Hurricanes and Neighbors

Most of our neighborhood is retirees. Reed and Conrad try to help them out by mowing the front lawns. In our city you will get fined if your lawn isn't maintained. Stupid! Luckily our house was not damaged by IKE. We got home Saturday afternoon. Our yard looked like there never was a storm. All the branches, leaves, debris, etc. I expected weren't there. How wonderful! Mr. Kimball is our next door neighbor. What a character!! He wasn't going to evacuate because he didn't want to pack all his guns. hahaha The cops finally forced him out. He is quite old, about 75 or 80. He can hardly walk and everything he does takes him forever. Mowing his lawn takes him about 8 hours! Which is why Reed and Conrad do it for him. Anyways, he got home on Monday. He has been cleaning up our yard all week!!! He cleaned up the branches that fell off the tree. He nailed the mailbox back on! Then he mowed the yard so I wouldn't have to deal with it!! He knew Reed was out of town. He wanted to surprise us. I am surprised!!! A friend from church came by on Monday and told me we would have "a bit" of yard work to do but the house was fine. He even saved our mail!! And I thought we didn't have any friends here. I am so humbled. Every time I think about it I start to cry. So now when I complain about Texas I will remember that it isn't ALL bad. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father keeps giving me little reminders that we are not alone, and He knows where we need to be better than we do. :) Love you all!