lights out

i was home by myself with the children on wednesday night, making a frozen pizza in the oven... a load of laundry in the dryer... the baby playing next to me on the floor in the kitchen... sunny and sailor watching the dvr in the living room... and...
we blew a fuse.
this has happened before, but never at night.
in the pitch darkness.
when i was by myself.
with all of the children.

who immediately started crying.

i fumbled my way to the junk drawer and struck a match to light my christmas candle (my emergency flashlight was in the bedroom, a little too far away). i picked up the baby and made my way to the living room. sunny was ok, but sailor was screaming hysterically for me to pick her up. and between the candle and the still-crying baby and the need to get to the fuse boxes in the garage (also pitch black) and the outside of the house (ditto), i could only think of one thing i really needed to find:
my phone.
which was sitting on the piano, glowing in the candlelight.

"michaela?" i asked our pre-teen neighbor, when she picked up. "can you please bring several flashlights and your sister and come over here right away?"

thank God for neighbors who are available at the drop of a hat. with the girls' help, i managed to re-set all of the fuses and calm down the children.

and i didn't even burn the pizza. :)