The Highs and Lows of August 2017

The month started out on a high note. Bailey and I went on our traditional trek to IHOP for her birthday. Its crazy to think see is getting on in her teen years. She will be getting ready to go to college before we know it. She is smart, athletic, great with little kids, and has a great love for her family and others. Couldn't ask for a better granddaughter.

My Birthday fell amiss a lot of comings and goings with the family.  Brandon and Elizabeth had us over for cake and ice cream.  Loo knows I have an affection for bags. She whipped this one up for me out of Salt Lake material. She filled it with things I love,  I love it!

I had a made a decision to share my beloved piano with my grandchildren. It was a gifted to me by  my husband when I was asked to lead the music at church. Having no experience, I was mortified.  I spent many hours playing primary, song so I could learn to lead them. How excited I am to see their accomplishments.

 Took the movers all of five minutes to take out the house, and load it into the truck.

We didn't get to travel home this summer.  I was really sad that  I couldn't go. But was fun to see the memories and doings of my daughter and her family.

Jarod and Brianne went to visit my family grave sites. They decided to trim and care for them while they were there. This meant volumes to me to the unselfishness of them.  They also taught serving others to their 4 children, who were with them. There were plenty of things to go do or to go see, they took the time to serve.

Then came a storm named Harvey.  I had a bad feeling about this storm from the first graphics I saw, my husband didn't think much of it until it starting raining and raining...

We get use to watching these maps in Houston.

The grocery stores were full of people and empty shelves.

They still had ice, which is what I needed. Bread, Milk, fresh fruit and vegetables were all gone.

Then it began to rain...

Not to be dramatic or anything, but when it started I knew we were in for a good one. You never want to be on the right side of a slow moving storm.  People from Port a Rico and New Orleans can attest to that.  Ike went right over us. Even though the wind was bad the rain was not.

We kept updated through leadership from our church everyone was texting and calling people to see how they were doing. By the end of the day it was obvious we were in trouble in our church boundaries. and the whole Houston area,

On August 27th it just kept coming down. I checked through the night as the water kept coming down in buckets. I love the rain and listening to the rolling thunder, but I had had my limit. It was  interspersed with the tornadoes and flash flood warning constantly going off on our our phones we had, had enough!  It was a long night.

This was the freeway to downtown Houston.

August 28th came added anxiety. Our power went out. I was thinking it would be days to get it going again. but thankfully it was out for about 9 hours. We knew at that time after watching the news that homes nearby us had taken on massive amounts of water.  They were starting to evacuate 100's of people.  Special boats that ride in lower water "Pontoons" were coming in from Louisiana, and surrounding areas.

This was as deep as it got at our house but just a mile or two down the road this was going on...

                                                   

Our beautiful Temple had survived a flood a year previously, but it was too much this time.

 Many church members lived in this subdivision.

The Scouts in our church wading through the flood waters to take the cute Williams children to their Grandpas house.

What a wonderful spirit of compassion was given to us through our Church leadership.  I really think this helped many to renew their faith that we could do hard things.  People were over joyed to see and hear from Elder Utchdorf of the First Presidency of our Church. His presence gave many a renewed hope.

Thousands of member from surrounding areas came together to muck out the flooded homes. It was incredible to read and here the comments of those who served and those they served..

Being older, and not having been flooded, I had deep guilt. Having asthma and other health issues made mucking out of the question. So we had to coming up with ways to help. First thing was we were ask to have the Woods stay with us. I was a little embarrassed the house wasn't tidy, but it was what it was. We spent hours talking and getting to know each other better. I was able to prepare food, help babysit, run errands, and help daughter in law with her book drive. It wasn't much but, it was what I could do. I don't think there was anyone who didn't help in some way.

Smiles all around after being in the house for a couple of days we were thrilled to find Lupe Tortilla was open.  It was a limited Menu, but we were just so glad to be out.

Books for Becky book drive.

 I went over to help sort and take unacceptable books to the good will.  They got to know me pretty well over there.