We're back!

We had a nice weekend in Mayfield. It was good for Eliza to get to see her grandparents and we needed to go and be a family together in our house. I sometimes forget how much I miss being able to spread out and just be us.

We arrived to a bit of broken tree limb damage to our fence. Our yard was an absolute mess. Mayfield looks like a special tree-seeking bomb went off. Luckily, Brian's Dad and Grandfather came over the help us pick up most of the limbs. We're going to go back in March after things have calmed down and do more yard clean-up and put up a nicer FOR SALE sign.

The power seems to be back for most people in town and we saw AT&T working to restore phone service this weekend. It's surreal to see all of the markers of a disaster area. We saw national guard in full army dude uniforms pulling into a gas station in a humvee. They'd been doing door to door checks and had left a yellow sticker on our mailbox. Not sure what that means.


Here are a few pictures of the damage.

Weekend Excursion

We'll be heading down to Mayfield to check out any ice storm impact to our house. I suppose we'll have a lot of limbs to gather. It'll also give us a chance to visit the grandparents we haven't seen since Christmas. I'll give you guys a full report when we get back.

And yet MORE snow!

This past weekend, Brian's mother managed to escape the frozen tundra of Western Kentucky and stay with us until her power was restored. I'm sure she was thrilled to spend the time with Eliza, although I think she was terribly concerned about her freezer full of potentially rotting food.

Brian's sister came from Louisville to hang out, as well. We tried Old Chicago and Brian had his first ever taste of deep dish pizza. Can you even imagine? I managed to mostly behave myself and have a burger and raw veggies. It's tough 'cause Chicago style pizza is my favorite.

After that we went to the bookstore. Brian's Mom bought Eliza a few books. Here she is checking one out.



While perusing the relationship section, I happened upon these relationship quiz games. They're little test booklets that are supposed to tell you how well you know your spouse. I decided to pick them up for fun. Brian and I both scored in the remedial level, but Brian beat my score by over 100 points. I think it was rigged. The husband questions were all moral/ethical "what would he do" questions. The wife questions were all about favorite department stores and pieces of clothing. Half of them I couldn't have even given an answer for and Brian still got them right. The questions I had to answer were much harder. Just like the SAT is racist (like Shaq said in the movie Blue Chips), I think these tests were sexist.

Sunday we went out and watched the Super Bowl while Brian's Mom sat with Eliza. I think the Cardinals got jobbed by the officials, we we still had a good time. Eliza had some sweet potatoes while we were out. I think baby food is officially on the daily menu now. My aunt fed her the rest of the jar last night. She didn't want the spoon, she was trying to grab the WHOLE jar.

Brian's Mom's power was restored and she headed home yesterday. Eliza decided to be a lazy baby and take an extra long nap. She earned it.

Today we went outside to check out the current blanket of snow. At the time it was snowing more huge snowflakes and Eliza didn't really know what to make of it. At least it was an excuse to get her out in the snowsuit again.






I'm always up for a good snow storm, but I'm glad this wasn't the serious weather event that was first predicted. Still too many people without power. Hope everyone is holding up well and that most of you have your power back!

Ice Storms and Typing Lessons

We finally got in touch with family in Western Kentucky this morning. Brian talked to all of his parents and everyone is safe. We've heard estimates of up to a month for power to be restored in Mayfield. I really hope that's an exaggeration. We'd really prefer that everyone get out of there, but they seem determined to stick it out. Of particular concern is Brian's great aunt who is 87 and currently without power. She lives just a few feet away from his mother, but it's still really worrying. We're hoping they'll pack up and come up this way until power is back.

Our house is of concern, as well. Our sump pump won't work without power, so our basement is probably entirely flooded. We also heard tales of the demise of our fence. We were planning a trip down next month. If things don't improve, I'm not sure that'll happen.

As for what we've been up to, we've been hanging out indoors and keeping warm. There was no power at Brian's office for a couple of days, so he worked from home. We finally ventured out last night and the sites were unbelievable. Everyone else lived through the 2003 ice storm. I wasn't living here at the time, so I've never seen anything like this. We have more ice than Zales. Here's a view from our back door.





Eliza's been learning to type lately. If she's in someone's lap and they're near a keyboard, she'll go out of her way to reach for it and attempt to type.



She's also really loving her baths lately. She's learned how much fun splashing around in water can be. The other night, we dressed her up in this little ducky after bath outfit/towel thing. So very cute.

I wish these were in better focus.





Eliza's also loving Yo Gabba Gabba. I swear, that show will save my sanity. It's a show entertaining enough to keep her attention and make her coo and smile for 20 minutes without making me entirely insane. She's also been playing with her toy fish bowl a lot. We practice putting the fish in the bowl to trigger the music. Hopefully she'll be doing that on her own soon. I almost forgot, I think Eliza's going to have great eyes 'cause she seems to love carrots. I think we're going to start making baby food part of her regular feeding routine.

So that's the update. Hope everyone out there is safe and warm.

Concerned

Not that you guys would check the blog if you have communications, but if anyone in Western KY can read this, get in touch. We're worried.

Marla, get in your car and DRIVE HERE. At the very least drive over the Tennessee border and call us.