Ice Ice, Baby

What a week!! THis week has felt like a year.

Sunday, after getting home from Ruidoso, I went to bed exhausted. I got up about 10, like 20 minutes after turning the lights out to go to the restroom. Only, I couldn't go. UGH! I went back to bed, but not for long. About 10:15, the pain came attacked in full force and effect. I rolled around, groaned, wanted to scream but didn't, and just about lost my mind for almost an hour. Then I woke up Joey and told him I was going to the emergency room. He woke up from a dead sleep, saying, "Wait! Let me call your mom." Nope, not waiting. By the time my mom could get to my house, I could have drugs. I was outta there! I'm not sure HOW I got myself to the ER with the pain I was in. It was literally making my eyes cross. At one point, I set the cruise and literally stood up in my seat trying to ease the pain. After a three shots of morphine, a shot of tramadol, and an amazing nurse, the pain eased enough for a CT scan. Kidney stones. The doctor kept me at the hospital for pain management until the stones had traveled into my bladder. So at 5 in the morning, I headed home. The morphine and tramadol let me sleep until 5 in the afternoon. I was SO worried I wouldn't be able to sleep that night, but sleep I did. Tuesday I went back to work feeling so much better. I even passed the stones at work, but it was nothing compared to the pain of them moving.

The talk of the town Tuesday was the weather, how cold it was going to get, how everything was going to shut down, blah, blah, blah. I believed not a word of it. Blaine even came home with a note from school to check media outlets for word of late school starts or closures. So Wednesday morning, I turned on the news before I even got out of bed. School not starting until 9:45. Awesome! I went back to sleep. For about 15 minutes. Blaine comes running in asking if I watched the news and did he have to go to school. We turned the news back on, only to see that school was not getting a late start. It was closed. The courthouse was closed. LOTS of stuff was closed. WOW. Gotta see this.When I saw this, I thought, This is like a light sprinkle to the Wilhites (my mom's family) who live in the Artic, also known as Clovis, NM. Then I stepped outside to get firewood. It was like jumping into a freezer while you are soaking wet! C ! O ! L ! D! Y'all, it was THREE degrees. The wind chill? BELOW zero. Single digits in the desert, people. This was definitely history. Let me tell you how cold it was. My kids didn't even go play in it. It was THAT cold. You couldn't stand it. History making low temps, ya'll. Only it was just the beginning.

Our desert electric company couldn't handle the single digits. We're talking all kinds of problems. There were rolling blackouts, busted water lines, and basically a total city shut down...for THREE DAYS! That's right, folks. No school or work Wednesday, Thursday OR Friday. It wasn't that the streets were icy or so bad either. It was simply the temperatures.

So for three days, we were in the house. We didn't even play outside in the snow. This iswhat itlooked likeat our housefor three whole days! The city was asking us to conserve electric and water, too, so I couldn't even do laundry. We literally layed around for three days. Joey even got to stay home two of them.

I am not complaining one bit, either. I will say one thing: I have a new-found respect for the Wilhites in the Artic. I'm not sure I could stand it for weeks and months on end, but I sure did enjoy the Ice Ice, Baby for the three days the Artic visited the desert.