So, I guess that we aren't going to celebrate mom & lisa's birthday the 4th of July weekend? I know that some of us are going to Cresco mid July and I also know that Justin & Lisa aren't able to attend because they have their annual mud volleyball tournament. So, do we just want to celebrate Lisa's birthday then? Another question that I have is what everyone would like to do on the 4th? Lisa and I had briefly discussed going to Winnebago in the morning to see the parade and then Lexi could plays some games at the festival....we also discussed maybe grilling brats andhamburgers? Then we could watch the fireworks down on the river at the end of my street. But we need everyone's input in this.....

The news with my face

I had a root canal done today at the University of Minnesota. They originally thought they were going to do 3 but they only ended up doing 1. One root canal is expensive enough! I am still in a lot of pain and haven't gotten any good sleep yet. I hope that will change. I am guessing that unless a miracle happens I will be missing another day of work. I was so glad to have Gina today. She took great care of me. I have been running a fever of 100 to 102 for the past 2 days, which the doctor expected. I am exhausted and have only consumed about 2 meals in the past 3 days. That is getting pretty old. Your prayers are appreciated. I need to get to feeling better so I can get up to the house and take care of some stuff. Talk to you all later.

The Great Outdoors

Well, camp starts tomorrow...and we're supposed to have strong thunderstorms. I know numbers are down across the weeks so pray that more campers will come. We have enough counselors for all the cabins and almost enough CITers for each cabin as well. Joan is off to Puerto Rico and told me to feel free to make any executive decisions I felt that I needed to do. I even convinced her that it is time to reduce the number of walk and talks campers have to do to get a nature patch to two as we are down to a six day camp and are losing free time hours. The theme this year is The Great Outdoors and the verse is Luke 2:52...The idea is GROW GREEN from the green page of the wordless book. Jim Callahan, our speaker, is doing a Compass theme with "LOST and FOUND" as his title...We're doing a LumberJane theme and have been creating the fair that all weeks are now doing...We also decorated the dining hall by painting the windows and making some log cabiny things to hang on the walls...with a faux stone "paper" chimney for the fireplace. Anyways, I leave tomorrow so pray for the ministry. It will be an interesting summer with all the changes. See you at Aiden's party!

Oh, by the way...the insurance company has no record of receiving a letter from the hospital seeking approval for the surgery...Now I am waiting for the doctors to send it again and follow through.

:o)

Cresco, Iowa, and Noah's Ark

As many of you have heard on the news, the rain came down and the floods went up in Iowa for the last week or so. It's unlike anything we've ever seen. We had about 3 inches in the basement Sunday, it was coming in between the concrete bricks and around the foundation. The drain in the floor couldn't keep up. Dean's dad came and helped us put the washer, dryer, and freezer on pallettes after we moved most of the stuff we store in the basement upstairs or outside. We threw out some stuff and then went to the laundromat to wash our clothes after we borrowed a pump from Barb and Al ( I work for Barb). You cannot purchase bleach, buckets, squeegees, or fans in Cresco...forget about finding a pump in Iowa anytime soon. The early estimate on corn and crop loss in our county is 10% of all fields. Many farmers have not even planted yet and are not expecting to be able to plant as there is still standing water in almost every field. Even part of Hwy 9 just west of town before Hwy 63 washed out and a man got hung up and had to be rescued. Dan and Janice had water coming up into the bottom 2 apartments of the quadplex the own. Monday it turned into sewage and they are currently housing the 2 80 yr old ladies at the hotel. The list just keeps going on.
It dried out by Tuesday and on Wednesday night Dean's dad came and helped me scrub the floor and walls with bleach water. Dean moved the washer and dryer back and hooked them up. Thursday...we had more water in the basement...not as much but once again we moved the washer and dryer. Its almost dry again but the washer and dryer are not hooked up and the freezer is still on pallettes. Our county is not as bad as others but the country club and golf course are underwater and there is some concern with the sewers over following or backing up. Decorah was more than half evacuated. They pumped more than 750,000 gallons of water off the streets back over the dike. Luther College has major damage to their sports facilities and grounds. Walmart was closed for a day or so. 83 of the 99 counties in Iowa are federal disasters.
Cedar Rapids has 450 city blocks under water - churches, schools, houses, businesses, libraries are under water...the river crested at 32 feet over flood stage today. They evacuated most of Mercy Medical Center as the water poured into the labs.
In all this deluge...there have been so many stories of people just dropping everything to go help others. People spent days sandbagging and evacuate others. The authorities are so grateful for the outpouring of help and cooperation.
The hymn....'There Will Be Showers Of Blessings' keeps running through my head. Dean and I are reminded of just how little we are and how big God is. So many people we now have been affected. Dean's cousin Sarah and her family were evacuated in Decorah. Roland Ferrie was stranded for 2 days not able to return to his apartment. The town we were in last weekend for Tyler and Jessi's wedding is underwater and mostly evacuated. It's humbling and scary all at the same time.

Creating your own post

On the top right hand corner of the blog you will see a sign in option. By signing in through this you will be taken to your dashboard. Under the Blog name you should see a blue hyperlink for "New Post". If you select there you should be taken to a new page with a title box and a compose box. Once you have filled in your content press the publish post at the bottom of the page. If that isn't what you encounter, let me know.

Pictures

If you click on the pictures for Gina and I you will notice that the location has changed. I have done a little digging around and Picasa by google lets you have some public pictures posted on web for sharing. The picasa download also has a feature that lets you resize some photos for posting on the web.

I decided to switch to that and recommend that you guys do as well. If you have any questions on what to do in order to get this working let me know and I will walk you through it.

The reason for the switch is to let you guys all control your own pictures and post freely without having to contact me. This system is pretty slick and doesn't require alot of effort to get the desired result.

Just as a reminder you guys can invite friends to view the blog and leave comments. It might be more enjoyable for them if you guys post stuff too so the content isn't just centered around me.

Sleeping Arrangements for the 4th

Its only a couple of weekends away and we need to figure out where everyone is staying. I think Mom and Dad are going to be at Carrie and Alex's place. So where are the rest of us going to be fore the weekend?

What's the point

When I lived at home I had to eaves drop on Mom and Dad's calls just to find out what was going on. I tried the website but the content loading was not a user friendly interface and there was no ability for open conversation.

Blogs have the ability for that, so here we are. Now you can post anything and invite family and friends to comment on it.