Well, today I got an unexpected day off. The severe storm the weather service had been promising us hit last night, and it didn't disappoint. Extremely high winds, rain that was coming down sideways, power outages, the lot.

Molly and Cassie are still off school sick, and to top it all off Dad got called in late last night, as they were setting up some emergency response center because the storm was so bad. I called the airport after Dad got called in, as we had no idea whether or not he'd be home by morning, and obviously I can't leave the girls here alone. They were very understanding, but I felt so bad, as I know that this morning over there would more than likely be hellish, made all the worse by the fact that there would be less people to help out. We lost electricity around 8pm last night. By that point, the lights had been flicking on an off for around an hour, so I'd had plenty of time to place a few candles strategically around the house. Georgia and Cassie thought the lack of electricity was pretty cool, but Molly and Maddie weren't as impressed. By the time 9.45pm rolled around, and we were still in the dark, we decided to drag blankets downstairs and have a camp-out in the living room. There was NO way Molly and Maddie were going to sleep upstairs in the dark. By the time Dad got home in the wee hours of this morning, Cassie was asleep on one loveseat, and Molly had the other. Maddie and I were sharing the couch, and Georgia had opted for a sleeping bag on the floor. We stayed without electricity until around 6.30am this morning. We were very lucky from a lack of damage standpoint. The woods over the back fence are minus a few trees this morning, but luckily none of them came our way. Other people were not so lucky, with trees coming down on houses and fences - The whole city is pretty much a mess. According to the forecasts, that should be the end of the wind for the rest of the day .... now they're expecting snow down to low levels. Oh yay.

*ok, thats freaky ..... I'd no sooner typed that and down comes hail* .... lol

Time for me to go get tidied up around here ....

I love you bunches!