Operation Evacuation

Whew! It has been an exhausting day! I was supposed to have a final this morning at 10:00am. However we were awakened by someone pounding at our front door and screaming at 7:00am. Kirby got up to check the door and I listened to the conversation from my bed. I heard, "All finals are canceled, the power and heat are out. If you need heat, go to the student center." Whereas I was excited to go back to sleep, I had really been dreading them canceling finals. I was just ready to get them over with and be done with this week... NOT drag it out even longer. Even so, it didn't take me long to get back to sleep and stay that way until after noon. Once we all got up we sat around for a while trying to decide what to do. Having an extra day to study for finals was really a great thing. It would only make sense to spend that time really burying our heads in the books and learning the material... instead we decided to play Yahtzee. :) Here are some pictures of us being slobs in our sweats and playing Yahtzee!

I had just seen a red light flash on Kirby's leg but I didn't know what it was. So I asked, "Did anyone just see that red light?" Then I got looks from Kirby and Karlie as if saying, "Lauren, are you kidding me?" (the looks in this picture) Then I turned around just in time to see Jessica snapping a picture. The light had been from her camera and APPARENTLY Kirby and Karlie knew that... but I didn't. Haha!

Jessica cheesing for a picture during our Yahtzee game. Jessica and I kind of teamed up during the game because we were the two who had never played before and had to ask all of the questions. Jessica would ask something and Kirby and Karlie would then give HER "the look". I would have to reassure her and let her know that I was wondering the same thing... :)

Me thinking about my next move...

Don't I look nice? I really dressed up for the day. And, YES, I fixed my hair so that it would stick up on top like Alfalfa...

Kirby being a Yahtzee genius...

Karlie playing... she won the whole game... but Jessica and I think she cheated ;)

Then, while we were playing we heard another knock on the door. It was a guy handing out some papers with tons of information on it and informing us that they were "evacuating" the apartments since the power was out and there was no heat. They also rescheduled a bunch of finals for awkward times and even mentioned having people come back early from Christmas break to take finals.... that really didn't go over well with a lot of people. They said that we had to be out of the apartments by 5:00pm and could either leave campus and go stay with someone, or that we could sleep in the student center. Sleeping in a huge room with hundreds of other students didn't sound very appealing to us so we immediately started trying to find somewhere to stay. Kirby knows a couple that she goes to church with so she called them to see if we could stay there. They were so kind and let Kirby, Jessica, and myself come stay at their house. So while we could still use the light from outside (since we didn't have any lights to use in the apartment other than the light from our cell phones) we decided to go ahead and pack our bags. Plus, it was starting to get a little chilly inside our apartment since we had been without heat for about eleven hours. We all over packed just in case the weather was bad the next day and we got stuck there. Then we realized that getting into our vehicles may be harder than we thought. Everything outside was completely frozen... including our cars. So whereas Kirby was going to drive, I needed to charge my phone so I could let people know what was going on. And since I couldn't charge it in the apartment I decided to go to my car and let it get a few bars. Getting into my car turned out to be quite a task. I took a few pictures of it before i started picking off the huge ice chunks. Check it out...

The ice was so thick. It was like breaking and pulling off huge chunks of glass...

The whole door was frozen shut... including the handle!

That is actually my sunroof... but you can't see it at all because of all of the ice on top!

So I had to pour warm water on it, punch and kick it a few times and pull as hard as I could before I was finally able to get my door open. Cleaning off Kirby's vehicle took even longer. All three of us were out there working on different parts of the vehicle trying to get it cleared off. My fingers were FROZEN! I even had gloves on!!! We FINALLY got it though and were able to leave campus before 5:00pm.

So then we headed off to the house where we were staying. They fixed chili for us and it was VERY good! It was so nice to have a home cooked HOT meal! Then, to our surprise, they had just gotten a Wii! The woman had asked for a Wii for her 50th birthday and since she knew we played a lot, she wanted us to have a Wii Tournament! After we ate we drew up a bracket and had a Wii Tennis tournament. Can you guess who won? That's right, ME! It was a lot of fun and it was hilarious watching everyone play. Even "Grandma" played with us! After the tennis tournament they decided they hadn't had enough so we decided to do a Wii BOWLING Tournament. Can you guess who won? That's right, JESSICA! Haha, I actually came in dead last on that one. :) Bowling isn't really my forte. We still had a blast though. In the meantime, Jessica got a call from someone on campus saying that the power was back on and that people could move back into the apartments. So whereas we were having fun playing Wii we decided it would be a lot easier to be back on campus. Kirby has a final in the morning and it takes 20-30 minutes to get back to campus from their house. So when we finished playing we thanked them and headed back to the apartment. We were a little frustrated because when we first got back the power went off about three times for a short period of time. Hopefully it stays on all night and we don't have to do this all over again tomorrow!

So the final that I missed on Monday, I am now taking on Tuesday. It was supposed to be an in-class final with no notes, but due to all of the craziness he decided to be generous and let us take it ONLINE and WITH our notes! I am VERY grateful for that decision! They are hoping that by tomorrow things will get back to normal so hopefully I can continue on with my normal schedule and get home ASAP! :)

That is about it for now. I have a few more days left in the semester then I'm heading home. Once again, keep me (and everyone else here) in your prayers since this is an extremely stressful time in the semester!