Storm to remember

29 some states are being hit by this unheard of, historical ice/snow storm of 2011. Arkansas might be considered one of them, but not where I live. I would write to tell you all about how my feet got soaking wet this morning as the rain came down in buckets. I would tell you about how cold I was when I got in the car to go eat lunch. (The temperate went from 75 on Saturday to 22 currently). Wait, maybe you want to hear about how our satelite dish went out for about 10 minutes from the very gusty wind tonight.

Yeah, I have nothing to complain about! And I know it. I remember the ice storm of 2006 and I'll be just fine if I never have to live through another! (Though I do have to admit, I would be curious to see life in Illinois for a day with 24" of snow...I just don't remember ever having that much).

In the meantime, I'll just appeciate the heat running, the toilets flushing, the cell phone service with unlimited minutes (my how times have changed in 5 years), neighbors within distance, the hot meal we ate for dinner, and the silent night. My most vivid memory is probably hearing those enormous trees falling all around our house like a 2 year playing with dominoes. And then to hear the ice slowly slide off the roof. Luckily, besides my memories, I have some photos to help me never forget either....

Now that is some ice!

This was the view from our front porch. The trees were bent all the way over!

The driveway and road looked beautiful, but I thought Matt might never make it home.

This leads to no power for 5 days.

And this still makes me laugh. We had just moved into the house we were building a month before and had not yet finished the fireplace. And even though we had cut down trees for years to build our house, we didn't have a single piece of dry firewood, but we did have 2 x 4s. Despite not having a blower, this was all the heat we had.

So friends and family in Illinois, I'm thinking about you. But really, you may want to consider moving to the South. It has it's perks!