February 22, 2012

Outside Temp: 28 F (crazy weather today... see below)

What I cooked today:
Nothing: not because I didn't want to, but I couldn't... (again, see below).

Update:
Oh my goodness... I finally get it!  They say if you don't like the weather in Montana, just wait a few minutes, because it will change.  Boy, were they right!

We started the day nice and breezy.  Clear skies, even though the weatherman said it would rain and/or snow today.  Oh sure, it was pretty!

Around 9am, it got a little cloudy, but not bad.  Just that cloudy when the clouds cover the sun and it gets kind of dark, but then the clouds move and it's pretty again.

By 10am or so, it was windy.  Not just your nice day wind, but real wind... like knock you over wind.  But still pretty and clear.

By noon it was warm.  The sun was blazing down and it was clear as a bell.

By 2pm, it started to rain.  Not enough to clean my car (which really, really needs it), but enough that I used the wipers 2-3 times on the drive into the school.

By 3pm, it was a mixture of sleet and hail and rain and snow.  I couldn't really tell which one, since it kept changing. 

By 4pm, as we drove home from school, it was snowing.

Around 4:15pm, the power went out.  Not sure if this would be a quick thing or a long thing, we sent the kids out to play in the snow.  But after a full day of school, no one really wanted to play.  Lazy bums.

At 4:30pm, we decided the power wasn't coming on anytime soon, so proceeded to play Clue around the kitchen table with candles.

At 5:45pm, we left for church (Ash Wednesday) and the power was still out.(of course, the garage door wouldn't open, but we were lucky in that it wasn't that heavy to lift).  About half way to Belt, we finally saw lights on in houses again.  We tried calling our house (to see if the answering machine answered), it didn't.

Fortunately, the power was on at the church in Belt, so we were able to have the Ash Wednesday service.  Of course, afterwards, the power was still out at our place, which limits your choices for dinner.  Fortunately, Aunt Marilyn (who is totally awesome) invited us to her place for Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. 

Around 8:30pm, we finally got our answering machine, so we headed home. 

The drive home was slushy half way, and then snowy the other half.  We probably got a few inches of snow in the 3 hours since we left.  The house wasn't too cold (I guess we were lucky again in that it was only in the 30's and 20's today, not the -10's!) and the pellet stove and space heaters came right on as soon as the power did. 

I'm so grateful that the power company was able to restore the power so quickly!  I was a little afraid of how cold the place might be, especially without my awesome electric mattress pad.  But I knew that worse case, we could always invade the Grandparent's house!  Now, we don't have to worry!