Snow Day In Texas

The calendar says, prepare for Spring. The weather said, umm, nah girl, here’s 2 snow storms to keep you on your toes. This past week we had a “historic” snow day in Texas. And it was one for the books. Continue reading for some pictures and my recap to look back on in the years to come.

Sunday

Sunday night is when everything started for us. A soft blanket of snow fell on our home overnight. Monday morning, the kids ran into our room at 7 AM yelling “THERE’S SNOW!!!” We were all pretty excited to see it. That excitement quickly faded. I reached for the faucet to brush my teeth, and realized the water was not working. That kind of leaves a damper on the moment. If only we knew what the next few days would bring!

Monday

I bundled the kids up, and they went outside to play. John went to work trying to thaw out our frozen pipes. We spent the morning in and out of the house. The kids played in the snow, and John worked on our water situation. My grandparents had called us also to share that their power was off the entire night, and they were so cold in their homes. Gosh, my heart broke for them, thinking of how cold it must feel to them. John and I decided to make a trip up there to bring them to our home. The roads were a little bit icy and just a bit sketchy to drive on. But we made it safely to pick them up and bring them home.

We got my grandparents in our home, and I was just about to start dinner for all of us, when all the lights just went BOOM. Out. We started laughing and my Papa said they brought bad luck our way in leaving their powerless house, to come to our now powerless house. The power came back on not much later. We realized the electric companies were beginning to do “rolling blackouts” to help save the Texas grid.

We were able to cook some dinner between outages. Then we got settled in on the couch in the living room by our wood burning fire place. That was our saving grace this week. Everyone went to bed, and I feel like I slept maybe a total of 23 minutes all night. I would wake up every time I heard the stillness of the power going out. Then, would fall asleep and it would come back on. I don’t know how many times it did that through the night, but I was awake for every single one, haha.

Tuesday

Our Tuesday was pretty non-eventful. The power cycled through rolling in and out during the day. We became masters of scrambling to do what we could during the times it was on, and then just sitting and enjoying each other’s company during the off times. I feel like we had a blessing in disguise as we rarely slow down long enough to spend days on end with each tier anymore. As sad as that is to admit. It brought out what really matters, and highlighted the things that were truly important.

We were able to cook a delicious dinner, and celebrate my Papa’s 83rd birthday. The power went off maybe 1 or 2 times in the night, but not near as frequent as the first night. It felt like a more restful night, and felt like maybe we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Wednesday

We woke up to no water. Again?! Our neighbors also texted and said they were all out too. Our main water station apparently ran out of water and everyone in LV was experiencing a lack of water. It was off ALL day long. It didn’t start to come back to barely a trickle in the evening. The power came back on at my grandparents, and my dad was back home to help fix their well pumps so they would have water also. They decided they were ready to go back home, so we dropped the kids off at my in laws, and made the drive back to take them home.

My house is dirty. Dishes are piled up. The laundry is unheard of. No water. But I am exhausted. I don’t even care about trying to take care of the house, I crawl in my bed and go to sleep.

Thursday

Thursday felt pretty uneventful as well. We got our water back, but it was brown, AND they put us on a boil notice as well. At this point, I refuse to boil brown water, because hello, it’s still brown even after boiling it, so we minimize any dishes or things we would need to use water for, and just spend the day not doing a lot of anything. It started snowing again that day, and it felt like what the heck is going on? We never get a substantial amount of snow in Texas, much less TWICE in one week! I decided to be a little crazy and run outside and take some pics in the snow. Preparing my clients for summer with my next Faster Way round! Gotta be ready, haha!!

Friday

Friday (today) has some sort of normalcy feeling to it. I am working, checking in with clients, water is slightly less brown, and power is on. I am washing some of our clothes (the darker loads), and scrubbed our toilets with soft scrub bleach cleaner. The toilet fills back up with brown water right after scrubbing and flushing, so I really don’t know why I even bothered but it felt good to have a sight of clean for just half a second.

We have another hard freeze warning tonight, but it looks like we may be in the clear as far as severe storms go. We are drinking bottled water until our water returns to normal. But if that’s the least of our worries, I consider ourselves incredibly blessed. Our state is just not BUILT to withstand weather like this. Yet even in the face of struggle, my small town and community rallied together to help each other in a way that warmed my heart. Individuals bartering eggs and milk, men cutting up firewood and parking in a parking lot to pass out for free to anyone, total strangers offering rides & delivery runs for those who couldn’t travel. There is a lot of GOOD left in this seemingly ugly world. Especially here in the greatest state there is.