We have not blown away -- though it sure did seem like a possibility. The winds whipped up to about 60 miles an hour in our area on Thursday night (so reported the news). Our electricity flickered on and off all evening but was still on when we went to bed. The wind was howling, shaking the house and rattling the windows. I had just said to Mike, "I'm a little nervous...about the trees in back," when THUMP! (and I JUMPED about a foot) -- a tree grazed the house on its way down. We immediately got out of bed and moved the boys into the family room downstairs. Looking out our upstairs window we watched nervously as a tree behind the neighbor's house across the street kept lighting up as it blew into power lines. (We called the fire department though we never saw them show up, and thankfully, we lost power before the tree really caught on fire). A HUGE tree fell across the road two houses down from us, so that part of the street was blocked for several hours (though the neighbors got out there pretty fast to take care of things). First thing in the morning I went out to make sure that my brother Chris was alright (he was home alone since my parents were staying at a B & B in snowy Leavenworth -- they got a foot of snow dumped on them while they were there). I found myself trying to get dressed in the dark and thinking, "hmmm, what does one where on a rescue mission?" We were all worried about Chris since he REALLY gets nervous during storms especially when the power goes out. After trekking up to Bellevue (which was treacherous as there were downed trees and power lines -- and therefore roads closed -- everywhere), I walked into my parents' condo only to discover that Chris wasn't there. I had a moment of serious panic until I got a hold of someone at the grocery store and they said, "oh yeah, he called in and said he'd be a little late, but he's on his way to work." So here we'd all been worried for nothing. Chris had just gone to bed (and he's the heaviest sleeper I know though Matthew might give him some competition), slept a little late since his alarm didn't go off, and got himself out the door as always. What a guy!

Anyway, in the end we were without power for less than 24 hours (after hearing to expect up to 8 days of darkness!). We're SO thankful to have power and to have the reminder to stock up on supplies in case of longer, more serious natural disasters. The blackout also provided a good excuse to eat a fair amount of ice cream.