Popsicles and Popcorn: An ice storm, a war zone, an earthquake and the Ingalls

For those of you that live up north please forgive my whining in this post. I was born up north but have lived in the deep south since 4th grade. This past week proved that I am more southern than I thought! It all started days before the storm hit, with winter storm warnings broadcast on every mode of media possible, tv, radio, cell phone voice messages, texts, home phone messages, emails and word of mouth. It was quite evident we were in the path of a big winter storm supposedly going to dump dangerous amounts of ice. I say supposedly because we tend to go a bit exaggeratory here in the south if an innocent snowflake is detected anywhere within hundreds of miles. Things close down...for days. Most of the time these warnings amount to nothing but a few innocent snowflakes. This time, due to the debacle in Atlanta with the previous winter storm, our city took every precaution you could think of, closing business and schools for the next 2 days! My clever northern brother-in-law sent a string of hilarious group emails to all of us family members down south. We went right along with his humor, mocking the winter storm. Mistake. Big mistake. Wednesday in the very early morning hours the sleet began followed by the freezing rain. We were all quite curious at first and enjoyed the warmth of the fire and the day off from school and work. Until it happened. The electricity began to flicker....5 or 6 times. Then around 11:00am it was lights out.

CRAP!

The freezing rain continued all day as did the accumulation of ice on all things. It was quite beautiful really. We have a gas water heater and a gas stove so we could cook on the stove top and we had hot water.....yea! How bad could it be right? Everybody home, warm fire, candles everywhere, great family bonding time, board games came out, pretending ensued....5 kids, everybody home, no tv, no electronics, squabbling started, temperature in the house started dropping,it got darker, the ice continued to accumulate, the squabbling escalated, boredom set in. Ok, yes, I guess my kids and are spoiled. And if I am honest I am too. Wow, do we ever depend on electronics to direct our lives! Bedtime came early, as there was not much to do in the dark. Everyone was dressed in layers with piles of blankets. I laid in my bed just listening to the deafening silence. Then the cracking and booming began. I felt as if I was in a war zone. The cracking of tree branches sounded like machine gun fire and the booming of falling trees, poles and transformers blowing felt like bombs exploding. I just laid there waiting for our house to be hit. What a frightening night. I can't imagine living in a real war zone! Thursday morning came and I grabbed my camera to document this historical event. I was stunned at what I saw. Not only had it sounded like a war zone but it truly looked like a war zone. I could not believe the damage! We were quite fortunate to have only minor damage to some tress and bushes with downed limbs littering our yard. Thursday continued to go downhill fast with more trees and limbs falling and transformers blowing. And it got even colder inside. The candle supply was dwindling. And the kids got even crankier and more bored and this mama almost lost it! I am embarrassed to say I was NOT a trooper! I kept asking Will, "What in the world did the Ingalls do? Did they go to bed at 7:00 pm because it was too dark and cold for anything else? What did Mary, Laura and Carrie do all day and night?" ( I think there was a son or 2 in there somewhere too wasn't there?) I told Will, "Surely Carolyn had a nip or two at the moonshine or had her own private stash hidden in the barn somewhere?" I am just so glad God in His infinite wisdom had me born in the 1960's with a full supply of electricity! I just couldn't take much more. Our awesome neighbors did get a generator and ran an extension cord to our garage refrigerator and freezer so we were able to save a good bit of our food. Friday afternoon, after no hope of the electricity returning any time soon, I packed up 7 people, 2 dogs and the bunny and to my parents house we headed. Bless their hearts, they were in warm Florida and offered the use of their clean home to our circus. Will and Julia had to head to a basketball game further south so I went on ahead with everyone else. When I pulled in the driveway and unloaded the van I cranked up the heat and turned on every light in the house. I took the kids out for pizza, then back we went to get in pj's and snuggle into warm beds. After everyone was asleep, I sat in a big comfy chair with a fleece blanket on and felt my toes finally thawing out. I was enjoying the Olympics and a decorating magazine when my chair suddenly shook and the walls rumbled. I thought the dog had gotten under my chair. Nope! Then I thought maybe I had turned the water on wrong and had exploded something. I went running down to the basement. Nope. All was fine. All kids sleeping. Dogs sleeping. Bunny sleeping. No explosions. Maybe I had truly lost it over the past 60 hrs? I went back to my chair to await the arrival of Will and Julia. I got a text from my sister-in-law asking if we are ok and had felt the earthquake. EARTHQUAKE. Are you kidding me? I was just getting over the cracking and booming and now there was an earthquake? In Georgia??? My neighbor texted me too with a picture of a water tower that had busted because of it. Was that OUR water supply???? Seriously! Carolyn Ingalls must have had her own private wine cellar!

We had a very lovely get-away at the lake with good food, shopping, the Lego movie and lights and heat!!!! It turned out to be a fabulous weekend. Power returned at almost midnight Saturday. We headed home Monday afternoon to utter destruction. Roads were closed everywhere. Trees were littering yards and roads. Houses were damaged. And some still had no power.

Tuesday everyone went back to school...hallelujah...as much as I love them, they NEEDED to go back! I went running and could not believe the sights! Piles of debris taller than me lined the roads and subdivision streets. Chain saws are the new sound du jour along with more booming, trees being deposited into large dumpsters. This was most definitely a severe winter storm. Never again will I mock the threatening weather. As whiney and spoiled as I sound here, I am grateful all turned out well and we had no damage or injuries.We will purchase a generator. We will get our large pine trees cut down. And I will get bread and milk the next time they predict bad weather...we ran real low on that :)

So Carolyn Ingalls I am not. I am a wimp. I am spoiled by creature comforts. And I have even less patience than I thought I had...and that wasn't much! 78 degrees today and I could not be happier...although there is a whisper of another storm possibly coming through here.......seriously?????