What a Pain in the ICE!

Monday night we began to get some freezing rain. They had already issued a "Winter Storm Warning" on Sunday night so we knew we were probably in for a good storm. Monday I jumped in and cleaned the house and did laundry so we would have that done. It started to get rainy/icy Monday night. John was at work and they decided to call of the 3rd shift and make second shift stay to finish up. Poor John didn't get home until 5 am that morning.

On Tuesday it just kept raining and freezing but we were just baking lot's of yummy things and staying warm and cozy! John had to go to work that night but they let him come home around 7 o'clock because the weather was getting so bad. So as he drove home he could see power stations blowing up all over town...which he thought was AWESOME! So he made it home in time for dinner and then he took the girls for a ride to go watch more transformers blow! Like their daddy...they thought it was AWESOME! While they were gone our power finally went out! John went to go check on his parents who had been with out power since that morning. They were fine and staying warm. By the time John and the girls got back our power came back on for a couple more hours and then finally went out for good around 11:30pm. The girls were sleeping like rocks, which was a wonderful blessing because they probably would have been terrified to hear all of the cracking, falling trees around our house. I didn't sleep at all that night! I told John that I stayed up all night praying that our house would be OK. Every 5 or 10 seconds you would hear "CRACK"..."BOOM"..."CRASH"!

One of the reasons that we fell in love with this house was because of all the big beautiful trees surrounding it. I didn't want a new subdivision with little 4 foot trees in the yard. But that night, little scrawny trees sounded pretty darn good! I was sure that our fence was demolished, our swing set would be a pile of toothpicks and our trampoline would have a tree limb speared through the middle of it. I finally got all the girls and had them sleep in the living room with John and I because I was just too afraid of a tree crashing through their bedroom ceilings. It was just a very terrifying, long night! The next morning I could not believe my eyes that our home and property had absolutely NO DAMAGE! Our swing set and tramp were fine! Our fence had a few limbs on it, but no damage! We were truly BLESSED! I told John that's because I prayed ALL NIGHT LONG! That day was beautiful. It was sunny and bright and everything looked like it was covered in glass.

The only problem...we still had no power. So we headed to Johns parents house for the day. They have a little gas heater, generator, and a camp stove for cooking. John and his dad tried and tried to get OUR generator working but it just wouldn't budge. So we ate dinner with them and then they let us borrow their generator at night so we could run our heater and fridge. Thursday we had electricity for a few hours so I jumped in and vacuumed, did some dishes, and laundry. The Terrells and Haskins came over to take showers because we had hot water and they didn't. Then our power went back out! I ran to the store and was going to go back over to Bob and Mells for dinner, but John called while I was there and told me that our neighborhood had power again. So I told Johns parents that I would just run home and heat up leftovers for dinner. As soon as I got home and put my groceries on the counter-the power went back out. Here we are again in the dark and no warm food. So we ended up borrowing Bob and Mells generator again for that night. They brought it over and Mell brought dinner and an extra camp stove so we could heat it up! So again we had a warm cozy night and our food didn't go bad.

Finally Friday morning after I made us all some oatmeal on the camp stove, our power came on for good! Yeah! We were so blessed through this whole ordeal. We were so lucky that we had no damage. We were lucky that Bob and Mell could spare their generator at night and we learned a few things about different areas that we need to be more prepared in. Our generator is in the shop getting fixed as we speak, so it will be ready next time we have an emergency. We learned that we do need a little camp stove to cook on. We have plenty of food storage, a hand crank radio, flashlight and candles. But it was a great learning experience to see the places that we needed to fill in! My parents probably won't have power for 3 weeks!!! But they are doing just fine! They are eating like kings, staying warm from the fireplace and they have their generator fired up so they can run freezers and get water. Johns parents are in good shape too. They are doing fine, staying warm and eating good! It's been quite an adventure for all of us! "If you are PREPARED ye shall not FEAR" is all I could think of through this whole ordeal! I am so grateful for this principle! Their are many people freezing, going hungry, and in shelters right now because they weren't able to stay in their homes! I was quite grateful for my nice cozy home! Now the clean up begins!!! I'm sure the buzz of chainsaws will be humming around here for a long time! Good Bye "Winter Blast 2009"!