Getting through Hurricane Ike...

So as many of you know we had a pretty big hurricane here in Houston a little over a week ago (on my birthday to be exact)! We decided to pack up and go to Dallas for the weekend, because we didn't want to risk it especially with Kaitlyn and me being pregnant. My biggest concern was that I didn't want to be without power. I think it's literally torture to live in Houston without air conditioning because not only is it extremely hot, but it's extremely humid too. Anyway, we rode out the storm in Dallas and tried to turn it into a mini vacation. We went to the zoo, we went swimming, did some shopping and ate out a lot! The only thing hindering the fun was wondering how our condo and our car were holding up against the storm. On Saturday night we talked to a neighbor on the phone and found out that our complex was one of the very few that never lost power. This was all the incentive I needed to go home. I'm such a worry wart and the whole time we were in Dallas I just worried about everything happening in Houston. We drove home on Sunday morning and were lucky to find our car in one piece and minor leaks in our roof over the bathroom (the HOA will fix this). The scary part was that most of the town did not have power which meant grocery stores and gas stations were not open. The Kroger down the street from us finally opened on Monday, but every single parking spot was full, there were no shopping carts available and shelves were bare. If you wanted to get gas you had to wait in a mile long line because there were only a handful of gas stations open. These conditions lasted until about Thursday of last week. The hurricane was 9 days ago and there are still so many people without power and a lot of damages all over town. In fact, almost all schools are still closed. Jared and I feel so blessed and so spoiled that we got through everything so well. Our biggest inconvenience is that we still don't have cable or internet.

We went to church on Sunday and our building still doesn't have power, but they wanted to hold sacrament meeting anyway. As we were walking up I said to Jared, "if it's too miserable inside we'll just leave after they pass the sacrament". Right as the words left my mouth I regretted them. I thought about all the pioneers and saints who have attended church meetings in much worse conditions. I only had to be there for one hour and then got to return to my air conditioned condo! Besides, half the people in the meeting had to go back to their homes which still didn't have power! Needless to say I was feeling a little selfish and definitely learned a lesson that day. I'm just so grateful that our family is safe, because in the end that's all that really matters.