Happy Father's Day

The weekend started off with a bang... or a gush. One of the levys downtown broke and water flooded the bridge and surrounding area. (I'll post some pictures at the end of this entry.) Typical for Friday the 13th, right? My place of work is just far enough away from the action that we were not evacuated, but everyone in a 3 block radius or inside the flood plain were. I wasn't there anyway though.

I was at home planning for our garage sale. We had some great help with the sale. Two ladies that I know from the Des Moines Nest board ( an online forum that we belong to) brought their little girls to play with Katen. They were all so well behaved and had a lot of fun! Another "Nestie" who is expecting her first child in December helped as well. Katen tried to amaze her with her great "raspberry blowing" skills and flashed some of her best toothless grins. The weather was beautiful and in the end we didn't make a ton of money but it was nice to be rid of some of our junk! The rest will go to a local charity called freestore.org and the clothes will go to Goodwill. ...once I get the energy to take them there. Garage sales are a lot of work!

Mike spent the morning of Father's day golfing with two of his high school friends and my Dad. It rained briefly but they had nice weather for the most part. Katen and I spent the morning running errands, cleaning up the house, and making food for the Father's day BBQ we were hosting in the evening. She was such a trooper while I strolled her though Target and she gave me a good hour to do housework while she played in her Fisher Price Jumperoo. (The BEST invention for a 5 month old ever!). I figured out that if I put her jumperoo by the patio door so she could look outside and also turned on the Roomba (one of those automated vaccumes), she had plenty to keep her flea sized attention span satisfied. (And I got the living room floor clean!)

Later in the day Katen helped me husk corn while riding in her baby Bjorn carrier. The was really interested in the bumpy, sticky texture of the corn and tried to put some of the silk in her mouth. Everything must be tasted, you know. It's fun to see her the little gears in her head turn as she experiences new things. Her mind amazes me.

What did Daddy get for Father's Day? He got a new battery powered hedge trimmer and weed eater combo. I know it sounds like we're putting him to work, but that's what he wanted. Honestly, the man can have any yard toy he wants as long as he does the yard work. That's not a job that I miss and he's doing a really good job. I remember a beautiful spring day when Mike and I cleaned up the yard from the winter as Katen rode in her Moby wrap with me. That was the last time Katen and I mowed. Apparently the sound and the motion is soothing to a baby though. She fell asleep if I remember correctly. However, putting her to sleep is still not good enough reason to try it again. It gets hot with the baby stuck to your front, wrapped in jersey knit fabric. I'll reserve that fun for the Farmer's Market.



As promised, more pictures of the flooding...



Those of you who live in my hometown know that the second picture is of the lower Red Rock Lake camping ground. The picture is of the check-in booth which is generally high and dry. Water from Sailorville Reservoir flows downstream into Red Rock Lake and causes domino effect flooding as it travels.

Off to the pediatrician. again.

I took Katen to the Pediatrician today. We saw another one in the practice so it wasn't our regular Dr who we love. Mike and I thought Katen had an ear infection. She's been super crabby and pulling at her ears. I wanted to get her into the clinic before the weekend so she didn't have to suffer if she did indeed have an infection. She didn't. I'm just one of those crazy first time moms. The pediatrician said that the problem was just teething. (seriously? I don't see any!) What we left with were instructions to increase Katen's Zantac dose by almost double and a recommendation to get Children's Zyrtec for her eczema since it seems to be itching. The cream that we got (oh maybe two weeks ago?) helps a lot but Katen has scratched the spots open on both arms. I was also told to give her Tylenol at bedtime but I don't feel like giving her three meds at beditme is really necessary. Although if she continues to wake every two hours screeching like she has, I may reconsider. The idea isn't to torture her.

After the appointment, Katen and I ran to the store to find the zyrtec (which is newly sold over the counter and apparently back ordered due to increased demand) and then had a fun afternoon playing together.

By the way it rained again...

But don't worry about us. "The Hoff" is here to save us.

Mommy and Me photo contest

I know some of my readers are proud moms like myself so I'm passing along a link to a Mommy and Me Photo Contest.

According to their website...
To enter fill out the ENTRY FORM and upload your photo along with a description (under fifty words) of why you love your photo and feel that it demonstrates the special relationship you have together. Your photo can be funny, silly, cute or whatever you think will be a winner

http://www.babymetv.com/_contest-description.php

Rain, Rain, Go Away ...and don'tcha come back no more....

All we can do is laugh, and wait to see what our Iowa monsoon season brings us. It's been raining for weeks here. I actually went today and stocked up on bottled water. It's that bad. Our waterworks building is being sandbagged and supposedly the levy isn't expected to hold. The government officials swear it will be fine. I say better safe than sorry. No water = buying super expensive premade formula instead of powder. Oh how our lives and priorities have changed. :)

Here's an excerpt from the local news:

"June 10, 2008--Officials are starting to take more drastic measures to protect the metro from flooding. Floodwaters are expected to top Saylorville Lake's emergency spillway tonight, sending a surge of water into Des Moines.

Officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say they'll start lowering the crest gates sometime tonight. Once that happens, twice the amount of water will flow out of Saylorville. The Corps says it will then take about 12 hours for the water to reach downtown Des Moines.
To prepare for expected flooding downtown, city officials are stepping up preparations. First, they're closing bridges on the Des Moines River in downtown Des Moines. Barricades were put up at Walnut Street Bridge at 2:00 p.m. The Locust Street, Grand Avenue and Court Avenue bridges will close at 6:00 p.m. The hope is that closing the bridges will prevent water from flowing into downtown.

City crews are trying to fill everywhere water could break through, no matter how small, and sandbag walls are being built to keep the river in the channel. Further upriver, the brand new Polk County office building that stands where the old Euclid Target stood, is being emptied. Employees for Polk County Veterans Affairs, Juvenile Courts, and the Sheriff's Department have taken out everything from brand new furniture to brand new vending machines. They're being transferred to other county buildings, as is all their paperwork."


So... do we build an Arc? Katen loves water. ...and animals!