121 hours

We are all still recouping from last weeks wind-storm. The winds blew at hurricane speed last Wednesday night, leaving hefty damage to our city and neighboring cities. [LA Times Photos]

Fortunately we had minimal damage to our property. Our cars were scratched by the falling limbs of the large oak directly in front of our house (thankfully the oak in its entirety did not fall), and our back yard fence blew down giving Roxie two backyards to call home. We lost power for 121 hours, but knew others who had their power out for longer. We had hot water and our gas burning stove to make hot meals, but other than that we were braving the cold nights like the rest of our surrounding cities.

We were thankful our neighbor not only had a chain saw, but came over and helped Bryan remove the oak branches that were filling our entire front yard.

Without use of our heater the nights got rather cold...4 layers of clothing, plus 3 heavy blankets seemed to do the trick. After the second night without power I fell into a routine of getting the house ready for night. Around 4:15PM I would gather and restock our candle supply, place matches by the stove, set out bedtime layers and blankets, and put away any toys as to not trip on them in the dark.

One night we tried to sleep on the living room floor with a fire going in the fireplace. We thought this would be warmer and therefore more comfortable. Did I mention it was seriously freezing at night? Well...there must be something wrong with our fireplace since when the fire got larger traces of smoke started to enter the house. We tried opening a window to help the wind suction to go up the chimney, but we just let more cold air inside. Eyes slightly burning, the smoke triggered the deep cough I had been trying to get rid of all week (deep coughing is really not fun while pregnant).

We had Logan in a pack-n-play on the other side of the couch, hoping that not seeing us would help him sleep better. No such luck. We ended up trying to have him sleep between us. That did not go well...more on that later.

We are now working with our insurance company to get the cars and fence fixed and it sounds like they will also cover the cost of food in our fridge. After 5 full days of no power everything in the fridge/freezer had to be tossed.

It's been a crazy time for everyone affected by the Santa Ana winds last week...streets are still lined with branches and I'm not sure if power has been restored to all. We are so thankful to have power [HEAT!] again. If nothing else, this event has been a wake up call and we are taking serious stock of our earthquake supplies.

Our front yard. I think we had the most tree carnage on our street, however compared to others affected by the wind, this was mild.

The winds shoved these twigs about 6" into my car...They were stuck! I couldn't pull them out.

Brown scratches over 75% of my car. Thankfully, insurance should cover fresh paint and body work needed to fix the passenger side rear door.