Irene- The unabridged version

So I left school Friday with the anticipation of the first day of school, being two days away and with a fear of the impending weather about to strike our area. Little did I know.
Friday evening I cleaned out a cooler, readied the flashlights, put batteries in the radio. Charged the cell phone and Ipod.
Saturday, got up, went to the store to get a few items. and at around 1 PM, the rain started. Paul got home from work around 3:30. At around 5 we noticed a drip coming from the ceiling in two places. We quickly moved the furniture and got buckets to collect water. Paul went outside and inspected the downspouts. in the pouring rain, I held the ladder for him. All looked ok.
We put the kids to bed, as the wind picked up and the rain came down. We watched the coverage on tv and around 11:30, we called it a night. I was feeling anxious and was praying that our power would stay on.
Well it didn't.
at 2 Am I heard the power go off. Does that make sense? Miss M's sound machine went off but since i am such a smart mom I remembered to put batteries in it. BUT I had to go in, unplug it and then it would turn on. Of course, she woke up. I had a flashlight and she was crying. Took about 10 minutes to get her to go back to sleep. I crawled back in bed, hoping that when I got up, the power would be on.
It wasn't.
The kids got up. We at Peanut Butter sandwiches for breakfast. I quickly got the ice from the freezer and put the milk and a few other things in the cooler. No coffee for this mom. ug.
By 9 Am the kids were going nuts. So was I. I was wondering how I was going to deal with all of this on my own. Paul had to be at work. So I went into talk to him and started bawling. I guess I just lost it! God love him, he got on the phone and called out. Love that guy! IT helped me feel less stressed. at least a little.
So I sent him out in search of ice and a land line phone. I couldn't find the one I keep for reasons like this. An hour and a half later, he brought home 4 bags of ice for the coolers I pulled out of the shed. He also brought home McDonald's breakfast and coffee. He said the whole area was out of power. We decided to go out and search for a portable tv. I need to watch the news. I am a storm coverage junkie. Well, there was one Walmart open in our county. Everything was without power. It was creepy!
When we got home we had to decide what to keep (food wise). We filled up our coolers and decided to head to his mom's house to see what we could fit in her freezer. (She had power restored pretty quickly) School (the first day) was cancelled since 49 schools had no power and so we decided to spend the night.
We fit most of our stuff in her freezer/fridge and the rest we kept in the cooler on tons of ice. We got the kids to bed and Paul and I laid down to rest our weary selves. I prayed for patience. There were so many people who had a tree through their home or 6 inches of water in their basement. No power was nothing compared to that. But still, I was so anxious.
We got a call from a neighbor around 11 PM that the power had come back on. I was so relieved. We got up the next morning and brought our food home. I spent the day putting things back, cleaning up and such so was glad to hear of the school closing for Tuesday. I needed a day to recoup.
We were so blessed to have stayed safe, to have minimal damage to our home, to have saved our food, and to get power back so quickly. We went 21 hours without and some people are going on day three.
We survived. and I learned a lesson in patience. I truly learned that I am not in control.