Thursday, January 29, 2009

Snow Days 1, 2, 3 & 4

We have been in the house for nearly a week now. Last Friday, when Livie got off the bus, she had a fever. Within an hour, Nate had one too. But it was one of those fever's that came on strong and disappeared with all symptoms within 20 minutes of taking Tylenol. We stayed in all weekend just as a precaution, I'm sure it sounded convincing when friends would call and hear the circus going on in the background. But sure enough, 6 hours later, here came the fever and the headache and the whining. So I'm glad that school was cancelled on Monday & Tuesday, since Livie had a fever at least once during each day. Whatever it was seems to be gone now, crossing my fingers.

Monday we had a "dusting" of snow, but the roads were slick enough that school was cancelled. I was glad, like I said, Livie wasn't 100% yet and I hate getting up and trying to get everyone moving when it is so cold outside. That morning, Livie practiced her waffle making skills to make us breakfast. They turned out very good.

For the most part, except a quick trip to get milk, we stayed in the house all day. Then Tuesday, we woke up to a good 3 inches of snow, that's serious stuff around here. Sam & Nate played outside for a short time, then we made forts and the kids chose to stay in their PJ's all day long.


The kids were very proud of this fort, and it only took Nate all of 2 seconds to bring it down.

Tuesday night, we heard warnings of freezing rain. We experienced this last year too, but I had no idea what this storm would bring. Problems occur when ice freezes on the tree branches and power lines, then when the wind blows, it causes the branches to fall on the power lines and everything else. All night long, I kept hearing branches break and fall. I thought part of our roof was falling at one point, but luckily, that was just me and my great imagination.

Even after the rain stopped, tree branches kept snapping. I don't think there is a neighbor on my street who didn't have a tree break. It is a mess out there right now. Our next-door neighbors tree had a large limb fall and bring down our power line. Our power line is laying on his car and shed and through our backyard, But by some wonderful miracle, our power is still on. The electric company just told us to try and use as little power as possible??? This poor neighbor is the same guy who had a tree fall on his house when Ike came last September too. Thankfully, it didn't look like there was any serious damage.

So on Snow Day 3 we were trying not to get too stir crazy. We had been in the house all week long and it really wasn't a good idea to go anywhere unless you needed to. Did I mention that my car was covered with ice as well, one more reason to stay home. So the kids played Indians, and we built a cave out of the dining room table.

The excitement of Snow Day 4 came when the workers came to cut down the broken limbs and remove the tree that fell on our power line. These guys are amazing. Notice all the white on the trees? It's all ice. Everything is covered in ice.

Last I heard, 195,000 people are without power in the Louisville area. So school will be cancelled again tomorrow. I just need some good entertaining ideas for the kiddo's and some warm weather to melt everything.

3 comments:

Amy McKinney said...

Wow, looks like fun!!! We just got about a foot of snow on Wed and along with the snow came freezing rain. The school has used 6 snow days so far this year. usually we only have to use about 4. But our storms are usually a lot more than 3 inches too. We had an ice storm like what you got earlier this year. I hate those storms. My house is in an old river bed so the wind really gets whipping around. I know how it feels to lay in bed and wonder if you will have a house in the morning!!!

Amy and the boys said...

Oh man. What a week! It was great to catch up with you the other day. I'm thinking school will still be out tomorrow, right? What will you do? Was there even church today?? I'm glad you have power. Make more waffles. :)

the5johnsons said...

You pooring. I bet you, or at least your kids. are going stir crazy. I am glad that you have power and are doing good. I have heard on the news that other Kentuckians aren't fairing as well. Well, I sure hope that spring hurries up and gets here already.