Ice Storm 2011

Today is Day 2 of this storm, although all we've had today are snow showers off and on, accumulating to less than an inch.  But the damage has been done.  We had hours of freezing rain Monday night, and then a break for most of the day yesterday.  Tuesday evening the freezing rain started again, and the trees started to look pretty heavy.  Last night we were watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with the kids (school had been canceled so we let them stay up late), and the lights flickered pretty often.  We really thought losing power was just a matter of time.  Knowing we have that generator eased our minds quite a bit, but the kids were still pretty nervous about losing power when we put them to bed.  But eventually the temperatures warmed up, and the warmer rain seemed to melt quite a bit of the ice on the power lines and trees.  When we got up this morning and surveyed the dameage, we lost a few limbs off of our pine trees, but everything else was still pretty intact.  And we never did lose power.  We were very fortunate given the amount of ice that came down.

But the cabin fever is starting to set in.  We were out of school Tuesday, today, and have been called off for tomorrow as well.  Our road is still a solid sheet of ice - Ben hasn't even ventured out.  Yesterday, we were all content to sit around and relax, although we did have some family foosball and Ping-Pong tournaments last night.  Today Ben and I cleaned out a couple of kitchen cabinets, I filed our taxes, Maria and I baked cookies, and I still feel the need to get out of the house.  Late this afternoon, the kids went outside with Mason and chipped some pieces of ice from the deck.  There was also quite a bit of sliding and falling, but no one seems the worse for wear. 

Part of me wishes we had gotten the big snows that they had in Chicago - the ice is not nearly as much fun for kids as a couple of inches of ice.  I mean, if we have to have a big storm, bring on the snow.  But we don't get a choice in the matter, so I'm just thankful that we made it through the storm pretty easily (except for making up all of these school days).