Thursday Update

Yeah, this is my Friday. I have tomorrow off to go up to Eldora and help Thomas and Diedre with their new home. I can't wait to see the house. I just hope we will get some alone time with Thomas. I love small towns and it will be nice to get away for a day and also see what Eldora looks like. Yesterday Doug bought a new bed for Thomas and Diedre. Tonight Mark and Wanda are going to help us haul it home. After that we are all going out to eat.

Today is the last day we can work from Mt Mercy. We still have not found an alternate location and it looks like we won't be able to go back downtown until the 18th. They are looking at Highway Equipment out by the airport and if that doesn't work out a place in North Liberty. I'm not too thrilled about either place.

Sunday Update

I am sore today because yesterday I trimmed the evergreens out front and also cleaned the gutters. Up and down the ladder too many times. Today I need to fertilize the garden and do some clean up in the basement. I'm not looking forward to cleaning the basement. But, it needs to be done. Mao has been very confused ever since Tommy brought some of his things up from the basement. Every night before going to bed, he has to take me to look in both rooms at the boxes. What a silly little cat.

Thursday Update

Tommy is coming home today. I can't wait to see him. The only boxes I have are rather big and his books that I have been packing are very heavy. I hope he doesn't mind too much.

It looks like our next temporary work place will be on the edge of Marion at Involta. It is off of Hwy 13 a few miles north of Walmart. Those of us living in Marion are happy about it. The rest of my co-workers have been complaining so much that our supervisor had to send an email stating there would be no more complaining as the move was not going to be for that long.

Tuesday Update

Chloe paid us a visit yesterday afternoon and stayed the night. I'm so glad I was able to see her for a little bit. We didn't do much last night. Salad with chicken strips for supper. After supper I washed dishes. Then at 9 we watched The Mole. I think Craig is the Mole. Hopefully it won't rain today and the temp stays down, because I need to mow the lawn. It was just too hot this past weekend. Random thoughts coming out again. That is all.

Monday Update

It was a very good weekend, although too short as usual. It also rained too much and now we have water in the basement again....

Friday night we watched a movie "in Bruges". I really enjoyed it. Saturday morning I planted some flowers I bought at the Hy Vee garden center. They were marking down everything during the last week of the garden center. I bought some wave petunias and two different colors of small carnations (yellow and pink).

Saturday afternoon I went over to my Dad's to get the boxes for Thomas and Diedre. It took three hours, because everything with my Dad takes forever. He wasn't sure what he wanted to unpack and he left a lot packed. Mostly because Elsa has way more ugly pillows, blankets and sheets than the two of them will ever need. What took the most time was getting rid of all the bubble wrap, paper and styrofoam peanuts that was inside every box.

Sunday was great because Thomas and Diedre came over at about 2:30 and stayed for supper. The Mongolian beef turned out very well. It was way too hot outside, so we ended up cooking everything inside. Diedre also enjoyed the key lime pie. We had a good group; Doug, myself, Thomas Diedre, Jamie, Hunter and Johnny. Mark and Wanda didn't get back from Florida until around 7:30, so they did not show up. Everyone was gone by 8, so the rest of the night was pretty quiet. It was a good thing, because Doug was not feeling too well again. He relaxed and I washed all the dished from supper.

The rain just never stops this year. It is raining again right now. I hope it is done before I have to take the trash out. Well that is all for this update. Have a wonderful Monday everyone.

Saturday Update

Not much going on here. Yesterday Doug gave me a scare. I called at lunch as usual and he told me his back was really hurting. He was lying on the floor trying to find a comfortable position. Later when I called back he said he had passed kidney stones and his back was better. Although he did have a restless night and I think he my not be finished passing the stones. I hope he gets back to feeling better soon.

This afternoon I will be going over to my Dad's to help unpack more of their boxes from the move over a year ago. The empty boxes will go to Thomas and Diedre for their move. Fun times.

This morning I fed Mao and went back to bed. A little while later he was meowing like crazy. When I finally got up again, I went to the basement and found out what he was trying to tell us. There was water in the basement again and he would have gotten his feet wet on the way to his litter box. He was very relieved when I moved it to the landing.

Friday Update

Yeah, it's Friday!! Happy three day weekend Thomas!

I don't have much to update about. It rained very hard for a while last night. I had started watering Wanda's garden before I found out it was going to rain. At least I didn't have to water mine. By the time I got home I had received a warning from Thomas about the rain, plus the sky was looking very ugly.

Other than going to work, this has been a very lazy week for me. With the central air broken you don't really feel like doing much. I do have to contact my Dad to get some more moving boxes for Diedre and Thomas. If he hasn't already cleaned his gutters, I will probably be asked to help with that. Plus, I will probably have to help unpack some of the boxes he has in the basement. Sounds like fun doesn't it.

Monday Update

The birthday party was a huge success. Lots of Chloe's friends showed up. Jamie, Justin, Johnny and Hunter also showed up. Almost everyone ate the turkey burgers, which really surprised me. I think they were surprised how much they liked them as well. After eating, everyone watched Chloe open her birthday gifts. Chloe was very excited and happy with everything. Then we sat on the patio and talked until dark. We had a fire and Ross brought the makings for S'mores. We ended up talking on the patio until almost midnight. I was so glad I did not have to go to work today. Chloe said it was her best birthday ever.

Happy 20th Bobo!!

Saturday Update

I can't wait to give Chloe her birthday gifts. I think she is going to love them. I wrapped all but one gift yesterday. We are still waiting on something for the main gift. Hopefully it will come today. Otherwise we will have to wrap it anyway and give that part later.

This morning I am cleaning Thumper's tank so I can start using the new filter we bought for him. I hope it helps keep the tank clean. I wanted a canister filter, but they are just too expensive. This one will go inside the tank and work in as little as 2 inches of water.

If the weather permits I will try the new mower and see how I like it. Funny thing is we probably did not need to buy it, because after we got home from Sears Doug figured out what was wrong with the old one. Oh well, Tommy and Diedre needed a mower anyway. Now if we could just get the air conditioner guy over here to take a look at our air conditioner we would be doing well. Hope it doesn't get too hot and humid today. Chloe might have to sleep on a couch in the cooler part of the house.

Friday Update

I have a 4 day weekend in honor of Bobo's 20th birthday weekend. I still need to get wrapping paper to wrap the gifts. Too bad it is so hot. I have things I would like to be doing out side. We are going to take the mower in to Sears this afternoon to see if they will fix it since it is a Craftsman. It would be nice to have it running good again. Or better yet to get a new one.

Sunday Update

This has been a very quick 3 day weekend. Friday I weeded the garden and we had some excellent stuffed chicken grillers. Then we went to the Jordan family reunion to shoot off fireworks. It was fun. Yesterday I was lazy all morning. In the afternoon I went to Sam's and Walmart. I then went over to visit with my Dad and Ilse for a while. I told Doug they really need to come up with some new stories. After I left their house, I went to Hy Vee Drug and bought 4 plans for $0.27. I planted the green stripe tomato and tomatillos in the garden. I still have 2 pansies that I need to find someplace to plant. Today I plan to mow the yard. Exciting!

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!

Thursday Update

Yesterday at work I was getting ready to leave and it started to down pour, so I thought I will wait a little bit before I leave. Then while I was waiting the sirens went off. They never actually told us what to do in this case, except go to the tunnels. We were never told where the tunnels were. I thought well I can just go to the ground floor hallway. When I got downstairs the rain had let up and a bunch of women were trying to figure out what to do, they were not told what to do either. I decided to just go after talking with Doug. Not much chance of a tornado hitting Mt Mercy anyway.

Today we get to leave at 3:00 for the holiday, yeah! I hope today goes fast. Not sure what we are doing for the 4th. Not many people will be around. Everyone is either working or has other plans.

Monday Update

This weekend went very fast. Yesterday was fun though. We celebrated Deb and Matt's birthdays. Deb brought her sister Katie and her sister's new baby, Levi, along. Hunter also showed up again. I guess he likes the food and conversation. The riblets were excellent and so was all the other food. After eating and talking for a while we went outside and had a fire in the pit.

This will be a short work week due to the 4th on Friday. With the strange weather and the recent flooding, it just doesn't seem like it should be the 4th already. This week and part of next, I will be in charge of picking up the mail for my company. That means an extended lunch for me. I have to drive from Mt Mercy to the Hy Vee Drug on Mt Vernon Rd. I had to ask Doug to make a business card for me to use when picking up the mail. He did a very nice job on it and I think it looks better than the one my supervisor has.

That's all I have for now. Have a good week everyone.

Sunday Update

The internet is working just fine for me know. Yeah!!

I slept in this morning until almost 8. Guess I was tired from all the OT last week and then going out with Mark & Wanda last night. The food at Hamburger Mary's is very good and you get a lot for the money. Who knew you would get such a big plate of Chili Cheese Fries for $2.99. And they said Mary's Handbag was just a little sampler. Sorry, that was a meal for two. Fried Twinkies are not my favorite, but the raspberry sauce was very good. It was fun watching Gayla perform on stage.

Today we celebrate Matt's 18th birthday. That means I need to get going. I am making the birthday cake and potato salad. I am just glad the weather will be cool for the next few days. With the air conditioner broken, it may have gotten rather hot in here with the oven on.

Friday Update

It figures, my only way into College is having my work relocated to one. I like the room we are in, however, the Internet phone is not ideal. It is hard to hear most callers and sometimes they have trouble hearing me. Most people are understanding that we are not running 100%. Others don't care if we were flooded and get very verbal about it. So, it is business as usual.

The cable man came to fix our connection problems to the internet yesterday. He gave us a new modem and it was working faster than ever. Just my luck I connected just long enough to login to hotmail and my blog and then the connection failed. It says connected, but pages won't load and it keeps saying connection was reset. I'm not as impressed as Doug was yesterday. Aaargh.

Trash from Theater Cedar Rapids.
Trash piled up along First Ave. NW.
Trash near the Asian Market on First Ave. NW.
Time Check Park.

Displaced garage.

A&W during the flood of 2008.
A&W during clean-up after the flood of 2008.
A&W during clean-up after the flood of 2008.

House at 319 5th Street NW where the kids and I used to live.
Notice the water line is even with the porch railing. This house had the yellow notice.
House at 330 G Ave. NW where I lived for 13 years, 7 of which I had kids.
The 2nd story which was not touched by the flood was unlivable
when we lived there. This one has the pink notice.
I don't remember the house number for this one. It is on 5th Street NW 1 block from Timecheck. It was given the yellow notice. We lived here for about 1 year before moving to the other house on 5th Street.