Okay....we had a taste of what life would be like in a "mini-emergency" My son's school was closed due to swine flu. I had to wait in line for an hour just to sign him out and get him from class. The news reporters wanted to interview parents....but of course I had just gotten out of the shower and thrown on my slippers!!!! So I declined being famous. Later that day, there was a fire in our neighborhood that melted the transformer. so we were without power from 5pm until the next day. It gave us a realization that we really aren't very prepared. We even went to the church to microwave dinner because we didn't want to eat out in case the workers had the flu too. So at night, we luckily had some emergency candles. I have never realized how quite it is without even the buzzing of the refridgerator. We sat around the livingroom and I told some stories and then the kids went to bed. Kate was still "freaked" out....so we plugged a charger into nathan's truck and watched a movie. I can't imagine a prolonged period of that kind of life. Yikes!!!