Just Normal for us...Houston Living

So, we've lived here 7 months now and everyday life is different than we're used to but its becoming our normal.
So whats our normal...well let me explain a few occurrances of just this last week.
#1:
Wednesday night, the 21st - Ran over a 3 foot snake, probably a Western Cotton Mouth. It was thick and big looking. I turned the car around to get a good look at it. Next morning, I took the boys to go see it after dropping Jabren off, then had to take him to see it after school. By then it was just smashed...maybe I'm morbid for checking it out so much but it was huge. For all the near hits with animals I've had since moving here I knew it was inevitable.

For info on it check out: http://www.wf.net/~snake/moccasin.htm

#2:
Friday night, the 23rd- Went to the Houston Miller outdoor theatre - that offers free productions. Our Relief Society went to watch The Golden Dragon Acrobats of China. They were amazing and awesome, just wished the boys could have seen it. Absolutely incredible Here's a preview link if you want to see something amazing-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl8f2B9sVFY&feature=player_embedded.
Thankfully we were under the amphitheatre , because it down-poured. And its was completely free to the public...Houston is a huge supporter of the Arts-love it!

Okay but thats not the only reason for this #2, theres also what we watched happen in traffic on our way there. So, the drive into Houston has tollways, and regular freeways. I went with someone who had ez-tag for the tollways. Some of my friends, who I was going to go with, got stuck in traffic on the beltway.
As we drove above their road we saw tons of cop cars and a lot going on. Next to no traffic was moving and it was seriously backed up. We knew they weren't going to make it anytime soon.

So what was going on? We later found out. An unmarked semi truck was escorted off to the side of the road by the police. By the time our friends came to the scene (1 1/2 hrs after we passed it) the cops were escorting the truck off the main freeway and my friends took the same exit. The police drove to a bunch of coached buses with drivers waiting to drive away with the contents of the truck.
This semi truck was loaded with ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. The buses were there to load them up and send them back to MEXICO!!!

#3 Tuesday morning 28th - No warning except my dad had said something to me on Monday about there being heavy rainstorms coming right over us here. (He flies his airplane around, thus he keeps up on weather status'.)
I told him no rain, just a beautiful day. Well, 3 am Tuesday I awoke to extreme thunder, lightening, and rain. I lay there thinking "Well, now that its here, it'll be over soon". WRONG!!! I layed in my bed awake for almost two hours! (I usually sleep through most anything) An hour of it was intense Boom, rumble, crash, non stop lit up sky. So the other hour: down pour rain, thunder and lightening but at least it didn't feel like a war in heaven was happening over our house! I closed my eyes a lot hoping sleep would take me and it did for about 10 minutes before the little boys woke up just before 5 A.M. and thus our day began....Still rain and lightening, but it wasn't loud anymore.

Okay-here's the thing. Jake sat in traffic for 2 1/2 getting to work, cars were off in ditches. Some intersections in Houston were under 10+ feet of water. Schools closed for the day because teachers were flooded in. This was no simple desert thunderstorm. As water drained from roadways, they found fully submerged vehicles! Everywhere! There were so many lightening strikes they couldn't find where tornado's had hit on the radar even though they have strong evidence they did in area's east of Houston. Is this not crazy? This is insane! Our area was completely fine, and Jabren had school, but the news was full of vehicle recovery, passenger rescue, and homes that had had to rip out all the carpet in their homes because they had so much water. People interviewed on the news claimed the damage was far worse than anything Ike did to their area. Conclusion...at least hurricanes you get a warning time to get outta here!
Click here for a slideshow of the area flooding. http://www.click2houston.com/slideshow/news/19310359/detail.html
Thankfully, I didn't feel panicked. But it didn't even cross our minds to check the news to see if Jake should wait to go to work. It poured 10" during the night. To get perspective, thats about 4 inches away from my Idaho's yearly average-crazy.
So, I'm re-assessing what weather related activity precautions need to be made.
And finally:

#3: Swine Flu Fears:
So its in the news...usually whats in national news hasn't really come close to home for us. Well, our church leaders have been prepping us through church website info and local meetings that we should prepare for pandemics...so I'm thinking I should take more precautions. At the same time I'm thinking to myself "my kids rarely get sick with stuffy noses, colds, coughs or fevers." We'll probably be fine on this one since we haven't been to Mexico anytime recently. Then yesterday Jamesen had a good strong fever. (We haven't had one in so long I couldn't even find my thermometer) He was lethargic, and no appetite. So I'm thinking its just a fever, but "what if its not". So as I awoke in the night last night I start thinking what if its something worse, like swine flu...whats the worst case scenario...but its unlikely to be that so I told myself to chill out.
We've taken good care of him and all day today he's been fine, but as he sleeps right now I know he's not feeling good...maybe we pushed it too much today.
Then, today in Houston, the first US death to Swine flu was confirmed. A two year old boy who visited relatives in Mexico was sent back to Houston for health care.

(Not to mention, if I pulled Jabren out of school for a few days til the health scare calms down I could get fined $300-500 from the district for too many absences, already had a warning since he's missed 8 (2 for Idaho trip, 2 for family visits, and 4 for health related-my goodness, I mean really. This could carry on its own post but I'm not ready to go there....) Maybe they'd make exceptions considering our county has confirmed its first case today.

So there you have it...whats been on my mind, in my life and new world.

Please take this as just a place to unload. I'm not freakin' out or anything, so don't stress out on my behalf, please. It's just a different world, and we're adjusting and thats taking time and wanted to clue in anyone who made it to the end of this long rant on just what our life here is a bit like.