WE SURVIVED!!!

Wow, this has been the craziest week ever! The ice storm was massive. I've never seen ice like this before! It covered the trees, and I bet the ice was at least 2 inches in diameter! It came through last Tues. I had class that morning (students and I were not too happy about that!), but by that afternoon everything closed down. We lost electricity that morning. Thankfully, we have a gas fireplace and a gas cook top and best of all HOT WATER! Chris's parents were up visiting (poor things!) and endured it with us for a few days. Tues night, Chris and I tried to brave sleeping in our bedroom (super cold!) and it sounded like gun shots through the night as branches and huge portions of trees fell outside. Kind of creepy! By Wed. morning, most of the area was without power. We luckily found a restaurant open and got us some grub.

Jonesboro was up and running for the most part by that evening. We spent lots of time in the play area at the mall over the next few days just to stay out of the house and keep warm! I never thought I'd be tired of going to the mall! After that first night, we all camped out in the living room by the fire. Schools were closed all week. Most are back open now, but there are still some out indefinitely.

It was quite interesting taking showers! While the water was hot, it was freezing cold outside the shower! No hair dryer....lots of bad hair days! We survived, though, and it was not the most ideal situation, but I am thankful for what we did have.....

Some friends of ours live in town, and they got power back Sat. morning, so we packed up days worth of laundry to take to their house and catch up at least a little bit! That evening the kids and I were headed back home while Chris was off to the hospital to see another friend. I was talking to him on the phone when I came over the hill to the house, and my garage light was on! I never knew I'd be so excited to see a light bulb glowing! We were (and still are) the only house on the street with power. Our internet/cable was restored last night, so now we have more than one fuzzy channel! Power came on at the church Sat, also, so we were able to have services on Sun., and we were able to feed community members and electric crews last night.

There are still tons of people in the area without power. The crews up here are working very hard, but it will take probably till the end of the month to get everything back up and running. Pray for those still without power. This morning, about half my students were still without power. We'll make it through though! God is good!

The kids took it all in stride. Joshua was WAY out of his routine....bad napping, not wanting to go to sleep at night, etc., but we're getting back to normal. Caleb was concerned that he was not going to school, so he was pumped this morning to get back! I must say, I'm kind of glad to get back to a routine too!