Wednesday night I headed off to church as usual for my evening membership class.  Just before I got into the building, Mark calls to tell me that a huge storm hit our neighborhood and the power is out!  Ten minutes into membership class the thunder was booming outside and the church lost power!  Deacons lit some candles around the room and we pretty much continued the evening as usual.  It was kind of creepy though, feeling like we were in a bomb shelter or something.

I called Mark when I left class and it seems there was a large piece of siding that flew in our yard and a snake on our front porch!  The mystery is that the siding didn't appear to come from our house or the houses our immediate neighbors.  There was also a large limb that fell off a tree in our backyard which, luckily, didn't hit anything major.

And, to complicate matters a bit further, the storm had hit the county's water treatment plant which meant that we couldn't drink or cook with our tap water unless it was boiled for 3min.  Of course, all our heating sources are electric so that was out of the question.

When I got home Mark had filled the living room with candles and was wielding a couple of flashlights.  It was kind of fun - one of the adventures of marriage.   We camped out that night on the futon in the living room because it was cooler than our bedroom.

5:30am - The power comes on!
5:31am - The power go out again...

A few hours later we rose and we were still without power.  Mark made calls into work to get the rest of the week off, went out to Kmart to buy a couple of coolers and ice, and told his Mom we were driving to Evansville (3 hrs away) in a few hours with all the contents of our refrigerator and basement freezer!  Only later did we find out that 55% of St. Louis is without power and the restoration efforts are expected to take 3-5 days.  Thank God we were able to make it out of the city to a place where we don’t have to pay room and board (and one that welcomes little puppies like our Phoebe).  God is certainly watching out for us. 

If you’re in the habit of praying, please lift up the people of St. Louis who are still without power – who lack food, basic air conditioning, and possibly phone service as well – and also those whose houses or cars were destroyed by falling tree branches or other debris.  It seems like there are still a few more days to go before the city feels any relief.

God willing, we’ll drive back tomorrow and tough it out until power is restored to our neighborhood.  After all, Monday is my first day at my new job (in an area where the power is definitely still working)!  

For those of you dying for wedding photos, here goes:

Professional shots from Signature Studio - slideshow or full album (pw:040106)
Also, snapshots from friends and honeymoon photos

The wedding was absolutely perfect!  I really can't imagine much that could have been better.  And, the honeymoon (a cruise to Key West and the Bahamas) was the perfect relaxing treat after the madness and stress of planning beforehand.

Lately, I've been cleaning and reorganizing the house and starting to look around St. Louis for jobs.  It has also been a nice time to just refocus on God and get myself centered again.  I have a lot more plans for the house in the future in terms or redecorating or remodeling, but for now I want to make it homey.

In the next few weeks, I hope to change Mark's and my website to be more of a blog format so I can add fun posts about married life together.  Until then, I'll try to keep this one more up-to-date.