We're Alive!

Kathy (keeper of many blogs) was sweet enough to come back and check on me today. I'm not sure if she was worried because of the storm or if she was worried because of my reference to The Shining. (Really, Kathy, which was it?)

Things are okay at our house, but we are the lucky ones. There are about 300,000 people without power tonight and possibly for as much as a week. It's really, really cold here and I feel so bad for those who are without power.

Nearly a year ago (it will be one year on the 4th or 5th of Feb) that we were in the cold without power. Not as cold as this though. We had a gynormous Category 4 or 5 tornado rip through town not far from our house. We were without power for about 24 hours, maybe a little more. That night was long and cold and I had to sleep on the couch with the baby lying on top of me and he was very annoyed about it. Our oldest slept with Rob in our bed.

The evening started around 5PM with us huddling in the hallway with blankets over our heads. We have no storm shelter. Tristan was just over a year old and was freaking out because he didn't understand why there were no lights on and why mommy kept trying to cover his head up. My oldest, 4 at the time, kept asking if the tornado was going to get us. I kept telling him we were practicing for a "real storm". The words were no sooner out of my mouth than I heard the rumbling.

They say it sounds like a freight train. I would disagree. It sounded to me like a dump truck rumbling past the house on its way to do something really important. I realized right then it didn't really matter that I had the covers over our heads and that I absolutely had no control over how well my life was about to turn out. It was like standing on the train tracks watching the locomotive come at you. My husband is on the volunteer fire department and we were listening to the scanner and heard the men yelling reports over the radio. They would say where the tornado was spotted and knowing the terrain like I do I could see it in my minds eye bearing down on us, cutting diagonally across the landmarks I know and love.

It was on us within five minutes. Thankfully we were spared, but so many homes were not and the face of the town I have grown up in has changed. We've all changed because of it. That was the first of a long 2008 during which we had two devastating tornadoes and several floods. We were declared a disaster area 8 times, I think. It was a hard year on many, many levels.

And on the eve of the anniversary, here we are covered in ice. This is what they call "coming full circle" isn't it?? Something like that.

In celebration of our being trapped in the house, the boys of the household cleaned out what we used to call our pantry (which was only just a cabinet with a turntable) and the spice cabinet and moved a bunch of stuff into a new piece of furniture that we will now call the pantry. (The old pantry is now the baking pantry and the spice cabinet is still just the spice cabinet. So uptown now!) My sister-in-law and hubby built this gigantic shelf thing for our canned goods. We painted it a very cool red shade that turned out to be hideous when applied to the furniture. It's a fine color, but not something 7 feet tall. It looks like this hulking red cabinet that should be using for storing emergency medical supplies or perhaps biohazardous substances.

Our plan is to cover it with crackle stuff and paint an antique white over the read. Could be great... could be another disaster. I used to wish for two inches of height, but now I think I will change that wish to something like maybe decorating sense or skill in the domestic arts. That would be way better than being 5'6".

And as if cleaning and organizing the pantries was not fun enough, they also organized toys and it was sort of like Christmas, opening boxes of toys they have not looked at in months. (We rotate out the toys to keep it interesting.) They love doing stuff like this with their dad and are very cheery and excited about it. Anything remotely like all that makes me want to gnaw my arm off. I'm a born delegator or is that delegatrix? (That's not what my husband calls it anyway.)

Well, whatever you call it... it's good to be Queen.

(Thanks, Kathy, for checking on us.)