Snow-pocalypse!

 So I'm sure by now you have all heard of the infamous Snow-mageddon. Maybe you are experiencing it yourself, maybe you have heard about it on the news, but here is a record of our experiences and what happened here. We are not perfect and sometimes a home can turn against you.

Greg was SUPER skeptical at first and I have to admit I was starting to have my doubts when that Tuesday all we could see was sunny clear skies and the snow from Tues morning melting away. Our weather people are not always accurate and they have a propensity for exaggerating. So here it is 2 am Weds morning on my 3rd round of pregnancy peeing. Just as I go to bed I check out the window and notice its snowing. Well, at least it was snowing, not big flakes, but it was coming down. I tell Greg who promptly tells me to go back to sleep. We wake up again at about 5:30 AM to begin our day of work and we awake to the first day of crazy town. The snow apparently hadn't stopped coming and there was a good 4 inches on the ground and still snowing, heavily. I first call my dad, who comes home from work about 4 AM and he essentially forbids me to go to work in "my condition." I laugh and call my work building and thankfully, they have closed for the day, Aiden also has no school. So we both get snow-days, yay!

Greg, however, true to his Spokane Valley roots, decides to risk our only car and try to get it to work. He barely makes it out of our driveway, and 15 minutes down the road and a witness to 4 accidents later he decides to come home.....

 

Greg decides its safer to work from home and help Aiden build a snowman on his lunch break.

And then Thursday comes.... Snowmageddon and the freezing rain. So again at about 4AM Thursday morning I get up and look out the window and notice it's raining ice! Also there is this crazy sheen on all the snow. Looks like Aiden and I will be having another snow-day. Greg, again, true to his stubborn Spokane ideologies, decides he is going to try. To make matters worse, as he starts his morning routine to get ready the lights go out. Seems like all that snow and ice has brought some power lines down, but greg warms the car and prepares to try. With no power there is no way he can work from home. This time 30 mins later Greg can't even get out of our driveway! 

So its official. We are stranded with no electricity. And though having our house being all electric makes for an energy efficient home, it proves mighty inconvenient when the power goes out. 

Lessons we learned that morning: 

1. You should always having a back up camping stove 

(which we wanted to buy but never got around doing it.)

2. Before winter comes, make sure you have gas for your gas grill

3.  Make sure you charge everything, cell phones, laptops, etc. the night before.

4. Make sure you have a cooler, so you can put all your perishables in it and outside

It was cold, very cold. Doesn't help that I had caught Aiden's cold. My adventures father and bored brother took pity on us and decided to venture over to bring us some hot beef stew. They made it! My dads salty beef stew never tasted so good. They also tell us that there are down trees and power outages everywhere. I knew highway 18 was closed from reading the news on my cell phone, our only mode of communication and news. However, by mid afternoon, not only were they running out of power but they were getting spotty reception and no internet. We also had been hearing our neighbors tree branches falling into his and our yard all morning. We were getting jumpy and paranoid that a tree was going to fall onto our house, which was a real possibility with all these trees around you.

 

It was time for us to venture out. With persistence we were finally able to make it out of our driveway. With our camara in-tow we went for a drive. 

 Here is our neighbors tree... falling onto his truck

The place Greg and I nick-named the "Bermuda Triangle of Cars" because of the many car accidents and breakdowns that usually occur here, was an eerie ghost road. We also saw this, another road closed. We found 124th open, unfortunately, so did everyone else in the neighborhood. It was a traffic mess, but at least we were moving. We finally made it to Target and Home Depot! Let me tell you, it is very unsettling to walk into a major retailer and see them with no power. Very odd experience. Poor Target, they had to figure out what to do with all the new groceries that need refrigerating. We got a few non-perishable items and decided to go home. 

 Coldest night of my life. At 7 & half months pregnant, with a raging cold, and a 5 year-old it was time for desperate matters. I called my sister, who had power and asked her if we could stay until our power came back on. And here are, making our post from her apartment living room.
Saturday morning, waiting for a phone call from Greg that the power in our house is back on. 

I do miss my house....