We live in the Midwest...we're not near oceans, gulfs or even lakes...we don't have rolling hills or gorgeous landscapes...we have some old Indian caverns to explore and the parks are really nice...but pretty much, we're just here, livin' life never really expecting anything out of the ordinary...
Enter IKE!!!
He rolled right in this passed weekend and wreaked havoc on many...now I know, it's NOTHING compared to what happened down south...and because of that I even cringe to write this blog entry...and so I do it tongue in cheek, because in the whole scheme of things...it's not that bad...
I know I sound more like a Paris Hilton devestated over a broken nail (sorry PH...since we're not BFF's, I'm not too worried...ANYWAY...) but, just humor me here...
So IKE comes blowin' his way across our suburbia neighborhood...takes a few shingles, trees, even smashes a few cars along the way...but, when he wiped out the electricity...MAN!!!
The first day...it was humorous.
The second day..."hey, we're in Colonial Williamsburg, we can do this!"
The third day...OKAY...I'm GRUMPY!!!
We do have a gas stove top...so I was able to boil water in order to bathe the girls and to wash dishes, etc. Some didn't even have that. Because it's that time of year, the sun goes down much earlier, so those candles came out by 6pm. I think I fretted most about loosing food. Fortunately our dear neighbors loaned us a generator for a few hours each day to keep things cool. 
Then there was the laundry. The day the lights went out, I was in the middle of my loads...I had them all piled: the whites, the lights, the darks and the bedding...I had just finished my middle child's bedding and transferred it to the drier...Needless to say, she slept in a sleeping bag that night. I had her sheets hanging up in the doorways of our house all the next day to dry.
We learned to wash our dishtowels and other clothing "necessities" by hand and hang them out to dry on string we tied to two of our dining room chairs. The rest of our clothes that we were able to wash got put all over our backyard (enjoy the pics).
It's over now...the lights are back on...my laundry is almost caught up...I can use my oven and even take hot showers. It's amazing to me how dependent we are on electricity. I guess we'll chalk it up to another family memory to talk about in the years to come!
There are still many here waiting for the power to come back on still...I wonder what their perspectives will be as well...hmmmmmmmm?
