Ice ice baby

What a crazy and terrible week it was for most of the country as we experienced a polar vortex that reached all the way to the middle of Texas.  

Wednesday night I spent hours outside - We covered the plants as best we could to protect them from the cold and keep them insulated. 

Before the vortex hit, Thursday the city of Austin was hit with a snow storm that turned to ice and sleet.  It came just before the morning rush hour so it was so very dangerous to drive.  It took me 2 hours to get to work.  Yikes!!!  The weather never really cleared up so it was treacherous going home too!

Friday was crazy too but the weather warmed up before the drive home and by Saturday it was nice.  

Saturday was 2/13 - which means Valentine’s Day is on Sunday so Mark and I went to eat our Valentine’s dinner on Saturday.  It was chilly but at least the roads were clear.  While we were enjoying our Mexican dinner at Cafe’ Ole in Georgetown the news announced that the vortex would get down to 5 degrees.  Yikes!  The houses in Austin are not built to protect pipes at that temperature.  

So - after dinner Mark and I went to Lowe’s to purchase insulation for the attic to cover all the exposed pipes.  I sent the afternoon up on the attic running insulation over every pipe I could find!  

We also added insulation covers over the outside spigots and took off the hoses. 

Sunday there was ice covering the roads - everywhere!  Ice followed by more ice!  It just kept coming - and then it turned to snow on ice?  The sister missionaries called to see if they could come stay with us- absolutely!!! Drive safe.  Somehow- with the Lord’s help they made it to our house without any problems!  They stayed two nights and three days. 

We lost power for the most part of four days and we lost all running water for 36 hours!  

Luckily I was prepared with blankets, coats, gloves, candles and lanterns.  The cold didn’t get to us that much.  

Luckily I have a gas stove so we could still cook even without power!  

Luckily I thought (the Holy Ghost whispered) to collect snow and I and store it in the bathtubs so we could melt it for toilet water.  

Luckily I had listened to the prophet and had lots of saved drinking water and food available!  

We also were able to assist our neighbors and our neighbors were able to assist us.  It was a great time amid the chaos of being trapped in our house.