Ode to Fall!....Well, sort of!

I'm ticked at the fact that it is still over 80 degrees every day, and it's nearly October. What can a girl do to get some Fall around here? I miss the Fall back east. I was so surprised to go to several stores and find no Mums! When I asked the cashiers they gave me a look of near disgust and disbelief when I asked them If their store carried mums. Scoff. "Mums, what the heck are mums," replied one college freshman at Buy Low. "Oh forget it," I thought to my self as I politely thanked him for his time, told him I'll look elsewhere. and left the store.

Costco sold out of there mums in like 2 seconds, but not their pumpkin pie. You better believe I got me one of those ginormous pies of goodness. For me, pumpkin pie definitely equals fall.

I love the colors, the leaves, the chill in the air that I like to refer to as "hoodie weather," the pumpkins, everything! But, this does not mean I like Halloween. It's not my favorite, unlike everyone else I know.
(Bradley at the Natural Bridge Zoo in Virginia
during Fall,2007)

It's a poopy situation, but all is well in Zion!

Well, most of you know what happened, but we're gonna tell you anyway! August 7th was the fateful day. The day that will go down in history as the day the floods came up on 1455 Cherry Lane and ruined most of our possessions with backed up sewer from the city's man-hole. We received a call a few days later explaining that everything was ripped out of our house and we had to go claim what was ours, make a spread sheet of items lost in the flood, and then proceed to move back in all while getting ready for school, working, etc. This experience has consumed our lives for over a month, and I am sad to say that it will continue to do so until the city decides to mail our check!

We lost most of our furniture, pillows, some blankets, shoes, etc. Total damage: $3,1000. How much the city will supposedly reimburse: $2,800. The matching throw pillows we lost for our couch that was discontinued: priceless.

I know it's sounds rather trivial, but I was most upset about losing the throw pillows for our couch. They were beautifully designed, plush fabric pillows that coordinated with our home so well, and now they are gone. I've looked everywhere and found none like them. However, we, rather I, will get over it eventually. Brad just laughed at the fact that I was so distraught over throw pillows. Maybe some other female will understand!?

This process has been a great learning experience for the two of us. We have learned to be served. A wonderful lady in our ward, Sister Burkman, lovingly offered us her place to live while we were displaced for about 3 weeks. She cooked for us, let us do our laundry there, and expected nothing in return. We would continually thank her for all that she did, and then she would explain she was grateful we were in her home because we were a great example for her children. What? Brad and I good examples for someone's children? But the more I tried to see it, the more I realized she was right. We were able to open our hearts to her teenage boys and younger girls. They did look up to us, but we genuinely cared for them. Lesson #2: besides learning to humble ourselves and take service, we can too serve those who are serving us by answering their prayers for their children. We also learned life from a mother's perspective while we were living there. I realized how much my actions hurt my mother while I was growing up. For that, I learned to be a kinder, more gentle person.

Brad and I also learned to rely on Heavenly Father. This was a very tough experience, but we got through it with faith, prayer, scripture study, and temple attendance. These actions combined brought peace, joy, and comfort into our lives that continues to dwell with us. While we are now back in our house, and things still aren't perfect, there is still such joy in our home. I am so grateful to be on this Journey together with Brad. I couldn't imagine going through life, let along this experience with out him.

Last but not least, dealing with the city has taught us patience. We have made several phone calls with no returns. Emails were written to the adjuster and we heard no response. Then, one day this week, he decided to get back up with us and give us the final number for how much money we were going to get back. We were grateful that our stuff didn't depreciate too much, considering most of the stuff was only 3 months old!

Do we want to go through this again, NO! But did we learn a ton and grow a ton and come out of this experience better people, YES!