my exurberant peparations

Well, I'm getting ready to eat my lunch and am wondering if I am completely prepared for the impending ice storm. The last ice storm I experienced was about 2 1/2 years ago (actually now that I think about it, I think it was only 1 1/2 years ago). In any case, it was when we lived in the wonderful great plains state of Iowa. We were in a job search process and anticipating that we were going to have to sell our house, so we were in preparation mode for that. The day that it iced we were painting 2 rooms--Nathan's room and our upstairs bathroom (a gorgeous red color!). As you can probably discern, I was not ready for the power to go out. My house was a big mess. Once it got dark it was somewhat of a problem because I couldn't find anything and I kept tripping over stuff. Then we packed a bag to go over to our dear friends' house (we miss you Gehmans!!!) and that was an even bigger challenge due to the big mess. So this time I am determined to be prepared. I have:

• done about 5 loads of laundry--it's not folded, but you can do that in the dark, right? It won't have to be done in the dark because I'm going to fold it this afternoon before it gets dark--hopefully!.
• completely cleaned my boys' room--wow! that was a mess, but very necessary! It does not feel good to accidentally step on a toy combine.
• cleaned the basement
• cleaned the girls' rooms
• cleaned the bathrooms. Have you ever tried using the bathroom in the dark and it not be cleaned? It can be painful to find the sink when you accidentally lay your hand on a hairbrush or, worse yet, your husband's razor! ouch!
• got out all the lanterns
• brought in extra firewood so we don't have to chip away at the ice on it outside
• got lots and lots of books from the library although we will probably spend most of the time reading The Tale of Despereaux--great book! We got it for the kids as an early Christmas present. Joe's been reading it to us all each evening and then we are all going to see the movie. (I kind of got impatient and read ahead--only a few pages--I started feeling guilty so I stopped....shhhhh....don't tell anyone in my family!)
• I know exactly where the lighters are and where the batteries are and I got the right size batteries this time!
• ironed my hubby's shirts
• have meals planned out that we can use for our gas stove

So now that I'm prepared it probably won't happen. Which would be AWESOME--no ice and a clean house! I'd rather have snow, but they keep insisting that it isn't going to be snow--it's going to be ice. The schools have already started dismissing and the sun is still shining. My last step to preparation--a nice, long nap!