Baby, It's Cold Outside

Houston has seen some very uncharacteristically cold weather this winter. This weekend wasn't just cold- it was literally freezing! Highs in the low 30's and wind-chills in the teens. We just aren't prepared for that.

Apparently, neither is our house.

Coming home from Seminary, I noticed some water collecting in the street in front of our house. Small rivulets of water were streaming from the little patch of grass between the sidewalk and the road.

Jason was staying home from work because he finally admitted that he had a cold. We called the plumber, who confirmed Jason's suspicions that the freeze broke one of our pipes. He gave us two options... #1- Pay a lot of money to dig around our yard to try to "find" the broken pipe, then replace it. #2- Pay a lot of money to replace the "rotten, stinky, cheap" PVC with copper and not even worry about finding the leak. The plumber was voting for option #2. He told us he would return the next day with an estimate.

For those of you who know my amazing husband at all, spending 24 hours stewing about how big an expense this would be is enough to drive him completely batty. On Saturday morning- despite continued freezing temps AND his cold- he decided to start digging "just to see" if he could locate the leak himself. He called a member of our ward who liberally offered advice and a specialized shovel. And then Jay got to work.

Our neighbors drove by and asked what happened. A few minutes later, she and her husband came back and started digging along side my husband. She works with lawn irrigation systems and really knew her stuff. She called her brother for assistance and eventually the leak was found and they determined it was coming from under the sidewalk, just above the manhole cover. While Jason was ready for a sledge-hammer, Tori knew more sensible ways of working around that problem.

Tori and her brother, Adam, made quick work of circumventing the leak with $20 worth of supplies from Home Depot. They filled in the new holes, and while our front yard won't win any beauty prizes, WE GOT NO MORE LEAKS!

Our neighbors- Tori and Nelson- were (are) amazing. They spent their entire Saturday afternoon helping us out. They refused any payment and wouldn't even let us buy them pizza. They epitomize the Savior's teachings,"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

I have to say that my husband is amazing too. Gordon B. Hinckley once said, "Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work." Jason said that he had prayed and prayed that there was some way to fix the repair, but not have to pay massive amounts of money. I'm the type of person who would pray like that, then wait around for a miracle to appear. My husband has the faith to make his own miracle. The miracle was that the right people were home and available to help and that the leak was "easily" found. I know there are others in our ward and area that were much harder hit by this freeze. I'm just grateful for my blessings.

The weather is starting to warm up now. It's good to see sunshine again. But it doesn't replace the sunshine and warmth in my heart.