Pictures from our neighborhood
Two main reasons we don't camp in Houston...heat and bugs!
It has been a long time since I have blogged. We lost power for two weeks with Hurricane Ike and then Friday night (Sept. 26) at 4:30 pm the lights in my living room came on as I was feeding Dallin. I felt like I was in heaven. Dallin and I danced around the house singing about how much we love power (well I danced and Dallin laughed at his mom.) We didn't get to enjoy it long though because we left for Utah the next morning on our vacation and were gone a week. Now we're home and life is getting back to normal.
Zane and I didn't sleep much Saturday morning as the storm was hitting. We kept getting out of bed to look out the windows. By 4 a.m. we knew the storm was over us. It was incredibly noisy and scary. We weren't sure if we could approach a window in case a tree flew in. We were fine though. Dallin slept through everything in his pack-'n-play safe in our bathroom away from windows.
By Saturday afternoon the rain died down enough for us to venture outside to see the damage. We had a couple of neighbors with trees down, but no damage to their house. We have a tree in our front yard that was attacked by a bug a couple of years ago and is weak. Zane staked it up, but we were worried we would lose it and it would crash into our house. The tree was safe though thanks to Zane's great staking job (or maybe someone up above was watching out for us.) My front flower garden was damaged. I had to pull one bush out and cut back the rest because they were so wind blown and were laying on their sides. I also had to pull out some flowers. It could have been a lot worse though, so we were grateful.
We knew we would lose power and the plan was when someone in my family got power, we would all move in with them. There are four of us in Houston, so we thought one of us would get power quickly. Of course this didn't happen. It really was ironic though because after a week the sections of our neighborhood all around us had power and the neighborhood next door to my mom's had power, but all four of us still didn't have power. We all lost power the same day and got our power back two weeks later on the same day. I blame it all on Jared, my brother. He bought a house on the same day as Zane and I right by us on the same power grid (we picked ours out first.) If he had chosen a house in another section, he would have had power and we could have moved in with him! Now we know what to look for next time we buy a house!
The first week wasn't too bad. Everyone was in the same situation, the food needed to be eaten up, and God sent us a cold front. We got together with my family every night and barbecued. My mom even pulled out a key lime pie one night. We invited friends and enjoyed socializing during our hurricane parties as we ate up our three month supply of meat. We started talking a lot more with our neighbors as we all looked out for each other. We went outside a lot to enjoy the weather and socialize since our cell phones and home line wasn't working. It felt like we were living in the dark ages. Zane would drive over to the Bishop's house to communicate with him and hope that he was home. The lack of phones was very frustrating, but it all was a new adventure, so we could deal with it. Zane figured out that it was more fun chain sawing then moving the logs, so he bought himself a chainsaw telling me it was for a good cause. He was in heaven going out with the boys everyday to cut some trees (we hope they asked first before they started cutting. Their testosterone levels were so high that any tree that had a little damage may have been cut down even if it didn't need it.) We took a lot of walks around the neighborhood as a family and every night read by flashlight. It wasn't all fun and games. By the end of the week I was getting sick of washing dishes by hand and by Thursday, my friend and I broke down and went to the laundry mat. I haven't been to one of those for a very long time, but with my friend with me, it wasn't too bad.
That was the first week. The second week, the cold front went away and Zane went back to work (but the phones started working). To make it even worse, the majority of our ward got power Sunday night. It is hard knowing everyone was getting back to normal, kids are going to school, and we were still suffering. By then the generator noise (imagine 40 lawn mowers on at the same time right by you) was really grating my nerves. We were part of the problem now too. The Saturday before when I heard we weren't getting power until the next Thursday and the weather was changing, I finally gave in and told Zane to get us a generator so we could have fans on us. Now I had extension cords all over my house which Dallin loved to roll to and put in his mouth which meant he could never be alone on the floor. We moved our mattress into the family room where we felt the breeze from our windows a little better and could hear Dallin over the battery-operated fans. I was pretty bitter and whiny on Monday and Tuesday of the second week. Wednesday morning I went to my friends house to watch her kids while I did laundry (she had power.) I also got to check my email and use the Internet for awhile. I became a whole new person after that. I came home renewed and decided to clean my house. My philosophy up to that point was if I can't see the dirt (we don't have windows in our bathrooms so they are very dark), then I don't need to clean it. Now I decided to turn on some fans and a lamp and clean the bathrooms! This is a little more time-consuming without power since you have to move extension cords into the room, move the fans and lamp, and then bring in Dallin. We did this from room to room, but it was worth it. I also got another gift Wednesday night...a window air conditioner that someone was done using. Life was much better after that and then even better when the power came on on Friday.
It is really interesting to go without power for so long. As Zane and I scrambled to get the house cleaned up Friday night and pack for our vacation, we kept going into dark rooms trying to find something and then it would hit us, turn on the light and you can find it easier. We just got used to doing without.
Two main reasons we don't camp in Houston...heat and bugs!
It has been a long time since I have blogged. We lost power for two weeks with Hurricane Ike and then Friday night (Sept. 26) at 4:30 pm the lights in my living room came on as I was feeding Dallin. I felt like I was in heaven. Dallin and I danced around the house singing about how much we love power (well I danced and Dallin laughed at his mom.) We didn't get to enjoy it long though because we left for Utah the next morning on our vacation and were gone a week. Now we're home and life is getting back to normal.
Zane and I didn't sleep much Saturday morning as the storm was hitting. We kept getting out of bed to look out the windows. By 4 a.m. we knew the storm was over us. It was incredibly noisy and scary. We weren't sure if we could approach a window in case a tree flew in. We were fine though. Dallin slept through everything in his pack-'n-play safe in our bathroom away from windows.
By Saturday afternoon the rain died down enough for us to venture outside to see the damage. We had a couple of neighbors with trees down, but no damage to their house. We have a tree in our front yard that was attacked by a bug a couple of years ago and is weak. Zane staked it up, but we were worried we would lose it and it would crash into our house. The tree was safe though thanks to Zane's great staking job (or maybe someone up above was watching out for us.) My front flower garden was damaged. I had to pull one bush out and cut back the rest because they were so wind blown and were laying on their sides. I also had to pull out some flowers. It could have been a lot worse though, so we were grateful.
We knew we would lose power and the plan was when someone in my family got power, we would all move in with them. There are four of us in Houston, so we thought one of us would get power quickly. Of course this didn't happen. It really was ironic though because after a week the sections of our neighborhood all around us had power and the neighborhood next door to my mom's had power, but all four of us still didn't have power. We all lost power the same day and got our power back two weeks later on the same day. I blame it all on Jared, my brother. He bought a house on the same day as Zane and I right by us on the same power grid (we picked ours out first.) If he had chosen a house in another section, he would have had power and we could have moved in with him! Now we know what to look for next time we buy a house!
The first week wasn't too bad. Everyone was in the same situation, the food needed to be eaten up, and God sent us a cold front. We got together with my family every night and barbecued. My mom even pulled out a key lime pie one night. We invited friends and enjoyed socializing during our hurricane parties as we ate up our three month supply of meat. We started talking a lot more with our neighbors as we all looked out for each other. We went outside a lot to enjoy the weather and socialize since our cell phones and home line wasn't working. It felt like we were living in the dark ages. Zane would drive over to the Bishop's house to communicate with him and hope that he was home. The lack of phones was very frustrating, but it all was a new adventure, so we could deal with it. Zane figured out that it was more fun chain sawing then moving the logs, so he bought himself a chainsaw telling me it was for a good cause. He was in heaven going out with the boys everyday to cut some trees (we hope they asked first before they started cutting. Their testosterone levels were so high that any tree that had a little damage may have been cut down even if it didn't need it.) We took a lot of walks around the neighborhood as a family and every night read by flashlight. It wasn't all fun and games. By the end of the week I was getting sick of washing dishes by hand and by Thursday, my friend and I broke down and went to the laundry mat. I haven't been to one of those for a very long time, but with my friend with me, it wasn't too bad.
That was the first week. The second week, the cold front went away and Zane went back to work (but the phones started working). To make it even worse, the majority of our ward got power Sunday night. It is hard knowing everyone was getting back to normal, kids are going to school, and we were still suffering. By then the generator noise (imagine 40 lawn mowers on at the same time right by you) was really grating my nerves. We were part of the problem now too. The Saturday before when I heard we weren't getting power until the next Thursday and the weather was changing, I finally gave in and told Zane to get us a generator so we could have fans on us. Now I had extension cords all over my house which Dallin loved to roll to and put in his mouth which meant he could never be alone on the floor. We moved our mattress into the family room where we felt the breeze from our windows a little better and could hear Dallin over the battery-operated fans. I was pretty bitter and whiny on Monday and Tuesday of the second week. Wednesday morning I went to my friends house to watch her kids while I did laundry (she had power.) I also got to check my email and use the Internet for awhile. I became a whole new person after that. I came home renewed and decided to clean my house. My philosophy up to that point was if I can't see the dirt (we don't have windows in our bathrooms so they are very dark), then I don't need to clean it. Now I decided to turn on some fans and a lamp and clean the bathrooms! This is a little more time-consuming without power since you have to move extension cords into the room, move the fans and lamp, and then bring in Dallin. We did this from room to room, but it was worth it. I also got another gift Wednesday night...a window air conditioner that someone was done using. Life was much better after that and then even better when the power came on on Friday.
It is really interesting to go without power for so long. As Zane and I scrambled to get the house cleaned up Friday night and pack for our vacation, we kept going into dark rooms trying to find something and then it would hit us, turn on the light and you can find it easier. We just got used to doing without.
By the way, Dallin was an angel throughout. Cold milk, cold oatmeal cereal...he didn't care. He was bothered by the noise of the generator, but he did well.
I will never take for granted electricity ever again.
1 comment:
You summed everything up really well!
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