Ice Storm 2009

January 2009 saw the largest ice storm in the history of the state of Kentucky. On that note, it was the largest natural disaster in state history as well. The weight of the ice on the trees was more than most of them could endure. The collapsing branches and trees resulted in massive power outages throughout the state. In the immediate wake of the storm, more than 700,000 homes were without power in Kentucky alone.

It all started on Tuesday morning, January 27th. I woke up and started making my coffee. As I looked out the window, I thought I could see the glimmer of ice in the grass and trees as the street light as the street light shined in our yard. As the sun gradually came up, I was amazed at the sight. The tree limbs were entirely imprisoned in ice. The sunrise was quite beautiful. If ice could be on fire, it would look something like the sight I saw that morning. The freezing rain was still falling, and I noticed that many of the trees in our yard were starting to droop. I wondered then if we might start having a problem with breaking trees. And by 9:00am, power was out at the Claunch's. As the day wore on, the freezing rain continued. By midday, the sound of breaking trees became commonplace. It sounded like cannons firing about every 15 seconds. About midday, the power came back on at my house. Our friends, Kris and Andrea (and their newborn baby, Isaac) came over to stay with us because their power was out, and they had no source of heat other than electric. Thankfully, our house has gas logs which go a long way to heat the house. We got a weather report early Tuesday evening, only to learn that another heavy band of freezing rain was going to be on us all through the night and into Wednesday morning. Sometime during the night on Tuesday, the power went out again, and it stayed off this time for over six days. By Wednesday morning, the freezing rain had turned to snow, and we got about 3 1/2 inches of snow in two hours. With this, the perfect winter wonderland was complete.

Ashley, Josiah, and Micah went south to stay with Nonni and Papa during the power outage (Andrea and baby Isaac left too). But Kris and I remained to work and help out. In the end, I was very thankful for the heat in our home and for the safety of my family, Kris's family, and the congregation at Bethlehem.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. As you look at them, stand in awe of the ONE whose womb brings forth the ice, who hardens the water like stone, who imprisons the deep (Job 38:29-30)!

**Click on any picture to see it in full size**

Round 1: The Ice...

The ice actually got thicker than this picture shows!

This is a blade of grass I broke out of the yard early in the storm. The whole yard was like this!

Like a Yard Chandelier!

The playground in the back yard had the best icicles!

Round 2: The Snow...

View from the back window of my house.

Micah's Poor Swing!

Can I swing on that?

Who's that peeking through the trees?

Round 3: The Fun!

The boys loved sledding, especially Micah!

Josiah is going to push Daddy down the hill.

Micah wanted the fun to never end!

The sledding hill was fun and fast, but the walk back up was tough!

Round 4: The Carnage...

This shows the trees hanging ominously close to the power lines in my yard.

The branch on my house broke right outside the boys window. They were scared to death that night!

Looks so sad, doesn't it?

The beloved old chestnut tree in the back yard

The bowl swing... we believe it can be repaired before Spring!

We're having a boy!

Yep, we are going to have 3 crazy, energetic, dirty, precious little boys. We found out two weeks ago that it may be a boy, and it was confirmed Tuesday that it is definately a boy. We are thinking about the name Samuel, but we don't have middle name picked out yet. Possibly Samuel James. We will have a prophet, priest, and king name. Micah, Samuel, and Josiah. He he! We used to joke about doing this with our kids names, but we never imagined having 3 boys, especially so close together! It was really funny how we found out. I had a doctor appointment with my regular OB doctor and he does a routine ultrasound everytime I go. I asked him not to tell me if he could tell the sex of the baby because Kyle was not with me this time because he was watching the boys. I then asked him if he could tell me if he could tell if it was a boy or girl, but not tell me. He laughed so hard and said with his Arab accent, "Oh, you cheating." He told me right away that he could tell. Well, if you know anything about me, I'm awful at surprises. Kyle has to work really hard at surprising me. So I call Kyle and ask him if he wants me to find out. We decided we wanted to wait until the next appointment when he's with me. Twenty minutes later, I called him and ask him if he wants to know because it's driving me crazy. He said he did want to know so I called and they told me , "BOY!" I smiled the whole way home and when I told Kyle and the kids at home, they were very happy. Kyle did say, "Wow". Our home is already very loud and crazy sometimes, so we're picturing that multiplied. It will be lots of fun. Kyle will have to do a lot of wrestling with the 3 boys. I am still getting good reports about the blood issue and the antibody levels are staying at 1:4, which is really good. Praise the Lord! The ultrasounds are from the 17th week of pregnancy. Our specialist OB does 3D ultrasounds (at the top) and Samuel looks like he's going to be a thinker, like his daddy, with his hand on his chin. We laughed so hard!