MOTHER'S DAY AND THE PARTY THAT WASN'T

Because we live in the same state as all of our families and because we are the only family that lives away from our hometowns, any holiday that rolls around usually means that we are rolling too.... rolling on the highway. This Mother's Day was no different. MY Mother's Day was spent on a tour of eastern NC. After getting 3 sleepy kids up and making them get dressed against their will, we went  to my MIL's house 2 1/2 hours away. Our visit was short but sweet and enjoyable. We then piled in the car and drove 1 1/2 hours to visit my mom (and dad). After a short visit there we were on the road again, on our way back to Raleigh, because #2 had to be at work that evening. The restaurant she works at was packed when we dropped her off right on time with all of those mom's being treated to a leisurely day and meal. #2 knowingly explains that Mother's Day is one of their busiest days of the year and that they had to turn away reservations all week. (....she went on and on and on.....)After we got home, the MOTH looked at me and asked....."do you want us to take you out?" Well, gee, let me think....... I've been sitting in a car all day and it is 6:30. I'll just go do the four loads of laundry (explained below).

 So just like that nice relaxing restaurant #2 works at, Mother's Day is one of the busiest days of the year for me too. 

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Saturday night we hosted a party for #3's soccer team.

 It was a BEAUTIFUL day here! We worked outside all day (all week) getting the yard, porch, patio and pool area perfect. I cannot tell you just how excited I was about how the day was going. 

We were ready!!

#3 had a game at 4:00 and the players and ALL of their families were going to come straight to our house after the game. I stayed home to do the last little things on our To Do list. As soon as the game was over, the MOTH called to give me a heads up. There I sat on the porch, relaxing, ahead of schedule and admiring all of our handy work. No sooner did the MOTH pull in the driveway with the caravan behind him.............BOOM!!!! .....lightning, wind, more lightning, really big wind.  Seriously, there was no warning. One minute it was perfect and the next minute we were in the middle of a hurricane.

 As soon as all 50 plus people were huddled in the kitchen, of course,  the lights went out. It was raining so hard you couldn't see past the patio in the backyard. The wind was so strong, the largest oak in our yard was knocked down, somehow missing all of the cars in the driveway. I did my best to keep it all together. I pulled out all of my candles from the closet. Thank goodness I love candles and have tons of them. I had to laugh. There were so many Yankee candles burning at once, we had the smell of Christmas, fall , spring and some tropical  ones all competing with each other. Probably the worst thing is that we have a well, not city water, and when the electricity goes out, our toilets don't flush. Um yeah, it was like we had "porta potties" right in our house, how nice! 

The power stayed off for 3 hours. Eventually it stopped raining and the kids were able to swim a little bit. I had to use just about every towel in our house drying off all of the patio furniture and folding tables.  Of course, the power came back on as soon as the coach started to thank everyone for a great season while we were all standing in the candle lit garage. 

Look at all of the candles!

This was not the party that I planned.