Power-less!

Crazy times in Norman Oklahoma....



After the stomach virus plagued our house and we fully recovered by Sunday, the largest ice storm in twenty years of Norman history hit and wiped out the entire city of power. We lost power at 2am Monday morning and were awake the rest of the night due to the eerie silence and sounds of popping limbs, transformers blowing and crashing timber. By 6am it was freezing in our house so we pulled the babies into bed with us and snuggled up for warmth. Pretty funny to have four humans, one canine, and two felines on a queen sized bed...it can be done! That was just the beginning....

Once the sun came up, we could see the destruction around our neighborhood. It truly looked like a tornado had come through but not touched the houses. We were unable to drive down any street without dodging falling limbs and weaving around those which had already fallen. One reason we bought our house 1 1/2 years ago was because we loved the big trees in the neighborhood...now many of them are gone. Pictures could not do the damage justice...with gaping jaws and tears in our eyes, we drove around town and were amazed. No working streetlights, power lines hanging in the middle of streets, everything frozen. Few businesses were open and those restaurants which were had 2 hour wait times.

The babies and I went to the Stelzers to camp out for the day/ evening, thinking our power would be back on any second. Then they lost power too and their huge oak tree fell in their backyard into the pool, narrowly missing the house by inches. Making the best of it (and it was still fun by that point--we felt like pioneers!), we huddled around their fireplace and enjoyed a yummy steak dinner by candlelight.

Once Matt realized the temp in our house was steadly falling, the Lees graciously offered to let all of us (Boomer, Louise, and Anna too!) stay with them as their power had been restored.
So we moved in with all our entourage and were able to have a good night's sleep in warmth. When Matt went back home the next morning, the neighborhood looked even worse than the day before as the temps did not rise above 29 degrees and limbs continued to fall. The wonderful souls who came to Oklahoma to help restore power from TX and LA were working hard in our 'hood, but our street was the last to have power...two days later. We lived with the Lees temporarily and came to greatly appreciate the small things in life, like dear friends, heat, fireplaces, and electricity. All in all, being a little inconvenienced for a few days and being reminded of our multitude of blessings was a good life lesson. Our house was fine, our friends' houses were fine, we had the money to eat out for a few days, trees will re-grow, and no one we knew was hurt by the storm. Thanks be to God! Continued prayers for those in Norman and the rest of the state without power, now seven days later.

We also experienced the babies' first snow over the weekend. Unfortunately nothing stuck...just flurries all day. We went out in the 30 degree winter weather...the babies bundled up of course....and began Christmas shopping. Typical Martin fashion, no minute better than the last! Fri night we enjoyed a wine tasting at the Lowry's and left the twins with a babysitter for the first time. Yea for us! Abigail slept the whole time while George was fussy but Jennifer was able to get him to sleep! Sat night the babies went with us to the McGinley and Melton's Wassail Party and though one of them was crying for most of the time, we enjoyed the fun....not sure if the other guests did however. Sun night we went to the annual Candlelight Carol service at church and went to Braums afterwards with the McClendons and Nichols---pretty funny that there were six adults and six kids 3 years and younger--the Nichols twins Ean and Quinn are exactly one month younger than George and Abigail, while Brady McClendon is six days younger than g&a.

The babies are doing well...growing like crazy and definitely detecting the craziness in our lives at the moment. George has been much fussier than usual (which I am attributing to my consumption of regular milk for a few days) but hopefully today will be a better day. The past few days have been tough as they have been crying and fussing lots and not wanting to take naps for more than 30 minutes. But as I write this, Abigail is beside me in her bouncy seat cooing, "talking" and kicking up a storm...moments like these remind me that parenthood has times of warm fuzzies!