Windstorm 2015....

Tuesday at work I went to grab some lunch and my car came up with this High Wind Warning. I had never received a weather warning in my car before...so I went back to work and continued working. Around 2pm the mayor came on the radio and urged people to 'shelter in place' and leave work early if they could due to a large windstorm that was supposed to be 'Historic'.

 My last patient came around 3:30. As I was finishing her cleaning the lights started flickering and the building was making weird wind noises...My drive home was fairly terrifying. The wind was so strong it was hard to drive my car very fast and sagebrush, dirt and branches were flying everywhere. Halfway home I came to a stop. There were 2 downed trees across the road. It took me 45 minutes to get home. It normally takes 13.

 When I got home the power was out. Rudy and Carli came to our house because we don't have any trees by our place. We have a gas range so we made dinner by candlelight.

 The kids used head lamps and flashlights to see their dinner.

 Apparently the winds reached 77 mph! We were very lucky and our only damage was the swing set.

 The next day my work had no power so I had no work. For whatever reason The Kids school had power so they still had school. I decided to take a drive into town to get some coffee and survey the damage by my work. Starbucks must have had a generator because it was the only thing open and the line was down the street. I passed on the coffee and drove around to see the damage. There were trees and power lines down on every street. I have never seen anything like it. by thursday gas stations were even running out of gas!

 I finally got some coffee and food and picked up landon at school. We came home and still had no power. We played games and did some crafts but the house started to get cold so we went out in the car and watched a movie:)

 The fridge and freezer needed cleaning anyway:)

My office finally got power on thursday so I headed to work. Thursday night we went out to dinner and tried to find flashlights....we ended up with glowsticks instead. Wednesday Josie had gymnastics with her friend Annie, so I was able to go watch because I didn't have work.

 Fleece pants, ski socks and headlamps....

My friend Tara who had power left me a note at work. She invited us over for a shower:) I gladly took her up on it.

 Then we headed out to dinner...again!

 My boss had a small generator that we borrowed. It was just enough to run a small space heater. It wasn't much but it felt amazing to stand in front of it.

 I saw this and had to laugh....by day 4 with no power I was getting a little tired of it.

 This was the notice we received from the power company....

 Friday Landon had 'soup sharing' day. Every kid in Preschool brings an ingredient to put in the soup. Then they get to invite 1 guest. Landon chose to invite his sister. I stopped by at the end and tried the soup. It was actually delicious.

 I broke down friday afternoon and took landon to Mcdonalds for lunch on friday and we ate in the car:)

 Friday luke rented a generator and it powered the downstairs T.V and 2 space heaters!...for about and hour and a half. Turns out the generator was bad and it ended up being a dud! So friday night we froze our butts off. The outside temps were down into the low 20's...so our house was freezing.

Josie recently joined the girlscouts. We had her first group activity. It was watching wheelchair basketball. I took landon with us because there was power and heat:) The kids got to try to play too.

Late Saturday night we were all hunkered in the theater room with space heaters and some T.V. Rudy and Carli went to Seattle so we were able to use their generator.....Josie went to the bathroom and I looked up to tell her to turn off the bathroom light...wait...the LIGHT?!...we were so excited!! 5 days without power...we were jumping for Joy!! This morning we woke up to heat, toilets that flushed (we are on a well so we had no water)....I started laundry and dishes....and then...the power went out!! It was out for about 2 hours and then finally came back on. I jumped in the shower fast....as I was taking a shower the power went out again!! It kept flickering but by noon it was on for good! There are still a lot of people without power. The main school district in Spokane has been closed since last Wednesday and is closed again tomorrow. I have to work tomorrow to make up for my vacation time and then we leave Tuesday morning for Mexico!! Right now the forecast is calling for snow tuesday morning here so I'm hoping we can get out of Spokane safely!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!