Arkansas Ice Storm!

On Sunday night, the weather reports were predicting a major ice storm on Monday and Tuesday. Well, when the kids woke up on Monday morning, and nothing had happened yet, and they still had to go to school, they were pretty disappointed. They always love getting out of school for things like that. Well, I took them all to school and then ran to Wal-Mart to get stocked up on food, hand warmers, fire starters (in case the power goes out and we need to use our wood-burning fireplace), and a new video for the kids to watch, that they've been wanting for a while now, etc. I kept watching the weather and checking the school website. I went to eat lunch at the school with Tessa & Jonah, and while I was there, the office staff was saying that some of the schools in the surrounding cities were cancelling schools at noon, but no word from Bentonville School District yet. So, I headed home and started making some beef stew and blueberry muffins for a yummy warm dinner on a cold, icy day. Well, sure enough at around 1:00, a friend called to say that they were cancelling school early. So I headed to the elementary school first to pick up Tessa & Jonah. It was crazy--lots of parents waiting to pick up kids. Then I ran to the Middle School to get PJ (it wasn't quite as bad there). So, of course the kids were all THRILLED to be able to get out of school early, even though their teachers sent home extra work to finish, since we all figured we'll be out of school for a couple of days. We came home and the kids finished some homework, and then played and relaxed. Well as the day wore on, it started to get worse & worse. By the time Neil was leaving from work, around 5:35, the roads looked terrible. He had to take the long way home, to avoid a big hill (there were several cars stopped or turning around and a police officer on the way to help out). Thank goodness he got home without any problems.


(here is are a couple pictures of our grass and trees)

Well, this morning when we got up, it was definitely icy!! There was a layer of ice all over everything! It's about 9:30 now, and it's still comming down. We have about an inch of ice build-up on all the tree branches, which is really pretty, but they worry about it breaking large branches off the trees, because of the weight, and our grass is covered with ice, which looks kind of funny, and icicles hanging off of everything. The biggest concerns during the ice storms are too much ice build-up on power lines, causing power outages. So hopefully that doesn't happen! They are expecting it to last all day today, and won't really stop until late tonight. So, I figure we'll probably end up home from school for at least another day or two. They won't open the schools back up until it's warm enough to melt all the ice.

I have to admit that it's nice to stay home and not have to go anywhere or do anything, and just enjoy playing games with the kids, relaxing, reading, watching videos, etc. And even our dog is getting spoiled! She is an outside dog, and only comes in at night to sleep in the laundry room. Well, yesterday evening, I brought her in and realized that it wasn't just rain on her fur, from running around outside, it was ice frozen on her fur! I felt bad that I hadn't brough her in earlier. But she's big and tough, and is fine. But she is getting pampered and spoiled, staying inside today, and the kids love it! :) She's a great dog and very mellow and well-behaved in the house, and of course she's potty trained.



So, we'll just sit back, relax, and enjoy this icy Arkansas weather. With the weather like it is here, we'll probably end up with 70 degree weather again in another week or so. It's like a yo-yo here. It gets really cold and we get occasional ice storms or snow storms, and then it warms back up again to give us a nice break from winter. I love that! But here in a few months, we'll start into the spring tornado season. Neil loves that time of year. He'd love to be a storm chaser (crazy man!) But, boy do they have some exciting, beautiful, amazing storms here! They roll in fast and furious like nothing we ever experienced in Utah. It kind of freaked me out a little the first year we were here, but we've gotten used to them, and thank goodness nothing serious has ever happened to us or our home! I guess no matter where you live, you have good things and bad. :)