Cuz I'm Keeping It Real

An ice storm is coming.

Aaron called me from Walmart, asking if there is anything (in case we end up without power for a few days) that we can't live without.

I frantically had him stock up on chocolate chips.

Quincy wore pants for a total of 1 hour and 30 minutes today.

I was supposed to deliver several freezer meals to a woman from church who just had a baby, but she didn't answer her phone at all today (or return my message) and I don't know where she lives.

I am eating the dinner I made for her.

The girls are going to bed early,

and then I'm baking chocolate chip cookies, and Aaron and I are having a 30 Rock marathon.

"Ice Is Back With A Brand New Edition..."

Will it evah stop? Yo! I don't know...

Well the Ice Storm started yesterday afternoon, and continued through the night and all day today. It never really rained, or snowed, or hailed...just a big nasty mist that came through and stuck to everything, and icicles formed on everything. So creepy. I feel like I live in an ice sculpture. Here are some pics we took this morning when the girls woke up. (they dressed themselves for a "pajama party ice day"). Everything looks like it was dipped in water, then frozen into a popcicle version of what it used to be, with up to 2 inches of ice cased around every detail. We took these this morning, and it is so much worse now, but it's dark outside so I doubt my pics would turn out.


And if you can't tell from the pictures how much ice is on everything...here is a single blade of grass from the yard. It has so much ice it is as thick around as Aaron's thumb. The whole lawn is now made up of these:
This is a twig off the dogwood out front:

The giant magnolia tree in our backyard is taking the biggest hit, because it still has it's big, flat leaves, so the ice on them is weighing down the branches too much and now they are snapping off. Many of our friends are without power because trees are breaking and knocking out the lines, or the lines are just getting too heavy from the ice on them and snapping from the weight. Luckily, our power lines are fairly free of the trees in the side yard and we've been able to have power all day, aside from a few flickers off then back on again right away. It's supposed to get up to 50 this weekend, so hopefully the power lines will hold out long enough for it to warm up! If not, well we have a fireplace, flashlights, food storage and a dutch oven. Oh, and a giant tent in the living room...
Because this is as close as we can get to caging up our kids.
I got the idea from my friend, Sarah, and the girls loved it! Of course, now that they've gone to bed, the tent is available. Judging by the subconscious condition of the current resident...looks like this is where I'll be bunking in tonight, too.
Can you believe that in 7 1/2 years we've never been camping? I think I've actually slept in a tent maybe 3 or 4 times in my life. Well, I guess camping doesn't get any better than on bug-free, soft carpet in a heated house, (hey, at least we have a "campfire"!) in front of a tv with ice cream and a redbox movie! Oh and bathrooms down the hall are nice too, since baby requires that I get up at least twice a night to empty the bladder he is sitting on. It's really too bad Uncle Greg isn't here...maybe the "camping bear" would come and leave us some candy. I could use me an Almond Joy.