Yes, I'm slow in getting these up... it's been a bit crazy around here!

As we went to bed that monday night, we were told to expect a lot of snow the next morning. Instead, we got a LOT of ice! And it just got worse and worse (weatherwise) as the week went on. We had an interesting adventure but were very thankful for the blessings we had through it all.

That Tuesday, our power went off and on all day. It went off for about an hour but my cake in the oven had just finished baking when it went off so that was good! They fixed it after about an hour but then it went off again, this time for almost 4 hours. We were headed out the door to visit my sis-in-law when it came back on. We visited anyway and had a good time only to return home to a dark, powerless home. So we packed up some stuff and headed back to her powered home for the night. Around 1 am her power went out. When we woke, we gathered around the gas fireplace and ate a big breakfast of things that were going to go bad! lol Then we packed up the kids to go up the street to my father-in-law's since he had a generator and more room for all of us. John decides he'll go get some gas for the generator so my father-in-law doesn't have to go out (he was still recovering from hip replacement). His dad sends him to shovel a path to the shed to get another gas can. John heads out and then FIL realizes the furnace had gone out and although we had power and the furnace had power, it was useless. We just huddled around his gas fireplace and counted our many blessings. Then John came back with bad news. He got the gas and stopped by the store for milk and the whole process took for.ev.er. because so few places had power. By the time he got back (over an hour later), he realized that the gas can he shoveled a path to get to had a tiny hole in it and the carpet in the van was saturated with gas. So he spent a big part of the rest of the week driving around with the windows down in frigid temps and trying everything we could think of to get the smell out. (It's much better today but STILL stinks... any more ideas???) Well, the power came back on in the wee hours of the morning at FIL's house and the furnace people came out and we were once again a spoiled bunch of family. We hung out with some other family members who stayed with us at the in-law's for a week enjoying good cooking and fun fellowship along the way. Jeremiah had so much fun, he didn't want to go home! We had church on Sunday since the power there came back on Saturday, it was so good to see others! I had been stuck in the house with the kids all week! We were finally able to go back home the next Tuesday to our warm (but dirty) home. We had lots to clean up in the yard but our mess was nothing compared to so many others. In fact, there are still tons of people without power - please keep them in your prayers!

Here are a few snapshots from the ice storm...

John went out to clean off the vehicles and he took a break to ice skate with Jeremiah around the drive way...


My little snow buddy...


I went around the yard looking for something to shoot. Everything was covered with ice. Look how much is on top of the stems...


I thought this looked interesting, it's J's basketball goal...


Jeremiah was so excited to break off icicles but was really bored with Mommy taking pics of him...


So he brought me an icicle to take a pic of...


Found another one to shoot... cool detail in the ice, eh?


It iced more that day and by that night it was like a war zone. It sounded like gunfire as limbs broke off and trees fell down one after another. The next morning everything looked like this with a strange grey fog...


Here's one of our house from the van (can you see all the icicles on the wires?)


Our street full of bowed over trees...


Across the street...


A neighbor's house...


Our yard looked like a winter wonderland...


We did get some snow after everything was nice and iced...


John wanted to show how thick the ice was on top of his car...


Seriously, it was so sad to see the tree damage. Look how heavy the ice is and what it does to the trees...


It actually uprooted one at the park...


But all the ice gave a magical sort of feel until you thought about all the damage.

We had a gorgeous blue sky a few days into the mess...




When I got out to take some pics, it was starting to warm up (ooh, 30's!) and everything was melting. Icicles were dropping everywhere and it sounded like heavy rain even though it was clear and sunny. You had to look up to see where you should walk before getting pummelted by falling ice from trees and wires!

Mommy Moment: We kept hoping our "displacement" would be temporary and so we didn't bring many of the kids toys. My niece (who is now 20) had a huge Barbie house and a boatload of Barbies, Kens and other accessories at my in-law's house in a spare room upstairs. Jeremiah would often play in this room and liked to play with Barbie's stuff like setting the table with lots of food and arranging bottles and boxes on the shelves... but this time, he must have gotten bored because he actually started dressing the dolls and matching up shoes for them. We are horrible parents! lol It was even worse when Joshua got a hold of Barbie's long blonde hair and Jeremiah tried to yank it away from him. Never did we ever think our boys would be fighting over Barbies... tough times for all, I tell ya... tough times...