And the Wind Blew!

A week ago Sunday, Hurricane Ike plowed through the Dayton area. I decided not to go for a run earlier that afternoon because it seemed pretty windy. Actually I was looking for an excuse not to run:) As the day progressed the wind really picked up. Part of the neighbors tree fell around 2:00. This particular tree was prone to losing branching during storms, so I didn't think much of it. I decided to explore my favorite hobby...shopping at Target. As I was driving I noticed lots of large limbs down. The power ended up going in in Target so I decided to make my way home. It turned out that the power everywhere was out. The drive home was a much worse scene. None of the street lights were working. It seemed like every third house had a tree down, some that were completely uprooted. I had a hard time driving. I saw a hood of a car completed folded over the windshield. My neighborhood looked like a war zone. While this was happening, my husband was being a helpful neighbor and was helping to cut another large limb down from his tree. While doing that another large limb fell, missing him by a few feet. Needless to say, he came inside and that's where we all stayed until the next morning. The next two days involved lots of clean up. We saw a large split up the middle of one of our trees in the back yard. It will need to come down. We tried to make having no power as much fun as possible. We lit candles all over the house each night. We made a tent with blankets and pillows in the living room and grilled hot dogs. We ran the portable DVD player with an extension cord attached to the car charger. The kids spent a lot of time playing outside. Duane went back to work and Molly back to school on Wednesday. Still there was no power. Madison and I went back to school on Thursday. Still there was no power. At this point, it wasn't fun anymore and it was really affecting my mood. The kids continued to handle it wonderfully. We hooked up to the neighbor's generator so that we could use a light and a hair dryer in the morning and run the fridge. Duane headed out of town for a mountain bike trip with his friends on Friday morning and I was left to tend to the girls alone. In his defense, even though at the time I really didn't want to defend him, the trip had been planed for months. Friday night we camped out with Joey and the girls. We enjoyed lights, television, catching up on laundry and a home cooked meal! On Sat. we headed to my Aunt Patty's for the night and received more of the same special treatment. The girls enjoyed spending all day Sunday with their cousin's Dominic and Aurora. Thank the Lord for good family and friends. Finally when we got home on Sunday evening, the power on our side of the street was on. I looked like a crazy person cheering and jumping around my yard. I work hard to try to see the positives in life and not get overwhelmed with the negatives. The negatives can be all consuming, if you let them. This was a week of challenges none the less. But we had great times too. We were able to teach our girls how to show acts of kindness by helping their neighbors, how to have patience and creativity when you're in a tough situation and how to make the best of it. We also really learned to appreciate all the comforts of home that we have and to have compassion for those who were in much worse shape than us. Most of all we spent so much quality family time together that we don't always take enough time for. I don't think any of us will forget this experience any time soon!