When the power goes out...

I learned a phrase when I lived in New Orleans and a hurricane was potentially heading our way, "hunker down." I had never heard it before, but it became quite commonplace in N.O. Here in AZ we tend to "hunker down' in the heat of the summer, I just never knew there was a name for it until I was 21 years old.

However, when the power goes out in the worst of the summer, you really hunker down and prepare for a brutal day. It was around 2:30 pm when we were sent home from Kino Pool because of no power. Sure enough, no power at home. There was a fire at the power station and there was no electricity in most of Mesa. We promptly headed out to find ice cream, but no such luck. (we didn't know about all the widespread outages)

We made do:

Jake and I played many games of Speed,

We played Memory Annie-style which means all the cards are turned face up (it's the way to go, so much easier),

We drove in our air-conditioned car until we were nearly out of gas,

We shopped in a dark Target and tried on clearance shoes,

then finally after enduring the heat no more, called my parents and they were kind enough to let us hang at their house. They got their power back by about 5:30. We ate hot dogs, burned a black widow in the grill and sent the kids outside to play.

That's when things got interesting. Abby came running in exclaiming about the baby chick she found. Oh boy. I'm not a bird person by any stretch, so I was less than amused. But we all went outside looking for its nest, no luck. A few minutes later, wouldn't ya know it, they found another, then another and finally another. 4 baby birds in all.

They put them in a container to keep them comfortable and out of the kids' greasy hands. That's when Jeremy stepped in and got on the computer to find out how to care for parentless, baby birds. What he found was a "Quail Rehabilitation Specialist". Who knew those even existed!? They instructed him to bring the quail babes to Paradise Valley to save them, we found one of her "wild animal" cronies to come to my parents house instead. He took the birds to their new home where they would get shots, an incubator, and lots of love from the QRS.

I love my family and their big huge hearts. I feel so cold hearted sometimes in comparison. They care and love so fully, from Jeremy all the way down to Annie. Annie nearly cried herself to sleep because she missed those baby birds so much.

Then we came back to reality when Jake poured a cup of ice down Hannah's pants.

That's what we do when the power goes out. Beat that! (that's a Hannah saying)