A New Member of Our Family.

For Everette's Birthday he got a turtle. Meet Roadie. (Everette Named him). We are told he is a male turtle and he has been pretty cool. He is pretty active so is pretty fun to watch. Everette loves to sit in front of the aquarium and watch him. He had a great time picking him out at the store and setting his new home up with daddy. He is a red ear slider turtle is suppose to be easy and fun for kids.
A special Thank you to Lisa and Steve Ailshie for all the education and prompting us to getting him. He is a great addition to our house.

What happens when you give a child toooo much sugar?

You get this for about an hour.

A little Helper

I had a helper today as I panted the kitchen. I'm sure he thought he was getting a way with something . You can just tell in the eyes and in that smile. It didn't last very long before it started getting ugly. Paint on the floor, himself and anything within his reach. I couldn't take a picture because I was too busy running after him and then putting him in the tub. He had fun though and that is what matters. Right?

Life is too busy.....

Well we got our bedroom sanded, textured sprayed and painted. Whew. It looks great so now we have moved onto the kitchen walls. Ever wonder why people don't like doing home improvements to the major rooms in their homes? Come visit us and you will see why.

Our new bedroom color.

Everette has come down with a nasty virus this week so operating on little sleep and cluttered house. Emmett loves taking his clothes off. He was pleased as can be when Gigi sent 2 rompers with velcro. He loves striping them off and running around in his diapers. Sorry Gigi but I guess you made them too easy. I can't keep the things on him.

Willy is making progress on the roof. He is getting braver and braver. Also it makes him feel older and older. One side done (well almost) now only 3 more to go.

Disney Vacation

Well our trip to Disney went well. We went with my sister Abby and her 3 kids. It was almost too much for the kids to take in when we first got there on Saturday. We then learned that since we could come and go as we wanted we try to hit the a park in the am and then go back to resort and swim, shower and eat. Than we would go back to another park in the evening. That seemed to work well for us. I would not recommend anyone go when school gets done. Sooooo many people and add that with the heat it just isn't that fun.

Here are some photos of our trip. Everette said his favorite part of the trip was the 'Earth' ride at Epoct and meeting the characters and getting their autographs. He also says to say that building your own light saber and seeing Darth Vador was really cool.

We waited 2 hours in line so the kids could do this.

Everette and his light sabar that was bigger than he is. His cousin Aidan didn't like that he is now related to a Sith.

This is just one of the many Characters we got to see. Of course we had to wait in long lines each time with the Characters taking a break every 15 minutes making the wait longer. We all hoped that Disney paid them well because standing in a big furry costume in 100˚ weather wouldn't be worth it to me.

Follow-up

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and thoughts. The flood waters around Grammy and Papa's have receded substantially. Grammy lost her pride and joy, the garden. Dan's 400 Interceptor engine for the Gran Torino didnt make it out of the "barn", not sure if it will be salvagable. Some drywall will have to come out of the basement. Lots of mud left behind. Alot of people in their community and neighborhood (all around the state actually) werent as fortunate as they were, it will be hard for the town, especially some businesses to recover in many cases.

Here's a cell phone shot of how their street washed out around some culverts, that's why its a bad idea to drive thru water on the road :-)

A good friend from high school, Tom Nettleton, was interviewed on one of the local stations about his family's weekend getaway trailer in Dorchester (Alot of the family has done trout fishing in that area over the years.)
http://kaaltv.com/article/stories/S471913.shtml?cat=10219 (video on rightside)

The Flood

The picture below, Grammy's place is circled. What looks like the main channel of the river near there "below" the circle is not.



Had some flooding in NE Iowa while Emmett and I were up visiting this weekend. While at Uncle Bill's north of New Hampton the deluge started. Saturday night and Sunday morning before his retirement party, water in the basement of his house and nearly isolated by water with bridges out on either side.

Returning to Grammy and Papa's in Greene after the party Sunday night to find flood waters as high as we'd ever seen them. So high that an evacuation of their part of town was announced that night, we decided we didnt want to stay in at the high school that night so after several attempts we finally found a round about way to the interstate highway and back to Stratford arriving there at 1:00 am today. Slept a few hours then made another round about way back to Greene assess the damage. Neighbors next door Grammy's house with flooded basements and three houses down with at least lower levels under water, but Grammy's house was still dry. Stayed that way thru the morning and early afternoon with waters behind the house receeding, but at 3 pm water began bubbling up thru the basement floor.

There are two levels in the basement, one level being a foot lower then the other and the lower level is where the water was coming up, of course the furance, waterheater and chest freezer are on that side, as of 7pm when Emmett and I left the water never rose above probably a half inch due to our bailing and shop-vaccing, we also got the freezer moved. The furance sits brick pads about 4 inches off the floor, so our goal was keeping the water from getting that high.

Grammy's house still has electrical service, water, sewerage (as of this evening) but the natural gas has been shut off (probably days before its back) and no phone service.

With Nan and Ev enjoying themselves at Disney World right now, Emmett and I have come back to our quiet house in Stratford where hot water was enjoyed by the both of us. I'm sure I'll be back to Greene again tomorrow after work, as long as Grammy and Papa can maintain, Emmett will get to spend the day with Aunt Amy and Cousin Emma.

• Here a link to some of my cell phone photos.
  
  
• Pics from the local paper website.

I brought the laptop and iSight camera to Greene and got a bit of footage, not bad for a webcam. (Nan has the good camera at Disney.)

Taking care of his brother....

Everette decided he wanted to show his brother how to brush his teeth. So he picked him up and carried him to he bathroom and this is what followed.



What a good big brother. The amazing thing is that Emmett let him do it all without a fight.

Everybody tells me I need a girl.....

Well after this I might have to agree. I sat down to paint my toe nails when the two boys decided they had to get in the act too. First Everette really wanted put the toe things on and then paint his. dad teased him but Everette decided that it would be ok if it was a boy color and if it was on his toes. If it was on his toes then people wouldn't be able to see them. So we found blue and green and he did it himself. As I am typing this he is begging me not to send this picture (the evidence) to anyone.
Mini then decided he wasn't going to be left out. He screamed until I put him on my lap and painted his too.

Can you see those little nubbins of toes in there.

Here we are with all our pretty pretty nails.

Through the eyes of a child, how he sees it.....

enough said....

Whats in store for our weekend?

Well try not to be jealous but it is ROOFING! Will has been putting his aging body to the limits and climbing up and down. I tried to help by carrying shingles up to him but couldn't get a bundle up on my shoulder. I have to carry half a bundle at a time. I guess his body isn't the only aging one around here. It is really steep so I am not allowed up there since I am not very graceful. I am not very good at being careful as Everette would put it.

I will keep everyone posted on his progress. Hopefully he can get up in the mornings. This morning was a little tough for him. Poor guy.

Someone new in the house for mini to yell at!

Update on Cat

This weekend we had a party here for Papa Beach and well he got held pretty much all day by people and fed a lot. So now we decided since he isn't leaving we would get some flea stuff for him since he will be an outside cat and the kids will be petting and holding him. Still hope??? He hasn't been named YET!

New resident on our back step

This little kitty has adopted our steps as his new home. Emmett loves it of course. Looks for him every morning after breakfast sit meows at him. The silly cat lets mini do anything to him. He is still small and skinny and every day I think I feel more sorry for him. Today I gave him a piece of peanut-butter cookie, A very small piece. He chowed that so I gave him saltines and water. I know, now he is never leaving. I am too soft hearted I guess.

Life just doesn't slow down!

WE LOVE CHEESE STICKS AND POPSICLES!

NEW RUBBER BOOTS FOR RAINY DAYS!

After a week in Texas visiting my sister we came home and Emmett got sick. We ended up having to spend the night in the hospital with him for dehydration. It was ok when he was sick but once he started feeling better it was hard to keep him down. He earned the nickname Houdini since he was able to pull out his first IV when the nurses said they were used to it and they would make it so he couldn't. He did, so they ended up putting his arm in like a cast with a splint to keep him from pulling out the second IV. Even then he would keep pulling at the tape stuff they wrapped it all in. Getting blood from him was a challenge also. It took 2 people to actually get it. We are home now and you can tell he is feeling better. He is back to his feisty self. The little man did end up loosing 4 pounds which is a big deal since he is underweight as it is. the boy is 18 months and now only weighs 18 pounds.

Everette is doing great in school (academic wise). I am amazed what they learn in Kindergarten these days. He can read and write already and doing a little math. We taught him how to tie his shoes which he is so proud of. Now if we can just get him to listen to his teachers and cooperate we will be all set. At least his visits to the principles office have decreased. He was a hoot when Emmett was sick. He was so afraid that Emmett was going to throw up on him. I don't think I have ever seen someone disappear so fast before. He wouldn't even go near Emmett. Even now he still is very cautious. That boy will never be a doctor that is for sure.

The house has very little progress done on it. We added a few more sheets of drywall and mudded but that is about it. Hopefully this summer we can make more progress.

New Camera!

Well we got a new camera. Thanks to selling our old broken cameras on Ebay we were able to get a new one. Isn 't Ebay wonderful. Here are some latest of the boys.

What a day!!!

Well I had to share my day with everybody. I am sure I can provide everyone with some comic relief.
It started out yesterday actually. Mini (AKA Emmett) came down with a fever of 104˚ about 7am. He was up most of the night so I start my day with little sleep. Woke this morning with mini still having the fever so called doctor and said to bring him in. I try to get Everette off to school only to be 5 minutes late and the principle meeting me at the door. I should have gotten the hint then that today was not going to be my best day. So off we head to Ames to the doctors when on my way a truck passed me in the on coming lane and threw up a very large rock hitting my windshield. Scared me half to death. So much I had to pull over and collect myself. The truck had pulled off on a dirt road and disappeared. I didn't notice any company markings but did see his load was uncovered. My nerves were a little unsettled to say the least. I pulled back on the road and continued on my way when I went over rail road tracks and the crack proceeded to spread to the end of the glass which made me nervous. I thought for sure I was going to be wearing my windshield at any moment. Thank goodness Will got out of his meeting and calmed me down and told me what to do. He also reassured me that I would be wearing my windshield either. He is so patient. On the outside there is also a chunk of glass missing and dirt lodged in where the rock actually hit. And no of course our insurance does not cover it so another thing out of our pocket. Gotta love our insurance company.


We then proceeded onto the doctor's office to see what is wrong with mini. After giving blood and waiting for results we came out with the result of a viral infection and we have to let it run its course.

I go to the school to pick up Everette and he comes out with bare feet. Snow-pants and coat but nothing on his feet. Yes, you read correctly. BARE FEET!! I turned him around and marched him back in to find his substitute teacher. She says "Oh I didn't notice." I said, "How in the world could you not notice? It is winter out!" she just gathered up her purse and proceeded to leave. Meanwhile he is carry his lunch box which is oozing red juice from lunch. Leaving a trail every where he walks. I go in the room to find out he was wearing boots from the office because he couldn't find his. Where were his boots? Hanging in his cubby. He proceeded to tell me that he has not been wearing any socks or shoes since last recesses. Not sure when last recess was but in his backpack he has extra socks and shoes. So to wrap up he has at school, three pairs of shoes (counting PE shoes) 2 pairs of socks, extra hat and mittens. He still manages to come out with bare feet in the winter in Iowa. Oh did I mention? I never did find a sock. I did find one sock in his lunch box. WHO KNOWS!!

Now to top this wonderful day off I think I got food poisoned from a KFC snack wrap I had for a quick lunch. As I sit here typing I am very sick to my stomach and feel like I am about to die.

The night is still young so anything can happen yet........

Whats been happening?

Well this weekend was a learning experience for us. When you live in Iowa and when you get -40˚ (with wind-chill) you should insulate ALL pipes. Due to freezing upstairs bathroom pipes, We had to take down a wall in the kitchen and insulate those pipes. We tried not to grumble too much while we did it. Time will tell if that will be doing the trick or not. I went out and bought the more expensive rubber foam to wrap the pipes in. I will be darned if we are going to take that wall down a third time. On the positive side of that I am getting pretty darn good at mudding drywall. I must say my corners are getting pretty good. I can not show you because I broke our camera so you will have to take my word for it.

I also have been cleaning and organizing the basement in preparing a little office for my new business adventure I am taking on, craftynan.com. It isn't quite ready yet but I will attempt to sell some of my projects I make. We thought why not try to do something I love to do. Be crafty. Where did crafty nan came from? Well a lot of my friends always would say, that is so crafty or you are so crafty.

Once we get our camera in working order I will start posting pictures again. Greetings from frigid Iowa, where the temp. is currently 3˚. Try not to be so jealous.

Upstairs Bathroom Update

Sure is nice not to have to go all the way down stairs in the middle of the night to go poddy.

Misbehaving

After shoving things down holes (any hole he can find) I asked him what he was doing and this was the response.