The Iceman Cometh

So, we returned from Napa late Monday night. My mom brought the kids to the airport to surprise us. It was so good to see them. However, by the time we got home, it was time for bed, so we were a little bummed that we couldn't play with them very long. It was a school night and they needed their sleep. Little did we know, we would more than make up for the lost playtime in the coming week....

Day 1 - Tuesday

I am awoken at 5:45am by the phone. I answer a call from the school that school has been cancelled due to ice and sleet. Sure enough, as I hang up the phone, I can hear the tiny pellets hitting our windows and the wind howling outside. Apparently, overnight it began icing over the metroplex and making the roads virtually undriveable (at least by TX standards).

The Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex is not equipped with snow plow and they use sand trucks, not to melt the ice, but to give it more traction. However, with the Super Bowl this coming weekend here in Arlington, they were using those sand trucks to clear the roads to and from the stadium and hotels where the Packers and Steelers are staying so that they could safely get to practice....hmmmm, a great use for our limited resources....I think not (but that is my opinion)!

So, Tuesday, I hung out at home with the kids and my parents. The roads were too bad for them to travel back home after watching our kids for the weekend while we were away. We played games, watched movies, and looked at our pictures from vacation. I also did a bit of laundry.

Then, at 4:00 pm, we got the phone call....the school was cancelled again for Wednesday. Oh, goodie, I thought to myself...what were we going to do with the kids to keep them occupied yet another day. We were not prepared for what was about to happen!

Day 2 - Wednesday

My parents told me to sleep in the night before since they were there to help with the kids. However, I was once again awoken by a ring bright and early. This time it wasn't the ringing of a phone, it was the beeping of the alarm system alerting us of the power failure.

Yep, that's right, the power went out at 7:30 am. I got up and my parents told me that it had just gone off. I got onto my iPhone and went to Facebook to see if any of my friends were experiencing the same thing. As I quickly found out, we were experiencing state mandated rolling blackouts that would only last about 10-15 minutes each. So, we waited and hung out. Luckily, my mom had made some coffee, so I poured a cup.

15 minutes passed and no power. 45 minutes passed and no power. An hour and a half passed and no power. Now, on FB, many friends were posting that they were now on their 2nd and 3rd outage and how annoying it was. I am sure it was annoying for them, but why had ours never come back on?

After yet another hour went by with no power, the temps in the house were slowly plummeting. We were getting colder and colder. We have gas burning fireplaces, but they are operated by a switch, so they were a no go. Matt called the power company and of course, all we got was a recording with a message about the outages and how they apologized. They also said that if you were experiencing any outage longer than 15 minutes, enter your phone number at the prompt and they would note it and put out a work order. I did this THREE. MORE. TIMES. in the span of the next hour and a half.

We had eventually moved up to the second story into Will's nursery. You see, he had taken a nap shortly after the power outage and his door was shut, trapping most of the warm air. So, it was the warmest room in the house.

After about 5 hours, 3 very cold kids, and a 49 degree house, we decided to head out to the car, turn on the heat, and watch a movie while parked in the driveway. About this time, my brother called and insisted that we head to his house as they had not lost power yet and at this point didn't think they would. So, that is exactly what we did. It took us an hour and a half (normally takes about 20 minutes).

In the meantime, Matt had looked up our address on the power company's website and discovered that we were in a "low priority grid" due to its small number of units. It also said on the website that some areas may be out until the next morning. So, maybe we had made the right move heading to their house.

Walking into their house, the warmth was soooo inviting. The kids got to play with their cousin, watch TV, and we also got a hot meal. But, soon after we got there, our neighbor called and said that power was restored to our area. So, after we fed Will and got the kids bundled up, we headed back. We got home after dark and the house was still pretty cold, but bearable.

We also came home to a message from the school that it was once again cancelled for the next day!

Day 3 - Thursday

The house really warmed up overnight, so we woke up from a restful and cozy sleep. Once again, the kids occupied themselves in the playroom. We also watched Toy Story 3 and played several games. Cate did dot dot art and Max played his DS. Overall, it wasn't too bad, but since it was just ice outside, there was nothing for them to play in.....but that was all about to change!

Due to the impending snowstorm about to hit overnight, school was cancelled for the 4th day in a row. Reports were for about an inch overnight and a few flurries the next day and temps still not getting out of the 20s.

Day 4 - Friday

Reports were for 1 inch, but we woke up to about 5. It was a beautiful blanket of snow covering up the treacherous ice blocks below.

So, at least today, they got to go out and play in it and let out some of their pent up energy from the 3 previous days. Unfortunately, we had left their snow gear (snow bibs and snow boots) in New Jersey after the Christmas Snowmaggedon thinking that they would be there for the next time we go up there in that weather as opposed to no use here....WRONG!!! We just doubled up the layers of clothing, they did have their coats and hats and some too small rain boots. Oh, well, they didn't care. They only lasted about 30 minutes out there in the 26 degree weather!

Saturday is supposed to finally get us above freezing and hopefully melt some of this snow....just in time for more at the beginning of next week...UGGGH. I just pray it isn't so much school gets cancelled any more!