GARBC Conference...

Still in the rain! Des Moines area is getting poured on again today. We were there last night for the Conference. They figured they had 1,600 in the Convo Building. It was a good conference even though the lightening, thunder, and pouring rain added to the music. Andy, Melissa, and the Security man were in panic mode all during the service as the storm had been reported to them as an "unstable" one. They did have a plan in place for storms, but putting it in action was another thing. Didn't have to use the plan, but the parking lot had about 2 inches of water on it and because of the number of people there, cars had been parked in the surrounding neighborhoods. A & MJ instituted a shuttle plan using the sports teams shuttle buses to ferry people around the area in search of their cars. They are getting pounded again this morning, so many Plans B, C, & D are probably being put into play.

We took two ladies up with us last evening. Coming home the lightening display was incredible. Many ground to cloud displays. In several places we had to slow almost to a stop because visibility was poor. We ran out of the storms when we turned south off I-80. 

Was able to get my Dad to the dentist yesterday morning. The office is in the basement of a building. Oh my, the things that I did to get him down there and back up. Took him on the trolley in a wheelchair, much to his disliking. Wilma wants to take us to supper tonight, so will try him with the walker getting in and out of the van. Larry will be with me in case I need help. I told Dad that I didn't feel safe transferring him after almost loosing him at the eye doctor's office. 

We had a 1.5 inch rain Tuesday evening. It was so wonderful to look out the back door and see a river of water flowing north across the back yard, making the corner and flowing down to the street. Lot of mud, can't wait until the grass gets in so it will just go and not take the soil with it. 

  

Birthday Weekend in Picture

This is what the back yard looks like this afternoon.

Here's the pictures of Wesley that I promised before my internet connection went down. 

Technology missed!

Back in the land of being online. Had over 80 e-mails that blasted through when it started up. Mediacom gave me a new modem. Not sure what was the problem. He fiddled with the connection at the pole and fiddled inside, and now it works. So I'm not asking any questions.

Dirt work is being done in the back yard. Dad's roof is being re-roofed. Dad's eye had to be taken care of this week also. Got 2 of the three missionary letters done. Worked in the basement a bit. Read a couple of quick books. Been in bed by 10 p.m. for the last couple of nights. Snippets of life at our house this week.

Andy & Melissa will be down to celebrate her (Th____-f___t) birthday. Have to be careful. She is getting a bit touchy about her age. Like she has worries. I'll be fifty-something this year.  

It's a good day not matter what, because the Lord made it.

 

Technology

Our internet server is having a problem connecting to the house, so I am updating this from Joel's. We will be without e-mail and internet service until sometimes Wednesday.

City wide garage sales

Oh my, 55 garage sales and couldn't go to all of them. Sob, Sob. The Rutledges and I had a combined sale. They took care of it on Friday, because I had Wesley. I did sneak in a couple on Friday. Then Janet and I made Steve man the sale while we went to a couple sales this morning. 

Joel got a new toy. You should have seen he and Amber race around the two yards with the riding lawn mower that he purchased this morning. He said he will be looking forward for any excuse to ride it. Been praying and watching the paper for one. This one is only a year old. He got a good deal on it. 

Dad's laser eye zap left him with a very sore eye. I pray that he will be able to see out of it better now. It seems like physical problems are popping up with more regularity. 

Monday begins a day of construction/destruction in the neighborhood. Dad's roof will begin to get shingled. Our air conditioner unit will be detached and moved for a bit so that the ground underneath the slab can be raised and leveled. Then the landscaper can come in and redo the backyard and funnel the water away from the basement.

Larry and I helped Amber and Joel move some things around the their garage. We sorted out some scrap lumber and other things getting ready for their garage sale.

Had a wonderful visit from Susan Swigart, a missionary to Argentina last evening. I do her prayer letter. We visited for about two and a half hours. She is a dear friend. 

I'm tired now. So I bid you adieu.

New pictures of Wesley next time. 

A night without rain.

It was a blessing to have a night without sound effects.

We have a guy all lined up to do the back yard work. Pray with us that we can get the air conditioner lifted and moved.

The Maytag repairman was at the house last night. Actually I fed him dinner. Our microwave quits every once in a while. Larry was able to repair it and it is now purring nicely. Guess I've come to depend upon it too much. Hard to remember how to cook cereal on the stove without burning or making it too dry. 

Take Dad to the eye surgeon for a laser treatment. Then care for that young Wesley for the afternoon and evening. Yes, new pictures will be posted tomorrow or Sunday. :-) "Gonna" have some good Grandmom time.

Another storm passed by!

Another night of wind, pounding rain, and lightening. Stayed up until after 1 a.m. to make sure that we weren't going to blow away. The Lord kept the basement dry and the roof isn't leaking. The trench and the patch job on the roof seem to have alleviated the immediate problem. Trying to get things going on fixing the back yard. Had one guy just here saying that it would be Fall before it would get done. Need to have the air conditioner raised up, but the plumbing and heating guy that we use had tornado damage at his home last week, so he isn't responding very quickly. 

Today is in front of me. Wonder what's going to happen today?

A laser zap!

Dad still can't see out of the eye that had the cataract removed. The doctor found that the lens sac has "stuff" on the front of it and made an appointment with the surgeon to have a laser zap given to it on Friday after lunch. 

It's been a rough week for Dad. He is still hurting quite badly from the fall and just moving around is difficult. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

This message is from Ducksville

This was taken at 8:30 a.m. of our driveway.

Today's forecast is for Rain this morning, severe storms after sundown (repeat of last week), rain tomorrow, rain on Friday, and possibly on into next week. Iowa has been in the nation news as much of the river basin is under water. We watched on TV last night as the flood gates were opened at Saylorville Dam which is located not too far from Andy & Melissa's. It was a controlled opening and took 12 hours to reach downtown Des Moines. They have closed all the bridges in the downtown area. The Water filtration plant has been updated since the Floods of '93, so MJ is hoping that they will still have water to drink.

Have no idea what is in store for today. I need to get my allergy shots and have a few other projects that "should" be done. I am putting Luan plywood sheets on the shelves that hold my vases in the flower shop to make each shelf larger. I used up some scrap that Larry had lying around. I need to get at least 2 more sheets. Hope the guys at the "board store" feel in a cutting mood. 

God plans my days!

God's plans for my days are not my plans. Therefore, I am trying to every morning give my day to Him. Today Dad needed me all morning. I am finding that I am being needed and depended upon more and more. I'm not sure where this is leading as far as Dad's care, but it does concern me. 

We have had several more rain showers, but the basement has had just trickles of water compared to the rivers we had last week. Praise the Lord!

Having several people look at the back yard to give us estimates on redoing the slope of the yard around the house. There are many things that need to make it so that water won't as readily "flow" into the basement.

Saying that I just looked at on my desk, "We can't direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails!" And know that "with Christ in the vessel, we can smile at the storm, as we go sailing home." (the latter was a chorus from my childhood.)

Kinda dusty out, so need some rain! Right!

God set his Rainbow in the sky as a promise of no universal flooding. I holding on to that promise very tightly. It started raining about 3 p.m. today and in an hour and a half we have received 2 inches of liquid stuff. 

Just had the basement sorta dry. I haven't looked down there in the last few minutes, but I assume that before the night is over, the wet vacs will be humming again.

Never a dull moment. Friday afternoon was able to get the things in the garage up, so that the air from the fans could circulate underneath the things there. I filled what shelves were completed with the plastic tubs. Oh so wonderful to have so much disappear from the center of the garage. Now I hope that I can have the time to go through the tubs and weed out "stuff." 

Charles Stanley was preaching this morning. Caught just a bit of what he had to say. "Grace assures us that God is in control and set limits on what we can bear."

Oh boy the rain is really coming down right now. 

Friday

God spared us again last evening. We were in the basement again with tornados all around us. Think they spotted 4-5 closer to the town than before, but God's hand spared the city. We did get rain, and the basement? Well My trench in the back worked very well. I went out in the rain to check on it and it was running smoothly. It didn't not take it away fast enough so after we went to bed, there was some seepage in the flower shop design area underneath Joel's bedroom. That corner seems to be the wettest part of the basement. I MUST get the basement dried out because I am so allergic to the mold. This morning I feel like my head is ten miles wide. I have 10 fans blowing and will probably raid Dad's house and unearth some more over there. 

The earthen dam at the end of our street

This had a much higher spray about 45 minutes earlier. Praying that this thing holds. It is about 2 blocks from our house. We are higher than the flood plain, but our neighbors aren't.

Water, Water, Water, everywhere!

A lot of Creston is without electricity. PTL! We have it. These water pictures are of the house and street just across the street and down the hill from our house. PTL! We only have about 1 inch of wet stuff on the floor. It hailed for approximately 15 minutes last evening.

Thank you, Lord, for morning

I emptied 11 inches of water out of our rain gauge. We were up still sucking water at 3:30 a.m. There was a leak in our bedroom and sleeping in there was Chinese Water Torture. Joel and his family spent their anniversary evening with us as the tornado sirens blared until way after midnight. Most things in the basement were up on blocks, wheels, or other supports. We vacuumed just to sorta keep up with the flow.

Another round of storms are to happen along the same areas tonight. Pray with us for strength for today and safety for the evening hours. 

Tornados touched down up and down Highway 34,  from Red Oak to Creston, on north to Orient &  Greenfield and points NE.as were to have passed up the west side of the city. 

Wednesday

Vacation Bible School is have over. Crafts seem to be going well. It has been dreary out today, No real sunshine. 

Got to have Wesley over for a few minutes. Yes, I did let him be until he woke up. Then I started snapping the pictures before I cuddled with him. He is changing.

Have three big projects going. Accomplished a lot on the inventory yesterday. Not sure that I'll get at it today as I have a missionary prayer letter to do. Tomorrow, next Tuesday, and next Thursday, then the next Monday are filled with getting Dad to different doctor's appointments.

Tonight is prayer meeting. Good to be with God's people.

Ahhhhh. Must be VBS week cause it's raining.

Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day. It's so good that God has better plans than we do. On radar, the storm looks like it may be passed by when 9 a.m. rolls around. The ground will still be wet, but the lightening should be stopped. 

According to my rough calculations, there were 115 kiddos there for VBS yesterday. The Craft Department seemed to run smoothly. The Lord brought in some extra workers that we didn't know about, so that was an answer to prayer.

Doesn't seem possible that Joel and Amber will celebrate their third anniversary tomorrow. Happy Anniversary! Larry and I stopped after our walk last night to see if Wesley could stop and play. Well, not play, we just wanted to have H & H time for a couple of minutes.  That's Hold & Hug time. He was a tired boy. It was his first day of VBS also. Amber is helping in the 2nd & 3rd grade department. 

God is faithful, as always. All I have to do is turn to Him and focus on His love, care, and faithfulness--problems don't leave, but they do seem a bit smaller.