Power Outage!

When we built our house we decided to add a fireplace for two reasons.  The first was the atmosphere.  In the winter we love lounging around with the fire on while sipping some hot coco!  The second was for an emergency.  We thought that it might be nice to have some heat if the power were to go out during the winter.

We have lived here for 5 1/2 years and last Wednesday was the first time we were able to test out our second reason for having a fireplace.  The power went out while Brad was putting the kids to bed, I was at a relief society meeting.  He was reading them stories when the lights went out.  Luckily it wasn't pitch black since I bought some emergency flashlights that plug in and turn on when the plower goes off.  They light up the house and they are easy to find.  He said that they worked great!

Aleah was really scared at first and Cade was just fine.  Brad is such a great Dad, he handled Aleah and Cade's first power outage wonderfully.  Good job Brad.  Cade went right to sleep.  Aleah needed a night light so he put one of the flashlights up against the wall.  She also wanted music so he grabbed his IPad.  Smart Dad!

When I got home the kids were asleep and there were candles everywhere.  The rest of the evening was spent evaluating and planning for the next emergency.  Now back to the fireplace.  I was worried that it wouldn't heat all the rooms so we turned it up as high as it would go and opened the kids' doors.  When the power came on around 1 am (we knew it was on because we didn't turn off our kitchen light even though we thought we did) Brad got up to turn off the fireplace and noticed that it was 70 degrees in our house.  I was sweating hot, but at least we know now that it can heat all the rooms!

I am thankful that we got to have a test run!  I am also thankful that Brad made it home from his business trip to Nebraska a couple of hours before the storm hit!