Rambling Post

I have quite a bit to talk about, so I think I'll just ramble for awhile on various topics I've been meaning to post about. We took a trip to Illinois last weekend, have been keeping up with the flooding problems in Wisconsin, and had VBS this week. I'll probably intermix all of these topics as I ramble. :)

Last Friday, we took off for Illinois mainly so I could throw my sister a baby shower with the assistance of my mother, my mother-in-law, and Mandy's friend. We also visited with lots of family at the same time. We were interested to see how we would get to I-90/I-39, since there was lots of flooding on Hwy 26, our route to get there. Before we left, we were told to drive around Watertown for abit. Oh my, was that worth the extra minutes! We drove out to Riverside Park and saw that the island we love to run around on was covered with water. I'm surprised we could even drive across the bridge as the water was just underneath of it. I guess they've been pulling large debris out of the river for the past two weeks to keep the bridges from being swept away, and that's in Watertown and in Jefferson, the city affected worst by the flooding in our county (which has been declared a disaster area.) Some people have been forced from their homes here in town and just five blocks down from us, people have their homes sandbagged. In fact, we looked down a short side street while we were walking and saw the river up close and personal!

Anyway, we are very thankful that we've had no damage to our home or water in the basement. We must live high enough up on the hill to not be affected. We did have a nice sinkhole in front of our driveway for a few days before the city came to fill it up. We weren't impatient about it. I mean, after all, people are out of their homes! We can handle a little hole in the road!

We took off and soon found ourselves in Jefferson. At first, we thought that we could get through and maybe the river had gone down. WRONG!! We were routed to a different street and saw all of the crazy flooding along the way, including people's houses surrounded by water. The bridge we crossed was almost flooded over and the park we passed was sandbagged, with water already spilling over the bags. We later saw an aerial shot of Hwy 26...completely underwater. And it's worse now b/c we couldn't even go through Jefferson on our return trip!

Once we got around Jefferson, it was smooth sailing. Okay, well, the road was clear anyway. Travelling with three children under four was no picnic, but I haven't had nightmares, so it wasn't all bad. The boys barely slept, but at least Anna did. I did have to run her into the house and bypass grandparents b/c she had a dirty diaper and was screaming for 20 minutes before we got there. After a change and a bottle, she was better. She was crankier than usual that night, but not bad. Her crankiest day is like one of my good days....

We had a nice time visiting with Rob's family both Friday evening and Saturday morning. His aunt and uncle from Florida were visiting and that's always a nice visit. We also got to see Jamie, our nephew, who is getting big way too fast. I'm sure everyone thought that about Anna as well. Babies just need to slow down!

My mom came to pick me up to take me to the shower while the guys went to visit Rob's grandparents. I heard they were extra naughty while they visited. Note to Great-Grandpa: Spray the house with obedient spray before they visit next!! If I found out where they sell the stuff, I'll let you know :) We got to the church and got set up with time to spare. There were less people than we expected, but we had a nice time. Mandy got lots of great stuff and has pretty much all of her big items taken care of. She had another shower today and has one next week, so she should be all set for baby Makenzie Leigh (Kenzie for short).

While I was at the shower, the guys went to the Make-A-Mess fun center and, well, made a mess! My brother Joel, father-in-law, and bro-in-law Chris went along, so Rob had plenty of help watching the boys. They had a great time.

We finished our trip spending the night with my parents and took Dad out for a Father's Day breakfast the next day. It was at this point that I realized I had done nothing for Rob. I still haven't made him a card. I did buy him cupcakes from Wal-Mart with Dad stuff on them last night (love that bakery bargain cart!) but that's it. Poor guy....he really deserves better but he won't let me spend money on him. Time to get creative...

Anyway, the drive back was better, as the boys were more subdued. We had to detour way out of our way to get back, but got to see why I-94 has been closed down. The river was threatening a bridge and they still don't have one side open yet. There is a crossover so traffic can flow in both directions, but it's very slow. Part of the detour includes going through Watertown, which is stupid, because we have a bridge torn out for constuction and half of a major road in closed down until November for construction. Needless to say, traffic around here can get ridiculous at times.

We did make it home with plenty of time to spare to get Matthew to VBS. (see previous post for that blunder.) He had a great time this week, although it was a bit of a challenge to cart him back and forth (especially when Rob forgot to leave us the car on Monday). Having three kids in tow is not fun, but it's worth it for Matthew to hear God's Word. He loved it and came home telling us the Bible stories and all about the missions room. (Did you know there is a BIG WALL in China?) We've also been working on the reading program at the library. Matthew has finished all three levels now and gets to go to a pool party in August. We're doing the family program as well. I'll talk more about that later.

Otherwise, we've had a nice week, although Rob has worked odder hours b/c his supervisor has been sick all week. He did get to come home early on Friday, so that was nice! We had a great, relaxing Saturday, including our walk to the post office and bakery, so we're happy Litwillers. We had a "Hooray for being a Litwiller" party tonight. We had homemade pizza, brownies, and played Wii. Rob and I also told both boys what we liked about them and why we're happy they are Litwillers. It was fun and I think we'll do it again!

Ta-ta!