Thawing...

Well, I am trying to think of some witty way to write about our recent events. Okay, maybe not witty, how about just informative.... I can't seem to wrap my mind around everything! LOL Here are the details:

• Monday morning at 2am we lost power
• We left our home on Monday about 10am to find electricity and heat
• We headed to Michael's mom (who had electricity)
• Once we were on the road, she called and said hers had gone out too
• Hotels were going fast. We could not find two adjacent rooms anywhere in Tulsa or Broken Arrow (we needed two rooms so Kaedy and her nurse could be in one, esp overnight) Could only find one hotel that had two rooms AT ALL and they were smoking rooms.
  
• We decided to look for a generator
• Generators sold out (closest ones in Arkansas)
• We went to mother in law's to decide what to do
• We ended up staying there. We had lots of oxygen for Kaedra and we could turn on her gas fireplace now and then to heat up her house (we just had to put Kaedra in another room with her oxygen)
• A friend found us a generator to borrow, now we could use Kaedra's equipment.
  
• One of our nurses, Tonja, had no electricity so she has been staying with us since Monday as well.
  
• Wednesday night my mother in law got power back, right before we went to church.
• Late Wednesday night, our electricity at home was restored.
• We came home Thursday morning.
  

Okay, that's the timeline.

Here are the little details to fill in:
In case you didn't know, Oklahoma had a severe ice storm.




It is very unusual for the Tulsa area to get the brunt of any weather, but this time we did, especially in Broken Arrow. There are were so many big, beautiful trees here. They got loaded down with ice and couldn't hold the weight. It was so eery being out outside on Monday/Tuesday. You would hear creaks and cracks and then crashes of limbs falling. Limbs were everywhere.


I was afraid for anyone to go outside without someone watching them from a window. We used the "buddy system" all day on Monday. A limb fell aobut 1 foot behind my nurse's car 10 minutes after she parked. A limb fell 3 yards in front of Brittany and I while we were driving. Here is what part of our street looked like one of the times we came home to check on our house:





I don't know if you can tell but we had to weave up and down through people's yards to be able to get home. It was an adventure. :-)

Almost ALL of Broken Arrow lost electricity, including stores, restaurants, etc. The falling limbs had taken out so many of the electric lines. There was hardly anyplace to go to find food, batteries, candles, etc. It was really a disaster. As of right now 73,000 people in the Tulsa area still don't have electricity, 197-thousand statewide. Our nurse Tonja and our friends, the Grahams, and Annie are some people we know personally that still don't have power. Please pray for them! (Sherria's family finally got it last night)

We have been looking at our blessings during this....here are some of them:

• Our insurance is covering most of our loss of food in refrigerator and outside freezer.
• We had a little bit of damage to our house (our gutters) and our fences so insurance is going to cover tree removal for us. (Without damage, insurance will not cover removal)

• Our trees are now pruned. ;-)
• Our frig is now completely clean (haven't worked on outside freezer at all, yet) and who knows when I would have taken EVERYTHING out of my frig to clean it. ;-)
• Friends lent us a generator
• People at church offered us a place to stay (their power went out about an hour later, but it was the thought that counts!) Our church also became a shelter to members w/o electricity.
  
• We didn't have to take Kaedra to the hospital! WOOHOO! (that was our last option, if we couldn't find any electricity)
• We had money in the bank to cover the extra expenses of eating out, extra clothing and supplies, etc.
• There are many more...but I need to go take care of my house and home. We are still trying to get everything back to normal! Hopefully we will be there by Monday.

Oh...and by the way...it's snowing now!!! (this might be the first time EVER I have not been excited about a snow)