Ammon and Allison Dietz: February 2021

February 4, 2021

I had a great birthday today! I had some of my favorite foods and loved being with my family!

My boys like to give themselves "Marv Hair" after they take a shower. You know, Marv. From Home Alone. After he gets electrocuted.

February 8, 2021

I have the funniest journal entry today. It's only funny because I had NO IDEA what was coming in 8 days...

This morning Caleb came downstairs and asked me, "Did it snow!?!?!" I responded, "Ummmm....NO. We live in Texas..."

February 14, 2021

Happy Valentine's Day! Each year we give the kids a small box of chocolate. It's just one way we like to remind our kids that we love them...

We love them silly, we love them crazy, we love them loud, we love them obnoxious, we love them naughty, we love them helpful, we love them caring. We just love them no matter what! We've experienced life when you want kids but can't have them. So even when we get frustrated, angry, upset with them, life is still better with them!

Any excuse for a delicious meal!

February 15, 2021

We live in central Texas. We always say that in the north, you can't go outside for 3 months of the year because it's too cold, but here in Texas, you can't go outside for 3 months of the year because it's too hot. It's just a trade off of which 3 months you stay inside. This being said, it doesn't truly get cold in Texas. Yes, WE think it gets cold, but if you compare it to the temperatures in, say, Michigan, we don't get cold weather. About 4 years ago we got a fluke snow storm. I believe it was the first time in 35 years this area has received snow. I remember it started snowing around 7pm. We accumulated 1-2 inches of snow. We let the kids stay up (then it was just Conner and Isaac) and play in the snow past bedtime. The next morning, it was all melted by like 9am.

Flash forward to present day. We knew a storm was coming. And we even knew we might get some snow. But we were definitely not expecting what we got! The power turned off once around 3:30am for about 45 minutes. During the night it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. Until we woke up to this:

All morning the power would be on for about 10 minutes, then flick off for a couple of seconds, and then be on for about 10 minutes, then flick off for a couple of seconds.....all morning long. It was hard because when the power would flick off, the heater would shut off. Then when the power came back on, it would have to cycle on, and then by the time it finally started blowing hot air again, it would be on for about 2 minutes before the power would go off again. This happened all morning long. We had to be careful because our house really wasn't being heated by the heater. Finally around noon we started rolling blackouts, which were so much better. The power would be on for about 1 1/2 hours, then be off for about 30 minutes.This continued for the next few days. But it was so much better than before because now our heater would be on close to 1 1/2 half before it got shut off for 30 minutes, meaning we could keep our house warm!

Our city is shut down. Businesses can't run during rolling blackouts because...well...they need electricity for everything. And because most people couldn't get to work. We Texans don't learn how to drive in snow. And if you do happen to know how to drive in snow, you don't want to be driving near somebody else who doesn't know how to drive in snow! Lol So nobody went anywhere. We all hunkered down and enjoyed the family time and the snow!

I think one of the trickiest parts was cooking food.Today we just ate easy food that didn't take cooking. It wasn't worth the risk of the power turning off while you were right in the middle of cooking something. Well...except that we decided tonight that with all this cold weather we HAD to have warm cookies!

There is a story from when I was a kid. I'm not sure if it's actually a memory of mine, or if I've just heard the story so many times, it feels like a memory. Anyways, when I was a small kid, the power went out one night. My family decided to play Sardines (backwards hide-and-go-seek). We had so much fun! And when the power came back on, we wanted to keep playing, so we turned off all the lights and kept playing. Only, we quickly discovered that it isn't as much fun when you just turn off the lights. Anyways, when the power went off tonight (mid baking cookies, lol), we played sardines. The kids LOVED it! We all had so much fun!

Today was President's Day, so Conner didn't have school anyways. Ammon did have work, but they deemed it a work-from-home day...which meant Ammon tried to work, but every time the power shut off....needless to say he didn't get that much work done.

February 16, 2021

Although it hasn't snowed any more, our temperatures are still low enough that the snow hasn't melted. Which means another day of hunkering down, rolling blackouts, the whole city shutting down and school & work being cancelled.

February 17, 2021

After you have a baby, there is this weird feeling that although your world has slowed WAY down, the rest of the world around you has kept going at normal pace. As if nothing has happened. Just every day life. This storm feels like that. We know that outside of Texas, everyone else is carrying on - nothing is different for them. But our life is "on-hold". I think you know what I mean, right? We are making amazing memories, we are having fun, but we have less responsibilities such as we aren't going shopping, doing dishes (we have been using paper goods), etc. We have time to sit around and just read a good book.

We are still having rolling blackouts. But we did venture out of the house to celebrate Melissa's birthday tonight. We have still been mostly eating food that doesn't require cooking. Tomorrow it's suppose to snow again...so we'll see if and how much....

February 18, 2021

Texas Blizzard Part 2

It definitely snowed again! The old snow was getting icy and crunchy, we couldn't do much with it. So this new snow means more playing in it again! We decided for how infrequently it snows in Texas, we needed to build something out of snow (again). So we decided to go with something simple...a snow couch!

This afternoon the rolling blackouts have been suspended. They said that they will come back if the temperatures drop below freezing.

February 19, 2021

Today we had some puppies come visit us...

The city has had a few places slowly start to open. We didn't leave the house, so I'm not sure how they are checking people out. But I heard there are huge long lines outside of the grocery stores. There are like 3 fast food restaurants open and their drive thru lines are miles long...I think everyone is tired of eating at home and want something different! But we are headed back into normal life again!

February 24, 2021

Grandma Eggett is here visiting us! We aren't great at getting pictures, but we had so much fun!