On Wednesday evening at about 6:30, Sweet Pea was in the bath when we lost power. Everyone on my side of the street lost power. This would ordinarily not be a big deal except for two reasons 1) the people directly across the street from us did not lose power and 2) if it so much as sprinkles outside, we go dark. Ugh. And the main issue is that when we do lose power (6 times in one year!), we never know if it’s going to come back on in a few minutes or ONE WEEK. That is what TXU was telling my husband when he would call in for updates from Las Vegas (where he was at the time) – “sir, we’re doing everything we can to get your power turned back on, but it could honestly be a week before it happens.” Uh… if you knew how much we paid for power every month, you would be appalled at this response! I, for one, thought they should ignore all other calls from disgruntled customers and work on restoring power to my home – because I have two small children and was running out of distractions! (I know that is incredibly self-centered, but after 20 hours in the dark with a refrigerator full of $125 worth of new groceries that are slowly rotting, you would be in the same boat, no doubt!) Needless to say, during that time we read a lot of books (including “If Kisses Were Colors,” so beautifully illustrated that you will weep and then tear the pictures out and have them professionally framed). And then we did the “chores,” which Sweet Pea is totally into these days. She loves to have a job. So, we made many, many trips to the outside trash bins to toss all of my precious ground turkey meat and cheeses. During one of those trips to the bin, she tripped and fell in the driveway and received a pretty hefty raspberry on her knee for her efforts. Man, I thought, could we use a cold compress now! And lo and behold, look what I found today – the cutest ever cold packs for kids. We had to have them, particularly after my daughter squealed with joy when she saw the cute characters on my computer screen.