Joke's on us today

April Fools started out with a fantastic practical joke.

I woke up to find Jeff putting the finishing touches on a fresh coat of paint in the bathroom. Something he swore up and down, he'd never do. I started the project late last night, itching to redeem myself from our bedroom makeover oops. He said he couldn't sleep, so he got up at 4 a.m. to paint. I'll post pictures later... but if you're wondering, Jeff is so-so on the color but I like it. Go figure.

Then April Fools Day had her way with us.

First, Mother Nature in her cruel irony decided to dump snow, rain, and wind on us. Oh and a 30 degree temperature drop from yesterday.

And then the BOOM! LIGHTS OUT!

The power went out. We figured it would be a fairly quick fix... we seem to have a transformer blow every couple of months and our city power plant usually gets it fixed pretty fast. But then the hours passed by and the house started to get colder.

Apparently it wasn't just a transformer that blew but the entire power pole. I happened to glance outside and saw this.Our neighbor came over to check on us and told us the entire pole had caught on fire. Dang! I would have loved a picture of that.

So we waited and waited and waited. Meanwhile, husband extraordinaire was making up for lack of sleep from his early morning painting frenzy. The house kept getting colder and colder. The kids kept getting more and more bored. And I kept getting more and more anxious. It's kind of like when you go camping and you know you can't turn on a light. I don't know about the rest of you, but it drives me absolutely bonkers. Just the sheer knowledge that you have to pee in the dark and can't do a thing about it drives me crazy.

Then I remembered earlier in the week, I'd mentioned to Jeff that we should go through our 72 hr. kits - seeing as how they are four years old - and write down everything in them so we can replace all the expired food.

Hence lies practical joke #2 today. We ended up feasting on a lunch of crackers, peanut butter, Gossner's milk, trail mix, olives, and tuna. All because the power was still out and I didn't want to deal with fits of disappointment that we couldn't nuke some chicken nuggets in the microwave. The kids had a blast with our emergency picnic and I accomplished one of my to-do's. If anyone wants a list of three meals/snacks for a three day emergency kit, let me know and I'll send them to you. My parents gave us these kits for Christmas and their list is super easy.The power came back on about 2:30 p.m. I will admit, for a split second I was ready to just pretend the last session of General Conference was over. Had it not been for the fact that I'd already printed out some activity packs for the kids to do, I probably would have just bagged the whole thing. So much for our spiritual feast today.... but at least our house is warm, the bathroom looks crisp and clean, and we just might survive a disaster if we don't have to cook.