Crazy storm

Last night we had a crazy storm. High winds and pelting snow.  Braden had driven  himself and Zach to ym/yw and Loren was nervous about him getting home.  He did just fine.  He said the only problem he had was seeing where to turn onto our street.  But he saw a van parked at the neighbors at the corner and then knew where it was.
We frantically looked for flash lights that worked. Most of them were out in the trailer. Hope thought flash lights were a neat thing, but kept crying, pointing to the T.V. and saying show.  She didn't understand that it wouldn't come on.
A great neighbor posted on face book that gas fireplaces have a back up battery connection.  Just add 2 D batteries.  Well we found ours, but guess what, the wires had never been connected so it would work.  So our great neighbor got in his car and came right over to help(Thanks Trent).  He had it up and going in no time.  All of the kids-minus Braden slept in the family room, to keep warm.  Braden opted out and slept in his own bed.
Loren didn't dare leave the fire place on all night, afraid of carbon monoxide poisoning. The fire place is vented, but he didn't want to take any chances ( and YES we have carbon monoxide detectors in the house).  Better safe than sorry.  Loren turned the fire off at 11p.m.  and thankfully the power came back on at 2:30 before the house cooled off to much.
The older kids were hopping that it would still be off in the morning so they wouldn't have to go to school.
Thankfully my alarm clock has battery back up and the kids cell phones have alarms on them, so everyone was up on time.