Tender Mercies

I'm feeling so grateful today for tender mercies. Montana has been having a hard time these past few weeks. I didn't get to chat through email with her last week because of some Google problem. So I've been stressing all week about how she has been doing. But I am amazed how prayers are answered through other people. This past week, of all weeks, so many people have called or texted to ask for her email or address. I KNOW that she will be okay and she will make it through this challenging time with the love and support of so many people. And I am so grateful for those around me who are in tune enough to hear promptings to do something-----especially something for my sweet missionary daughter. 

Puzzles

I've been on a puzzle kick lately. This isn't unusual for me but I don't normally break them out at home. I usually do them at the ranch or during a holiday break. But we took the kids to Gardner Village on Monday for FHE and bought a new Halloween puzzle. I had to get go work on it immediately. 

Tonight Kurt headed down to the ranch again to finish up some work. Normally I would be a little bugged to have no date for my Friday night. Not this time. I ordered my favorite massaman curry, got a dirty Diet Coke and settled in for another puzzle (I had finished the new Halloween puzzle by the next day.....).

First and last

How sad that this past weekend was my first trip to the ranch all summer! And probably my last-----that's if you don't count winter visits. We DID have an unusual summer but one trip only???!! 

Saturday's weather was perfect for about half of the day. Then the winds picked up and it cooled down considerably. But I was able to get some reading done out on the deck and look out over the freshly mowed fields. 

Done and done!!

Today we are finally done with braces!! Emerson was so excited to get those things off. For about 2 weeks we would catch her randomly smiling or giggling. When we would ask her what for, she would say "I get my braces off in ____ days!" Funny girl.

Kurt's new workout

Homecoming 2013

Orem's Homecoming dance was last night. Kurt got roped in to taking the pictures since Alan Bailey wasn't able to this time.... He actually didn't mind! 

Technology.....

.... a blessing and, in this case, a curse. 

Killer storm

The flood of muddy water coming down Mama Chu's hill.

The Dastrup's basement window.

Just down the street from us.

The storm rolling in.

Yesterday afternoon was a day that will be remembered for a long time! Kurt was with some of his work crew shooting some things for work up the canyon at Timpanogos Park. I was there helping him. It was about 3:30-4:00 pm and we were just finishing up. From where we were, we had a great view looking straight down the canyon. We all immediately noticed how ominous and other-wordly the clouds looked. And how fast-moving they were. Kurt commented that something big was going to happen because of those clouds. And how right he was! 

We headed straight home and the wind was already starting to howl by the time we arrived. (and it only takes us 2-3 minutes to get home from the canyon....)  Then the rain started. Then it poured, then it hailed, then it poured some more. Within a few minutes, we had a literal swimming pool along the back wall of our backyard. The water was pouring under the east-side fence with such force that it looked like a fire hose was on the other side. 

I ran downstairs to check window wells. Indy's room didn't have any standing water but water was coming in at the top of window and dripping down onto the sill. Finn's window well was filling up fast. Luckily, from all our past water problems, we had a pump that we immediately started.  Then I ran outside to the backyard staircase and the water was starting to pool down there. Once I cleared the drain it started to drain away----thank goodness. 

Within about 15-20 minutes we had our house under control but we looked across the street and there were cars and people headed to the Jones' house. We spent about 30-40 minutes emptying buckets and buckets of water from their window wells. Then, we heard that the Clark's basement was completely flooded so we headed over there for about 20 minutes. Once we saw they had plenty of help we headed home. Then we realized that our next door neighbor's basement was flooded as well. After a couple of hours moving furniture and vacuuming water and clearing tree branches and mud and debris we got their house under control as well.  Once we finally got home we realized that water had seeped into Finn's room behind the wall and under the baseboards. We had to pull back the carpet a couple of feet. But we feel so lucky that's all the damage we had!

All in all, in the 8th ward, there were about 37 homes that had water damage. Some obviously much worse than others. The 9th ward got the brunt of it I think. They cancelled all meetings but sacrament. The whole ward was helping the families that got the worst damage. It was a crazy weekend but nice to know that so many neighbors are willing to help in a time of need!

Double rainbow

Caught at an Orem soccer game.

Montana's First Convert

The golden contact Montana and her companion had from a few weeks ago was baptized last weekend.   You can read Montana's letter all about it here. So happy for Kathryn!