This is only a test....if this had been a real emergency....

Lessons learned from a power outage:

*Lon learned that eating dinner with what we could make without power, by candlelight, in our home that was cooling very quickly and all of our modern conviences gone, it would be a good time to have a FHE on emergency preparedness and a review of our families emergency plans.


*Jennifer learned that if I am not home when the power goes out, the children have enough trust and faith in the neighbors to head over for security. Meanwhile, another neighbor who knew I wasn't home, called to offer to stop by and take our children to her house. How lucky am I?

*I learned that after a summer of outings and camping, we should replace batteries in flashlights. I also learned that the 800 scented candles I have accumulated, have a great use and I shouldn't feel guilty that they occupy a whole wall in the storage room.



*Ellie loved living like a pioneer...doing her homework by candlelight, eating by candlelight, etc., until she realized that it was her night to do the dishes and she would be doing them like a pioneer..BY HAND!

*If you interrupt your FHE to share your newly gleaned seminary knowledge that unicorns did, if fact exist, because they are in the Bible Dictionary, you will get a lot of confused and concerned stares. (She assured us that this interruption was relevant since we were discussing the ark and all. She's pretty sure that's where something went wrong with the unicorns).

*Texting works beautifully when the power is out. Texting during FHE results in cell phone confiscation.

*And finally, no matter how hard she tries to convince us, our family's emergency code word will never be "the Anti-Nephi-Lehi-Rosqvists" (So, if any of you want to use it...feel free!)



*Mitchell had 20 minutes of battery on his DS. Lesson learned: keep DS, ipod and portable DVD player's charged at ALL TIMES!!

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*Madelyn doubled up on pajamas, socks and blankets and fell asleep. A pretty great way to deal with it all!