Darn Mosquito

There are so many things we take for granite in life, and one of those things is electricity. Friday evening was a very rainy evening. And when i say rainy i mean the flood gates had opened up on Memphis. We had just left the Cracker Barrel (5 pounds heavier than when we arrived). We said good-bye to our niece and nephews who were headed back to the Northern part of the USA, and floated our car back to our home. Along the way were awed by the beautiful designs the lightning was making in the sky.....as we approached closer to our home we saw the biggest flash- it looked six feet wide-and we were 1/2 a mile away- of lightning. Both Chad and I looked at each other and both bowed our heads to pray(well he drove, i bowed my head) that our electricity would not be interupted due to the lightning bolt that looked as though it had just struck our roof.
Well we arrive home to find all elecrical power is off. We sit around a while....a long while. The heat and humidity is building fast in our dark, candle lit home. Well i cant wash clothes, dishes, vaccuum, or even see to dust. So we play with our 14 month old son. He loves the 2 hours of undivided attention. It's cute to watch how he pushes the buttons on the computer, yet the screen does not come on, and how when he pushes the button on the aswering machine (which plays back all 20 saved messages) stays silent. You can see him stare, his mind trying to calculate what he did wrong!- it has worked every time before. It was so cute. Now i realize why families used to be so close....you had no distractions. NONE.
Then we decide to drive around. Not a wise decision due to rising gas prices (we just paid 2.22- i know my bro in California wishes he could pay that much)but we adore air conditioning, especially in my 19(!) week of pregnancy. Well this gets old. We call MLGW(Memphis light gas and water) and they say it is just a fuse.."a crew has been assigned"
we decide to tuff it out and stay at our house...surely it wont take a professional longer than a couple of hours to replace a fuse....
Well 2am rolls around. Our son wakes up thinking that it is 8 am and he wants to play. I have been battling a mosquito that i cannot see, but can only hear buzzing around my ear !(the next day i had 10(!) bites on my leg!) Do you know how annoying those little things are...i found the spray of "off" and it still bit me during the night. It just kept swirling around, and around, and around my head ALL NIGHT this =no sleep. I felt like an idiot, slapping the bed, my arm, my head, just hoping the next attempt would squash the cruel insect.
Back to the car we go....a drive around memphis....i think donuts are calling my name....but pass because i am in my pj's and well- they stick to me.
we try sleeping in the car....not working.
7am: Call MLGW-power will be on at 11:30 am . we can handle that. We make the decision to go to mom and dads, leave the groceries. They SHOULD stay cold enough. Did i mention we had JUST gone to the store the day before and bought our provisions for the next 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!! (anger was trying to overcome me)
Well to make this story shorer....Our electricity was not on until 2am Sunday morning!! The crews had to dig 3 6 foot holes in 3 of our neighbors yards just to fix the situatuion....some fuse!
But Praise the Lord all of the food was still good!! (we did take the milk and hotdogs to moms)

That was our weekend. So much for relaxation and sleep.
Darn mosquito.

A lesson learned at Jillian's

What a weekend we had! I have spent the last three days with my oldest sister's children. My niece is 11, and my nephews are 8 and 5. (how does my sister and her husband do it?!- they have another one on the way!) We had a lot of fun. Saturday we took them to Sardis Lake in Mississippi to go swimming. The first hour and a half was great, the next 1/2 hour was unforgettable hovering under a pavillion eating a picnic lunch watching the lightning strike the water! Dont worry noone was injured due to Uncle Chad's keen senses to the weather. We had already packed up our chairs, blankets, sunblock, and floaties when the first clash of thunder sent everyone else scurrying off the beach. We chuckled as we watched mom's and dad's yell at their scrambling children run off with out grabbing the towels or the cooler- we ate underneath the shelter safe and somewhat dry.

Then that night we took them to Jillian's. It's 3 levels of food, games, bowling, and pool tables. Located in the Peabody Mall Downtown Memphis. Grandma sent us with $5 per child......not that she knew better but it should have been more like $15!
They (Jillian's) gets you to buy a card with points. $5 will get you 3000 points. $1 to activate a new card. Not too bad...each game was atleast 900 points. How do you tell kids they only get to play 3 of the 99 games??!! Then some games give you tickets, while some are just a typical game.
We get to the end of the night, kids are happy. We had given them some money to up the points on thier card....so they each won tickets. You get to the ticket booth and -ahhh....you have to have atleast 70 tickets to get something besides a piece of super bubble. So off to the refill machine. Up the points so the child can Up their tickets! Jillians really knows how to cater to the family!
I wish i had thought of this business opportunity!
Well it was fun. I would go back. The kids really enjoyed themselves. I told my husband we will never bring our children here. Kids just know how to ask without asking. My nieces and nephews never once complained with just 3000 points, they would have been happy with one game......its us adults that can't see them play just one game, or see them end up with a piece of bubble gum.....