No electricity or running water for ONE WEEK!
Hi from your friendly, online AVON Lady in Texas, who survived the mega ice storm/snowpocalypse last week! I live in rural central Texas, and we just don’t get snow here. My husband, dad, 5 cats, and I were out of electricity and running water for one full week on our property, as were hundreds in neighboring rural communities. Crews are still working to restore some of those communities this week.
Thankfully, we have a wood burning fireplace and a gas range, but it was COLD! We live on top of a hill out in the country and it was too dangerous for my husband and I to leave our property until the end of the week. We could walk to my dad’s house below our hill and he was able to get off the property in his truck and take us to get more water and food. We even became Snow Harvesters to melt snow to fill our toilets so we didn’t waste our drinking water.
5 Cats vs. Ice/Snow Storm
We have 5 cats, 3 outdoor, and 2 indoor. The 3 outdoor kitties have heated kitty houses, but without power, it was beyond cold, so they had to camp out in my husband’s office and our laundry room for a week. They were NOT AMUSED, especially our 14-year-old tuxedo girl Kaida. If looks could kill! She is normally very sweet with us, but she does not like other cats at all!
Mitzi (3 years old) was living her best life camped out on a chair for a while. However, she loves to roam free, and was very upset she couldn’t go outside. She stared longingly out the window, meowed pitifully at us with her screamy meow, and darted out to explore the house a few times. We opened the front door briefly to show her the snow, and she immediately noped out and went back in the house where it was warmer.
Ms. Kitty, our resident 16-year-old Golden Girl (she would totally be Sophia) fittingly claimed a rocking chair as her spot for the week and enjoyed her naps. She is pictured below post storm snuggled happily in her heated house.
Tyrion and Arya (both 4 years old) enjoyed all the extra snuggle time by the fireplace with my husband and me. Tyrion rested in between chasing his sister Arya around, much to her relief. Tyrion is on my hubby’s lap, and Arya is cozied up on her favorite spot on the daybed in my office.
MVP Product that Saved the Day
We tried to go about our normal activities to keep busy (had to charge our devices in my hubby’s truck several times), stock up on firewood, and took naps to keep warm. My hubby found my old school portable CD player with a radio on it, and we felt a little more connected to the world again. We jammed to some local stations in the dark while snuggling with the kitties. Even though we were cold and just wanted all of our creature comforts again, it wasn’t all bad.
The saving grace for the week were the AVON Defense Hand Cleansing Wipes that I initially forgot we had in the cabinet until my hubby pulled them out! They are alcohol-based wipes, so I used them to wipe my hands before using my hand cream and put my gloves back on (Yes, I was cold enough to have to wear gloves inside my drafty 1978 childhood home!). I am stocking up with the awesome sale and plan to keep packs in our vehicles for emergencies and of course in the bathroom cabinet just in case.
Honorable mentions are the cotton masks, which I wore outside to keep my face warm as I shoveled snow off my walkway for the first (and hopefully, last) time in my life, and when we went to our small local grocery store to get a few items. I also love our antibacterial hand gel sanitizer. Silky Vanilla girl all the way! I also made sure to keep up with my skin care routine during the outage. It helped make me feel better, and my skin appreciated it as well!
There are tons of other great deals on my estore. If you are looking for something in particular, contact me and I am more than happy to help find what you need.
Just wanted to share my ice storm/snowpocalypse story with you. We made it through probably the worst ice storm my beautiful state of Texas has ever seen. I am thankful to have an awesome, resourceful hubby, equally awesome and even more resourceful dad nearby, and silly kitties to keep us entertained and in check.
My favorite season of spring is just around the corner, so brighter days are ahead!
~Jen
