The Power of Power. . .

 Oh my goodness where do I begin... Saturday at about 4 pm our power went out due to the ice storm we had. So I packed up all our stuff and traveled over to my brothers who had power and a wood stove. My parents and Grandma had also lost power so they were there as well. Along with all of our dogs:) 5 adults, 2 kids, 4 dogs. A house full to say the least. Almost forgot to mention one dog had diarrhea. Fun, fun, fun. Austyn was so so excited to have a slumber party at Cha Cha's (Chad). So we settled in and made the best of it. In the morning my Grandma moved up to my Aunts since they had power and we stayed at my brothers all day. My parents power came on in the evening so we moved down to their house for the night. The next day we spent playing and hanging out at my parents like usual and right before dinner, their power went out again:( So once  again, I packed all of our stuff up and moved it back down to my brothers house. During the night the power was restored at my parents and confirmed it was restored by the power company. So Tuesday morning I re-packed our stuff (that's four times if you've lost count) and went back to my parents. We have been doing the every other night thing between my brother and my parents. Did I mention we have had to move our stuff four times, and the amount of crap kids require is amazing. But I'm doing it with a smile on my face. And all the while Jordan was on a ice fishing trip and then at work. Needless to say, he got to miss out on ALL THE FUN we've been having. Tuesday has been the first day he's been home since Thursday. So that has been our living situation. And now for the events that came along with the chaos.

Here we are at my brothers house eating breakfast. 

  First thing that happened was the snow was getting too deep for our goats so I moved them up to my  Grandmas barnyard. Shortly after their house caved in from the snow. Then the ice storm began which started all the trees and limbs falling. So as the kids napped on Saturday I had to watch all our beautiful trees falling all over our property. The best tree on all of my families 100 acres split in half and fell right I front of the house. I wanted to cry. So so sad. It was very scary. We were barely able to make it down my parents driveway due to all the trees and limbs falling. They were just falling like the leaves in the fall. Everywhere you looked you could watch trees and limbs explode on the icy snow beneath them. And trying to sleep through it knowing that all of our buildings, houses, barns, shops are all surrounded by trees. I was just praying that our structures would make it.  And to our surprise they did!!! The tree mess will probably take about a month to clean up. It looks like a hurricane came through. It's just amazing the damage the ice caused. Pretty devastating.  

This is the big tree in front of our house

The end out our driveway

This is my parents driveway after hours of clearing just to make it passable

Behind our house

 In our slew behind our pump house

Another picture of the tree in front of the house 

  The picture don't even begin to show the amount of disaster to our properties. I wish we would have taken pictures the night of and morning after. But no one was really in the mood. I'm sure you can understand. 

  So it's now Wednesday night, still no power. We have been hearing 3 or 4 more day:( I'm just thankful we have family close by that has power. The kids have been little trooper through this whole mess. Austyn has loved the excitement and the new and different places to sleep. And Quade is his usual easy going perfect little self. I'm not sure what I've done to deserve such great kids, but I'll take it. Austyn and Quade loved the bath they took at my brothers house. He has a deep sink in his utility room that we bathed them in and they absolutely loved it. It was different and fun, so I'm sure that's why the liked it so much. Not one time has Quade cried or fussed through all the moving and different napping and sleeping places. I just lay him down like usual and out he goes. Austyn has been a little more chatty during bed time, but that's only expected under the circumstances. We made Quade Birthday cupcakes for his Birthday tomorrow. And Austyn has a Valentine party at school tomorrow too. So life as they know it hasn't changed. Just can't get over how great they are.
   I can't complain much about not having power. Some people don't have a place to go or families to help. And it's out of my control anyways, so there's not much I can do. No need to gripe about something that I can't fix. At least it's making memories we will never forget. We have been fortunate enough to keep a generator going for our refrigerator and freezer. Our house is colder inside than it is outside. Our windows are fogged from the outside, it's so cold in there. The one thing that I will complain about through this whole thing is our (Jordan and I) sleeping arrangement. We are use to a king bed and sleeping on a double is a bit of an adjustment to say it nicely. I'm not much of a snuggler, but you don't have much of a choice in a double bed :) I'm a little lacking of sleep, but nothing I haven't dealt with before. Hope everyone is faring well through all of this. Now for the flooding. What's with this weather.