My birthday will go down in the history books

I got my birthday wish and I got it in a BIG way! Because of an ice storm, Matthew got to miss a day of school and stay home with us.

However,

I am writing this from my hotel room.

That's right, my hotel room.

Are you thinking that my husband got a babysitter for the girls tonight so that he and I could celebrate my birthday with a romantic night away?

Not quite.

According to the weather guys, this ice storm that has hit Northwest Arkansas is the most severe ice storm in over 50 years.

Yea! January 27th is now historical day for weather. Which means it will be mentioned A LOT.

I know I will never forget it.

We woke up this morning, warm and cozy in our bed. We got both girls from their beds and snuggled with them for a few minutes. Matthew and Nora went and made french toast for breakfast and we had a great meal. While we were eating, we kept looking at how beautiful the yard was, covered in ice. It was a miracle!

After the dishes had been cleaned up, Matthew, Nora, and Elyn started making my birthday cake. Yummy!

Literally, 10 minutes after the cakes came out of the oven, the power went out.

And it didn't come back on.

Matthew fired up the fire place (which is gas, which hardly puts out any heat, which is mostly decorative) and we got the flashlights and candles ready to put into use.

About an hour later, we decided that the power was probably going to be out a LONG time.

Matthew told me to go ahead and call a hotel to make a reservation. I called a nearby hotel and couldn't get through. Matthew asked who I had called, I told him, and he told me to call a "GOOD" hotel.

Hey, I'm just trying to save a few bucks.

So, he called Embassy Suites and got us a room. And I am SO GLAD that he called the "good" hotel!

We he called at 11:30, the hotel was about 30% full. When we got here at 2pm, the hotel was 80% full. I just went out of our room and there are people STILL checking in.

I saw a statistic earlier that there was about 50,000 without power tonight. Whew!

Our suite is HEAVEN. It will be very difficult for me to ever stay in a normal hotel room again. Having separate rooms, with kids, is the way to go. Right now the girls are asleep in the "living room" and Matthew and I are watching Biggest Loser.

Heaven!

Anyway, "Ice Storm 2009" is still in full force and school has been canceled again for tomorrow.

It looks like the majority of our Wednesday will be spent swimming in the pool with 200 other kids.

Fun times. (The only thing I can even think about when I am in the pool holding onto Elyn are the amount of nasty germs that are in the tepid water).

It's not looking promising that our power will be restored soon. I have already booked the room for another night.

Happy Birthday to me!!!!!!!!

Some funny things that Nora has said/done since we have arrived:
"Mommy, is that the show and tell we are going to stay at?" show and tell=hotel
"Let's go ride in the alligator!" alligator=elevator
Tells Matthew and I, while we are in our room, that she has to go potty. We had taken her to the bathroom earlier, while we were having dinner at the restaurant downstairs. She goes over to the door in our room and starts to open it. Matthew says, "Hey, stop, where are you going?" "To the potty." Duh! Apparently she thought the only bathroom in the whole place was 5 floors below us.

That is what we have been up to today. It's been eventful and memorable! A great day!

Oh, and we brought the birthday cake with us. Strawberry!