The Great Texas Ice Storm of 2013

We've had quite the weekend here. So I thought I'd catch up a bit on the Blog.

We are going on now almost four days of weird Texas weather and being stuck inside our home.

Last Thursday night we had a terrible ice storm come through the area. Stephen and I awoke about 3 different times during the night to loud sounds...come to find out it was our front and our neighbors two front trees snapping and breaking because of the weight of the ice from the ice storm. A lot of the trees out here still have their leaves and this mixed with freezing rain was a disaster. After the last snap at 5am we turned on the news and realized how incredibly bad the storm was that had come through.

School has been canceled both Friday and today (Monday). They are telling everyone everywhere to stay home and don't go anywhere. We were supposed to see our friends sealed in the Temple on Saturday and yep you guessed it....the temple was closed down and they had to cancel their sealing. We also had church cancelled yesterday too, which felt weird. It's been so crazy around here!

It's been a bad storm, but I've definitely been in much worse. The problem in Texas is that they don't/can't do anything about it. No plows. No salt trucks. Nothing. Just shut the entire Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex down.  The biggest problem is that we've had freezing temperatures in the 20's ever since the storm, so nothing is melting. On top of that the last two nights we've had Freezing Fog...AND the even crazier thing was that we were enjoying our nice balmy December 80 degree weather just the day before all this mess.

The frozen blades of grass

Our little tree in the back yard pretty much broke right in half

I will have to say though, it has been kind of fun to just  enjoy all this time together as a family. We've tried to keep busy.  We introduced Andrew to a few Christmas movies. Finally finished decorating for Christmas, had the missionaries over for dinner, made Christmas cookies and treats. We even took Andrew outside a few times to "play" in the snow and ice. He wasn't quite sure at first. but he loved the crunching sound it made when he'd step on the frozen blades of grass. We even got a little creative and in true Texas fashion, came up with our own sled.

Here we go! 

Spinning around on the ice was much more fun then going down the little hill.

This little monster LOVEs popcorn and sitting in the corner of the couch. He was excited to watch Christmas movies! 

Trying to pick up the leaves frozen to the ground. 

Funny things we've seen....

• People ice skating in the middle of the street. There is almost an two or three inches of thick solid ice out there. Everywhere.
• Semi trucks were stranded on the freeways for almost 48 hours. They couldn't go anywhere and nobody could get in to help them. 
• Our neighbor across the street cracked me up while I was out with Andrew yesterday. He was trying to shovel his driveway in boots he'd covered in plastic (I'm assuming they were leather or something he didn't want to get wet) with a garden shovel. Yep that's how we do it here in Texas. If only I'd had my camera.
• Some gas stations have completely closed down because they are out of gas. No trucks can get in to fill their tanks.
• We did have to do a quick Wal-Mart run Saturday night to get some more cough medicine for Andrew and a few other things. It was packed. People were almost in panic mode and a lot of the shelves were bare. The funniest things were the frozen pizzas were almost completely gone and the toilet paper. Oh and of course the small supply they carry in Texas of winter hats and gloves. (which isn't much to start with)  Stephen and I just had to laugh. It's like the end of the world down here.

 It is beautiful, all covered in ice.

Our rose bush has seen better days

Usually this time of year can get crazy with all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. With so many Christmas parties, shopping for gifts and other holiday activities. It's been wonderful to slow down a bit and put life on hold for a few days and just enjoy our time together. So grateful for cars with full tanks of gas, that we have had our power the entire time and there is no major damage (i.e frozen pipes) to our home, just broken trees outside.