What a ride!

What a strange week we have had. On Sunday it started snowing and snowed through Monday. We got about 2 inches of snow, most of it melted, and then we got 4 inches that night that stuck. The kids had a BLAST in the snow. Built snowmen, built forts, played until their fingers were blue with cold.

Tuesday we only got about another 1/2 inch or so, but the temperature dropped into the teens and the snow turned to ice or powder. It was not the time to play outside in the snow. It was time to hangout and drink hot cider and read cozy books under a blanket huddled like puppies.

Wednesday the temp was 11* by dawn and our pipes under our house had froze. We woke to no running water at all. Not even a trickle. We spent the morning trying to fix that and ended up putting a pipe warmer on the pipe we believed was effected under the house. Thank goodness we made a good guess! No pipe burst, and hopefully no ruptures either, but only time will tell. So far, no major leaks! We were very happy that we had dodged that bullet.

Little did we know, a bigger and much more expensive one was coming fast.

Thanksgiving morning, Don and I woke around 2am to our bedroom about 45*. We were FREEZING!! I went out into the livingroom to check on the heater while Don checked the weather. 16* outside... just as I discovered our heater was dead. Awesome. After building a fire in the wood stove and placing blankets over all the windows (and more on our kids), we warmed up the critter warmies and sent the kiddos back to bed. Don and I took turns jumping out of our warmish bed into the cold to check the fire and together we kept it going until dawn. As much as we really didn't like the idea, we knew we would have to wait it out until Friday to call for repair due to Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was wonderful after we heated up the house. The wood stove is horrible for heating up the bedrooms, but the main part of our rambler was a really nice temperature by the time that our guests arrived around 2. We had a wonderful meal, and I, although amazingly tired from being up most of the night, felt like I did a great job of getting everything out on time and together. I was so thankful for our friends and family... one of which brought us an extra load of wood so we didn't run out. We kept the wood stove going hot, and placed a fan in the hallway to direct some of the warmth down the hall and we all hung out in the warm part of the house and had good family time and amazing food!

I fell asleep the second everyone left... around 7pm.

When I woke at 1am, I didn't see my husband anywhere. When I went looking, he was dozing on the couch because the fire wouldn't stay lit. Luckily, when I checked the temperature outside the cold snap had passed (finally!) and over the next few hours I discovered that it was much easier to keep the house at a somewhat reasonable temperature when outside it was 37* and not 16*!

I stoked the fire and added a bunch of wood to the pile and let the man snore on.

This morning we called the repair people and it is going to be around a thousand dollars to repair our furnace. Oh, and they can't come until Monday.

I have been trying to keep the 'adventure' going with the kids. It has been hard to keep a positive attitude... especially with the lack of sleep. I have a few wood stove tricks I am going to try tonight to keep the fire going a bit better so we don't have to be up as much, but we may all just be sleeping in the livingroom this weekend right next to the fire.

I have some Thanksgiving recipes to share and even a new trick with our turkey (SO EASY!), but for now, I am going to go back into the warm part of the house and make some hot cocoa and watch a movie with my kids. I think "Elf" would be a fantastic choice. I could use a good laugh.