Neither rain, nor heat, nor complete darkness will stop the parade!

Hello everyone - I'm back after a much too long hiatus.

After an incredibly interesting week with rain for 2 days, 100+ degree weather for two days and the largest blackout in San Diego County history, the 2011 Poway Patriotic Parade had 10,000 spectators, 2,000 participants, 115 entries and an exhausted team of 160+ volunteers.  I was so grateful to have been a part of it, and the most heartwarming part of the day was when I got to meet and say “thank you” to a Congressional Medal of Honor winner as well as to the parents of two veterans recently killed in Afghanistan.  Beautiful day.

How my family has fared through all this, not so beautiful.  Here’s what I learned happens when you –  have the largest blackout in San Diego County history two days before your parade, leave your husband unattended with cake mix, and have seen nothing but a computer screen for two weeks:

1)      When you experience the largest blackout in San Diego County history and you have 12 hours “in the dark”, you will find that texting is the only way to communicate, and you may find yourself “old schooling it” with candles, a flashlight, oh, and the big green generator thing that your MacGyver husband uses to jump the car battery.  No idea how that thing worked, but it kept me going.

2)      When you arrive home from the parade, your sweet husband MAY make you a cake.  However, he MAY also confess to you that he MAY have cooked the cake frosting packet as if it were cake mix and therefore that’s why it looks like a Frisbee.  That MAY also explain the big tub of chocolate frosting your nine year-old is eating when you get home. 

My husband asked me not to post this picture because it's not his best work, but it was
too good and too sweet not to share - it says "Congrats on Great Show".

3)      When you neglect your family for two weeks it is entirely possible that they will start to put their dirty underwear in your room because they have no other room in their laundry baskets; AND, you WILL come home to the disaster in your 5 year old’s room that is showcased in the photo below AND, you may receive a phone timeout and be informed by your seven year old that now that the parade is over, you have nothing else to be thinking or talking on the phone about.

4)      That same middle child will say to you “mom, that was a great show . . . how did you get Ronald McDonald?”  We had Hum Vee’s and Dune Buggys and floats and Congressmen and little girls doing back flips, and she asks me how I got Ronald McDonald?!  Killin’ me.

Parade is finished.  Now back to family fun!

Tomorrow, stories of homeless guys and margarita mix, as well as getting "sh*t" on in the middle of the parade route.