February weather in Terre Haute

Last year (2009/2010) when the weather was bad, everyone here tried to tell us that it was a really harsh winter for Terre Haute and that they are generally much more mild. I will admit that I started to believe people, but for some reason, we didn't hear the same things this year.

Maybe that's because of the multiple winter storm warnings beginning in December (see Christmas post), or maybe it's because of the TERRIBLE ice storm we had at the beginning of this month.

When all was said and done, we were out of power for 17 hours and our house lost about 20 degrees of heat and was without water and everything else that comes with electricity. All in all, not too bad. It went out at 7:30 p.m. and was restored the next day at 12:30 p.m. We avoided opening doors as much as possible, which helped to keep the heat in, and Bailey loved the fact that we could walk around with flashlights on.

The three (and a half) of us slept in the same bed to keep warmer, which reminded me loud and clear why it's no good for us to have her in the same bed as us. Luckily for me, I use a body pillow when I'm pregnant, which blocked most of the movement in my direction, but poor Tony was kicked and wiggled beside all night long. And she's not a quiet sleeper either. Lots of crying, sitting up, asking for water, and everything else you can imagine.

Pam and Glenn were here too (talk about a terrible time to come to Indiana when you're used to Florida weather!). We searched all over Saturday morning to try to find some alternative source of heat. As you might have guessed, there wasn't a decent generator or kerosene heater to be found unless you were at the store when the shipment arrived.

After hours and hours, we ended up getting a kerosene heater (the generators were tiny and uber expensive) in case we ever have the problem again or just need a kerosene heater, but it was definitely an interesting experience. I've never seen Tony and his dad pace so much in my life. It made me so grateful for electricity. There's nothing like being without to make you realize how much you actually have. I, for one, will do my best not to take it for granted in the future.

Tony went out and took pictures though, so we can tell the horror story of the storm of 2011 to our grandkids one day :)