Snow Days, Ice Days and Lost Power

Last week was exciting and scary and fun and nerve wracking.  We had weather that shut schools down for 5 days, canceled all activities happening for an entire week and even canceled part of church. The snow came and dumped and dumped and made for some pretty excited kids. We spent the first three day playing and shoveling.

Then the freezing rain hit and iced everything over. Trees were weighed down by the weight of it all and breaking left and right. I had to go out with my camera and take a walk just to see what our world looked like covered in ice. It was pretty amazing...and a tiny bit scary so I shot what I could and then got myself back inside before a tree fall on me.

This is our walking path down below our house.  This picture doesn't capture it's amazingness at all. It was like every tree was bowing to the earth.  If you touched the branches they would break.  Each individual tiny part was covered in a thick layer of ice...but most held strong and survived.

Power lines went down for days and days and everybody suddenly started to go into survival mode.  When our power went out I got kindof excited.  I like change and suddely I had as much time as I wanted to play with the kids.  I couldn't do laundry or work on the computer so we colored by the fire and built a fort.

We only lost power for 5 hours (to be honest, I was sorta bummed) but many others lost it for several days.  I am so glad we had a warm house for others to come to.  It made for some fun evenings with the Cooks (the friends we could walk to) and the Teeples who came to stay with us after their home froze them out.  It's these changes in our normal routine days that make us grateful. After and during it all I became very aware of a few things I am so grateful for:

• Every one's safety.  I don't even know of anybody who was hurt through it all and after being out in it and watching all of the trees coming down like crazy I am kind of surprised everybody is okay.
• Our gas stove and fireplace.  Even when the power was out we could cuddle up by it and still have warm food.
• Concerned neighbors and friends.  Thank you to those who felt the need to come and check on us.  I was very touched by those gestures.
• Mark's phone and it's ability to get the Internet.  Communication with the outside world was nice after being cooped up for a week.
• Snow days.  Payton had prayed and wished every day for the last month to have snow.  When it began to fall he was sick with a stomach bug and so sad to miss it but so happy to see his little prayer answered and it sticking.  He knew the next day he could use his new sled to go sledding.  My kids were so happy to just be playing in it.  I had fun running them up and down the hills and building our snow alien with them.
• Mark's job and his ability to work from home when we can't even leave our own steep driveway.
• Lost power.  I am actually grateful that the Teeples lost their power.  It made for some fun days at the end of the madness.
• My camera and some good boots that allowed me to grab a few shots with out slipping and falling. 
• And lastly for now...the rain.  As fun as snow is, we don't do well with it here.  When the rain began to fall and helped melt the snow and ice I became aware of how much I missed it.  It makes this place so beautiful and in the rain i can still get out...and that's all I wanted by the end of this excitement.