It's C-C-C-OLD outside!!! The Polar Vortex experience

The Polar Vortex, as I've heard it called, started Sunday morning of January 5. At 7:00 there wasn't anything on the ground and church had already been cancelled. Many thought, "Well won't we all look ridiculous." By 9:00 am, the snow was coming down in good sized flakes and it didn't stop until after 6:00 pm. We invited the missionaries, Robinsons, Aults and Mindy Rawlins over to our house as we had been encouraged to have our own testimony meeting at home (without the sacrament) and we figured the more the merrier.

It was a great day, with testimonies, tears, good stories, fun, friends, food, etc. Our power went off between one and two and we weren't sure if/when it would come back on. We made plans with Aults, Mindy and Robinsons to spend the night at our house and they all went to collect overnight supplies (which included two cats, which is saying something as Eric HATES cats). Logan Ault and Eric got the generator out and connected so we had partial power by 6:00. It was about 6:15 when the power came back on. HURRAY!!

My crock pot corned beef was already cooking on the range (thankfully the range is gas and easily lit with a match). Ali Robinsons crock pot roast got put in the oven to finish cooking. We fed 16 people dinner and then decided who was staying now that everyone had power. Aults went home and Mindy took two trips to get her stuff and her two cats back home. Robinsons spent the night and then played/worked all Monday before going home.

The wind chill on Monday was going to reach near -40, so schools were cancelled and work was cancelled. Basically Indiana was closed due to snow and wind.

Bundled and ready to break their backs in the service
of their fellow neighbor (in the -32 degree weather).

Eric got the Elders and Aaron Robinson to agree to his "Master Plan" of shoveling/snowblowing around two blocks of the neighborhood. Thankfully we had Steve Hardy's snowblower, so Eric took three missionaries and Aaron took three missionaries and they went out in 30 minute shifts. Xela, Ali and I made sure there was hot cocoa waiting for them when they returned. Any wet gloves, shoes, hats were placed in the dryer or in front of the space heater to warm and then they went back at it. They did this from about 10:30 until around 2.

 

Aaron Robinson, Elder Combs and the other Elder eating a
lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Playing assorted games while the men-folk are out
breaking their backs.

I thought the ice crystals on the windows were very cool looking so I took a few pictures. These are all from one window in the front room. The patterns are pretty fun to look at.



 

You can barely see through this one
(I admit I am zoomed in a bit)

They called school off Monday for super sub zero temperatures, Tuesday for cold, Wednesday for roads. Then, Little Flower called a 2 hr delay for Thursday due roads. Irvington Community School called off school because roads were still difficult and "student safety is our utmost concern." Whatever, were my and Eric's thoughts. I wanted to think they'd have school on Friday, but by cancelling on Thursday, it wouldn't make sense to have school on Friday. It didn't surprise me when Irvington called to cancel Friday's classes. Little Flower again had a 2 hr delay so that people could drive slow. Xela, Ro and Graigry were happy to go back. Nate and Neta were happy to have a "whole week!" off of school.

I went into work for a half day on Wednesday and then normal work days on Thursday and Friday. It was a small crew on Wednesday and someone ordered pizza for the office - YIPPEE!!

It has been the LONGEST Christmas break EVER! And I'm not complaining. I know Xela was very ready to go back to school when they opened their doors.

Sledding before the storm

The Scott Sled Team

Saturday, January 4, after going on a few errands and working on the duplex for most of the day, Eric surprised the kids by picking up the sleds and hitting Ellenberger Park before filing up the gas can prior to the artic storm that would hit on Sunday. Eric stayed in the warm van while we slid down the  hill with smiles on our faces.

Nate zips down the hill on the circle sled.
He let it start without him, ran and jumped stomach first
on to it so that it would go faster.
That approach, and it's repetition, caught me off guard.



Brothers bundled and butts in sleds ready to ride.

Action shot! Neta zips past me with screaming smiles as she goes.



Xela pulls Neta up the hill after going down together.

Neta runs (as best she can on a slippery slope) back
up the hill for another ride.

Nate at the bottom heading for the top.

The two circle sleds and the pink long sled were the best ones. We were out there for 30 - 45 minutes. I didn't have traction on my shoes, so I would come up slowly. Neta offered to pull me up in the sled if I'd go down with her. We went down and I managed to make it back up, slowly. I didn't bother having Neta try to pull me and then us both not getting anywhere.

We haven't been sledding in a few years. Next time we'll bring the cookie sheets. The kids requested them, because they remembered how fast they were last time, but we didn't bring them. The kids didn't ever say they were cold and it took some encouragement to get them to get them into the car. After this arctic storm that is supposed to drop a foot of snow on us, we'll have to go again and bring the cookie sheets. :)

Welcoming 2014

The big girls spent the night of December 31 at the Bishop's house for the annual YM/YW New Year sleepover. While Eric was out doing something, the three younger ones and I visited one of the seven wonders of the World: the Taj Ma Hall!

Graigry - the world traveler
without leaving the house...

...and Nate doing it upside down.
(I couldn't get the picture to upload correctly)

How did we do that, you ask, well, we started a puzzle that Grandparents Hibbert had given us for Christmas. It took us four - five hours working on it off and on, and they took a break to watch a movie in the middle of our tour, but that's okay.

They made it to midnight and then we went outside and...

BANG! BANG! BANG!

...of course made noise. Eric went right under the missionaries' window and smacked pans. It was great!! I didn't hear if he woke them up though. Hmm...

Shortly after returning inside, everyone went to bed, because, well, we were tired and we're not the all night partiers like some.