Written by Annaliese
Tuesday, November 27th- Pat had the day off that day and Corrine was already at her house playing when I got done with work, so I thought maybe I would be productive and go work out at the YMCA while I had the extra time. So I dropped Allen off with Pat and picked up Corrine since she loves to play at the YMCA's kids area. When we got there I learned that there is no staff for the kids area until the afternoon- so she was able to play, but I couldn't go work out. So much for being productive! She played and then we ran a couple errands before we had to pick up Adrianna from school. We picked up Allen and the girls played with Boo-Boo for awhile. After Adrianna went home we headed back up to M&D Priamos' for dinner.Friday, November 30th- We enjoyed a pizza night as a family and then played games at M&D Priamos' house for a couple hours.
A snowy garden & Corrine jumping on a snowy trampoline!
We had orginally planned to go over to Hoquiam to see Santa, but didn't want to have to go over two icy bridges, so we opted to go to a local store that had Santa, pictures and even lunch! Corrine talked about seeing Santa the whole morning and when we finally got there she became incredibly shy- for those of you that know our little girl- she is ANYTHING but shy! So we took a picture with Allen on his lap and finally talked Corrine into standing by his chair. She enjoyed some hot dogs & chips while we waited to get our pictures back- when it came back she lit up and had to go show Santa. I guess that's all it took for her to warm up to him! We didn't stay too long as it was fairly busy and it was still snowing outside.
Allen & Corrine with SANTA!
Daddy Chris with Allen
The rest of the day was spent listening to Christmas music and putting up the tree- we got a really nice one during 75% clearance last year, but didn't realize how BIG it was until we started setting it up! We had to move couches, end tables & a bookshelf to make a space for it! But with all the rearranging we were able to put it in front of the window- it looks great!
The kids by the tree- poor Allen wrapped up in a "girlie blanket".
Sunday, December 2nd- We had such a NORMAL day. The kids & I went to church, Chris did a lot of little things to help around the house while we were gone, we hung out as a family and enjoyed our newly set up tree- a pretty basic, but enjoyable day.
We had NO IDEA what we were in store for- the wind really started blowing that afternoon and parts of town lost power. We all figured it would be temporary and everything would be back to normal soon. When we went to bed, Corrine was pretty freaked out by the wind as there is a fairly large window next to her bed, and she really didn't like the flickering power so we moved her mattress into our room. Since the power was flickering, we grabbed flashlights, candles, our battery powered radio and also moved Allen into our room and shut the door to keep in the heat. The power went out for good about 1:00am. Neither Chris or I slept well as the wind was blowing harder than I had ever heard, we were worried about our kids staying warm and also trying to figure out what to do with our websites. It was a long night.
Monday, December 3rd- we had really hoped to wake up to power that morning, but no such luck. As we turned on the radio- there was only one AM station available with local news. We learned that the storm was MUCH worse than we had even realized. We were very grateful for our little radio- we learned that all roads in and out of town were blocked by downed trees and powerlines, that the whole county was out of power, and that no where in town had the ability to pump gas. Since neither of us could go to work we decided just to stay snuggly in our room.
We had peanut butter sandwiches, apples & chips in bed for breakfast! :) We tried to stay in our room as much as possible to conserve the heat, so I opened up my craft box and Corrine & I made a sock puppet, a doorknob hanger, and a picture frame. She also did lots of coloring and reading. Chris & I read a book and tried to nap while the kids were asleep. We heard from lots of friends and family worried about us- thanks for ALL your concern!
When the news reports said that the power wouldn't be back for 4-7 days we opted not to stay and freeze that night. For dinner we went over to Chris' Aunt Cindy's house. They have a woodburning stove and the house was nice and toasty- they also made some delicious food on it! It was nice to spend time with them and visit for awhile with everyone.
We then headed up to Mom & Dad Priamos'. They have a propane stove in their rec room- so it also was nice and warm. They were kind enough to let us camp out on their floor. Corrine loved the sleeping bags and it was such a relief to know that the kids were plenty warm!
Tuesday, December 4th- That morning they announced over the radio that Blue Slough was open and vehicles could get out of town. There was still no where in town to get gas and with the forecast of power not returning soon lots of people were heading out of townto get gas for generators, cars, etc! I went down the hill from Mom & Dad Priamos' house to go back to our house and get a few more things and unplug all our computers and I had to wait over 5 minutes because the line of cars leaving town was so long and I had to wait for someone to stop and let me through! We made breakfast on the BBQ that morning- french toast! It is truly amazing what you can make on the BBQ! :) Pat's (my mother in law) store was open and running off a generator. She said there were so many people wanting to go in that they had to have people posted at the door only letting in a certain amount of people at a time. It was so surreal.
We had thought about me taking the kids and going to Maple Valley to stay with my parents, but my gas tank was low and I was afraid that any of the gas stations we got to out of town would run out of gas before we could get any! While we were well prepared for a lot of things- having our gas tanks full wasn't one of them! So we opted to just wait it out. We lost service on our cell phones also on Tuesday, so we felt really isolated from the world. But we enjoyed time together- Chris built a cup castle with Corrine, we played cards with family and had delicious ribs & baked potatoes- all made on the BBQ!
Wednesday, December 5th- It was forecasted that if the power wasn't back on by Wednesday that the river would start to flood as the pumps wouldn't be working. But luckily, in the early morning hours the power to parts of downtown (including the pumps) was restored. My work also got power back, so I was able to go back into work that day. The other road out of town was cleared enough for traffic so Chris went to work as well. And some of the gas stations in town were finally able to pump gas. While we were still in the cold and dark- it was hopeful to see power coming on in the area.
That afternoon I went up to Montesano to pay our rent. I was shocked by the damage that I saw along the way. At one point there were at least 6 power poles laying end to end along the side of the road. Huge trees that had fallen across the road and done major damage to buildings and the guardrails. We were so lucky in this way. We didn't have any property damage. On the way home I saw that Baskin Robbins was selling dry ice- so I stopped in and bought some to try and salvage what was in our freezer and my in-laws freezer. And amazingly enough it worked! We enjoyed chili burgers for dinner that night courtesy of the BBQ! :)
Some of the damage done in the area
Thursday, December 6th- With work having power I was able to charge my cell phone, my toothbrush and get back online to pay bills and do some work. It was almost a little depressing to leave work and go to a dark and cold house! We made pancakes, bacon & hashbrowns on the BBQ that night for dinner. I used to think dutch ovens were the most versatile cooking thing ever, but BBQ's are right up there! :)
Friday, December 7th- We woke up EARLY that morning with lights in our faces and were THRILLED!!! The power had come back on at my in-laws about 4:30am. I have never been so excited to turn on a light switch in my life! Chris had gone down to our house to check on the cats and had reported that there was no power at our house yet, but while he was there it came back on at our house as well! Yahoo!! We took a load of our "camping" stuff and dropped it off at our house before heading to work. After work we headed back home to try and get our lives organized and back to normal again. There was plenty to do! I started on the loads of laundry that had accumulated, tried to get some work in and cranked up all the heaters to try and warm up a frozen house. Later that evening the power went out again (we think they were doing work in the area) and it was so depressing- Chris & I just looked at each other and said "not again"- 4 1/2 days was long enough. It came back on about 20 minutes later and we could hear cheers from several of our neighbors houses as well as our own- we all were relieved. I immediately jumped in the shower just in case it went out again! I didn't need to go any more days without showering! :)
Saturday, December 8th- I ran some errands around town- finally got gas in our car and bought groceries to replace what we had lost. Chris spent most of the day trying to get all our servers back online and the websites up and running.
That night was our Ward Christmas Party. The kids and I went and enjoyed a nice dinner and program at the church. It was interesting to talk to lots of people there about their experiences during the power outage- some of them STILL didn't have power! I offered our shower to them, but most of them had friends & family who had already let them get cleaned up at their homes. At the end of the night Santa came! Corrine wasn't shy at all this time! She was so excited to see him! It was very cute.
Sunday, December 9th- Church was good, a lot of discussion on how blessed we all were through this ordeal and how we can be better prepared for other situations in the future. It certainly made us realize that as prepared as we were, there were several areas where we were lacking in preparedness! Better to have a 5 day "trial run" than a 3-month long disaster! Other areas nearby were hit so much harder- some in other parts of the county or in Lewis county had much more severe flooding and a much larger loss. My heart goes out to all of them. Late that night our power went out again for about 3 hours as they were trying to bring additional powerlines back on. Once again we breathed a sigh of relief when the lights returned. :)
