Oh boy Ike!

Well, I didn't think much about Ike except to worry about those that we know that were in the path and praying for them. I had noticed on the news that it was heading this way, but I didn't think much of it. The projected path had moved over supposedly missing us, and I figured that by the time that Ike got clear up here in Ohio it wouldn't be much more then a little tiny storm. Boy was I wrong. On Sunday afternoon the wind started blowing. Next thing we knew, peoples trees were blowing over, siding off of houses, our rain gutter blew off, etc.. Then, no power. It went out at about 3:00 and we didn't think much of it. It came back on about an hour later and we were excited. But then at about 5:30 it went out again. Still not thinking much of it and just thinking that it would come back on soon, we made dinner on the grill. Then the missionaries came to see if we were all okay. And we were, minus the power problem. They told us that a lot of people were with out power and that they had seen a lot of trees down on cars and also a bunch of power lines broken in half, on the way to our house. Great! It had been a pretty hot day so we decided to bunker down in the basement for the night so that it would be cooler. So we dragged all the kids stuff and ours down stairs. Luckily we had a few candles, a wind-up flashlight, and a wind-up lantern that my mom had given us. (thank goodness) So it was a long dark night, Henry didn't like it at all. The next morning was Alyssa's birthday, which was kind of fun because Mike was suppose to work from 10 - 9 and we thought it would be nice to be able to have him home. Well, they did cancel Zach's school, but as for Mike's work, nope. Half of the city that he was working in had power so they made him come in. To say the least, I wasn't too happy having to spend the day with out power taking care of the kids and doing Alyssa's birthday all alone.
Anyway, that morning we found out that about 1 million people in Columbus were without power. So Mike went out and found some of the last ice in town and bought Alyssa a cake (since I couldn't bake her one like I had planned). And he tried to find a generator, no luck around here so he ran home and got us and we headed to Costco, but nope, they were only letting the Executive members in to buy them. So then he had to go to work and realized that Sears would have one and he could get in before everyone else. I was so glad, but then of course he gets there and goes in. All they had were five generators and the mean people said that the customers take precedent over employees (although Mike isn't really their employee). Oh well, another miss. So I just headed home. The day wasn't too bad, but for some reason the kids were bouncing off the walls. For dinner we decided to take Alyssa to McDonald's. So after driving around for about an hour to find one that had power, it was so hit or miss around here, we finally found one. Then luckily Mike got off a little early so he was home by 7:00. I had been praying pretty hard all day, as had most of our families for us. At about 6:35, right after we got home from McDonald's, BAM! the power came back on. I was so excited I was jumping up and down. I know a little dramatic, but if you have been without power for two days you will know how it felt. Today I realized how much I love electricity. We rely on it way too much. I also realize though how blessed we truly are. It could have been a lot worse than it was. We didn't loose any trees, nothing came off the house beside the one rain gutter and it didn't even break so can be easily put back on, we still had water, only the ice cream in the freezer got ruined we saved everything else, and no one we know got hurt. I truly am thankful that we were being watched over. Some people in the city still don't have power and I feel so bad for them. Well, I just thought I would let everyone know our fun adventure. Be grateful for that load of laundry, load of dishes in the dishwasher and the light the next time you turn them on...