Here is a letter from my Dad, he has been keeping us updated on what’s going on: Hi everyone,First of all, thank you all for your thoughts and prayers on our behalf.Our family and home are fine but I have many friends who are still displaced and some I know have lost their homes. This is a huge disaster for our area. So many people have been displaced and many have lost everything. We are thankful however, that there has been so little loss of life. That is in part to the aggressive evacuations that have been instituted as a lesson they learned from the wildfires three short years ago.We have taken families into our home who have been evacuated to stay with us. The evacuation command came to about a block from our home so we were watching things carefully. We were packed and ready to roll if needed. Merrilee has been busy running the evacuation shelter for our city. We have had several hundred people staying there and the generous outpouring of donations and service has been outstanding. Their generosity and service would make SAP proud!I was asked to go out with the city Engineer to photograph all the homes and property that was destroyed in our city as documentation for FEMA. After a full day, we are only about half done with the ~100 homes that were destroyed in Poway. It is so incredibly sad to see all these homes reduced to ruin. It really makes you think about what is important in life and how you need to always be prepared, like the Scout motto says… We’ll be back at it today.This is a terribly weird way to meet and get close to your neighbors, but I must say I have made a lot of new friends this week. Anyway, we will get through this and rebuild like we did three years ago. It will take time, but we will heal.LAF. That is my new acronym. It means “Life After the Fires”… We still have lots going on. I am planning a Scout service project on Saturday. We are trying to get materials and make as many “sifters” as we can. Then we will distribute them and help people wherever we can to clean up and search for any trasures that might have survived… Here is a photo of the sifter we will be building. I am not sure how many we can make. Maybe 100. It would be awesome if we could make one for every family. We have put the word out to other Stakes for materials and volunteers to help too.

I just recently started hearing about fires in San Diego. Just four years ago was when we had the huge cedar fires that almost burned P-town to a crisp.. The current fire was headed northwest of Poway, so it wasn’t really a threat. Then the winds did a 180 (winds were at 60 mph… now around 20-30) and are now pushing the fire straight towards Poway.

My hubby is fighting the fire as we speak & said it is getting really gnarly. If I lived anywhere near there I would get out ASAP!! The wind is way too crazy! Be safe, please people!!!      

It is expected to hit the border at 5 am in the morning. My mom who is on the city council, was speaking tonight and is taking the next flight home. During the cedar fires she headed the evacuation center and I spent most of my time helping out. I wish I was back home so I could help out again! Tomorrow will be the 4 year anniversary of the Cedar Fires, and I can’t help but think that this may be the work of some crazy guy.. But there is a rumor that some downed power lines could have sparked it. Please pray for those who are evacuating!

Well I have been meaning to write a post on Poway for a while… Not many people know about it, but they should! I moved to Poway (P-Town) when I was about 1 year old. I was born in San Jose, CA and I can’t remember the reason we moved, but I’m glad we did! We lived in the same house the whole time, and it was probably the best house to grow up in. We had a great neighborhood, a big pool, and a huge hill to fly down in a red wagon. Most of the time we had a dog named Maggie; she is a Beagle, and lived for about 15 years (I think). My one favorite memory of Maggie (although I was pissed off then) was when I was riding around our backyard on my new go-kart and I was eating my delicious pizza. Maggie then jumped over me, and in the process, grabbed my pizza out of my hands. She was REALLY smart and figured out like 20 ways to get into our pantry. I was very involved in Boy Scouts and went on MANY campouts. I made some really good friends growing up, mainly Taran Sorensen, Ryan Thompson, and Jordan Hier. We were all in the same ward together so we pretty much grew up together. I went to Pomerado Elementary, Meadowbrook Middle School (also known as ghettobrook : ) and Poway High School. I had lots of fun in middle school but REALLY enjoyed high school. We had a diverse culture, and Poway High was known for it’s beautiful ladies. Poway is only about 15 mins (via the 56) from the beach, so it was always cool to run over to the beach and grab some in n out after. It is in North County San Diego, but we have our own mayor and city council (which my mom is on currently). Poway is a “tree city” which means you have to have a certain number of trees in your city. It has great stores and restaurants, as well as plenty of off-roading and racing spots : ). One thing I would love is to raise my kids in Poway. It is mainly republican and has lots of LDS people so I feel like its a really good environment. This means I need to make alot of money when I grow up, which I am fine with. Hopefully house prices will go down…