Wow, it has been crazy around here the past couple of weeks. I will try to remember everything from the beginning.
The younger boys finished up their basketball seasons. Here are some pictures of Sammy's team. Ethan's team picture will be taken today. Both boys had excellent seasons and their skills improved tremendously. Sammy surprised us by being a left-handed dribbler. He played on the 3/4th grade team even though he is in 2nd grade. He looked more like a 4th grader, though:)
We have been very fortunate to be able to play at the local Catholic school. We have met many wonderful families, and the boys have made some great friends.
Then, on the 22nd, we celebrated Sammy's birthday. Here are some pics of his best present: a hamster! She is named Peachy for her beautiful silky, golden coat. She is very cute and well-loved by all.
The day after Sam's birthday, we went to the pet store to get a cover for Peachy's new home. We never did get the cover, but Ethan came home with a Beta fish, whom he named "Moonshine". Moonshine is a beautiful, dark purple and red fish. Ethan did not know that moonshine was homemade alcohol, but decided to keep the name even after we informed him what it meant.
The following day, we got a foot of snow. My husband plowed for 20 hours.
The next day we got a tremendous amount of rain. The ground was muddy and saturated...and covered with now very wet snow.
That night we got 50mph winds and all heck broke loose.
We were sheltered here in our little clearing, but everywhere in this area trees came down, bringing power lines with them. It looked like a war zone. Our power went out at 11:15pm on Thursday night.
On Friday morning, as my husband tried to leave to head downtown, he realized the extent of the damage from this storm. Trees were blocking roads in every direction. He had to cut one little pine tree to get down our driveway and that was the only tree we had down (praise, God). In each direction, he had to turn around because trees were down. He finally found a way out on a little side street where the residents had cut trees to clear the roadway. Power was out to almost the entire city and surrounding areas for miles. Scott and Isaac cut a couple of trees to clear the main roadway that leads to our house.
We have a woodstove in our basement that, incredibly, heated our entire house during the outage. A generator kept our refrigerator running and our propane stove allowed me to cook. We were pretty well set up except for one thing. Running Water. No power means no well pump means no water. Ugh. That was the biggest hardship, but really, we had it pretty easy. We were without power for 3 days and 3 nights (biblical, huh? I'm just glad the storm didn't take a Lenten theme...40 days!)
So, we spent a lot of time playing games, reading and interacting. This time reinforced to me what a thief the TV, computer and video games are. They steal our time, our interactions and our relationship building efforts. The kids didn't even miss the TV. They were happy to break out the games. Hubby seemed actually kind of happy. I think he enjoyed the camping atmosphere and we all enjoyed more family interaction. We need to discuss what this storm taught us and perhaps implement further electronic restrictions for everyone. A perfect Lenten experience.
So, Sunday evening the power came back on. We got showers, did dishes and laundry, and caught the last part of the USA v. Canada hockey game.
On Sunday afternoon, when we saw the Asplundh (tree service) trucks and the electric company trucks on our rural road, we were so excited. As I passed them in the car, I rolled down my window and thanked them profusely for their hard work....to the utter embarrassment of my 17 year old son! That's OK, my breathing is an embarrassment to him these days, hehehe. I needed to give credit where credit was due.
So, that's what's been going on around here. Whew!
This strong boy in the picture above is my nephew, who becomes a teenager today. As you can see he was a very big help during the building of our house:) Happy birthday, Lucien! May your teen years be filled with grace and growth in mind, body and spirit. 
.JPG)
