Flooding Update

Thought everyone might want an update as the flood waters continue to rise here.  Last night an evacuation of the entire lower areas of our town took place.  Buses took most of the residents to the local IVCC gymnasium, while others left and found a place to stay on their own.  Around midnight last night the flood waters off the Illinois River breeched the shoreline and started flooding the streets.  Pete got home last night around 2 am safely (thank you Lord Jesus!), but he left this morning to go to work to check things out and make sure it's all ok.  When he did, he took pictures.  Here is where we are right now - though the waters continue to rise.

This is what we call the "Box Building".  The water here is a deep canal that has totally filled up and is probably going to flood the road he was on soon.  It's right at the edge.

For those of you familiar with our little town, this is looking down the road where the Burger King is located. It is now taking on water.  This road leads to the elementary school, but no word on if that has taken on water yet.  Further down this road they are saying that it's so deep, it's covering the street signs.  It's rising quickly.

We found out last night that not one but SIX barges slammed into the dam right to the left on the picture above.  They also hit the big bridge before sinking.  The entire bridge is roped off and you are unable to cross it now.  We're still waiting to hear how much damage the dam incurred. 

Pete said he's only staying at the plant for a short time.  Only a handful of people are there, because the water is getting very close to the plant.  He said if he stays too long, he'll have to walk through water to get back to the car.  It's that close.  

Our little community and several more in this area are fighting epic flooding today and we're already seeing amazing acts of kindness and community-spirit.  We're going to have many weeks/months ahead of clean-up and appreciate all your prayers.  

Flooding

I'm sure some of you are wondering what is going on in this neck of the woods.  Well, with a considerable amount of rain falling over the past couple of weeks, we haven't been able to handle the rains that came yesterday and today.  We've gotten somewhere around 6-7" last I heard just in the past 36 hours and that has caused massive amounts of flooding.  Even worse than the ones that came back in '07 and '09.  The pictures I posted below are from about 11am this morning, well before additional rains fell and the waters began to rise more.  Just got a phone call calling for a State of Emergency in this little town of ours.  The Illinois River is expected to breech the banks on the north side, flooding the lower streets.  Thankfully we live up on the hill, so I don't expect any problems for us, but we have friends down there and our school is down there.  Already this morning, the road to the plant Pete works at has been shut down due to flooding and the road buckling.  It's bad out there and, honestly, a little scary, because Pete's not here to help calm all our frayed nerves.  He left yesterday literally minutes before the rains came and made it to KY safely, but his flight home today was cancelled, so he (and Ralph), after some deliberation, decided to just drive home.  So, there is stress of worrying about him, stress worrying about my friends, and stress about what the next few days will bring to our community and to our neighboring communities.  I would ask for prayers of protection - both of people and their homes.  Everything around here has been cancelled - including my class tonight and probably will be cancelled tomorrow as well.  The first picture below is in the parking lot of our church/preschool.  It's supposed to crest on Sat at nearly 31'.  The flood level is 20', if that gives you any indication of what we're looking at.  Anyway, that is the update for now.  Please continue keeping this area in your prayers, as well as Pete as he makes his way home.  Thanks!

This is a picture of the bridge over the Fox River.  The high school is in the background there.  The entire parking lot is under water and the river is expected to rise higher than it is and it's only a few feet away from reaching the bottom of the bridge there.

One of the areas that was rapidly reaching the side of the road.

The school yard.

Our kids' schoolyard was totally submerged.  It's right on the river, so we're concerned about the river flooding and affecting the school.

Last Dance

Today was Madie's last dance of the year.  The theme tonight was neon colors.  There was actually a cute name that went with that theme, but I can't remember what it was called.  Once again, she spent the whole time dancing and even spent all of her slow dances with her friend Bobby, who she readily admits she likes.   It's fun to see her growing up, but scares me a bit too.  Hope I'm ready for all that is to come as the years fly by!  Just so glad she had another great time with her friends. :-)

Spring Break

Remember me posting a week and a half ago about how I would post about our Spring Break adventures "tomorrow"?  Well, "tomorrow" is finally here!  Just took a while to get me to sit down and actually write about it and upload the pictures.  

Our trip was a short one - just a few days.  But, we got to see our families and have fun in that short amount of time.  We headed to Goshen first, because we were picking up Noah's desk from Nana and Papa T at the end of our trip.  Livie had a lot of fun playing with the girls, as always.  Sadly, we only got to hang out with them on our first day there, because they all came down with the flu, starting with Avery later that night.

Noah played a lot with Sherm.  He just loves that dog to pieces!

We headed to Hacienda for dinner that night with Em, Jeff, the girls, and dad.  I had to take this picture of Livie and Kendalyn.  I was especially proud that Livie could do the vulcan sign already!  We've taught her well. ;-)

After we finished dinner that night, Em and I took all the kids to the store to spend the money that Papa D gave them.  Avery was so stinkin' cute!  She grabbed her purse and was ready to go!  She is so a Drexler girl!!!

Since Dad was working on Tuesday and the Spichers were dealing with the flu, we had a lot of time to ourselves that day.  Em had told us about a local frozen yogurt place, so we decided to head over and check it out.  YUM!!!  Look at all the toppings!!!

Basically you grab a cup and pick out whatever flavor of yogurt you want.  You fill up your cup, add syrups and toppings galore!  You pay according to weight.  Pete's was the most expensive, of course. ;-)  They really liked it and had a lot of fun there.  Can't wait to try it when it's actually warm outside.  This entire spring break was COLD!

We said our goodbyes to Papa and Sherm (we didn't visit mom this time, in case we had the flu bug ourselves - which we didn't end up getting, thank goodness!).  Then we headed down to see Nana and Papa T. :-)

Madie's bday was just the week before our trip, so she got money from Papa D and a present from Nana and Papa T.  She was really excited to open it!

She got this really colorful and fun outfit!  Totally something she loves to wear.  It's really soft and comfy and, like I said, colorful.  She wore it the next day too!

Allyssa came over and the kids all played on their devices.  Madie and Noah played a lot on the Intelevision too.  Doesn't matter that it's a console from the late '70s.  If you can play it, then it's cool and they loved it!

I think the big boys (aka Pete and Andy) played it the most though.  Again, if it's a game, they'll play it.  Doesn't matter if it's over 30 yrs old.

Drew is walking now, so he loved toddling around and exploring.  The kids tried to keep up, but even they got busy doing their things and lost track of him sometimes.  He's such a cutie!  So, there you have it.  Our Spring Break visit with the fams.  It was a good time!

Spring Break Construction

We went to IN earlier this week for Spring Break (I will post about that tomorrow).  We only stayed until Thursday, because we had a project we wanted to tackle.  And, by "we", I mean me and a begrudgingly agreeable Pete. ;-)

I am TERRIBLE about taking "Before" pictures, so I thought I'd use this one I took before we did our wood floors.  The set-up of everything hadn't changed until this week, so it basically was the same.  I had hooks to hold bags behind that wall with the chalkboard, but had no place for bookbags.  And, honestly, the bags behind that wall were often forgotten, because we'd open the garage door to leave to go somewhere and the bag we needed would be hidden behind that door!  So, we decided that we need a place to hang all our gear.  It's been a long time coming and I am THRILLED to say it's done and looks amazing!

Pete and Noah bought boards for us to use.  Really nice wood 1x4" that we were going to attach to the walls and add hooks to.  Pete, being the engineer that he is (as well as a perfectionist!), took his time measuring everything and thinking it out to the last degree.  It might take him a while to complete a project, but you know it's being done the right way the first time!

He patched the many, many holes in our walls and got all the boards up.

Then I joined him as we started painting.  We painted most of it last night after he installed the wood, but we had to do the second coat on the walls after church today.

Then it was time to install all the hooks.  We installed nearly 20 of them, and I guarantee we will use every. single. one.

Voila!!  The finished product.  A place for book bags, dance bags, diabetes bags, and more!  Hooray!

Look how awesome my front foyer looks now!  I can't even tell you how excited I am.  Now, when they walk in from the garage, they will have no excuse as to why their stuff isn't in it's place. :-)

Pete went the extra mile and even added this area for guests to hang their coats when they come.  I hope to buy something to add above this space, but for now, I'm over the moon!  Another project complete!  I usually am able to convince Pete to tackle one a year.  We'll see if I get any more out of him this year or if we'll stay on our current "spring break" schedule. ;-)

Easter!

We were blessed with yet another beautiful Easter morning. :-)  It's been a busy weekend and the weather hasn't been great in recent weeks, but it turned out to be perfect.   

The kids were very excited to wake up and see the Easter Bunny had arrived, though apparently he didn't know which basket belonged to Madie and which one belonged to Livie, because he switched them.  What a stupid bunny!  The girls switched them back and everyone was happy again.

We got up early, so we could all get showered and beautified, so we could head out for church.  They had their annual Easter breakfast and it was yummy as usual!

The kids sang today "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?".  We took a quick picture of them before they started singing.  Livie was a werewolf earlier, so I think that she was still a bit on the kooky side when I took this picture. ;-)

The song was really beautiful though and they did a really great job.  It gave me chills in a couple places.  I'm always so excited to see them sing!

After the service, we had our 5th Annual Easter Egg Hunt.  They are always beyond excited about this!!  This was the first year that Madie wasn't able to do it.  She's too old now.  So, she helped hide all the eggs. :-)  Livie was our only one to actually collect any eggs.  She was dumping the candy and prizes into her bag and putting the eggs back, so we can use them again next year.

Once again, Noah declined to grab any regular eggs, because he wanted to find the golden egg.  He didn't find it, but he seemed ok with that.  Maybe next year (his last year) he'll find it.

We had to take our yearly family picture by the tree.  It's been so cold that there isn't a bit of green yet - not a leaf, not a flower, nothing.  But, hey, at least it was sunny and not too chilly.  Could've been worse!  Plus, it IS a little early for Easter this year.

We decided to take a photo of all of our kids.  Can you tell they had a little fun with the hunt? ;-)  Anyway, hope all of you are enjoying a wonderful Easter Day.  What a joy to know that we serve a risen Savior who died for our sins, so that one day we could live forever with Him.  Praise the Lord!