We're Still Here!

Just a quick blog post to let you know that we're still here!  

Texas was clobbered by winter this past week and a half, as you've probably seen.  The cold actually rolled in last week and then there was some icing, resulting in the huge pile up in Fort Worth last Thursday.  Then this past Sunday my mother-in-law called and said we might have rolling blackouts.  I was glad she had warned us because it's not something we think about in February and we just weren't paying attention.  Early Monday morning the rolling blackouts started.  We never fully lost power, just a lot of on and off, so that was a blessing.  Wednesday afternoon we had a pipe burst but Mickael got the water turned off quickly and since it was in the garage wall, it just sent water down the driveway.  We got a repairman out the next morning and he cut off the burst section of pipe and capped it so we could turn the water back on in the house.  He'll do the repair and patch the drywall this next week, but we were very blessed in the location of the burst pipe.  

On Wednesday night the rolling blackouts stopped.  As I mentioned, we've had water consistently except for the 12+ hours where we had to shut it off, but most of those were sleeping time anyway.  We had more than enough water to keep Logan and Newton hydrated and there were plenty of other liquids Mickael and I could drink for that brief time.  We do not have boil our water at this point.

Yesterday we got our internet back (we were previously only able to get online, send texts, make calls with our cell phones, and even then it was tough because the cell towers were slammed with everyone else trying to do the same thing).  We're thawing out around here and Mickael and I are periodically checking the entire house, turning on all the faucets just to make sure.  We had a second faucet freeze, but it didn't burst and we were able to get it going again.

Even Caleb was dealing with this down in Galveston.  He sent me pictures after the storms went through and there's just something wrong with palm trees standing in snow.  Hopefully their roots are deep enough that they'll survive.  He lost power completely as well as water, but they're back up and running now, although they can't drink the tap water.  The school (Texas A&M at Galveston) has stayed on top of things and kept the kids safe, warm, and fed.  They've got drinking water there for them too.

This past couple of weeks has been stressful and crazy.  The homes here are not built for the kind of cold we've had (neither are the people).  They're built to keep us cool in the summer with high ceilings and vents in the ceilings.  Everyone is tired, but the sun is out today, the temperature made it to the 50's (!!!!!), the repairmen are out fixing things as quickly as they can to get everyone back to normal.  We're thankful that we are safe and our families are safe.  I know not everyone was as fortunate.