Html of select tag element doesn't reflect it's selected option

I am reordering (I know, un-ordered lists shouldn't have an order, but I wanted to use JQuery UI's sortable and it only worked with a ul) a list, each list item looks like below. The code to sort the list items is also below. My issue is that the selected option for each select tag is lost. Is there a way to move these elements around without losing this information? Do I need to keep track of it in javascript? This would be a pain since there is 3 selects per item.

<ul id="slotHtml"> <li class="energySlot"> <span class="energyHandle"></span> At <select class="startTime"> <option value="0">12:00 AM</option> <option value="23">11:00 PM</option> </select> enter <select class="sleepType" onchange="sleepTypeChange(this)"> <option value="wake"> Wake Up!!! </option> <option value="sleep"> Sleep!!! </option> <option value="deep"> Deep Sleep!!! </option> </select> <span class="inactivitySpan" style="display:none;"> after <!-- this is for sleep --> <select class="sleepAfter" style=""> <option>1</option> <option>3</option> <option>4</option> </select> <!-- this is for deep sleep --> <select class="deepSleepAfter" style="display:none;"> <option>1</option> <option>3</option> <option>5</option> </select> minute(s) of inactivity </span> <a class="energySaveEditorAdd" onclick="AddEnergySlot()">Add</a> <a class="energySaveEditorRemove" onclick="RemoveThisEnergySlot(this)">Remove</a> </li> </ul> 

here is my sorting code (javascript)

function SortSlots() { debugger; var slots = $('#energySlots').children(); var slotTimes = []; // add to map, also build array of the values. var slotMap = new Object(); for (var i = 0; i < slots.length; i++) { var timeVal = parseInt($(slots[i]).find('.startTime').val()); slotMap[timeVal] = $(slots[i]).wrap('<p/>').parent().html(); // wrap/unwrap to get the container in the html $(slots[i]).unwrap(); slotTimes.push(timeVal); } slotTimes.sort(sortNumber); var html = ''; for (var i = 0; i < slotTimes.length; i++) { html += slotMap[slotTimes[i]]; } $('#energySlots').empty(); $('#energySlots').append(html); }