Storm clean-up July 2017

One Saturday in early July we knew there was a chance of rain and we took a gamble and went to the lake anyway.  From our vantage point up north we could see a storm brewing south of us but were blessed that it didn't hit us on the lake.  

But when we arrived at home we saw that the storm had made an impact in Allen.  As we drove into the neighborhood we saw many fences down.  Then we pulled onto our street and saw three of our close neighbors had been hit, significantly.  We offered to help Janine Glaser (single mom going through a divorce across the street) but she wanted to wait until insurance had a chance to assess the damage.

The next morning was Sunday.  We were just puttering around the house when we saw our neighbor from the corner, Jim Joyce go over to Janine's with some tools and begin to work on the tree that was laying on her roof.  Stephen immediately got dressed and joined him and the rest of my kids weren't far behind.  I was so proud of them!

By the time I got over there, I arrived to see that Jim had given Matthew a sawsall to use (good grief) and he was having the time of his life breaking down the branches for pick up.  I told Jim that it was his responsibility to manage Matthew.

The whole street came out to help, Jim, Stephen, Peter Blayd, and Robert Dove.  The time inched closer to when church was supposed to begin.  Sam was very concerned that they'd miss church, and that what we were doing wasn't keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  I asked him that if the Savior were there with us on that street, where would he be, and what would he be doing?  He got the message.  

Kaitlyn had an assignment to play the organ so the girls went in and got ready for church and left while the boys finished up.  They arrived at church after the sacrament was over.

Funny story, as we left for church, I was wearing a new dress.  As we got in the car, from across the street, Matthew yelled "Mom, you look beautiful!" and Robert Dove about lost it--he was so blown away by that unsolicited compliment and declared what a good son he was.