Distractions

So as the waters start to recede from the Record Setting Flood - YEAH!!! and before we can do anything about cleaning up the mess it left behind there are a few things we are doing to keep us distracted. Like...

Going down to the river to be Looky Lou's at the water for the 10th time.

Princess misses the snow which is why she's still wearing the boots.  That and our family lacks any kind of fashion forward thinking.  Just wear what you can find.

We also visit the Grocery Store - not because we have to - because we were totally stocked up before this happened -  but to watch the food fly from the perishable items shelves.

This is what it looks like less than 48 hours after all roads were closed.

Ya gotta do something to forget that mail, paper, and garbage pick-up won't be coming for yet another week.  So what do you do.

You go to an impromptu Beach Party and eat only summer salads, smoothies, and chips, hosted by other mom's going just as stir-crazy as yourself.

Here's Fancy's daughter and another fashion forward friend.  Only she is fashion forward compared to our herd.

Oh, and since it's the New Year and you've got the cleaning bug and no where to go. You kick out the clutter monster from the Front Room.

Oh, that feels much better.

we wanted to forget the painting mess that contributed to this scene.  And rearranged furniture from different rooms in our home.

Hooray!  I have ONE room in my house totally clutter free.

Now don't get me wrong it's not white glove clean, and I realize that I need to let go of everything Brown.  I'm not that ambitious, just yet. But in this room everything has a place and it takes me no time at all to put things away.  My first Clutter-Free Zone in years. 

I'm on a mad clutter monster purge quest thingy here.  And I'm going to do the best I can while the inspiration to eradicate is so strong.  That and it beats going down to the river for the 11th time.

Good news - we are no longer an island, but to get out of town we would have to take a near 50 mile detour.  Our main road out of town is above water now but has significant damage.

 

I didn't take this picture and the person who did isn't saying who they are just yet so I'll let you know as soon as I find out.  They figure our main road out will be closed through the weekend.  We really don't need to go anywhere so we are staying put.   But pictures like this kind of makes you not want to see the damage done that's still hiding underwater.

More Flood Pictures.

I thought I'd post a couple more before and after flood pictures.  I sure wish my camera would have handled the low light better.  But it was raining both times I took the pictures.

These first ones were taken Wednesday morning before the river left it's banks.

The water in the fields in the first picture is because of the quick snow melt and rain before the river overflowed it's banks.  In the second picture you can get a wee glimpse of the river in the far left of the photo.

These next two pictures were of the same valley just a wider shot about 32 hours after the first pictures were taken.  It flooded a lot quicker than they thought it would.

And this one was taken from my friends neighborhood a bit higher up the same hill.  The water goes clear across our little valley and covers it all.

 

The good news is the river is supposed to crest sometime this evening or overnight.  It's been raining off and on all day.  And tomorrow - DRY!  Yeah!  Saturday brings more spotted showers but the worst will be over.  Most of the flood was probably from the rapid snow melt when the warm rain hit the mountains.

When they saw the water rising so quickly Wednesday they sent all the kids home from school early.  Ours made it home in plenty of time and were not really affected but some students whose families live in the more affected areas are staying with neighbors, friends and even at the local fire station.

It's just amazing and over-whelming to see it first hand and watch how terribly swift the water moves, and realized just how huge this flood is.   The bridge that I took my first pictures from has been closed to foot traffic now and will not be reopened until they can inspect its stability.  But I'm sure it will be fine.  Tomorrow I'll try and get some video footage to show everyone a different perspective.

Thank you for your kind comments.  Our family is completely safe and dry as our home is up on one of the hills.  My husband has been working from home today and will work from home tomorrow as well.  We knew it was coming, as did most people in our area, so we stocked up on supplies and fuel before it hit.  I do however suspect that the shelves at the local grocery store might be depleted fairly quickly by tomorrow.

But keep our community in your prayers for if anyone were to have a medical emergency the only way out is by helicopter or boat.

Flooded!!!

It's bad...  We woke up this morning to learn that our little community became an island overnight.  All roads leading in and out are flooded.  And it will be like that for a few days.  The water is still rising.  Yesterday I drove around and took a couple of quick pictures because I knew it was coming.

24 hours later...

Here is another before shot.  Sorry it's fuzzy -  I took it while driving because traffic wasn't stopped at that point.

Again 24 hours later.

I love this little farm.  It's on the other side of the valley.

Since we are flooded and I can no longer drive over there I had to take a picture of it from my side of the valley.  Yes it's under water.

 

This is a way common site.

That folks is a power line dragging in the flood waters.

      

Keep our area in your prayers.  All told 30,000 people have been evacuated.  We are high enough up that there is no danger for our home, but so many others are affected.  I just heard on the news that it is the highest flood levels (in our valley) since 1932.  It's Bad!

The Blessed Child

I've resolved to not use the word 'freakin' so much this year. Instead I'm replacing it with Blessed pronounced 'Bless-Ed'. You know trying to remind myself constantly that kids are truly a blessing from above no matter what it is they do. Because I usually use the word in conjuction with an action that they've taken.

My Blessed Three Year Old has already Christened our newly painted walls, with her mad artistic skills.

I don't know who got the permanent markers down out of the lock box on top of the fridge.

Oh, it was me. 'Sigh' as I thump my forehead with my palm.

Thank goodness for Magic Eraser and leftover paint.

Whew!

The Blessed Liquid Sunshine ( not the big blinding yellow ball of gas) is back with a vengeance, courtesy of a tropical (50 degrees warm) Pineapple Express direct from the recently flooded islands of Hawaii. Washing away Mr. Snowman in a matter of hours.

The rapid melt along with the downpour will flood our valley sometime tonight or tomorrow. We are high and dry but I'm praying for the farms by the river.

Back to Reality

It’s been a wild and crazy week here. But hey, what week isn’t with 6 kids in 4 different schools, one of those being homeschool. I can’t tell you how nice it was to get away from reality last week. Although it had made for a bucket of cold water in the face coming back into it. It has rained every day since I got home, or maybe I should say drizzled. Thankfully not enough to cause more flooding.

When I first got home I was so excited to be sleeping in my own bed and doing laundry, and telling all my friends about my wonderful week. That lasted all but a day. I think my first let-down was when I was handing out the simple gifts I spent hours (literally) trying to find to bring back to my non-vacation going children. It turns out the really cool gift I got for Abner my oldest I had already given him 6 months earlier when I saw it while we were on our family vacation. O.K. so I have the attention span of a nat. What a winner of a mom this kid has.

Now I’m staring at piles of half completed presents wondering where on earth I’m going to find the time to complete them. Today I’m going to try and keep all my kids clean and happy long enough to take a semi-decent family picture. Cross your fingers for me.
My dear friend came over yesterday and spent three hours helping me decorate for Christmas. She did this after hearing me say that I didn’t really want to decorate and spend the time, because the decorations would only be up for 2 weeks. I’m so glad that she did because seeing the festive decoration while listening to Josh Groban’s new Christmas CD has helped me kind of catch the Christmas Spirit. I’m hoping my inner Grinch can be kept at bay long enough for me to enjoy the rest of the season and not STRESS about it.

I really have nothing to complain about, I have a wonderful, healthy family and a home that isn’t wreaked from flood damage. Last week while I was hot-leading it to get home, by Prince Erik took the boys and a chainsaw out to the coast to help clean up from the storm damage. Nothing and I mean nothing helps you count your wonderful blessing better than helping those less fortunate. The one camera I left home wasn’t working so he didn’t get any pictures. If you want to see some of the damage from the flood, you might want to take a gander at pictures from some of my friends who were there last weekend to help dig out. Go to Kathryn’s blog www.daringyoungmom.com , she is a sister from my ward. I think it will stick with my boys because when I was six I remember my mom going to help with the clean-up of the Teton Dam break in Idaho. I never saw pictures of the damage and I wasn’t there first hand, but I remember her leaving early in the morning and coming back late at night to tell us about it.

Back to reality and Back to laundry.