Cold cold cold cold memories.

I shot my last wedding of the year on Saturday. It was a really good wedding and I can't wait to share more later. The bride was gorgeous, I got to finally wear my dress and shoes, I got to see my Johanna, (oh!) and I shot a couple hundred (more like over 1,000) pictures.

So I'm a teensy-weensy tired today still. (More like super exhausted!) My legs and arms are soooo sore. Both things regularly happen after a wedding from standing on my feet (in heels) for hours on end and holding my camera with one arm like I so often do. (Ah-hem, yes, I know, that is also a sign that I'm way out of shape. I know it, so no rubbing it in. I consider my weddings major work-outs!)

One of the strangest things about the wedding was the weather. When I left my house at 9:30, it was freezing rain. I got on the interstate and it was a sheet of ice. The windows on my car started freezing. I had to go 30 mph on the interstate. Some cars passed me but most of them stayed in good distance behind. Cars were swerving all over and some were going in ditches. If I wasn't photographing the wedding, I would have turned around. It was so bad and so scary. But, I persevered! (Yay, Val!)

It took me over an hour to go about 30 miles or so. Thankfully, right about when the ceremony started, the weather started warming up and the ice began to melt. The craziest thing of all though, was that it was exactly one year ago that we got the ice storm of the decade. The ice storm that set my husband, kids and I out of power for 9 days. The craziest of it all was that the reception was held at the same place that we called "home" for those 9 days. Talk about deja vu. It was so so so so . . . strange. I kept thinking about one year ago. And I kept praying "please, Lord, don't let it happen again."

As Neil and I talked yesterday and agreed, one year ago was really really hard for us. It was a scary time to not have power in our home for 9 days. For temps to be below freezing for that entire time and to be living somewhere out of your norm, in a strange place without any of your belongings around. It was hard. All 4 of our pets were still living back at our house. Neil left our "home-away-from-home" to go to work, but I rarely got out with the kids. I went back to our actual house once or twice. It was hard to go back, to see it so frozen over and lifeless, and then to have to leave it again was difficult, not to mention, it really confused the kids (who were just a year old and 3!). We went stir-crazy . . . just slightly. It was really hard. It was definitely a time in our lives that I will never ever ever forget.

Just yesterday we put up all our Christmas decorations in our house. It made me think about how last year, the NIGHT that we put up our decorations and tree, the ice storm hit. Here's my kiddos on that night. Who would have thought that we would not get to enjoy our tree and decorations for 9 days? Not I.

The night the ice came, that had to have been the scariest night ever. The weight of the ice on the telephone wires snapped just about all of them or brought them down completely on top of trees. When this started happening, we knew we had to get out of there. Our power went out, the house began getting cold very fast and it looked like the 4th of July out our windows. We thought our house was going to catch fire. So we drove to Neil's parents and slept overnight there. When we woke up the next morning, we drove home and this is what we saw.

The next day, Neil's dad got us a place to stay at. Here is a picture of my kids looking out the window of our "apartment" at the ice from 3 floors up.

In those 9 days, we got pretty bored. We did a lot of running up and down the halls. :c) (Maia was JUST learning how to walk, so she was constantly pretty wobbly!)
When we got home after the 9 days, what work we had to do! Our yard was a complete disaster area. With the amount of branches and trees down, it almost looked like a tornado had swept through. Here's part of our pile of branches.
I am so so so so glad all this is now a distant memory, and I can only hope and pray that it's the only ice storm I ever have such strong memories from. We'll definitely never ever forget.

Were you affected by the storm?????