Ice Storm Fun

Alright, a little intro for you all...... I woke up at 4:30 AM to Madi needing to go potty as well as rain and wind. Ok, so maybe your thinking "no big deal". It really wouldn't be if it wasn't freezing rain and if we weren't in an ice storm. So maybe for folks who live out here or have been in ice storms you might still be thinking "not to big of a deal". Ok, well between this time and 5:30 our security light outside goes out as our power went out and I see 2 of the biggest and bluest flashes out my bedroom window, that I've seen and asked Rodney if it was lightning (I really didn't think it was, but wasn't sure what it was). So at 5:30AM (I didn't fall back to sleep from concern over the storm) Rodney and I hear this noise that was quite odd to me as well as a bit freaky. I asked Rodney what it was and he thought maybe wind. I didn't think so though and told him that. He asked me if I thought it was a tree and we looked out the windows. We didn't see anything. We couldn't go back to sleep so we stayed up and looked out a different window in a different area of our house at a different tree. With that we hear the noise again and when we did, I saw some of the biggest branches on this tree sag big time heading closer to my van. With that Rodney flies down the stairs, throws on his boots, jacket and hat and flies out the door to move the 3 vehicles out from under this tree and down the drive way since the tree up front was doing the same thing. Ok, so vehicles are safe, husband is safe, now for the kids...... two of them woke up and got out of bed when we were discovering the creaking tree over my van, so I woke up the other two, gathered all of their pillows, blankets, sleeping bags and animal of choice. We all gathered in the stove room (we are blessed to have that since with the power out, many wouldn't have heat but we would remain warm) and hunkered down for a while waiting for the call from the school about it being canceled and Christmas break starting a day early. We were blessed to have a griddle that isn't electric so Rodney put it on the wood burning stove and cooked us breakfast as well as made us hot chocolate. We then later (after the sun came up, we ate breakfast and got bundled up) ventured out to Walmart for some drinking water (no electric means no running water for us) as well as food that wouldn't require much prep for us. We treated ourselves to lunch out at Culvers before heading home. Once home we all took naps (mom was tired and grumpy from being up since so early in the morning) and when we woke up, we had power. Praise God!!!!!!! Seriously, it is a blessing we have power, there are still people in Wabash (in town as well as in the country) that don't have their power back yet. We stuck with our simple dinner and enjoyed watching TV that night as well as being able to flush the toilet and not haul in water from outside to flush it.