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?????

FINALLY!

After 6 weeks, our sad, broken, once beautiful trees were FINALLY picked up. Took about an hour for 3 trucks to take and dispose of our tree limb mess outside our front window. I need to take an "after" picture, but regardless, here is what we looked at for 6 weeks all from our tiny yard. Makes you wonder if we have any trees left, eh? Well, not many. Two, at least, will have to be cut down this spring. At least we still have the two big pretty ones that shades most of our house in the summer. A lot of our neighbors won't have any left. Our friend's, Heidi and Jase, had two huge trees in their front yard which are today, just two tall tree trunks. That is all. Will look so different when those are gone. Amazing what ice and freezing temps for days and days can do. It will be very interesting to see what our city looks like this spring when the leaves reappear.

Woo-hoo, no ice!!!

Woke up and we have zero ice OR snow! It's a happy day in the neighborhood!!

Tell me I am dreaming, please!

I looked outside just a few seconds ago and our trees are all beautiful & shiny like they were 6 weeks ago. Shiny with ice! Please tell me that THIS IS NOT TRUE. Can't be. I hope and pray I wake up in the morning to our power still on and the ice all melted. PLEEEEEEEEEASE!

Final storm post

I got a really sweet letter on Friday in the apartment from the cleaning lady. In 9 days I really got to know her. Here is her letter. She is most kind. We were really lucky to have her.

Valerie,
Hello! I will not be in on Saturday or Sunday unless there is something I can do for you or get for you. I put more tissues in your Suite.

Do not hesitate to call me for any questions or if you need housekeeping.

I pray you will soon get your power on so you can once again be comfortable in your own surroundings. You have managed well with your children, I hope I have made your stay more enjoyable.

Thank you and have a good weekend,
Karen

Now time to take a deep breath, be thankful for my home and get on with life. Thanks for listening to me vent throughout the 9 days. It sure was something I'll never forget.

(And here are some more astonishing pictures from the storm.)

Jamie's ice story

It's really interesting because now that most everyone is out from under the ice and with power, you are hearing lots of stories about The Ice Storm of 2006. You can read about Jamie's account of the ice storm here.

Nighty-night

There were 2,000 of us still without power this morning. Read story here.

I'm typing this from my house this evening. Isn't that great?! I couldn't be happier. I really couldn't.

I saw a power truck from Cape Coral, Florida go down our street today. Is that amazing or what?! I just can't get over the outpouring of help from so many people from so many states. Imagine how much longer we would have been without power if it weren't for these guys? I'm still so thankful for my KC men. . .

Signing off now . . . going to my warm bed very soon. Sounds so blissful . . . Ahhhhhh . . .

Hallelujah!

I'm so emotional right now. As you can probably guess, yes we have power!! This is the best day in a long time. I've never felt so happy, excited and grateful for our home! I should have told the power guy I love him way before last night. We may have had power on day #2 instead of day #9!

We are not home yet . . . waiting for the house to warm up . . . but maybe by this afternoon. Lots of work to do but I don't mind if that means we are HOME.

Feeling hopeful

Will I jinx myself if I tell you that I have some hope this evening?? I went home early afternoon and still no power. But we went back home this evening and we saw two power trucks on our street!! It was dark out and they were still working hard. I pulled the car up next to one truck and I asked the guy if he could tell me where they were working next. He pointed and said "we're suppose to be over there". I said, "that one-story brick house?" and he said "yeah!". I said "Oh thank you! That's my house! I love you!". As corny as that sounds, yes, I told a complete stranger that I love him. But I really do. He was part of a power company from Kansas City, MO. I seriously think I might send their company a thank-you note.

Our neighbors, Randy and Vickie, were suppose to call us when/if the power got hooked up. They called this evening, but with bad news. The crew didn't get to ours. But this means we're at the top of the list now. And maybe for tomorrow! I'm starting to feel a great deal of hope!!

I have to say, it is AMAZING the outpouring of help we have had here in town and all over the state. We've had crews from 16 states and Canada come in to help bring power back to the people and they are working 17-hour days for it to happen. They are risking their lives to get us back to our normal day-to-day lives that we take for granted. Bless them!! And never again will I take the gift of artificial light, a warm bed or a warm house for granted!

We found out that there are 2600 houses in our zip code and as of this morning, 1800 of them were still without power. Absolutely incredible after 8 days. Tomorrow we're going on 9 days. Surely tomorrow will be the day. Neil and I were just talking this evening that this past week we will never ever forget. What a long 8 days it's been.

What we've been doing

playing in the closet until Noah shuts me in and makes me scared

taking lots of showers

hiding in the curtains

doing lots of puzzles

playing on the bed

using up an entire Scooby-Do box of band-aids

visiting grandma & grandpa for dinner - it was yummy and grandpa was entertaining

walking around "talking" on the phone

stuffing pacifiers in daddy's mouth

destroying the kleenex box - best entertainment ever!

doing lots of looking out our window

drawing . . . (my future artiste!)

wearing sissy's leg warmers

and doing lots and lots of standing around

P.S. And still no power.

The electrician came yesterday, fixed the problem, and now the electric company has put us on a waiting list. AT THE BOTTOM! Probably won't be today. Maybe tomorrow. Please let it be tomorrow.

More glimpses of the storm

Check out Cerella's pictures of the storm here.
Today it is all finally melting! But just in time to create another huge mess tonight when the temp falls to the teens. EEK.

Day #6 update

Went by the house this afternoon. Still nothing. I passed about 10 sets of power trucks working. And lots of tow trucks hauling off damaged cars. And lots of police. Saw one fire truck in action. Saw a sign posted to a light post that said "WE NEED POWER" and it was in my neighborhood. Wish I had my camera with me because I would have taken a picture of it. I know it's not the power company's fault, but those of us without power are just getting really edgy. I really really do not want to spend another weekend here. I have customers who I have promised orders to. I know they would probably understand if I did not get them to them in time, but it's Christmas. And I also don't want to disappoint them. I want to be able to follow through. If I have to spend extra money to put a rush on their orders, I think I am going to.

Tonight I am going downtown (oh, wait, that's where I'm living, so I guess we will walk!) to a Christmas Walk. Should be a nice little break from what's been going on. Jen and I went to it last year. Myself with Maia in tow attached to my front in the Baby Bjorn and Jen in tow with her preggie belly. It's really fun - carollers, horse and buggy rides, specials in the stores and boutiques, and usually free coffee, tea or wine. Mom and Heather are going with and the kids will stay here with Neil. Heather's beau, Lee, may bring over his son, Cole, and hang out with Neil, Noah and Maia. I'm really looking forward to tonight. (We will mis you not being with us, Jen and Addy!)

Another on-the-bright-side note . . .Neil called and the electrician got the parts in to do the work on the outside of the house, so once that is done MAYBE, just maybe, we can get power hooked up. Everyone on our street has it. It might be a homecoming when we do come home. They've really been keeping an eye out on our house and on us coming and going.

Toodles for now.

Yet another powerless update

Alexis wrote a really touching entry in her blog about us here in Illinois still without power. Please take the time to check it out here.

Thanks, Alexis.

Today's update: Still without power (imagine that!). We went home last night again to check on the kitties and grab some more things. Everything seems to be ok. Our line to the house has not been touched. We have lots of phone calls to make today. It doesn't seem like anything is happening. This was fun in the apartment for one day but I can't take it anymore. We're getting out today for the first time. I am going to go crazy if I do not. I may just have to get one Venti Vanilla Latte this morning and then another one when we come back. Coffee is the only thing keeping me sane I think. I can smell it brewing now . . .

ice storm making news all around the world

local paper - 1 hour ago
Chicago Tribune
USA Today
CNN
Forbes
Fox News
American Forces Press Service
ABC News
Reuters
Canada
South Africa
France
Taipei
New Zealand
Australia
FEMA

This is us! Unbelievable!

Power update

We are still without. Big surprise, eh? Going on day #6. It's starting to feel like a bad dream that I'm going to wake up from soon. I heard yesterday that there are 3 National Guard units that were brought in to go door-to-door checking on people who are staying in their homes. I have a feeling there are LOTS of these people, too.

Also brought in have been dozens of outside power company units. So things are getting done, but we heard that the city governor is a bit peeved and not understanding why things are not being done quicker. (Yay governor!) So he had a press conference last night with Ameren IP (power co) and so hopefully now we'll see more done. Maybe. I hope.

Our neighbors, Randy and Vickie, across the street have stayed home. They work during the day, so they are warm at least then, and at night they huddle around the fireplace and sleep on the living room floor. They also have a cat and 2 dogs, so I think they're just all curling up together and trying to make the most of it, if that's at all possible anymore.

And then last night, we met our friends, Brian and Jeff, out for dinner. They are without power as well. And they, too, are staying at home. They have 5 dogs, a cat, fish and snake. They took the fish to a local aquarium so they would not die, and then just took the snake to a friend's house. He was probably close to dying. I worry about Jeff and Brian, though. It is so cold. And they don't have their fireplace going because they cannot for some reason. They tried warming the house by boiling water on the stove and that just created a condensation mess as you can imagine. Now they finally have a small kerosene heater. Thank God! These boys are roughin' it! Keep them, and the thousand others who are trying to survive in this cold at home, in your prayers. We had a great time with them last night. We don't seee them all that often anymore because having kids makes it really difficult sometimes. But I'm thankful we had such a nice time with them last night. They are great friends.

Then Alexis told me that our friend, Jamie, is also staying at home. And she does not have a fireplace. She has 2 dogs and a cat. Her kids and hubby went to stay with his parents. But Jamie is at home with a kerosene heater. Thankfully she loves to read! She's probably read her entire collection thus far. But we're worried about her. I need to get in my car today and go check on her. Each one dealing with this seems to have their own story . . . their own battles and worries. Thinking of you, J!

I almost forgot to mention that we went home for a couple minutes last night. The kids stayed in the car and I ran in. I cried. It's so hard to see your house so lifeless and cold. I want to go back! And when we do, it's going to be such a mess.

My heart . . . my love! . . . goes out to my friends and family who are still stuck in this same situation. I hope we see light soon. I pray we have heat soon. Maybe we'll hear more today about this situation. And I especially hope we can look back on this one day and say "I survived the worst ice storm of our generation!".

About to lose it

I really think I might lose it. Really.

See, I dropped my phone in soda (open cup) on Thanksgiving night. I called insurance and made a claim, believing 100% that I had signed up for insurance. I never heard from them. I tried calling them a couple days ago and they needed the phone's make and model before we could proceed. I had no idea what that was. I was calling from this temporary home of ours and didn't have that phone with me. Why would I? So I had to wait till we could get it from the house. I called them this morning and the insurance that I swear I thought I had, told me I didn't. So I called Verizon and they also told me I never signed up for it. WHAT?! I swear that I did! I swear. But there's nothing I can do. Now I have to go back to the store today and buy ANOTHER freaking phone. Another $300 down the drain. Lesson here: always always get phone insurance and always always make sure and then double check again, that the phone rep actually signs you up for it. When they asked if I wanted phone insurance, I replied "yes". They hit "no". Oh this sucks.

Then we had to call an electrician about our power line. They have to be the ones to actually put our line back on the house because that mechanism was broken. We have been told it could be a couple days to a week or more before they can come and fix that. And of course our power hasn't been hooked back up at all yet, period. So, needless to say, we are without power still (and it could be till Tuesday before that's back) and I am just about to lose it. I want to go home. I want to sleep in my bed. I want to see my animals. I want to be able to do my work. I am soooo behind now. The kids are so bored. I am bored. We're just going a little nuts-o here. It will probably be Thursday at the earliest that we are back home. ONE WEEK WITH NO POWER, ONE WEEK AWAY FROM HOME, ONE WEEK WITH TEMPS AT FREEZING IN OUR HOUSE. I need some hugs. Please?

How much longer?

It's 11:00 pm and still no power. I'm starting to wonder if we can ever go home? The power company today told me that they are working on the main lines first and personal lines last. So I have a feeling it might be a couple more days yet. A big majority of our neighborhood does have power. Everyone on the west side of our street does, except for us and the house next to us. We both had direct lines to our house broken. And then the people on the east side of the street, they don't have power. Crazy, eh?! Driving through town today, still there were handfuls of signal lights out. There's been accident after accident at these lights, too. You'd think at an major intersection they would get these fixed, but I'm sure it's way more complicated than that. If it were that easy, they'd be fixed. Anyway, a good thing about this is that I was able to finish cropping an album because I had nothing else to do! But the bummer thing is, we only got meat and milk out of our fridge, so we lost everything else. That's a lot of money to replace all those condiments and such. I guess it's our fault we didn't get them all out of there, but where were we suppose to put them? Another good thing, we got Frankie, our doggie, out and into a warm place. O'ma Pat took her in for us. What a blessing! Poor Frankster. I felt so bad for her but we didn't know what else to do. And then our neighbor behind us, seeing how much damage we have, voluteered to help us cut it all up and we've never had a conversation with these people. What a nice guy. So good things do come out of bad. I'm still feeling thankful we were all ok. The last few days we've heard fire sirens constantly. I'm hoping this is all over soon. Keep us in your prayers. I really want to go home and so do the kids.

Making the most of it

When our power was out the first day, we tried to make the most of it. It was cold in the house, so we may as well have been outside. Our little neighbor friend, Chloe, was outside sledding. Noah kept saying "I want to snowball with Chloe". It was so cute. So I had Neil (who was already outside cutting tree limbs) go ask if it was ok if he came out to play. Of course Vickie (Chloe's mama) said "Sure!" and so I bundled Noah up to go out and play. Maia and I stayed inside by the fire that we had going in the fire place, and Vickie came over and got Noah. So here are some pictures of him getting all bundled up (reminded me of "The Christmas Story"), Noah waving "Bye" to me and then the kids playing.



I caught Vickie even havin' a little fun! Look, she put Noah to work! *giggle*


They all had so much fun! Noah's cheeks are still rosey!

Ice Ice Baby

I have never seen so much ice in my life. It's everywhere. And while it's really pretty with the sunlight glaring off of it, it's created a huge mess in our town. Huge. Take a look at the pictures below.

This is our street - see Neil's car - possibly damaged pretty good





It started yesterday morning with just rain. That rain went into freezing rain and then into snow. By about 5:00 we knew we were in for a mess when it continued to freeze rain and build up pretty thick. By the time it was our kids' bedtime, it was still freezing rain and we were starting to wonder if we should even stick them in their beds just in case the power went off. We did go ahead and put Noah in his bed, but put Maia in our bed because we had a feeling the power was going to go off as tree branches were constantly snapping. And where the electricity connects to the house is right outside Maia's window, which is right beside her crib. And I am incredibly thankful that we did put her there.

About 15 minutes after we put her to bed, a huge limb fell on the house. Shook the whole thing. Shortly after that, our power went out. Another limb fell on the power line, bringing it totally down and creating the biggest firework scene I have ever seen or heard. I screamed and cried and just wanted to get out as quickly as I could. I think Neil was even scared.

Neil called his dad and they still had power. So we decided we were going over there. It took us about 20 minutes to quickly pack a couple bags, get their sippy cups filled, get the dog and cats ready to have to stay alone and then have to get the kids out of the house asleep. It was frightening even to leave the house. Huge limbs were just snapping and dropping out of trees. But we did leave and arrive safely to the in-laws around 11 pm. We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw what we did driving 15 minutes to their house. It was unbelievable.

We woke up in the in-laws house to no power there as well. The only thing we could think about was what kind of mess our house was in. So Neil and I left the kids at his dad's house and attempted to drive home. And there were surprisingly quite a few cars out, but all probably for the same reason as us, or perhaps to get out to see the damage or to just find a place to eat or a place to stay warm.

Our street again - pretty, yet absolutely disasterous

We found Neil's windshield wiper on the ground - the branch came down that hard - we're lucky it didn't go through the window

We arrive home (of course after a trip through the drive-thru at Starbucks which was actually open to our surprise) and found twice as much damage as when we left. It really did look like a tornado went through town and hit every single block. Ours especially was bad because we live in one of the oldest sections of town so there are a lot of gigantic old fragile trees. We pull up to our street and the first thing we see is our neighbor's truck with a tree on top of it. We then drive down 4 houses to ours and there is a tree across the street right in front of our house and then look over and there is part of a tree on Neil's car. I documented it with pictures for insurance purposes and document the rest of the yard too. You never know what kind of damage is hidden under all that.

So Neil spends the next half hour with our neighbors cutting down the trees and removing branches from the street and Neil's car. Then we let the doggie out to pee-pee and feed the animals. Then we are off again, back to Starbucks to pick up coffee for my in-laws and the to go check on Grandma Barb at her house (also without power). She was fine and dandy as always. That was good.

We spend the rest of the day at home. Neil cut up branches. He only got done about a third of the front yard. Haven't even touched the back yard and it's probably 3 times as bad. Noah played with our neighbors in the snow (no one worked today and every single school was out). Maia and I stayed inside and tried cleaning up the house some and packing for another few nights knowing we would at least be gone from home one more night. And that's where I write in my blog from tonight.

Neil's dad got us an apartment with their company. Who knows how long we will have to be here. Tonight it's suppose to be 10 degrees out. So our house will probably literally be freezing tomorrow. I pray our pipes don't freeze. I also pray that our power gets restored soon. It's been announced that a nearby town won't have their power back on for 5-7 days so I don't anticipate it will be anytime soon for us. It really stinks. But I have to be thankful that we are all ok. It was quite a scary night last night, for thousands of people. This apartment is really nice. So many people probably do not have anyplace to go. We're really lucky we do. We're warm and comfy and that's what truly matters. But I do hope we get power back soon because I know the longer it's out, the more problems we face when we get back. And we have to keep going back and forth to take care of the animals. And when we are back, we have thousands of branches to cut through and clean up. Wish us luck. It's going to be a long haul.

Cerella who lives near me is probably dealing with the same things and she reads my blog regularly. So I want to send out some "let's-hope-for-power-soon" vibes and say that I hope you're staying warm with hubby and your furry friends. What a memory we will have from this one. It's crazy, but at least we're all ok. Good luck, girlfriend!

Here is the power line down in our back yard. We drove over probably a half dozen of them yesterday. They are down all over town. We blocked off our backyard so no one can get near the live wire.

This is one of the trees in our back yard. Notice most of the tree is gone. Those are some of the branches (parts of trees, limbs, whatever you want to call them!) down in our yards, part of this tree fell on our house.

And we just learned from Neil's father that their power just went off. Pure craziness!