We've had an eventful week this week - some of the worst wind storms in Seattle since the early '90s swept through and we lost power in the house for nearly 40hrs. We still had hot water at least, but the central heating was out - not good when it dips below freezing overnight.

We've got a vacant lot behind our house as well as some rather tall fir trees, which makes the yard nice and private and just so different from anywhere we've lived before - it's something to be able to look out of the second storey windows and still have to look UP to see the top of the trees nearby. With all the rain last month the ground is pretty saturated, so it doesn't take much to encourage some of these trees to go horizontal rather than vertical. I'd heard a couple of small trees keel over during Thursday afternoon, but not the really big ones along the back of our block.

Isobel was being a bit of a night owl on Thursday night, so after trying to put her to bed a few times I gave up and brought her back downstairs to play for a little longer. It was about midnight by the time I'd got her settled and asleep again - meanwhile the wind was whipping up and we could hear the trees creaking in the breeze. I've got a couple of nightlights in her room so I can see at night without having to turn the light on - just as I was about to put Isobel in her crib, the nightlights started flickering and I could hear Andy racing around downstairs. He was busy pulling power plugs out of the wall for all our electrical stuff - TV, DVD player, computer, laptops etc - then the house went dark. He came upstairs with a torch to check we were OK, but Isobel had startled awake again ... bugger.

I was convinced we were going to get one of those trees through our house that night - all the bedrooms face the rear of the house and the trees in the vacant lot, so if anything came down it was likely to make a mess. We set up in the living room at the front of the house, as far away as we could get without camping in the front yard - finally managed to get Isobel off to sleep again. Andy dropped off to sleep right away, but I lay awake on the couch for another couple of hours hearing every wind gust and creaking tree ...

Andy's office still had power, so he headed to work on Friday. Soon after he got to work, he sent me a message to stay home - a house in our street had lost a tree across the road, which had made a bit of a mess. Later in the morning I popped Isobel in the stroller and walked down to the communal letter box for the mail, and had a bit of a chat to the neighbours who were cleaning up, one had spent 5hrs raking up all the debris in her yard. She's had trees through her house three times in fifteen years - methinks that's a hint to start cutting the trees down??!!

Still no power when Andy got home from work - he picked up some bits and pieces on the way home, and there was enough daylight left to check the house and make sure it was still in one piece. We thought about decamping to a hotel for the night, but after ringing the first option we were told all of Seattle was booked out - not just our suburb, but the whole city! The power came back on briefly around 11pm Friday night - enough time for me to say "gee, 24hrs isn't bad to get us power again!" Then it went dark again - trust me to jinx things . We had Isobel in about five layers to try and keep her warm - socks, a footed onesie, a hat, a hooded tracksuit, a fleece swaddle, and her cotton blankie. Even then I was worried she'd get cold - our central heating is on gas, but without power the fans can't circulate the heat. It dropped to around 12C overnight, but Isobel was a star - we put her down for a nap at about 7.30pm, and she ended up sleeping through to 8.30am. She did wake a couple of times during the night - funny to hear her gurgle away happily for a few minutes, then drop back to sleep when no-one joined in the conversation .

Still no juice by Saturday morning, so friends of ours rang and invited us round for coffee at their place - they were in one of the few areas that didn't suffer blackouts. They'd initially invited us around by email ... and then realised they weren't going to get a reply for a while . We ended up staying for lunch, enough time for Isobel to warm up a little so we could at least take her trackie off for a while. We didn't want to impose for too long, so went home around 2pm and thankfully had power back around 3.30pm.

So we've lost what was in the fridge and freezer - we can replace most of it, but I'm bloody annoyed to have lost nearly all the breastmilk I pumped in those first few weeks. Still have a couple of 6oz baggies left, but I'll have to hire a pump again if we plan on using a babysitter again in the next couple of months. I think Andy was more annoyed about missing the cricket - Adam Gilchrist had a fantastic innings, and we missed it!!

Now that the house has warmed up again, we finally got organised for this year's Christmas Card photo - a family photo this time. With a bit of luck I'll have them in the post in the next couple of days ... we'll put the photo up later, it's a surprise for the moment!