Happy new Year everyone!!

Hello all. I'm BAAAAACK. If Cassie can get caught up, I should too! Miss you.
Anyway we have been busy since my last post. There was Thanksgiving, Christmas in Fargo, Christmas at home, New Years, the flu, a cold, a new entry way, lots of new toys (especially my i-pod, love it), and lots of movies. Oh and did I mention a flood. Yep 2 inches of water in the basement after some heavy duty Black Friday Shopping. They say every cloud has a silver lining. This one did. WE have always wanted to flip our basment, and we did in a big way!! The insurance money also helped when we had shell out a grand for both of our vehicles. I also got a new french door fridge and a new cherry colored front load wash machine. Yes energy efficiency is running wild in my house. Also add in one nice scrapbooking weekend and lots of time spent with family and friends. WE said goodbye to Tom in December as he embarked on his mission abroad for the military. All sources say he is in Iraq and will be there for I think 60 or 90 days. I am sure Kris has the countdown going. I feel for her. Luckily she has her mother in law there to help. Be safe TOm!!
Karady had a good Christmas. She opened all of her gifts herself, and there were a lot. Christmas morning she dug through her stocking (we have huge stockings) and every single thing in it got the response "Thank you Anta". It was so cute. It was quiet as Nolan was on call, and we spent it at home. We went to Sannes' Christmas Day for fondu and to open gifts, then we played electronic Monopoly and the Farming Game (two games I hate playing) and I won both!! I should have made a trip to the casino right away.
Nolan stepped down from the managers position with the Helicopter. SO many dynamics have changed and he has so much less stress. Lift off date is now in February. We will see if it happens. He will still work for them, but not in a mangers role.
The Great Flood of 2010 took place somewhere between 4 am and 9am the day after Thanksgiving. Tammi and I went Black Friday shopping and got home at 3:30. By the way it was a great time. I only hit both Walmarts, but it was an experience. Nolan left at 4 to do more. I woke up at 9 to a waterfall in the basement from a broken pipe going outside. Poor Karady's toys were floating. I got the water turned off and started sucking up the mess. The insurance company instructed us to call a cleaning company, so I did. I didn't realize the magnitude of the work to be done. The company basically told us to empty out all of our stuff to the top floor. WE HAVE A LOT OF STUFF!! So while they sucked up water we moved. We moved nonstop for like 4 hours. I must have been up and down the stairs 100 times. The company was awesome. One guy sucked water, while the other helped us move stuff. I have never been so embarressed in my life. We have so much STUFF and much of it was not put in a place. He assured me he would rather help with our mess then clean carpets all day. So they cut holes every 6 inches all away around the base and left 13 high powered dryers and 2 huge dehumidifiers. It took one week to dry out everything, but they still had to cut 1 foot off the sheetrock all the way around. Our loss wasn't huge. THey were able to salvage the carpet. I lost a cricut, so luckily I had already bought one at the Black Friday sale. It it amazing how fast things add up!! I mostly have everything in tubs, thank god. Everything was replaceable. SO this mess prompted us to flip the basement, since we had the mess anyway. I must say I got the better end of the deal. I have more scrapbooking room, and Karady has more room to play. It forced us to put things back in order and get rid of lots of Stuff!!
New Years was pretty quiet. We had such a huge storm, not too many people went anywhere. So we spent it with just the 3 of us. Speaking of storms we has SO MUCH SNOW!! It is also frigid here. I need badly to get to Bismarck, but I won't take Karady out in the freezing temps that are predicted for the weekend.
Karady continues to amaze me with the stuff she does and says. It is hard to remember she watches and does everything we do. She was on a cursing stretch for a while, and at the most inconvient times, like in church or at the doctor. She just says DAM it. I really can't say that I know where that comes from. HAHA. She refuses to use the toilet anymore, so we are still working on that. Maybe Grandma can get her to go when she stays there for two weeks in February. Last night we told her we were having Pizza for supper. She said "No Al Lee stays home". SHe always gets pizza when we have a sitter, and Al Lee is our sitter. She is so smart. She is also very independent with dressing herself, and she is not a morning person. My goal is to get her to bed on time, because she is not a happy camper if she doesn't wake up by herself in the morning, and is she can't eat before Daycare. SHe loves to color with markers (including herself), paint, play with her barbies and dolls. She plays pretend a lot. She love to watch Barney and Dora, and is just a girl through and through. She still loves to dance and put together puzzles. Oh how fast they grow.
Well I hope the New Year brings us great things. I have lots of goals, but I don't like to tell people them, because like so many other people, they kind of fall by the wayside, as the year rolls on. So we just live day to day, and enjoy our family.

TTFN

Lori

And again??

It seems our nice weather has brought flood woes again. We drove around tonight, and the water seems like if could cross over highway 13 again. Can you believe it. It seems some people have started sandbagging again. I would guess that is will crest tomorrow, or the next day, plus we are predicted to have rain again this week. We dye eggs today. LEss than a dozen, so it went very fast. Karady got a very cute easter basket from Tammi, and an cute outfit from Tyler. I do miss my family when they are all together, and I can't be there. We are planning on attending church in the morning. Karady is wearing a purple dress. She got some new barettes from Tammi, I am hoping she will leave them in. Then I am making San Francisco pork chops. OK I know, not the typical Easter dinner, but I didn't want to do a lot of work. I want a nice relaxing day, with my family. I will post pictures after the easter bunny comes to our house, and after church. Happy Easter.

From Flood to Blizzard

Well the blizzard has started.

Last night we had an ambulance run, and sent 1 paramedic across the flooded road on 83 with the National Guard truck to ride with Strasburg 1st Responders to meet with Cambell County Ambulance to take the guy to Mobridge. Then Nolan went around the flooded area to get the paramedic back home. He has been out until 2 or 3 in the morning with either the fire dept., or the ambulance.

Our clinic manager has been battling the flood since Sunday, trying to save her basement, but she gave up the fight today. She is now staying in our asst. living. There are so many people who's homes are a total loss, who work at the hospital. it is all too sad. She has no other shoes besides the boots she has been wearing since Sunday.

Nolan was on TV last night as he was taking a patient who had just been rescued by boat off of his farm. He had to watch his cows drown. It is all too sad. there will be lots more issues as people can get into their homes and start to clean up. That is furthest from anyones minds now, as the snow whips outside the window and you can't see across the street.

Mike K. (jobby) lived 40 years on old town, and he never had his basement flooded. Now it is filled with water and he is staying at the hospital as he is recovering from surgery. We also have 2 other families staying in empty rooms. They came with only the clothes on their backs.

The pics i am posting can all be seen on my facebook also. Too many to do on here.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Well I say we have a mini Grand Forks going here. Lots of people, including all of Old Town that is evacuated and now housed by Red Cross at the High School, would agree with me.

It seems that the area had a hail storm and about 1/2 inch of rain in a short amount of time on ice and snow. It took me 4 hours to get home yesterday; it normally takes only 2. I know things were going bad when Nolan called me and told me to get home immeditely. It seems the water was coming over the road at the intersection of 83 and 13. The alernate route was also under water. I got between Hazelton and Linton, and I got another call that 83 was shut down. OK, so I went back to Hazelton and decided to go east on 34, and come around from the south. So I was on my merry way and got just east of Hazelton, and the water was pouring over the road there also. Meanwhile and car had gone off the road in Linton, into the water and the passengers had to be rescued, and the water in Old town was rapidly rising. OK, so I turned around and headed back to Sterling to regroup. When I got to Sterling I called home, to Nolan, who was out with the Fire Dept. redirecting traffic by the Assembly of GOD. He told me to go east to Dawson, into Napoleon then come on 13 into Linton, if 13 was still open. Mind you I didn't panic. I had food, a full tank of gas, my cell phone car charger with me, but I really wanted to see my baby and my husband. All was well, and I sped down through Napoleon, and got on 13, praying that the road was still open, all the while thinking who I could call to stay with, so I wouldn't have to go back to Bismarck. i was very thankful, it was just me, and not Karady. Never did I dream I wouldn't be able to get into town. I found out later just as I had gone through Napoleon, a dyke had broken and the town started flodding.

On 13 the water was rushing everywhere. There were islands with horses and cows stranded. Places that are normally pastures, were full of water everywhere. So I made it home and unloaded so I could go get Karady. I had to go around baracades and explain where I was going for them to let me through. I parked at the butcher shop and crossed behind it through the mud over to Sannes to get Karady. The view from there was pretty dismall. You could see the water and ice pouring over the junction, and the water was up to the bottom of the hill. Sandbag fillers couldn't keep up with the demand for sandbags either. I wish I could have gone to help.

It seems poor Karady didn't even recognize me. She had a sitter all day Saturday, and on Sunday, when Nolan left in a hurry he had Terra come over, and she screamed bloody murder for her, since she has such stranger anxiety. Luckily, Tammi and Paul had seen Nolan in the fire truck and went to check on her, since they knew I wasn't home yet. They went to rescue her and took her back to their house.

I took Nolan and Travis food from Sannes, since they were stuck on the corner for the duration. Then I headed home to listen to the scanner. Karady had fallen asleep in the car seat, and I put her to bed, poor thing.

Volk's just south of town had to be evacuated by boat from their home, how scary. The water is rushing very quickly, and it is very dangerous. Many more people called in for help to evacuate, and one house had smoke coming from it. They eventually had 83 shut down from Sterling to SD border. The red cross was called in , and residents without homes are staying at the high school. I will post pics later when I get them downloaded. I am very happy we live up high. The National Guard was also called and I believe they are coming to help today. Nolan came in at 2:30, and is out now standing by in the rig somewhere. There is a house in old town that the water is up to the ceiling in the basement, and is now coming in on the main floor. Old Town has never flooded this bad before. 83 is still closed south of town, but open to the north, and it seems the water is going down. But south the water is still rising. If you can help, please do. I can help by praying for the people who's homes are flooded and that all rescuers stay safe.

I had a wonderful weekend scrapbooking at JJ's Lodge. I spent the weekend with my mom, and got 29 pages done. I missed my LuLu terribly. I wanted to watch Linton win the State B, but they didn't get local channels there, so Nolan texted me with updates. I feel bad that their celebration and glory is clouded by the flood. I know quite a few families attending the games couldn't even get to their homes to celebrate. Congratulaitons boys. What an accomplishment.

I seen on the TV they are calling for immediate evacuation of old town, and I know Nolan is helping with the rescue efforts out of town at farms. Most are being evacuated by boat. I can't image what they must be going through. Pray for them.