Hurricane Ike...lessons learned

I know it has taken me a long time to give an update on the aftermath of the storm, but my reason is simple. I have been waiting for a time for Kevin to show me how to upload video from our camera to show you some of the damage and we have been crazy busy...seriously. For now, I will just fill you in until I can get the video up a couple of years from now. Because I am an Arntsen, I am a minimalist and while deep down I hope for the storm to hit, I talk like it will never really come our way. What was my biggest concern when we knew Ike was coming our way? I had two, really. One was: How long will we have to live without power? and the other was: Will I get to see the fury of the storm since it's coming during the night? I mean, seriously, if you're going to sustain damage, at least give me the pleasure of watching it.
Around 1:30-2:00a.m. on the Sat. of Ike. the wind was getting very scary. It had been blowing hard for hours, but it was "white-knuckle-on-your-pillow" kind of scary. Since we have huge trees on all four corners of our home, we moved into the middle of the house and made beds. Somehow, I was able to fall asleep. When I woke up at 6:00 a.m., there was NO WIND. I walked into the kitchen to find my little brother asleep in fetal position on the tile with a blanket over him. I couldn't figure out why when he had a mattress in the other room, but later found out he was so afraid that that was the only place he felt safe (he stayed up later than the rest of us because he had consumed 3 Rockstar's...waaaaay wacked out...you should have seen him dancing the night before. He definitely kept us all laughing). Anyway, I walked outside where there was no wind and only drizzle dripping from trees. It was still dark, so I used a flashlight. I could see huge branches down from our trees...one landed on our zipline. Our fence blew down and a huge tree was leaning toward our home now. It was a mess. What was my prevailing thought?....It was that I was so bugged that I had missed the storm altogether...I had seen nothing but the damage it left. I was kind of bothered. Around 7 or so, the wind began to pick up again and it was then that I realized I had earlier walked out into the eye of the storm. It was a huge eye and it went right over Kingwood and it was this amazing calm in the middle of a raging storm. I was able to see the back end of the storm which wasn't as entertaining as I had hoped. We drove around afterward and were amazed at all of the humongous trees downed everywhere. Most did not fall on houses but in front or on the sides...the Lord's mercy for sure. However, some homes were heavily damaged in our neighborhood.
The power had gone out the night before and we hoped it would be back on in 3 or 4 days, but it didn't return for 13 days!!! Fortunately, the weather was amazing after the storm and we have a generator, so we were fine. However, the kids were out of school for two weeks, which made things a bit crazy...we always had like 20 kids at our house.
So, what were the lessons learned?
1. 72 hour kits and emergency preparedness are so inspired and bring so much peace. We found that it was almost precisely 72 hours before gas stations and grocery stores began opening again though most did not open for at least a week afterward. 2. When you have no power, you are not preoccupied with electrical gadgets. Everyone ventured outside and we spent a lot of time visiting with our neighbors. It felt so great. Spirits were high and it is definitely because people were bound by a common cause...and they really had no where to go. We knew that the return of normal life would be bittersweet. We rarely see our neighbors now (except for the few we normally see). 3. It brought so much peace to know we are part of a ward family that all looks out for each other. My visiting teacher's husband came over after the storm and saw our leaning tree and though it was a super risky venture to move it, he and his son took it down. 4. This comes from the storm and from reading Robinson Crusoe....we really don't need all of the stuff we think we need. Things are just fine and we become resourceful when we need to. I can't really complain because having a generator made a huge difference, but I loved the simple life and kind of wished I lived in a time when things were like that(I still craved my power and my kids' return to school most of the time) 5. As weird as this is, I kind of connect with my houses...I feel like they are glad to have us living in them...like they have been waiting for our family to take care of them, make them beautiful and fill them with happiness and contentment. This said, I was grateful that my sweet, beautiful house was spared any damage. That brought me great happiness. I am grateful for what I have been blessed with. The Lord is so generous to us and always has been. Sorry this was all so wordy, but for the few of you who keep up with my monthly posts, I thought you might like an update!