Our Punk'd out Back-to-School Adventure

Back-to-school is always an exciting time of year.  My boys thrive in the structure that school provides.  There is a schedule to follow and less time at home to be bored and get into trouble.  I'm a much better mom when my boys have school.  So it was with much anticipation that I looked forward to the start of school this year.  A new school.  New teachers.  New friends.  New clothes.  You know - Back-to-School!  Woo Hoo!

This year, our back-to-school adventure was one for the books.  It almost felt like a plot line to a really bad family sit com.  It started on Sunday afternoon around 5:30 p.m.  We had been down in Orem visiting my brother's family and celebrating the blessing of my new niece.  As we drove into Davis County I looked to the west and noticed the ugliest sky I've seen since the Salt Lake Tornado in 1999.  I told James that did not look good but I didn't want to mention the "t" word since I have AJ who is obsessed with natural disasters.

Thank goodness there was no tornado, but we did have some very severe weather.  As we approached Farmington, we notice a news crew and several police cars around Legacy Highway.  As we got closer to our neighborhood, the traffic light was out.  And then as we approached our street, I noticed that everyone had their windows open and it was awfully dark.  Yep, the power was out.  Five power poles were taken out by wind gusts up to 75 MPH right by the Davis Justice Center.

Now normally, we are a prepared family.  We may not have a year's supply of food and water, but we have enough supplies to last us a few weeks.  We have a gas stove so we can cook and a gas log so we can stay warm.  But that is only helpful if you can actually GET INTO YOUR HOUSE!!!

Yep, since the move, we haven't actually put the keys to the house on our keyring.  We always use the  garage door openers to access the house and have never given it a second thought.  Who needs keys when you just push a button and the door opens. But that doesn't work when the electricity is out.

Not only that, but James had double and triple checked all the doors before we had left for the day. So our house was very secure.  Sometimes it doesn't pay to be married to a cop. ;)

Our neighbors had already called Rocky Mountain Power and were told it would be about six hours.  That is midnight for those of you keeping score at home.  Midnight on the night before the first day of school.  You have to laugh or else you'll cry right? 

James called the first locksmith that came up on his Blackberry search.  When they finally arrived, the guy worked on the lock for about 10 minutes and then concluded, "Those are the best locks money can buy, I can't pick them."  Of course it cost us $60 to get that tidbit of information.  So we gave him the credit card and he calls it in and it comes back DECLINED!  WTH?  We are no where near our limit.  The bill isn't due until next week and I had just used the card the day before with no issues.

This was the moment I started thinking that we were going to be on the next episode of Punk'd.  (Is that even still on the air? I'm so unhip I don't even know).  My cell phone -- that was already beeping at me because the battery was dying -- starts ringing and the credit card security department called not once, but twice to find out if we had authorized the charge and no they couldn't tell us why the charge was declined. 

Luckily I had grabbed my wallet that morning and I had enough cash in it. Both unusual circumstances for a Sunday afternoon.  But now what?

Thankfully, our overly generous, kind neighbors took pity on us.  First they shared their dinner.  Then they opened up their camping trailer to us.   The idea was we would try and get the kids to sleep and wait out the power outage and then we'd go home.

We finally got the boys to sleep by about 9:30.  James and I drifted in and out of sleep waiting for the power to turn back on.  Thank goodness for Blackberries and iPods that could provide us some entertainment on a very long dark night. At some point in the middle of the night, James called Rocky Mountain Power to get an update.  New estimated time for power: 7:30 a.m.  So we tried to get some sleep off and on.

When the sun finally came up we were still in the same predicament.  And still in our church clothes. But now we had to get our boys to school -- the first day of school in our new school.  I couldn't send my boys in the same clothes they'd been wearing for 20 hours at this point.  And what second grader wants to wear a white church shirt to school anyway. Never mind the hundreds of dollars we'd already spent on school clothes that we couldn't get to.  And the power company now said it would be at least 11:30 before we could get to those clothes.

So after a quick breakfast at McD's we ran into Walmart and bought new clothes for both boys and new tooth brushes and tooth paste for all of us.  After all, you can really do anything if you can just brush your teeth. In fact, I had a very "Where the Heart Is" moment as I was brushing my teeth in the Walmart bathroom.

We did manage to get AJ to school pretty much on time. I'm sure I looked like quite the site in my wrinkled skirt and blouse and my bed head.  Word was starting to spread around the neighborhood that we'd been locked out and spent the night in the trailer.  We've been getting lots and lots of laughs out of it.  Again, you have to laugh or else you will cry.  I can't wait until the next Provident Living Lesson in church when we are turned into the object lesson for everyone on preparedness.

Fortunately, the power did finally come back on and we did finally get back into our house right before it was time to take Spencer to Kindergarten at 11:25.  It was quite an adventure.  One we will not soon forget.  And hopefully it is a lesson to everyone about having a non-electric way to get into your house. You know,  something old-fashioned.  Like, I don't know, a key or something.

With all the other excitement going on, I didn't have time to focus on this other aspects of going back to school.  You know, as excited as I get for back to school, it is also a reminder to me that my babies are growing up too fast and time is passing too quickly. I will never have a preschooler again.  But I am proud of the smart and confident school-aged boys I do have. In all the excitement, we did manage to get some pictures with  James cellphone: