Friday ice storm update

The kids and I made it into Adair County last night. We met Bryan's mom and dad in Bowling Green, where they gave Bryan some more cans of gas, groceries, and 1000 cups for our church. They ran out of cups while serving as a shelter for hundreds of people in our community. Bryan delivered them last night when he went back. And we came on back here.

This was one time that I was glad we had family that lived outside the area. Otherwise, we'd all be in the same boat. Luckily, Adair County, and points south and east of here, were not badly affected by the ice storm. They just barely missed it.

Watching GMA this morning, I heard a blurb from the local news that it could be up to a month before power is restored in our county. I certainly hope that is a worst-case scenario. I have no idea how long we'll be here, but I'm glad we could go somewhere safe and warm.

I had a lot of reservations about leaving home. I wanted to stay and be there in case anyone needed help or shelter, but taking care of "the three" is my first priority, and with "the three" in tow, I can't be of much help. Bryan is staying behind, though, manning the ship, so to speak. He'll be working, helping at the church, and helping anyone else he can. Our home is still open to anyone who needs a shelter. E-mail me if you know anyone who needs to stay and I'll get you in contact with Bryan.

Until next time, I'll miss all of my friends back home and I pray that God will supply all your needs and keep you safe.

Thursday ice storm update

We have water this morning, so Bryan and I both took showers.  He went in to work this morning.  I'm going to give the girls baths while we have water.  Bryan says the water plant may be low on gas for their generator so the water may not be here to stay.

The worst news is that all of KU's western grid is out--that means no power for anyone west of Louisville that they supply.  I heard on the news that about a million people across 20 states are without power, and it's likely going to be days or up to a week before any significant areas are back in power.  The local KU plant actually shut down yesterday because they had no where to send out the power.

Gasoline for generators is in such demand that there are shortages all over our region.  Bryan stood in line yesterday at Southern States for an hour and a half to fill up our gas cans.  The generator will run for 8- 10 hours with 7 gallons of gas.  If we hear that we can't find enough gas for the next couple of days, I probably will be coming to Adair County with our kids for a few days.  

Bryan was out all day yesterday helping the church wire up a large generator that the National Guard loaned them.  The church is now a shelter, and by the time he got home last night, he said it was filling up fast.  When a young girl with a small baby came up to him to thank him while he was working, he knew all those long hours were worth it.  

So, to conclude, our 2 guest rooms are ready for anyone who needs them, we have plenty of food for now, and our water is working as of now.  Phone service is sketchy.  Most of the time, I can't call out, but people seem to call in fine.  Our cell phones have been out until just now, and I have service, but not sure if that will last.

Pictures of the ice storm

Wednesday ice storm update

More freezing rain/sleet overnight.  Turned to snow this morning.  We probably have at least an inch of snow over the ice right now, but looks like it's ending.  

The water plant is out of power and they don't have their own generator.  The National Guard is looking for one that is big enough to supply their needs.  I think they need to buy one of those industrial built-in generators if you ask me.  Just to be prepared in situations like this.  So now, our county is out of power, many are out of heat, and we have no water now.  

Oh, and our phone lines are out as well as the cell phones.  Apparently, people from outside the affected area can call in, but we can't call out anywhere.  If you want to check in on us, call us and it'll probably get through.  

First Baptist Church is acting as a shelter, but they are filling up.

Now, Bryan and many others are helping our church (Second Baptist) to set up a diesel generator so the church will be fully functional and available as a shelter tonight to anyone who needs it.  Some also served food from there last night--I suppose they cooked with gas.  They may be serving food after powering up today.  

Anywho, the kids and I are just hanging out stuck in the house, but thankfully, we have a working generator so we are staying warm and we have plenty of food to eat.  Keeping them entertained is the biggest challenge so far ;)  I'll try to head out and get some pictures soon.

Ice Storm

Our county is a disaster area.  Again.  In less than a year, we've lived through a tornado that destroyed several homes last February, a wind storm that wiped out power for a week for many in our region, and now an ice storm like we haven't seen in years.  The linemen have worked overtime in each of these situations just to get our power back.  It must be so frustrating for them, especially as trees are falling constantly under the weight of the ice.  I pray God will keep each of them safe as they work day and night to get us up and running again.

We have (or had) several beautiful trees in our front and back yard that are now being desimated by the ice.  And more is coming now, with snow predicted after that.  I will try to post pictures tomorrow.  You wouldn't believe how many huge limbs are down all around our house.  I don't know if we can salvage any of our trees.  I sincerely hope our backyard trees around our swingset survive, but I think one at least may be lost.  They provided such nice shade during summer play.

My husband worked all day to find and hook up a generator, so we have heat and enough power to run our refrigerators, cook, and watch TV.  We still are conserving the lights and only running one small appliance at a time.  Dishwashing will be done by hand for now and we can shower, thanks to a gas water heater. I'm thankful that we can be warm and well fed, especially with "the three" here at home until school gets back in session.  

I dread going to bed, just to be startled by each crack and boom of more limbs falling, like I heard all night last night and all day today.  However, I thank God that we have a warm home to sleep in and pray that He will give each of us the strength to clean up and help our neighbors when the storms are over.  If any of you locals happen to read this and need heat or know someone who does, we have two spare bedrooms you can crash in if you need em.  Stay warm!

9 AM Shopping Report

Kroger was packed.  The milk was dwindling.  The checkout lines were backed up into the freezer section.  All available help was called to the front.  That was just at 9 AM this morning.  We're predicted to get between 1/2" and 1" of ice in our area tonight and tomorrow.  If you have time, run out to the grocery before the afternoon rush hits.  You'd think we were going to get trapped for a week whenever they call for snow around here. :)

Enjoying Where You Are...

On the Way to Where You Are Going is a book by Joyce Meyer that I've been picking at for several monoths now. I haven't read an entire book for years :) This week, I've felt the need to get back into this one.

I was lucky enough to be able to read some at Meg's Upward practice last night, and I think I'll make that a habit. A nice hour just to read and refresh. Ahhh!

Don't we all need some refreshing from time to time? It's been a trying few weeks with several stressful situations. One of the ways I can tell I'm saved is when life gets crazy, I feel the need to get closer to my Rock.

Several Bible verses in this book have really fed my soul this week, but I'll share one of them from this morning:
"You will show me the path of life, in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 16:11

Joyce Meyer says we can't keep saying we believe in God's promises if we walk around depressed all the time, worrying about our problems. We need to hand it over to him and let His joy shine through the tough times. Laugh, smile, and have fun as often as you can! And don't feel guilty about it! Just because a tough situation is upon you, doesn't mean you have to shut down and not enjoy anything in life. Get away from the problem for a while and have fun, however you need to do that.

I think I'm preaching to myself more than anyone, but y'all can take that advice too! Hope you all have some fun today!

How to fold a fitted sheet

I've never been able to do it properly. My mom tried to show me years ago, but to no avail. I may never be able to do it neatly, but here's a great video for all of you who may be secretly struggling like I am :)

Hibernation

I want to hibernate, so badly I could literally curl up about anywhere in a little ball and go to sleep. I especially want to curl up under the electric blanket on our bed, surround myself with pillows and sleep until I want to get up. It's that bad, people.

The sad thing is, I really just WANT to hibernate. I'm not rebelling against it. I think I'm part bear or something. With a husband, 3 kids, and a house to take care of though, hibernation can only come in short bursts between picking up kids, fixing meals, doing laundry, etc.

I think I'm rambling now. Good time to stop and have more coffee...and head to the electric blanket for a few minutes :)

My 5 Addictions Tag

Theresa from "Ramblings of a Crazy Woman" tagged me today with this funny meme.  I think I've already mentioned all these during my own ramblings here, but here goes:

5 addictions that I have:

1.  Everquest II--a multiplayer online game

2.  Webkinz--my substitute for EQII since I need a new video card to play that one.  Surprisingly enough, it's even fun for adults.

3.  Chocolate, especially Ghirardelli chocolate or any other good quality chocolate.

4.  Coffee

5.  American Idol, though since last week's premier featuring "bikini girl", my respect for it has gone down several notches.

I now tag whoever wants to jump in, because I'm too lazy to come up with a list.

Random stuff

Don't ya hate it when you mess up badly and have to face the consequences? To illustrate: I love online bill paying. So much more simple than writing checks and having stamps on hand, etc. Except when you send a payment to the wrong biller. Cingular has now gotten a large Discover Card payment and I now have a nice credit on our cell phone account, except I don't need a credit there...I need a payment at Discover. Upon calling them, I am informed I have to wait 9 days before I can call and have them overnight the refund back to me. To make sure it has cleared my bank and I'm not trying to scam them. *bonking myself in the head*

Moving on....Zachary is in the weaning process. We're down to 3 nursings a day. I am really going to miss nursing him, except that he's become a really rude nursling. He pulls, tugs, pinches, kicks, sratches my face, and pulls my hair. I guess it's best that way, or otherwise I'd really miss nursing him more. My goal has been to nurse each one for a year, and so far, I've met that goal.

Finally, I've been perusing www.marriagebuilders.com. Marriages are under Satan's constant attack, and Christian marriages are no less immune. There are great ideas there to help anyone strengthen their marriage. Don't wait until there's trouble brewing to work on your marriage. It takes constant effort. Now get to reading!

Computah rehaul

Somehow, I've managed to get two bad video cards in a row on my laptop. They should run fine up to 120C, but they booger up around 50 or 60C. My favorite game, consequently, is quite taxing on the video card and I can't run it under 60C. *ahem*

So, it's time for a rehaul. We've been needing extra memory to store and backup things, so hubby is looking into buying 3 new harddrives for the downstairs PC to run in a RAID 5 configuration (don't ask me to explain that...it took hubby about an hour to give me a basic understanding of it) to allow us to back up and store data, pics, etc to keep the laptop as free as possible. We're also installing a modified version of Windows XP called "tiny XP" that will run only the most basic setup without all the crazy applications nobody ever uses. And, we have a new video card coming from Ebay.

Today, I'm cleaning up old files and organizing them so we can move them downstairs and scrub this hard drive. It's kinda scary thinking about that, but hopefully if we rehaul this thing, I'll be back to Everquest II soon....and also we'll be able to burn DVD's of our home videos and other things without getting the "blue screen of death".

It's not ALL about the games, people. But since I can't play Everquest yet, I have to settle for Webkinz. A girl's gotta play sometimes!

Back home today

Yesterday, I traveled back to our hometown to attend the visitation for my friend Jamie's mom. It was good to see Jamie, her husband and two kids. I'd never seen the baby except in pictures. He's almost a year old. But, I wish it could have been under much happier circumstances. Jamie's grief-stricken, but she's strong like her mom always was. Her mom was proud of the great wife, mom, daughter, and friend that Jamie has become.

Jamie and I have been best friends since the 4th grade, when she transferred from a smaller county school to the main county elementary. We even roomed together at UK for 3 years until I got married and moved off to Louisville. Since then, we just haven't seen or heard from each other as often as we'd like.

I realized how quickly the years have passed by, and I so rarely see some of the people I love the most in my life. My only New Year's resolution this year is to be more thoughtful, so I think in light of that, I need to step up my contact with my friends and family that live far away from me. Obviously, with 3 little ones, travel is rather restricted, but I can call, e-mail, send cards and gifts more often...and try to fit visits into our travels too.

Quote of the Day

*From a cute email I got from my cousin Geoff:

We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

Just another awful Monday

Just like Garfield, I've always hated Mondays. Today, I really hated Monday.

First, waking up at 6 am and getting back into the swing of things after Christmas is never easy.

Then, Zachary woke up with a 103.9 temp.

Zoe's been even more energetic than usual and I had to take her with me after preschool to the doctor for Zach, who has his first ear infection.

Then, back home between the doctor and waiting for Rite Aid to get the meds ready, I got a call from my friend Jamie's husband that her mom had passed away this afternoon. We knew it was coming since Saturday, but it wasn't any less easy to hear. She fought a long fight with several health problems over the past several years. She got to enjoy her only child's two kids for a few years, but the oldest will miss her grandma terribly. The youngest is only a year old.

I'll be travelling back to our hometown where the funeral will take place later this week. I know what it's like to lose a mom when you're a young woman. It's hard, but I know that life goes on. Kids still need to be fed. Bills still need to be paid. Eventually, the memories get better, and I pray that will happen for Jamie too. I hope you will lift up a little prayer for them today.

Random post

For all you WGMGB fans (wow, that was long), I am no longer on official hiatus from blogging, though don't expect frequent posts. The holidays have pretty much come to a close. My dear hubby has helped me clean up and put away stuff and life is moving back to a somewhat normal pace. I'm feeling more inclined to blog now.

So, the big party for our 7 year old Megan is tomorrow at the local skating rink. I have made cupcakes and will carry them in my new cupcake transporter I got for Christmas. I may also try skating, though it has been years since I've done it. Megan has been practicing ever since Wednesday all over the house. I'm wondering if skating is like riding a bike--once you learn, you never forget? Guess we'll see how many bruises I get.

Tonight, though, my awesome hubby surprised me with a homecooked dinner. It was all his own new recipes. He made some chicken stroganoff, porcupine meatballs in a zesty sauce, and some pork tenderloin topped with some shredded cabbage salad, mango, peaches, and toated almonds...and he even made a peach/mango reduction sauce. I swear it looked like something you'd see on Iron Chef America. I'm not sure why I still cook :)

I've had a couple thoughts lately about public restrooms. I warned you this was a random post, didn't I? Anywho, ladies, please...if you don't want to do the shaky squatting thing over public toilets, just make sure we ALL sit down on them. Pretty sure we can't catch much from thighs alone. And if you make a splatter, for goodness sakes, clean it up so the next person can sit. My knees are getting too old for the squatting thing.

Now for a more serious public bathroom thought...why in the world can't family establishments put in sinks that little kids can reach? I have been to very few places where my 3 year old can actually wash her little hands without me having to pick her up. Very often, my 7 year old can't reach the handles or soap.

How hard would it be to either lower the sinks or at least put a stool under there so little kids can reach the sink? Sometimes I'm holding the baby and I can't pick up anyone else to help them wash. I bet it's also hard for some handicapped people in wheelchairs to reach these really high sinks.

So, looking for advice here...should I start e-mailing restaurants and other family venues to see what can be done about this? Would it be worth it? What do you think?