Ice Ice Baby

Anyone who is reading my blog from Northwest Arkansas, feel free to skip this post. I am sure you've had your fill of stories of ice storm survival, and as they go, ours is pretty mundane. Here's a quick recap of the way I spent my week:

Sunday: Ethan's birthday. Celebrated with lunch, then headed to Little Rock to return my grandmother to her home.

Monday: Took my grandmother to a doctor's appointment, then booked it back to NWA to beat the weather. Hands and legs were sore for 3 days because I was so tense driving back. By 3:00, eveyone was home and waiting to see if it was really going to do anything outside.

Tuesday: It did something. And kept doing it all day long. It looked like someone was dumping huge vats of Sonic ice from the sky. Lost power on and off until it went off for good midafternoon. Started up our puny gas fireplace, lit a bunch of candles and got ready. Put the kids to bed in front of the fire around 8:30. Sat on the couch, not able to see or make any noise, for about 30 minutes, then gave up and went to sleep on a mattress in the living room.

Wednesday: We woke up to no power and a cold living room. Still raining Sonic ice. We hightailed it to my parents' house, which was nice and warm and light. Stayed there all day. We were joined at lunch by Chad and Marla and their kids, who were also without electricity. It was a full house. We were thrilled when our house was re-powered around 8. Came home and settled in. Were joined by Matt's sister and her roommate, whose power was not back yet. They took Abby's room, she slept with me, and Matt was on the couch again.

Thursday: Nice, normal day until 11, when the power went BACK out. Stayed home until we were ready to kill the kids, then went to Wal Mart and out to dinner. Had power back when we got home. Matt's sister stayed over again.

Friday: Matt went to work. Power out at 11. Again. Another time. We began to suspect that we were being toyed with. We took the kids to my parents' and came back one last time at 8. No power. We packed up and headed back to spend the night with them. Electricity came back on at 8:30, but we were not here to see it.

Saturday: We've been home all day, trying to get some laundry done and letting the kids catch up on their tv addiction. Matt has been out helping some guys from church clean up for some of our church families that had bad damage.

All in all, we've come through pretty unscathed. We had no damage to the house, and our front yard tree is the only one on the street still standing. Most everyone we know has power back now, though some won't get it back for a couple of weeks. I'm still in awe of how much damage a little frozen water can do.

I took a few pictures of the fallout. Here's a tree in the field behind our house. I took this on Tuesday--now everything has broken off but the main trunk.

Here are a couple of closeups from a tree at my parents'. Notice the size of the branches and the size of the ice around them--it's amazing they're still off the ground.

I really hope that things will begin to return to normal now. And I really, REALLY hope that school will be back in session Monday. If you have a good storm story, let's hear it!

Enough is enough

I am SO over playing Little House on the Prarie. Enough of the ice storm already! I know everyone has a wonderfully dramatic story of fallen trees and power outages, and I'll tell mine tomorrow. For now I'm just going to bed--with the heat ON.

Living proof

Today marks the third anniversary of Ethan Everett's arrival in this world. He continues to surprise us every day. He has certainly proven a few things:

1. A Swedish-blond can be born to two brunettes.
2. A human can survive indefinitely on grilled cheese sandwiches and popcorn.
3. Potty training will happen at the will of the trainee, and NOT the trainer.
4. "I made a mess" are 4 of the scariest words in the English language.
5. A really slender toddler can fit through a Playskool basketball hoop.
6. It is possible to memorize an entire episode of Dora the Explorer and repeat it verbatim.
7. Little brothers steal makeup and ruin Barbies.
8. Having a son is a wild ride. So far we're hanging on tight and having a ball.

Happy birthday son!

Just for the record

If I was the first-ever-elected minority president of the United States? And it was the most momentous occasion of my life and my presidency? And about 3 billion people were watching? And the CHIEF JUSTICE messed up the ONLY job he had that day, and turned what was supposed to be an historic moment into a joke? I would be TICKED OFF. We're talking asking-the-Senate-for-a-constitutional-amendment-allowing-presidents-to-smack-Chief-Justices-upside-the-head-when-they're-that-stupid mad.

Are you KIDDING me?

Our DVR nearly got a first class trip out the window tonight, because it did not record Idol. The best I can tell, there was a 30 second overlap between it and another show, so rather than just start 30 seconds late, it gave up altogether. What did I miss??

Eh.

That pretty much sums up tonight's Idol. Agree?

Did they have eHarmony back then, too?

I had a great week last week--almost caught up on laundry, kept the dishwasher unloaded, even had time to do a little organizing. Then this little time warp hit, and BAM-it's Tuesday and chaos reigns again.

We did have a good weekend and even survived hosting two social events at our house in 24 hours--Matt's sister's birthday pary on Saturday night and our care group on Sunday night. Other than a couple of trash bags full of Solo cups, there wasn't that much work involved thankfully. Tonight, of course, starts AI madness again. Tomorrow my grandmother is coming up to spend the rest of the week with us, since my boy turns 3 on Sunday (we are NOT talking about that right now).

This is completely unrelated, but I find it interesting and it's my blog :) Right now I am going to a Tuesday morning Bible study at my church. It's a new series created by Beth Moore, the guru of women's bibly study. The title is Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman. Fun, huh? The study's been great so far, but one thing in particular has just struck me as so funny. In the story of Esther, there is a king that needs a wife. So he orders that a group of beautiful women be brought together and be given "beauty treatments" to be made even more lovely. Then they get to dress up and wear fancy jewelry and each spend a teeny tiny bit of time with him. From this, he'll pick one to be his queen. Does this plan sound familiar to you? Oh, right! It was on TV last night, and it's called The Bachelor! Talk about there being nothing new under the sun.

Okay, I'll be back later tonight with some Idol wit and wisdom. You know you can't wait!