MOM, INTERRUPTED: And You Thought a BOX of Chocolates Was Special

It must be something about the holidays. We were just recalling that we were without power for a total of four days the Christmas before last, and then came Valentine's Day 2007. Oh, we weren't without power for long, but when it went out at 3 a.m. Valentine's Day morning, my first thought was not, "I'd better call the power company," or "What will we do about all the stuff in the freezer?" It was, "There goes our Valentine cake!" I had been promising the kids for a month that we would make a Valentine cake and have a scavenger hunt in lieu of an actual "party," and now it looked like the cake was a no-go.

Fortunately, the power was back on by about 4:30 a.m. (or so I'm told--I went back to bed and let Randy baby-sit the kerosene heater downstairs!) so the day was saved. Unfortunately, whether it was the victim of a power surge or merely old age, our modem gave up the ghost yesterday and could not be saved. I couldn't get on the internet to find out what the temperature was, what Emergency Level Columbus was laboring under (Level 2, as it turned out) . . . NOTHING. Sure, I could have turned on the television, but that's not the point! Besides, it was a "snow day"; do you think I was up in time to check the weather on the news?! Are you kidding me???

We had a really fun Valentine's Day when all was said and done. The kids got to have their cake

and eat it too (see pic) and they had a blast on their scavenger hunt. Actually, it wasn't a scavenger hunt--I just filled out their valentine cards with different instructions and sent them on a hunt throughout the house for more clues until they finally reached the hiding place of their little trifle of a present (books, of course). I was treated to some really special Valentine cards, but I suppose my card from Darcy deserves special mention. She made me five coupons in a little homemade holder, and the coupons are good for:

1. One hour of quiet time
2. "Alone Time" for two hours
3. Girls' night out (with MY girls, of course!)
4. Three games of my choice on Game Night
5. One week of not being asked by the kids to play on the computer

That last coupon makes me laugh every time I look at it--notice I didn't say one week of the kids not playing on the computer; she was careful to write "Mom, present this coupon and we'll NOT ask to play on the computer for a week!" Darcy is hip to my little secret--sometimes it's all the questions that get to me! "May we do this?" "May we do that?" "May we do the other?" "May we ask so many questions that your head finally explodes?"

Late in the afternoon we popped in The Sound of Music, which has to be on my list of Top Five Movies of all time. I'm pretty sure I made Tyler sit through the movie when he was about eighteen months old but I'm not sure we'd broken it out since then. Surprising, I know. Tyler made me laugh during one of my favorite parts (when Captain Von Trapp spies Maria and Kurt dancing on the veranda and cuts in to show Kurt how it's REALLY done). When Maria was attempting to twirl around while still holding on to Kurt's hands, Tyler said, "Ouch! I'll bet she cracked some of her bones!" I know if it had been me, he would have hit pretty close to the mark--I'm not as limber as I used to be!

Once the kids were tucked in, Randy gave me MY Valentine's Day presents--didn't he know the modem was enough??! Not only did he surprise me with a DVD of Just Like Heaven, but he also gave me a copy of Andrea Bocelli's latest CD entitled Andrea AND, as if that wasn't enough, he gave me a BAG of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! Ha ha! I had to mention that because he said, "Now if anybody asks what you got for Valentine's Day, you can tell them you didn't get a box of chocolates, you got a whole bag!"

I just realized that I should mention our church services were cancelled last night due to the ice storm that came through the area Monday night. Here's what our front yard looks like now: