My oh my, how time does fly

Well, here we are. December. Hard to imagine that it is almost 2012. I remember when the year 2000 sounded so far and distant. When it seemed that by the time we got here we would be living like the Jetsons. Yet here we are, and though many amazing advances have been made in so many areas, I still don't have a robot maid. :)

So here is what's been happening in our lives. We rented out our house in Salt Lake City. Put an offer on a short sale, and lived with Lars' brother for 3 months. (An adventure in and of itself, though I am grateful for their generosity) And now here I am. In my new home that I love so much.

The great windstorm of 2011 has come and gone, hopefully for good. We lost a tree from our backyard in Salt Lake City. Thankfully our guardian angels must have been on duty because we were extremely blessed to have sustained no damage to our or our neighbors house.
I had just pulled up out back, I was coming over to do some work at the house. I was about to pull into the parking behind the house when I happened to glance over and thought "Something looks weird about the house" It took me about a millisecond to realize that I could see the house far too clearly. Then I began to panic, sure that there was a large whole in the house. These were the thoughts running through my head as I ran around to the front of the house to check out what damage had been done. "Oh my goodness, this is awful. I can't believe this! Crap! There is a big whole in the house and then we won't be able to rent it out and we will lose both houses and end up on the streets!"
Not dramatic at all. As I rounded the front of the house I stopped in my tracks. "No way", I breathed. The tree had damaged absolutely nothing. Not the fence, not the electrical wires, and most importantly, not the houses. I was stunned. I sent up a quick prayer of gratitude and continued to walk around not quite able to believe that not a single thing had been damaged.

The ironic thing is that the winds by our new home were much stronger, most damage done in Utah by this storm was in our city and the one next to it. And yet I lose my tree in Salt Lake.

So I am grateful. Grateful for small, and big, miracles. We've seen so many, and during this storm we saw and heard of so many. And now we have something to talk about at our upcoming neighborhood emergency preparedness meeting. Though I must say, the way the neighborhoods banned together to help clean up afterward was inspiring and was a great way to kick off the Christmas season. People helping their neighbors and even strangers. Isn't that what it really is about. I'm not grateful for the tragedies but I am grateful for the outpouring of kindness, love, and helpfulness after them. May we carry that through the season and beyond.

The tree as seen from the back parking area

It is amazing that wind can do this

It took down some lighting we had in the backyard but still no damage. 

Look at that, the fence is amazingly not crushed.