Needless to say, the kids had a blast over the last 3 days of no school. What can I say except I fixed a lot of hot chocolate, washed a lot of clothes, dealt with lost gloves, have a huge heap of white stuff on my shady front step, had a blast sledding with friends, told Ellie that she could stop sleeping with her PJs on inside out and backwards and WAS VERY GLAD that school was back in on Friday!!!
There's nothing like the POWER of nature. What can fell a 40 foot pine tree? It would take 3 men, $1000 and 2 days to chop it down. But a POWERful ice storm did it much quicker and easier than that. And the ice didn't only get one tree, but thousands. That's the kind of POWER that is humbling. POWER. We got ours back on Thursday. One hour without it will make you grouchy. Four days without POWER.... well, that's just torture! Actually, we had it easy compared to a lot of friends. We didn't have to endure sleeping in a cold house or being without technology. The worst of the ice storm for us is the neighbor's towering pine tree that fell over our fence and into our yard. This is just a minute inconvenience in comparison to lots of other people in the city. After driving through midtown, I was shocked at the damage. It's hard to describe how bad it is down that way. Plus, lots of people (including Grandma I) are still POWERless. We are praying everyone will stay safe and warm during this time. POWER. Ephesians 1:18-20- I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great POWER for us who believe. That POWER is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. POWER.
Nearly everyone I know has lost their power. (The news reports that there are nearly 700,000 homes and businesses without electricity in Oklahoma-the most ever.) Several of our friends are sleeping under loads of blankets with a fire burning in the fire place. Kim and Scott were lucky enough to get a hotel room and Tom and I had a major stroke of luck... Tom's mom lives in a small pocket of homes (about 5 square blocks) that still has power! We have been staying here and will be here until the power comes back on. The estimate is that the power will be fully restored in 7-10 days. What's amazing is that here at the southern edge of our city, we didn't even get the worst of it. Here are some pictures of the farm that Dad took. The ice accumulation looks to me like it was twice as thick out north. These pictures show trees that were planted when I was born, and the second one is a tree that was planted by dad and his brothers in the 50's. Mom and Dad are sleeping in a room with a stove, and using candles and flashlights to get around the freezing house. There is no hot water, no TV, no phones (except cell phones) no computer... quite a change from the life we have all been living. It's been a chance to step back and look at the way things used to be... and say......... thank God I live in the 21st century!!!! The good news is that we are all ok. Getting the trees removed will be a pretty big expense for a lot of people. A couple of friends actually had trees crash through roofs or into windows. But we are all safe with family, and as they say, that's what's most important. For some pretty pictures of the ice, check Kelly's blog. 
Early on in this winter blast, Ellie carelessly threw her hat on a deck chair as she came into the house. That hat gathered the sleet and snow that fell and as the sun melted it the last couple of days, it created a hundred long icicles, growing by the drop to the ground. With my two negative posts about the ice storm, I wanted to focus on the beauty of the ice, which reminds me of the mystery and magnificence of God.
When I saw a strange mark on our carpet today, I looked up to see a four inch line on my ceiling that was drip dropping cold water!!! When I ran up to the floor above to figure out where this water was coming from, I found nothing suspicious. But the line kept growing longer, until it reached about 4 feet! Then new lines began appearing! I could just imagine the whole ceiling coming down on top of us. This is where our very own crisis managment team came to our rescue. Tracy, Chad and Susan along with Tom (who had just come in from a 5 day road trip) all banded together to save our ceiling! We finally pinpointed the source of the problem... not broken pipes, but ice melting and seeping under our shingles and running in on a beam. Then, the water followed the sheetrock seams and created an H20 checkerboard for us to shake our heads at. We had to chip away at the frozen over guttering, which eventually made our ceiling stop leaking. Thank God for friends (and insurance)!
The magnificent ice storm had barely brushed Tulsa when I found Ellie outside hunting for icicles. With giddy amazement, she located a few tiny ones growing out back on the fort. Her mittened hands delicately broke them away and tucked them into a baggie, which has now found a home on a shelf in my freezer. If what the weather forecasters say is true, Ellie will be able to find some much larger icicles in the days to come. 
If you look here, you can see that we had a great time sledding at Minshall park one week ago. It must have been 78 degrees. We returned yesterday to see dozens and dozens of people sledding down the snow-packed hill. We had a blast with the Smiths and Streichs, and as you can see below, Kami was quite the daredevil on the ramp that Tracy S. created. Click on her picture to get a close up of the terrified look on her face.
