ice day

An ice storm blew through Dallas. They canceled school early on thursday before the bad weather hit. they were lucky that all predictions came through. we were coated in an inch or so of ice. Kids enjoyed playing. We all snuggled in on the couch and watched movies. It was a good day off.








The new tree took a big hit. The center top of the tree split off. DH propped up the remaining ice laden branches with some random scrap wood. keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of it is safe.




We survived the weekend, sticking mostly at home. Boys spent a lot of time playing outside. Sunday was spent getting ready for school, finishing all the work they didn't do last Thursday. Somehow, they cancelled school again today. It's a good excuse not to go back to work today, but the "I'm bored!" wails are getting old.

Ice Storm/Snow Storm '11 Day 4

So here we are 4 days into the big Ice Storm of 2011.

The boys spent the last two days playing outside.  Crazy kids, it's cold out there.  B was especially happy because he got to play hockey on real ice.  They rigged up a sled with a plastic bin lid.   DH let them eat nasty dirty icicles hanging off the handrails of the portables (classrooms, not toilets,  DH made me clarify!) at the elementary school down the street.  Gross!










Our shower pipe was unfrozen by the hairdryer and we've left it running periodically so it doesn't freeze again.  We were feeling pretty smug that we had escaped the ice storm without much damage.  We saw several neighbors with plumbing trucks out yesterday.  Our next door neighbors forgot to turn off the sprinklers which led to a big ole mess and several extra inches of ice.




All was going well until DH decided it was time to do some laundry.  Luckily, I walked past the laundry room and realized that something didn't sound quite right.  Our washer drain pipe had frozen and all the water was spilling over onto the floor.  There is a lip/edge to the floor that kept the water out of the carpet in the playroom, thank heavens.  It was pain to mop up but the laundry room has never been cleaner.



All the stuff moved out of the way to mop up the water.



The load of towels in the quite deep sink!


Last night the ice storm turned into snow.  We got several inches and it is quite pretty out.





We're spending our 4th day out of school with Family Game Time and running around being very loud driving mommy even battier that I already was!

Ice Storm '11 - day two

An ice storm hit Dallas Monday night.  We've been stuck at home with children for the past 48 hours.   This isn't fun like the snow storm that hit 50 weeks ago.  

Last night DH decided to brave the roads in order to buy some sour cream.  He really wanted sour cream.  His trip lasted less than a minute when he figured out that the gate across our driveway was frozen shut.

Today he bundled up and headed out to release the gate.  He broke up chunks of ice a couple of inches thick.  After an hour of work, lots of ice breaking and pouring of hot water, the gate is now free and he can go shopping for some sour cream.



(This is as close I got to going outside)

Unfortunately, we also discovered that the hot water pipe in the master shower is most likely frozen.  We've got the shower running, the bathroom heater on, a hole in the wall opened (well, re-opened because we cut the hole a couple of years ago and never repaired the drywall) with a hair dryer blowing on the pipes.

Hopefully nothing will burst.  Otherwise, I'm looking forward to ripping out our shower and fixing all the things that I didn't like about it from when we first installed it.