OK, so some of you might be wondering where I have been. Let's just say something COMPLETELY unexpected happened. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe we are in April...aka SPRING...right? Obviously the N. Dakota weather fairy needs to get her calendar in check and her seasons in order. Why?- you might be wondering. Well, it's storytime...
The day is April 1st and the weather station is calling for 2-4 inches of snow. Ha.ha.ha...it's a joke, right? [April Fool's Day?] Notta... The Jacksons thought for sure they were just calling for snow, but surely it would be a no-show. After all, it was raining out side and was in the 50s or so. Well, the first day of April was long and dreary due to the presence of rain. When the family got ready for bed that night, watching the weather they were calling, again, for 2-4 inches of snow. You have GOT to be kidding me. It's April for crying out loud. Why is there snow in the forecast??? They were in for a big surprise. After going to bed that night, the eldest of the children, Cassie, woke up around the hour of 5ish to hearing SLEET pounding on the side of the house! What was her first thought?...Joy to the World! Bleck! After all, the mother and the children of the family were supposed to be leaving on April 5th to head to Iowa/Nebraska.
Well, after walking out to the kitchen and looking out the back door with the light on, [to make sure she wasn't just hearing things - sadly she wasn't. I mean, seriously, that's when she wishes a raccoon or something was just cratching on the side of the house] and then she headed back into bed. A little later, she woke up to hearing Chloe [the family pet Saint Bernard] wining at the side of her bed. Apparentally, there had been a loud rumble of thunder, and their scaredy cat -sorry 5 year old DOG- was freaking out and wining for comfort. When Cassie sat up, Kenzie was crawling out of the top bunk and Mom and Dad were coming into the room. Kenzie heard the thunder and Mom and Dad were coming in since Kenzie was up and Chloe was bothering Cassie. Funny thing is, the eldest of the children didn't hear the clash, she just heard her dog.....
The four family members thought for sure that Zack-the middle child-would come out of his room, but he didn't. After Kenzie had seen M & D, she crawled back into bed, and Chloe hopped up in bed with Cassie. [She just hasto say, there's nothing like a 120 pound lap dog across your body, wining, and moving around]. The family then all headed back to bed.
Around 9:30 a.m. Mom came in to wake the children saying: Good Morning! Get up and see the lovely fresh snow!
She was kidding right? Again...notta.
Kenzie groaned, Cassie said 'Oh my lord', and Zack hollered 'I'm going into hibernation!!! Wake me when we leave!' At that point, Kenzie and Cassie weren't getting out of bed, and agreed with Zack.
When the children finally decided to face the stupid weather, there was already almost 2 inches --maybe even more-- of snow on the ground.
The electricity kept flickering on and off, so Mom and Cassie took their showers quickly and at the time of 1:03p.m. or so the power officially went out. Mom said that if the power wasn't back on by the next morning, her and the kids -Cassie, Zack, and Mackenzie- were going to head out to Iowa 2 days earlier than planned. [that was just great, because cassie wasn't packed at all -she was kinda sorta- so she had to hurry into the basement and pack before the family household lost sunlight.]
After asking around and talking with people, the father -Dad- called the mother -Mom- and said that as much as he hated to say that they should definitely pack and get going, the mother and children should. Dad was hearing that it could be days until the power was restored.
As the day grew dimmer and the house got darker and colder, the family was almost packed. Finally, everything was in a suitcase or bag, and placed next to the front door and garage door to be loaded up into the car for departure.
Around 9:30p.m. or so, the father brought the family a much-needed dinner...Subway!!! YUMMY! By now it was really dark in the house, and there were many Yankee Candles lit in all the rooms -just imagine all those scented candles lit and creating a unique aroma. The father had also brought some flashlights and batteries, as well as an electric lantern, to help the family to better see.
After dinner the family sat together in their living room and talked. The the youngest of the family -Kenzie- suggested that they tell 'Stupid Stories'. [Not scary stories, but stupid stories.] So the members of the family of five sat in the living room, each with his/her own flashlight and took turnes telling a part of the story -clicking the flashlight on under his/her chin when it was his/her turn.
When the family finally retired to bed, it was getting chillier and chillier in the house, and it appeared the mother and children would be heading out the next morning.
Well, the parents arranged for the 'Easter Bunny' to come early and 'he' did.
The younger children woke up at 6:30 a.m. and found the baskets, and then wouldn't go back to sleep. Instead, the family members stayed under their coverings so as to keep their bodies warm.
When the sun came up the father and mother loaded the family's Dodge Grand Caravan and 4/5 of the family left North Dakota and headed for Iowa.
When the mother and children reached their destination in Iowa, around an hour or so from their arrival, Father called and said the power had been restored.
*End Storytime*
So as most of you can see, we were really busy, packing, packing, packing and more packing! Mom also took an hour detour because when she was supposed to be going SOUTH on i29, she had been going NORTH. Luckily we were only 34 miles north of Fargo, and it only put us around an hour behind in travel time.
The weather has been nice here in Iowa, and we have a sunny day today. It's a bit humid as last night it rained and thundered. [rain is WAY WAY WAY better than snow!] We ended up getting 6 inches of snow...
We were supposed to arrive in Iowa later this evening, but we will still be arriving to Ohio on April 12th. The dates are staying the same.
OK, I'm going to stop typing now, as I just wrote a book. lol. Hope all is well in the rest of the world!
=)
