I'm Behind

On the whole blogging thing. I'm going to try to catch up though. I was doing so well (for a week). Monday was Memorial Day and I was off so I was planning to actually have a productive weekend. I was going to clean the house and do lots of cooking (today is day 1 of Whole 30) and get ahead on some blog posts, but then... "the storm." And I was without power for about 48 hours and so I did nothing.

I hung out with friends on Saturday and felt like I was away from Molly a lot. I have bad mom-guilt so when I got home from a cookout, I hung out with her for a while and then brought her into bed with me. The kennel is her domain. She feels safe in there and will sleep through the night. Everywhere else, she's on high alert all the time. So as soon as the wind started to pick up while she was in bed with me, she went crazy! I woke up and looked outside to see what was going on. It was pouring rain with straight line winds. I stood at the back door watching limbs falling off the tree in my backyard. Then the power flashed a few times and went out. I continued to watch the wind for a little while before going back to my room. I lied in bed and tried to think through what to do.

Sunday morning when I woke up, I got dressed, packed a bag and loaded up my car and drove out to my parents' house. I was there by 8. Molly and I hung out all day while I texted with some friends and tried to make a plan for the next few days. MLGW was saying it could be a week before power was restored everywhere and I didn't know when I would get power back. I was trying to be optimistic about things, while trying not to think about the hundreds of dollars of groceries I had just bought the day before...

Sunday night, we were having a going away party for a girl from church. We moved locations but it was still on. I optimistically loaded up my car and drove home. Still no power. I fed Molly dinner and headed to the party. Afterwards, I drove back home and loaded up all my food and went back to my parents'. Thankfully, I didn't have to throw out much. All my freezer food was still frozen! It had been less than 24 hours and I hadn't opened the fridge or freezer, so pretty much everything was still good. I did throw away all dairy. It could have been a little bit sketchy and I can't have it on Whole 30 anyway!

I slept at my parents' house Sunday night and Monday I obsessively checked MLGW outage map. Then I decided that I had to be productive! I ran some errands, read at the pool, and then showered (and straightened my hair for the first time all weekend!) Around 2pm, there were some posts on NextDoor that power was starting to be restored to my neighborhood. There were still some streets without power though so I wasn't sure, but I decided to risk it. I loaded everything up--including all my food--and drove home. I have a friend that lives closer to work than my parents that offered her place if I didn't have power, but luckily when I got home power had been restored!

I haven't had any heat/air conditioning on since mid-March. I thought I could hold out until June1, but when the power came back on, I decided to turn on the air. Just because I could!

I came back to work on Tuesday to madness. It has been super busy! But I am thankful that I am back home and have electricity. There were plenty of limbs down, but all of my trees are still upright. It could have been much worse! Molly, a girl after my own heart, also does not like change and uncertainty and was very excited to be back home in her space!

There are still plenty of people without power. I think this morning MLGW was saying 45 thousand- which is greatly improved from the original 188 thousand, but it's still hard. We still have people in the hospital that don't have power and need oxygen and other medical equipment. And there are people that are temporarily displaced while their homes are being rebuilt after fallen trees. Keep praying!