Back to Normal; Sort Of

Today was the 2nd Monday, in a row mind you , that we had school! Nice. I was rushing around this morning, gathering my "stuff" for school when I glanced out the window. Hummmm... What the goat! There licking the ice off my door handle of my car was a goat. Hummmm... I step outside and this goat comes running! Don't panic, I tell myself. I s l o w l y walk towards the goat, who is still running towards me. Don't panic again I tell myself. I begin to talk to the goat, pretty much the same way I talked to Jorden a few weeks ago. "Hi there, funny looking goat. Where did you come from?" Goat now nipping at my knees. "Come on sweetie; lets go home" Me walking down the driveway; goat not moving, watching me leave. Goat moving over to the nice tuft of grass, chomping. I swear he is looking at me sideways! Ok. Now what? I go back inside to get the stuff I was gathering. Come back out, the goat, yet again, begins a trot toward me. Hummm... So I get in my car to leave and as I am driving down my driveway, this goat is running alongside of my car. Really! So I slow down and roll down my window and coax him to keep on following me. As if he needed coaxing! I drove across the highway to Mary's house. She has a small petting zoo so I just assume he belongs to her! Get out, knock on her door, Goats looks around, Mary comes out and goat takes off. Mary says, nope not hers. I say, Well, I got to get to school! hehehe Goat is hers now!!!

No School for HOW LONG?

Someone said that someone said that someone said the our Superintendent said we would probably be out of school for 3 to 5 weeks. What was I going to do with no water and no power for 3 weeks! I really enjoyed the first few days of power silence. Although I must say that I did not like not knowing what was going on. After the 2nd night, ATT crashed. No cell phones either! I did all I could do in my yard. Elisha's husband stopped by to check on us and the kids. Where's the kids? They split! They were off to find bigger and faster hills for their sleds! Glen volunteered to get his chainsaw out and saw some tree limbs out of the road. I did not say no. We got our warm gear out and Glen sawed and we stacked. After about 2 hours and only 2 trees stacked; Glen had already finished all the cutting up, we had to go in and warm up. Have ever played Pick up Sticks as a child? You know the game with bright colored sticks that you spill out of the can and then try to "pick up" one at a time? That is what it was like picking these tree limbs up off the ground. I would tug at one that LOOKED like it was on top only to be met with resistance because actually it's top was under other limbs. And unlike pick up Sticks, all these "sticks" looked exactly alike!
I finished stacking all the tree parts on Sunday morning. And on Monday morning, I did the only thing I knew to do: got on a plane to see Jorden, Jennifer, and Joey!! I have been here for 2 days and I am loving it. As of Tuesday Night, 90% of Livingston County Residents were still in the dark. But not me!

Not all Work

The kids had a blast! Chase was the first to brave the bitter cold!

Timing is Everything

We have been working on the basement since Thanksgiving. Our goal is, was, to have it finished by Turkey Season, April 15th. I say "was" because the whole basement has been put on hold so that we can concentrate on clean up from Ice Storm 09. However, I think there is still a possibility of getting it finished. The most important thing that was complete was our GAS fireplace. Although we have no power, we had heat! It was 4 degrees outside but Elisha and I were nice and toasty as we cooked our evening meal!

Ahhhh, the comforts of home...

Oh What a Difference 24 Hours Make

As the day wore on, the ice continued to fall. Sleeting, Freezing rain, all Day! Elisha and her kids came over around 10:00 because they did not have electricity and I did!! Yea! I should not have gloated too much for so long. By 4:00, I too, did not have electricity.

When outside, you could hear the trees falling to the ground, literally. Every two minutes, you could hear a loud crackling followed by a crash. And another tree or limb was down. By the next morning, it was like a war zone outside with a 4 inch blanket of snow on top! A tornado could not have left so much tree destruction to so many!

Delmus's Side YardLooking at Delmus's Yard from across the streetDelmus's beautiful Red Bud.

Right Between the Eyes

I have had a running bet with my ITC/Speech guy at school that we were going to get hit with something major the second to third week of February. Yea, well it came early. It started out early Wednesday the week before the actual storm. Our 4th Grade weather authorities (Script written by Traci Goss), started mentioning the possibility of some “messy” weather on the way for the following week; please stay tuned for further updates. I was thinking, “Oooh, what a way to get those kids hooked!” Then I got home and low and behold! Same newscast on channel 6! Ok, I’m curious. Went to Jean’s Saturday and watched the news and it was there again, this time it stated that we would more than likely get the edge of an ice storm however, the storm track is still forming and transitioning so again, stay tuned. Monday was a normal day. A winter Storm Watch had been issued. No problem. The day was pretty normal. We had a 4:00 SBDM (School Based Decision Making) Council meeting. We opened the blinds to keep an eye out on the weather. By the time we left (5:30) it was colder but no precipitation. Turned the weather on and heard the news: A Major Winter Ice Storm was taking shape to hit Western Kentucky right between the eyes. Got a txt message from our principal Sheri Henson; No School tomorrow. Heck yea!! No School tomorrow! I’m going to stay up late and watch TV! Yea right! I went to bed at 9:00 with one last look out the front door. Nothing! Once Again, nothing but HYPE! When I awok the Tuesday morning, oh how Beautiful all the trees looked! That was not very long lived.