No Power. No Heat. No School.

They said it was coming, but I just couldn’t believe it. A Nor’easter in October? I’ve lived in New England long enough to know that when it comes to the weather, anything is possible. But this time, I just refused to believe that a major snowstorm was headed our way. Even when the first flakes started to fall yesterday afternoon, I told myself It’s just snow. 

After putting the kids to bed last night, T and I settle down to watch Scream 3 (streamed from Netflix). Normally, I’m not one for scary movies (T loves a good suspense/horror film), but from what I remembered (having seen all the Scream movies when they first came out), it was more of a funny scary than a terrifying scary. So, in the spirit of Halloween, I agreed to watch the movie with him.

About 30 minutes into the movie, the power started flickering on and off. Lightening flashed outside as the heavy, wet snow fell rapidly. And then the tree branches began crashing down on all sides of our house. Suddenly, the movie seem much more terrifying than I’d bargained for. T went right to bed when it ended, but I remained awake, searching the Internet, buying Christmas gifts, trying to slow my heart rate to a normal pace. Around 11:45pm, I was finally ready to turn out the lights. Ready for a peaceful night of sleep. And just then, the power surged and every little bit of light went out.

Somehow, I managed to fall asleep, but not for long. At 4am, I woke to a beeping sound- like a smoke detector with a low battery, but that wasn’t it. T heard it too, and we both searched in the pitch black dark. We couldn’t find the source and quickly gave up and went back to bed. The sound was completely annoying, and I would have looked longer, but it was freezing in our house. No power. No heat.

Around 4:30am I heard Tiny cry and went to comfort her. She was upset that her Good Nite Lite wasn’t working, and I had to explain the whole no power situation. I told her to keep warm under her covers and try to go back to sleep. I was hopeful that she would do just that, but not too long after, I heard Tiny and Buba talking and giggling to with each other. This was a bad sign. They did not go back to sleep.

Even with all the beeping and chattering, I managed to drift in and out of sleep (having some really bizarre dreams) until 7am when the alarm clock went off (no lights were lit, but apparently the back up battery was hard at work (and was the source of the beeping- not two feet from my head!)). I went right in to let the kids know it was finally appropriate for them to be awake, and they immediately wanted to go out and play in the snow. So we did.

There wasn’t actually that much snow on the ground, but the kids had fun playing around and surveying the damage while T and I brushed snow off the cars and shoveled the drive and walk ways. We spent the day (and now the night) with T’s parents at their well lit and heated home just one town over (feeling very fortunate that we’re able to do this and are able to avoid spending the night in a shelter). After naptime, the kids and I went back home to check on the power (still out) and pick up items needed for an overnight with Grammy and Grandpa. We also snuck in another 30 minutes of playtime in our still snowy yard.

Around dinnertime, we received the news that Tiny and Buba’s preschool will be closed tomorrow. No power. No heat. No school. Tiny was heartbroken. “Noooooooooo!” she cried. “I need to learn!” (It sounds very dramatic, but she was dead serious, which made it all the more funny.) Hopefully, power will be restored soon and we’ll still be able to trick-or-treat and return to our normal schedule and routines very soon. But in the meantime, I’m working on a plan B for how we’ll spend our day tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll think of something.