What a day!

So, I totally had a meltdown last night. ha Wouldn't you know? I think it mainly had to do with the fact that Noelle was not a very nice little chickie yesterday afternoon. :-
Around 2 a.m. we had a really bad thunderstorm. Noelle woke up scared and stayed in our bed until it was over. Right before it was over, the power went out. I wasn't really worried about it and actually slept pretty well after the storm was over.
The power was still out when we woke up. Over 12,000 people were without power in our county. I needed to get out this morning, and the kids were already up, so we were up and dressed by 7:30. I thought I would take them out to eat so I could leave when Evan left (and not open the fridge), but when I called a friend who lives really close to see if her power was out, she invited us over to eat breakfast with them (they had power). We decided to hang out at their house for a while; then a little later in the morning I decided to go get a few things from my fridge and put them into an ice chest since the power was still not on (I could tell by calling my home phone and going straight to voicemail).
Another of our friends called a little later to say that she didn't have power, so she and her five kids came over, too. It was funny because we were all supposed to go to her house tomorrow. :-) The morning weather was beautiful, but then my friend's AC decided to stop working after lunch. I finally came home around 4:30 after our power had come back on, and Evan brought home supper. Now our friends are here at our house for the night because their AC isn't working still, and more storms are coming tonight (which means they can't have their windows open). You would think our kids hadn't seen each other all day! ha
I'm thankful for
-friends who don't mind you coming over at 7:45 (under extreme circumstances - ha),
-nine kids playing well together (we heard a lot of "Ma" and "Pa" and "Charles" and "Caroline")
-nice temperatures and cool breezes
-dirt and sticks
-ELECTRICITY.
It only got in the 90s today, so we were very thankful for that. The kids had their little issues occasionally, but they played exceptionally well together, even inside. Nathan loved playing in the raised beds that do not currently have anything growing in them (thanks to the horrid heat) and was occupied for quite some time with arranging sticks in the mud to build "something."
There are more storms headed our way tonight, so I'm hoping that the power stays on!