Our Storm

So after reading Maren's storm post and remembering the sirens in Indiana (and the fear that followed since we never got renter's insurance) I thought I'd show everyone what a Virginia storm is like.


Well what started out to be a routine thunderstorm turned out to be "the worst thunderstorm in 30 years". The storm hit Wednesday at roughly 3:00 pm. Winds up to 80 mph. Trees were down all over the place. The power was out all over the place. We lost our power right before the storm even hit. Any guesses on when it came back on?........

Thursday night at 9:00 pm. That's right, 30 hours of no power. Which my dad said is the longest they have ever gone without power in the 30+ years they've lived here.

Okay so here are some things I was not fond of during the power loss:
1. Pink bunny was left out in the rain (we had been outside playing and forgot about it) and the smell by Thursday night...not pretty
2. I had an entire load of laundry in the wash waiting to go in the dryer (again, the smell by Thursday night...not pretty).
3. One little girl who sleeps with a night light on every night.
4. One blow out from a certain little guy at 10:30 pm.
5. Having to search for the diaper pad and wipes in the living room by flashlight while at the same time trying to keep my clothes unsoiled (I was successful).
6. Having well water and an electric pump to pump said water. No electricity=no water.
7. No water=no toilet flushing, no showers, no hand washing, no rinsing blow-out clothes, you get the picture. Emily and Thomas did very well and did not flush the toilet the whole time. I however did flush the toilet after a while (I just couldn't take the smell any longer) and got to fill the tank up with rain water.
8. A new-ish chest freezer completely full we bought it in February and it is FULL.
9. Preschool graduation was postponed because they were without power as well.

I'm sure there were other things that weren't so great, but we survived and here are the things that I'm thankful for:

1. We got to use an oil lantern (actually we used two) from the 1880's. It's been in my dad's family and he said the last time he used it was 1949. It worked really well and we all hung out around the table until bedtime. I'll post a picture later.
2. The grocery store being open. And my parents for stopping/shopping there.
3. Our grill, with a side burner which in 4 years had never been used.
4. Cell phones--with Verizon FiOS I guess the landline only works for a certain time on the battery back-up.
5. My awesome in-laws who came to our rescue and brought us a generator for the freezer! Thank you, thank you, thank you
.
6. My new car with air conditioning.

7. The portable DVD player.
8. The little "candle" lights that people put in their windows at Christmas (they're battery operated and do well as a makeshift night light).
9. Flashlights, Emily and Thomas had a great time wandering around the house with them.
10. Our safety, both in the house and everyone who was coming home from work.
11. Buckets of all sizes to catch the rain water to flush the toilet.
12. 13. ELECTRICITY and flushing toilets.
Plus I remember as a kid when the power would go out and I thought it was cool, so it's neat to see Emily experience it in the same house. This morning she turned her light on in her room and exclaimed "We have power! Yippee!" It was cute.