snow to the meter box. Scott and I were watching a movie, and the electricity in the affected rooms flickered on and off a few times. "That's a good sign!" we smiled to ourselves.

About twenty minutes later, the man from the truck knocked on our door. "Did you hear me talking outside on the phone?"
"No sir."
"I was just on the phone with my boss because I don't know what to do about your problem." Uncomfortable pause. "The way that electricity comes into your house in through live 'legs'. Your house has two of them. In order for the live legs to work, there has to be a ground, or a neutral, in order for them to run. What has happened here is that your house has settled and one of the live legs has been pulled out completely. The neutral is barely attached."

And then came the words which shocked me the most "It's amazing that your house hasn't caught on fire."

Woah. Sharp inhale. Amazing that our house hasn't caught on fire!?!?

He continued. "I can try to jerry-rig something so that you will have power tonight, but I think that your best option would be to completely cut the power off, go to a hotel, and call an electrician in the morning. The electrician will have to get your a new meter box, drop it down about six inches, reconnect you, and then you will have to have us turn the power back on afterwards."

Exhale. My mind started racing. Do I need to pack all of the photo albums? What essentials do I want to bring with us? What will we do with our pets? It's 30 degrees outside... they can't be outside all night! Scott saw my panic and quickly assured me that if they cut off all the power to our house that the risk of it catching on fire was gone.

So, at 10PM, we packed a suitcase with clothes, a bag with bottles and formula, the pack-and-play and headed to the Hampden Inn, 15 minutes away. Caleb was confused, but saw it as a cool experience. Chloe wasn't so thrilled and had a rough time falling asleep in the room. Caleb then proceeded to switch whom he was sleeping with about, oh, 83219 times. I don't think I slept more than half an hour at a time, with Caleb kicking, both boys snoring, Chloe whimpering, and my mind still racing.

We woke up at 7AM, after a 4AM feeding for Chloe, and had our complimentary breakfast. Scott called an electrician and met him at the house. When he came back, Caleb and I went swimming. (Somehow, in all that mayhem, I thought it would be a good idea to pack bathing suits.... funny how our minds work.) We had a slightly later check out of 12PM, went out for lunch, and when we returned the meter box was ready and the electric company was on its way.

It was... an adventure. I know that it could have been much worse. I know how blessed we were that we were given the sign of the power going out rather than the house catching on fire. I know that we are blessed that we are all safe and sound. But really, I could have done without the excitement this weekend.

When the power was finally restored, Scott went to the grocery store. When he came back he said, "On the bright side hon, I won $30 on a scratch ticket."

On the bright side. :)

I'm working on it.

Some how, over the past six weeks, between children being ill, parents being ill and my new job (more on that later), the blog has fallen by the wayside. Sleep has also fallen by the wayside, but I guess you are to expect that to an extent as a parent, right?

When we got back from Christmas in Canada, Chloe "forgot" how to sleep through the night. I have tried everything: giving her cereal at night, feeding her late at night, trying to let her cry it out. The problem is that she has been growing, teething, and had two ear infections and she consistently wakes up between 2-4 AM. This is tough because I have to get up at 5AM for work, so there have been many a day that I am up at 3:30 for the day. Blah.

So, about my new job. I loved the clinic that I was working at, but after bedrest and mat leave that ended up being for 7 months instead of 3.5, I needed the full time hours to catch up, money-wise. I am working at a hospital 7:30-4:00, M-F, no weekends, no crazy holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas. So, while I don't relish the idea of cleaning up as much poop and sputum as I have over the past 5 weeks, it is a necessary evil ... at least until we win the lottery ;)

So, more to come soon. The kids are doing great - Chloe is military crawling, pulling up and chewing on everything in sight. Caleb has had a couple of problems at daycare and is definitely showing his older "jealous" side... but I promise to elaborate on this soon.