Moving Day.

Over the weekend I traveled with my Hubby to Arizona for his Grandma Betty's funeral. We left here on Friday from ugly overcast, foggy skies with 35* temperatures wearing sweatshirts and freezing while we waited to catch the shuttle to the airport.

3 hours later..... I decided that I want to move...

Beautiful blue skies, warm air (69*) sunshine.... we had to buy me a short sleeved shirt to wear. :) A nice little breeze and no need for extra socks. Plus I thought the cactus were really cool looking at the car rental place where there appeared to be a whole forest of them.

Now I will admit that I don't want to live in Arizona in the summer time. My funny skin would not make it... I had to take more than a couple doses of Benadryl as it was.


Yet... as I sit and watch the snow fall here in gray Washington on a two-hour school delay... I could definately live there in the winter.

A Day in the Life...

As everyone knows by now we have had another fun weather event here in hip-happenin' Orting! The day started out with my neighbor calling at 6:45am to see if I could put her son on the bus because the road to her babysitter's house had been closed for flooding. I did not know we were flooding... I seem to miss a lot of information sleeping through the news/weather like my Mom used.

Next came a phone call from the school district telling us that a couple of the schools had been cancelled due to flood conditions but that the other three were still open. So i calmly put my littles on the bus and sent them to school. :) Shortly after I received a phone call from the Sheriff's department telling me to be prepared because of the flooding conditions but that I did not need to evacuate. (Yet...)

At about 10:45am I was informed that the schools would all be being evacuated at 11:30 for flooding. Jellybean's teacher called to tell me he would be sent home on the bus.... Squish called and told me he was coming home early... Blonde boy called and said he needed a ride home... all within a 5 minute time span.

By 11:15am sweet Hannah had been dropped off at my house and I went and checked the river. I still had two retention ponds but had never seen the river running so high and angry. The Little's were home and I had gone and picked up Blonde and everything was good for a few minutes. The school district called and cancelled school for the next day. Hannah texted Brownie to tell him there was no band and to come home after his classes at the college. We discussed homework, answered a few phone calls from neighbors and loaded the dishwasher (the world could be ending and I would still have dishes and laundry to do..lucky me).

Anyway. The phone rang again at 12:45. "If you are receiveing this message you are advised to evacuate immediately."

Okay. Good plan.

Long story shorter... we had to wait for Brownie to come home. Put on our shoes... grabbed some snacks and the bags... loaded up and left home. I wish I had taken my camera so that I could have taken a picture of how close the water was to the bridge.... next time I'll remember!

Any way... here are some pictures that I took yesterday when we got back home.

Our retention pond was one ginormous puddle... having risen to the very edge. Usually we have two ponds to enjoy out front..
My pictures aren't wanting to cooperate but here is the edge of our pond. You could just walk right in.

..

If you look close at this picture do you see the line a few feet above the water? Supposedly that is how high the river got.... You could see the wet mud dropping from the side into the water...very cool.....

There? In the middle? Do you see that circle? That is the top of the drainage/over-flow culverty thing. In real life it is rather large made with cement and bars around the top to keep unwanted things out. Can you see it?

Here it is!

(I will try to add more photos... but my machine is being dopey so maybe on a different blog... I wish someone could explain how to make one of those slide show thingys)

I guess we were kind of lucky that things weren't worse. To my knowledge no body in town was hurt. I am sure there was lots of property damage on the other side of town... the road is still underwater in some spots.

2009.

When I actually get a minute to slow down and reflect on my world I have to admit that I am amazed at how quickly things change. Last year seemed to go by far to fast. I think I must have been on auto-pilot for some of it. Time has sure flown by over the last many years really.
Our family dynamic is so different now from our original five. When we first came together we were two families trying to find peace and happiness. Most days we have found the happiness I am not sure where to look for the peace part though.
Our boys have all changed from the little ones that they were. I remember when they enjoyed being around each other and hanging out doing nothing. Not so anymore...

B is so sure that he is a man... and not just any man... THE MAN. It will be interesting to see how he ends up... when he stops trying so very hard.

Brownie is so mad lost in love with dear Hannah that I wonder sometimes where his brain is. :) I love his man voice and his great sense of humor. I wish he didn't find me so dopey though.

My Blonde son. Holy cow! He is almost 6 feet tall and still such a little boy at heart. I wish his heart had slightly thicker skin.

Daily I wonder where the time has gone. Squish and Jellybean are new people every day. Taller, more talkative. More Questions, Questions and Questions. How do you dos.... flow continually from their little mouths. I would love to tell them to be quiet for a minute but I don't want them to stop asking. They are smart and funny and sometimes very thoughtful, which is always a nice surprize.

Then, of course, little Petey. She is a huge flirt and has a great smile to go along with her air-raid squeal. I am so excited to get to see her blossom into a full blown girl someday.

Hopefully this year will have more ups than downs and not go by so very fast. Maybe I need to resolve to pay more attention and take fewer cat naps. I look forward to lots more questions that I know the answers to..maybe. I hope for much more happiness and I would not mind a small amount of the peace thing either.