That's what I read several of the local media outlets call our ice storm from December 5 and 6th. Let me tell you, I've never seen anything like it in Texas! Well, our part of Texas. Thursday, Dec 5, it started raining as I went to pick up the kids from school. (Chris was working in Sherman instead of Dallas, thank goodness, or he may have had a LONG trip home). I picked up Chris' birthday pie before I got the kids because by the time I got to the school it was sleeting, but 35 degrees! I got the kids and we headed straight home! By the time we were half way home, it was 27 degrees, sleeting/freezing rain and it was already freezing some to the windshield Folks, I grew up in Oklahoma, but I lived in Austin for 10 years and now North Texas. I do not like to test my ice driving skills much at all, especially with my sweet babies in the car! We made it home, it didn't seem to be slick on the roads any, but the roofs were already accumulating white on them, and so was the ground! Of course Chris didn't come home til about 5, but he made it safe and sound!
With all the forecasting of freezing rain, Chris was a DEAR, and got the LAST generator from Sam's that morning. I was more concerned than he was, that with all the trees around our house, we might loose power. We didn't have any wood......so we bought a generator.!
Luckily for us, we ended up getting more sleet than freezing rain, so we didn't have the major tree damage like my friends in McKinney and Melissa. Our power went on and off, quickly, about 6 times. But we stayed warm and toasty. I had at least 4 friends that I know of, that lost power between 36-48 hours. BRRRRRRR.
Chris took all of these pictures before taking the kids out to play on Friday, his birthday. I think we ended up getting about an inch or so of ice, and 3-4 inches of sleet. It was a lot of ice. And it kept getting even more slick every day because we had freezing fog at night. Everything was a sheet of ice. Lots of stories of people stranded for hours and hours and hours on the interstate. Roads being opened and closed and lots of people MAD about the response of the county. I personally don't understand how they could even think the county would ever have enough snow equipment to clear the roads quickly when we rarely ever get snow, much less ICE like this. Then on top of that, how are they supposed to clear the major roads when they are clogged with stranded and/or jack knifed semis and cars all over the road!
We were literally stuck in our house until Monday. Chris drove to Allen on Monday, to see if he could make it to work on Tuesday (big meetings!!) In our county, he said that I 75 was just two ruts with about 3-4 inches of ice the middle! It was more clear, the closer you got to McKinney! Chris made it to work on Tuesday, and the kids and I finally made it out on Wednesday! Sherman and Van Alstyne were out of school from Friday to Thursday. Oh, and by the way, the couple of days before this crazy weather, it was in the 70's! That's Texas!
We had lots of fun while ice bound. We went ice sledding several times with our neighbors. They have a great hill between our house and theirs. Sophie even got to where she would slide down by herself! We all had a lot of fun!
Anyone want to go swimming now! Sutton wanted to slide down the ice on the slide, but it was frozen to the ground right at the edge of the pool. He didn't think sliding into the pool in the cold was a good idea!
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