February 3, 2011--Snow storm

We had a huge ice storm blow through the last couple of days. At work on Monday, it was crazy busy. It was like Black Friday--everyone was in stocking up on food, flashlights, candles, blankets, fire logs, etc. They asked me to stay longer, and I could only stay an extra hour because I was supposed to have had class that night. When I got home, though, I found that my Monday night class had been cancelled. We decided that we'd better go back to Walmart and buy a few things ourselves. We wanted to get an oil lamp, but they were out, so we got some candles. We also bought the last box of fire logs, since we didn't have any firewood for our fireplace left. It was the last box.

It started raining and freezing that night. By morning we had a thin coating of ice on everything, but it wasn't very bad yet. I was scheduled to work 6:30 to 11 Tuesday evening, but by 4:00 it was freezing rain again. I called into work because the roads were just a sheet of ice. Two of the neighbor kids spent the night, since their parents were worried about the house getting too cold if their power went out and since we had a fireplace. When the power did go out, one family came over for awhile, but after an hour and a half they went back home. We stayed nice and cozy with our fireplace. It was kind of fun, all being in the same room together with the fireplace and candles.

That night the power blinked off and on a couple of times, but it stayed on finally. Yesterday they salted down the main roads enough and they were dry, so I was able to go to work. It was still a little slow at work, but we had lots of people calling the service desk asking if we had kerosene heaters. There are still thousands of people in the area without power, so we feel very blessed to have power.

Erick hasn't worked much this week, since school has been cancelled almost every day. He's been enjoying substitute teaching. He has an interview next Tuesday for a chaplaincy position at the hospital. Please pray with us about this. This would be a wonderful opportunity. He's one of three that they are considering--he actually sent in his resume for that before Christmas on a whim, and we hadn't heard anything so we had pretty much forgotten about it. Pray for God's will to be done.