In the dark

That's been us for about 56 hours! But, guess what? We survived! No air conditioning, no refrigerator, no stove, no TV, no electricity.

We had a "derecho" (yeah new to me too) which apparently is a wind wall with about 100 mph winds on Monday morning.

I'll set the scene for you....

6:00 AM I wake up to go out for my run and realize we are having a thunderstorm. Now I have been known to go out in a storm for my run but this morning I decided I would just wait so I woke Chris up to let him know that I would just go a little later.

6:02 AM Chris realizes that the storm is really picking up and says maybe we should head from our upstairs bedroom down to the main level where the boys are.

6:05 AM We are watching the storm cautiously out the window when we see Carver's playhouse blowing down the driveway (this thing is heavy!) and Chris and I look at each other and decide we should probably get the boys and head to the basement. Mind you we have not heard any tornado sirens or warnings we just have a feeling.

6:07 AM We grab the boys and head to the basement where we hunker down with the boys and the dogs, all scared, trying to reassure them that everything will be fine as the electricity goes in and out.

6:15 AM Everything seems to have calmed down so we head back upstairs and immediately lose power for good. As we surveyed the damage out our window we were just in awe. There were tree branches everywhere.

Shortly after we went out to help our neighbors begin the clean up. It was just amazing the destruction that wind did on our neighborhood alone. We were very lucky, our tree was virtually untouched. I took the boys on a run later in the morning and we were just in shock. I cannot even describe the destruction. Overall, I think that everyone feels lucky that more homes were not damaged and more people were not hurt.

It was inspiring to see neighbors helping neighbors and everyone working together to make a tough situation better.

So, after most of the cleanup was done, we all made the best of the fact that we were without power. We just kept busy the best we could during the days and made due at night. Chris and I definitely missed the TV and computer (oh and the XBox :) but we actually found that we enjoyed the quiet time. It was nice to just have no distractions. As of 2:00 this afternoon we are back with the world of electrical luxuries! YEAH!

I have another post to do about our trip to Iowa City yesterday to swim with the cousins, the boys had a blast. I'll get some pictures up soon. It may not be until tomorrow though, we'll see.

P.S. Thanks for the comments from those of you that have let us know your thoughts, don't be afraid to say hi!!