What a Week!

We had another quite eventful week at our house.  On Monday we celebrated this girl's birthday dinner  a couple of days early. It would end up to be a wise decision. She is now officially a teenager! This may be the last picture you see of her for awhile.  

Almost every picture I have tried to take of her this week, ends up looking like this.  I hope this phase is short! She has always enjoyed having her picture taken before.  

Later that night, we were hit with yet another severe thunderstorm.  This time our power went out at 3 a.m.  I had to get up and set the alarm on my cell phone.  It was the last day of Driver's Ed, and my oldest two had to take their final exams.  It is a good thing I set the alarm, because we would not get our power back for several hours.  They both passed their test.  When they were done we stopped by a nearby McDonalds to get some food, since we could not open our fridge.  The place was extremely busy. People were lined up on the main road just to get into the parking lot. It was about that time I found out that 140,000 people had lost power in three counties, and we were not to get it back until late that evening at the earliest.  Without access to wi-fi, and very little charge on my phone, we spent some time playing board games.  

We then went to spend some time with friends who live on a lake.  They had lost power too, but we made the most of it.  We used their gas grill to heat up a lot of food from the freezer. Kyle and his friend started a bonfire, and we made some Smores! Yum! Spending the  day off the grid, actually turned out pretty nicely.   On the way home we picked up Kara and her best friend.  (who had not lost power)  They had made plans to spend Kara's birthday together at our house. We were thrilled to find out that our power came back on just a few minutes before we got home.  

Unfortunately, Kara's birthday ended up being pretty memorable as well.  She went to sleep feeling fine, and woke up with a fever.  The poor girl was sick on her birthday!  Since we did not have power the day before, and then she was too sick to eat much on her birthday, I ended up not making a cake.  Instead of cake, we had Oreo cookie sundaes.  She will be having a birthday party in a few weeks, and will have a special birthday cake then.  Instead of dong fun things, she slept away most of the day.  

The day after her birthday she started to feel a little better, but still had a fever.  Her brother and sister had another drive with a Driver's Ed Instructor.  It ended up being kind of stressful.  We had been told the day before to meet in a different location by one of the other instructors, because of heavy traffic.  He said that the instructor we were meeting the next day should have gotten the memo.  She didn't.  She had parked the Drivers Ed car behind a much bigger car in the original location,  so we could not see it where we were standing. She thought we did not show up even though we were in the correct location, and early.  We eventually did find her a few minutes after the set time.  One of the reasons why the other instructor told us they were moving the meeting place is because of safety.  Students were not experienced enough to back up the car into the busy parking lot with cars frequently turning in.   Well she did not get that memo either.  She had Kyle back up the driver's ed car into the busy parking lot (he had not backed up before) She also had him drive in heavy traffic of people leaving on vacation (another thing he had not done before) He was not happy when I picked him up.  He felt she had something against him. (I kind of think he was right, by some of the things he told me)   I was also not happy.  She had dropped the kids off early, and had LEFT before I got there.  I arrived  5 minutes before pick up time!   I guess she was in a big hurry to start her vacation.  Kyle  is happy to have the other instructor for his  next few drives.  Just a few more drives with the instructors, and then they will be driving my car.  

Since Kara was starting to feel better, we were able to enjoy 4th of July festivities.  We went to two parades.  One in our town, and one in a neighboring town.  We also enjoyed a great fireworks display.   Today was one of those days that we took it slow and easy.  I think we were all tired by the week we had.  There is not a lot on the calendar next week, so we will see what eventful things that it  brings.