Hurricane Helene

We felt that Crista needed a little more post surgery help, so Roy and I spent two full days and two nights in Logan.  Crista's very capable, but Matt had a conference and was going to be out of town until Wednesday night and Crista only has two hands. I felt such a strong bond with Zack this trip.  I know he loved his grandpa, too.  When we were getting ready to leave, the whole family came out to the driveway.  Crista was holding Zack facing away from her.  Roy walked over, leaned in and said, "Goodbye, Zack."  Zack reached out with both arms to him.  Crista said that was the first time he'd done that.  Roy leaned toward him a little more and Zack put his hands on his face.  It was such a sweet moment.

Grandpa always makes sure there are good things to eat when we come to stay.  

I took three of the five children to the park to get them out of the house for a little bit.  Bridget (who has a new way of smiling for pictures) and I made a house for Todd's cars.  It was a fun activity.  She had a long attention span for it.  It only ended when Todd came over to play, too, and demanded some of his cars back.  

On Wednesday, following our return home, Roy's phone rang.  It indicated Crista was calling.  It wasn't Crista, it was Todd.  He said, "Grandpa, you have to come to our house."  It makes us happy that they don't want us to leave.

We had tickets to CPT's Into the Wood's.  We took Ila and Ollie.  I think Ollie secretly likes to go because I'll tickle his back.  The play was fun, but long.  There seemed to be some problem with the sound system as well, because at times it was a little hard to hear.

We checked on Elise after Hurricane Helene hit Augusta, Georgia (Friday?).  Augusta was one of the cities that got the worst of it.  She said it was scary because of the wind and the noise and because the house was shaking.  They were right by the eye.  Usually the eye is gone before the storm gets so far inland.  Later, Elise called back.  They had some phone service, but no internet capabilities (the phone company was saving bandwidth for first responders). She wanted me to find out if Costco or Home Depot were open and if so, ask if they had generators.  I found out that Costco was "closed due to extreme weather conditions," and  I only talked to robots at Home Depot.  I told Elise that setting up for emergency on the day of the emergency wasn't the best idea.  She said she didn't think a hurricane could come that far inland.  It shows that we can't judge what kind of natural disasters we might be hit with.  

If you didn't see it in the news; most of Augusta lost power.  The estimated time for Elise and Andy to  have power again is October 12. The news says that there are at least 730,000 Georgia Power customers without power.  (For Elise this means no hot showers, no hot meals...their whole house is electric).

Elise was the most discouraged about losing all of their freezer and fridge food, but they were blessed when their friends (church members) offered them their extra generator.  They started sharing food the first day, and as they were able to preserve all their freezer and refrigerator meals, they continued sharing meals with about 30 of their friends and neighbors.  They gave ice cream out to all the neighbors while the kids played in the yard all day Friday.  Luckily, it was a beautiful day.  The kids are out of school until at least Wednesday, which is a little bit of a trial in and of itself😅.  Elise and Andy went through Hurricane Harvey in Texas 7 years ago, which is why Harvey is named Harvey.  I told her that this was a sign that they needed to have another baby (a girl) and name her Helene.  She told me I was SOOOO funny!  

We talked to Elise this (Saturday) evening.  She said it was hard but so wonderful to see everyone coming together to help each other.  From what she heard, getting groceries would be hard or impossible.  Some people had to wait in line for hours just to enter the store.  

Roy did another side by side ride Friday and Saturday.  Tomorrow we are heading to Newport, Rhode Island for a business conference.  He's gone to RI each year for the past 2 or 3 years, and this time he asked if I wanted to come with him.  This is why I'm getting the letter out today.

I'm enjoying my institute class.  It started again on September 19, so I have a new group.  The class (The Eternal Family) is different this time because the students are supposed to sign up to teach half of the discussion.  This past Thursday the student taught for 7/8 of the discussion time.  I'm going to have to figure out how to work that little kink out.  I love studying about the family and I'm so grateful for mine.  We are imperfect but we love each other.  Once again, it helps me to realize how grateful I am for prophets, seers and revelators that can see what we cannot.  

***I think this week has been a little reminder about being prepared.  😀