Saturday, February 25, 2012

January Weather | Part 2

Here is the sequel to my previous post.

The day after the snow... we got ice. It doesn't sound that bad, but when you add freezing rain on top of 6 inches of snow, its bad! First thing that morning, I was getting cereal for the kids and realized how "pretty" everything looked outside. Wow! Look at all the ice on everything! So I headed outside with my photo gear in hand. Snap snap snapping pictures... gee, this is great! Moments later I hear crashing sounds. Then I hear more crashing. Then I look over in my neighbors back yard at the very moment a huge branch from their tree comes crashing down. Thats when it all changed in my mind. I headed back inside to discover the power was out. Out out out... for 3 days! *that is the longest I've ever been without power.

The first day without power was fun. The kids and I grabbed the guest room mattress and Timmy's twin mattress and we made some beds in our living room where our gas fireplace was. Thankfully we had a gas fireplace or we would have been freezing! We played games, puzzles, built a tent, read stories, played with flashlights, watched movies on Daddies laptop after charging it in the car, ate lots of fruit and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, lit candles, cleaned up messes, made more messes... and on and on.

Day two... we were getting a little stir crazy. For some reason, when your power goes out, time slows way down. Go figure. Tim decided it was time to fire up our generator. Thank goodness I have a smart husband who thought it was important to own a generator. We were able to run our microwave and oven and have some important lights on in the house at night. Tim and I played a few rounds of Sequence. Its our favorite game to play together.

Day three. I'm done. I had to get out of the house. I ran to Costco with the kids. Costco didn't even have power. They were running their lights and registers on generators but it was freezing in Costco that day. Grabbed some important essentials... Doritos, muffins, fruit... ya know... the healthy stuff. ;)

Day four. We finally got power back on at 3 pm! Yippee!!! Life is back to normal!

Our family learned a valuable lesson. Food storage and 72 hour kits are very important! Anything can happen at any time and we need to be prepared. So important! Here's the pics I took during our crazy weather:

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I don't know if you can tell by the picture below, but the snow on our bench is complete ice. Imagine that sitting on top of tree branches.
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The thick layer of ice I peeled off of one of the Rhododendron leaves.frozen 1
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My cute boy trying to read a story and Aubri was being a bit crazy! Can you tell by the expression on her face?
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Getting a bit bored!
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A little hide and seek anyone? Even our dog was getting in on the action.
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Our wintery view. The branches on the trees are usually horizontal. The tree on the left is missing all of the branches in the middle now. Poor tree.
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Hubby getting the laptop ready for us to watch a movie. :)
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Watching our movie... I think it was Winnie the Pooh?
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The view of the power lines and the trees with all the ice.
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Tim took us for a drive to see some of the roads closed due to fallen trees and power lines.
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I'm sad our city lost lots of beautiful trees. Even the park where I took these pictures. So sad but I'm glad its over and just a memory now.

5 comments:

  1. Wow you guys were much more prepared than I would have been. The power went out for a few hours during the day and I realized we only had 1 flashlight.

    Those flower pictures are so cool.

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  2. Your pics are so gorgeous, LOVE them!! I can't believe how bad you guys got hit, I'm glad your family is all OK!

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  3. I would have gone bonkers with the power out like that! You are a trooper!

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  4. Wow, this remind me of the ice storm we had here back in 1998 (in Montreal Canada), most of the provice of Quebec lost power for up to a week but rural communiities were out for much longer. I agree it looks beautiful but the devistation to trees is awful.

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  5. I would lose it completely if I were out of power for more than two days. I am really impressed you actually had fun. I would also be cooking like crazy because all of our food storage is something you cook with rather than ready made food. Its a good reminder for me to get a generator.

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