Blizzard of the century - Storm Atlas

The first week of October we got hit with a blizzard. This was the blizzard of all blizzards. The most snow I have ever seen. The winds were blowing so hard. But it didn't really ever get that cold, since it was early October. However, early October meant leaves were still on the trees. And the snow was wet and heavy. So, that meant lots of trees down. Which meant power lines down. Which meant going without power. It actually turned out fun.

The snow started on Friday morning, the school and work were cancelled. We spent the day just hanging around the house, thinking we will go back to normal the next day. Well, we lost our power around dinnertime on Friday night. We cuddled up in the front room and watched a movie on our little battery operated movie player. The girls thought it was cool. We lit some candles and had a few flashlights, so we were good. It didn't get too cold that night, I think our temp in the house got to around 55 degrees.

The morning was interesting. We were not sure what the storm had done. But we could not even see out of our windows to look outside. I found a spot to peak out of the blinds and all I could see was white. I am a little claustrophobic, and I really didn't like that trapped feeling. Eric climbed his way outside to take a look and it was nuts. Snow everywhere. Our entire street was about 6-8 feet of snow. We had a feeling we would be here awhile. The girls did great that day. They just colored and played and acted like it was a normal day. I made yummy breakfasts and lunches because we had a gas stove, and really, what else was I going to do? I could vacuum or do laundry, or really any cleaning, so cooking on the stove was my job.

That night we huddled around in the front room again. No more batteries for our movie player, so we just sat in the dark and played silly games. We started with "I am going on a picnic and I am bringing....". I started with the letter A and said apple. Payton was next. She said, "I am going on a picnic and I am bringing an apple and beer." Seriously? We all started laughing so hard. She was giggling and said she couldn't think of anything else to bring. So, it was kind of funny to hear all my kids say they were bringing beer to a picnic. If she was a teenager, it would not have been funny. We tried to snuggle them all in our room that night, since it was a bit colder. But Eleanor wanted her own bed. So, Payton and Carley slept on our floor, Maggie slept in our bed, and Eleanor slept in her room. But around midnight or so, our power came back on. Ahhhh. It felt good to have heat.

The next day was when we started to get restless. We were still trapped with snow. No one could go anywhere. Eric started chipping away at our driveway snow, but it was so heavy, he had to take breaks. Finally the sun came out and started melting it all. And the kids could come out and play. That saved us. Fresh air and sunshine. They played for hours. It was crazy how much snow. I kept getting worried that someone would fall in deep and we wouldn't be able to find them, but we were fine.

  Monday came and still no roads. They opened the Shopette on base, so we walked down there to load up on goodies. I tell ya. Here is what I learned: when shopping before a blizzard, buy junk food! The day before I stocked up on fruit and cheese, and veggies, and bread, and things I thought we would need. But I never thought about what we would WANT. We had no chips, no pop, no candy, etc. It was rough. :) But we spent $55 at the Shopette on plenty of junk to tide us over!

Finally the roads opened and Tuesday morning we took off. We just wanted to drive. We didn't care where we went, we just wanted to get out. Where did we end up? Target. Along with everyone else. But it felt good to be back to normal. We still had lots of snow, but at least the sun was shining, we had power, and we could drive. It was a crazy storm that we will never forget.