Happy Belated Father's Day

Happy Belated Father's Day to you all out there! What a crazy time up here... water, water everywhere! Today is supposed to be high and dry, and I think we will go a little nuts not having the constant sound of rain droplets and thunder in the background... wait, scratch that... it will be great! As long as we aren't without rain for a month... in about two weeks, I say that it can rain an inch every 4 to 5 days... I nice easy inch, at night, and make it on Sunday or Thursday evenings... =) Not picky at all, am I =)

Well, so we have a ton of water here... and I heard today from my cuz in St. Louis that they are saying the damage could be in the billions! UGH! But it will keep us all very busy, and maybe it will teach us that we cannot control Mother Nature... I also found out that IA used to have tons of wetlands in the state, and one 4 acre stretch of wetland can contain over 5 million gallons of water! That is a lot of water... so I'm thinking we need to take some of this into perspective and maybe put in some wetland areas around rivers and streams... a farmer over by Mom and Dad's put in a wetland area near his farm's river because he was always getting flooded, and it has done the job... not every time when we have a TON of water, but most times, and if there were a few more up river, he wouldn't even have to worry about when there is a TON of water... something to think about and possibly act upon...

Another note, Adam had to move all his stuff from his basement room in Iowa City, and they did start to move some stuff out, but he was able to start putting his room back together on Sunday because they were told the river had crested and they were not in the danger once thought... very lucky... although he is still young and doesn't have a family and a whole house of belongings yet... I feel terrible for the people that have lost it all, but they are alive, and we can make a come back, and they will have a lot of support... watch, we will bounce back, stronger then ever, there isn't any other option... there will be the whiners and nay-sayers, but they will definitely be drowned out all the hardwork and determination that the majority of us have... We can do it! =) And maybe we even will get to have a dry basement in the next week or so... we are supposed to have at least a week's worth of dry weather! Yeah! I believe we will be going to Cedar Rapids and Iowa City in the next month of so to lend a hand with all the clean up... every little bit helps... maybe we can get some friends together from the area and head down there together! Let us know if you want to go...

Lets see... besides the water what is new? Ash is with us this whole week! Very cool! We love having her with us... today, we went for a walk, after having a little family meeting on what we are going to accomplish, what we would like to do, goals and expectations on the week, it was a good meeting... then we went on a "buggy" ride - Trent loves to say "Buggy Ride!" - and it turned into an off-road hike! =) Very cool! We are planning on taking another one early tomorrow morning before everyone has to run one way or the other for work and Grandma Donna's and dogs... but we are going to take the camera because there are some awesome shots of waterfalls and such (little, little ones, but still cool), so I'll try to post some tomorrow or Wednesday... but right now, I need to get a few more items checked off my list and get lunch on the table... so talk to you all later!

Cheers!