! ! ICE ICE BABY ! !

And much too cold, too cold! LOL...sorry couldn't resist! =)
On December 19th at approximately 5am Fort Wayne was pounded by a pretty good ice storm. By the time we got up that morning (school was canceled of course), everything had a good coating of ice on it. Depending on the angle of the wind, accumulation was anywhere from just a light coating to 1/4 or a 1/2 inch thick. We had electricity up until around 11am. I was just getting ready to turn on my blow dryer when I suddenly heard a load boom from somewhere to the east of our neighborhood and out went the lights! ARRRGGG!! Go figure! =)

We found out a large tree had fallen on the electric lines and knocked down the pool with the transformer. We were without power for about 30 hours. Nothing too major. The girls thought it was great fun to go around with flashlights and "camp out" in our living room next to the gas fireplace. It also gave John an excuse to get out all his camping and survival gear to see us through!! HA! Some things came in handy, I'll admit!

That night we had a to die for (or from) meal that consisted of: Meat stuffed pasta in a rich marinara sauce seasoned heavily with a healthy blend of fructose corn syrup and preservatives(canned ravioli) cooked on high heat over an open flame (on a portable gas burner over a small propane tank) served with steamed gourmet bread (leftover rolls almost burnt from warming on said burner) and a lovely tray of cheese slices and crackers (cheese hastily thrown on a plate and crackers still in wrapper). We dined by candle and fire light (Colman lanterns and either have the fireplace on or freeze to death!) LOL!!!!!! SEE, it's all in how you look at it! We did go to the Mills house the next day for showers and to get out. By the time we came back home the lights were back on. Moriah actually cried! (rolling my eyes here!) She wanted to camp out in the living room again! Crazy kiddo! I was mighty thankful they got it back on so quick, not everyone was so fortunate and were without for a week or more...over Christmas holidays. =(

We were rather worried about our one big tree in the back yard. It loses it's leaves late and this year decided to keep most of them on! We knew with the added weight it would be in danger of breaking. I was giving my mom a report on how we were doing when I heard, CRASH! AHHHH....I ran to the window and the picture above is what I saw! John and I were pretty bummed the rest of the day. It looked like half of the tree was gone. And more could fall at any minute. This tree gives us some privacy from our neighbors and their six kids! John and I went out and removed the large branch that broke so the weight of it would not cause any more damage to the limbs underneath. John rigged up a rope so we could pull the branch backwards away from the tree, but with the slick ice all over the ground it was quite a feat trying to get any leverage...we were slipping and sliding all over the place...I know our neighbors had to have been laughing at us! We finally got it though! Fortunately as the ice melted the tree limbs went back into position and it doesn't look near as bad as we thought it would. Just wont be as full on that side

I decided if anything, the ice did make for some good and interesting pictures. So I braved the slippery ground and freezing temperatures to capture some pretty cool pics. I especially liked the ice encased leaves on the poor tree. You could break them off whole and they were totally encased in ice. Rather pretty. Here are two of my favorite pictures. You can click on the pics and the collages to enlarge for a better view.

As I was looking around for interesting objects to take pictures of, I looked down our street and saw our mailbox row that sits one house over. It was covered in at least a half inch or more of ice and had cool looking ice cycles hanging from the bottom. So I started sliding down the ice covered road to the ice covered mailbox thinking how I wouldn't be able to put my last minute Christmas letters in there cause OBVIOUSLY the mail man wouldn't be able to make it out today.

After taking a few pictures of the mailboxes I noticed the ice was knocked away from the doors. SURELY, that didn't mean anything, right???!!! After all, it was only an hour or so after the normal mail delivery time. So I open the mailbox......and....(drum roll, please)....there's our mail! Hummm...did we forget it yesterday (not likely..getting the mail is John's main perk of the day outside of coffee! LOL)? I quickly glance in a few other boxes...nope...they have mail too!! WOW....I'm in AWE....a few seconds pass...WHHHATTTT??? How STUPID can you get??? The aweness has worn off and now I shake my head at the sheer stupidity of the USPS for putting their employees at great risk just to deliver a few letters!! What did they do that morning before they all left the mail room?? Hand out hammers and tire chains? Make them sign a "not responsible for putting you in grave danger" form?? Man, I would have (not even come to work) been like, "Uhh sir, (hand back the hammer) smashing half an inch of ice off of mailboxes is not in my job description(DUHH)!" !!Shheesh!! ```` *Dad, I am sooo glad you are a brain surgeon now!! Hehe (oh, I mean clean up after one!=))

I at least waited till 4 to make John go out....to mail my letters! ROFL Well, if I had known (should have) that the post office was so ruthless with their employees, I would have put the letters in the mailbox that morning...I would have even hammered all the ice off FOR him...maybe even left a chilling (no pun intended!) note for him to give the post master! OK, ok...nough said! (not really! ha!) John about turned around after 2 blocks and was none to happy with me because the residentail roads were still terrible even at 4 in the afternoon! But he did it cause he loves me (to be happy)! =)

At any rate we survived (hopefully all the mailmen did too) I heard on the radio that it is going to take the city months to haul everyones tree limbs away. They were averaging 13 truck loads of wood chips a day! We haven't had our areas limbs removed yet! Hopefully they will come around before spring.

After Decembers ice and some snow, January blasted us with extremely frigid temperatures and tons (after 2 hours shoveling that's what it feels like) of snow! The girls and I are now regularly praying for Spring! =)

Disclaimer: This storm was in no way as bad as what Arkansas, Kentucky and those states went through in January. One report said 3 inches of ice accumulation! I couldn't imagine!)