Christmas Recap

Christmas has come and gone and it was a lovely one indeed. Ken and I had two Christmases: one the Saturday before Christmas with my family and one on Christmas eve with his family. During my family's Christmas, we enjoyed a new tradition of "Bring Your Own Soup." Missy made cheesy broccoli, Mom made her famous beef n' noodles, and I made the Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana. All three were a hit. Corrina brought some fabulous breads, Connie and family supplied drinks, and Aunt Sheila and Uncle Roger brought some very yummy pigs in a blanket and little pickle wrap things that Mom and I couldn't get enough of. Grandma brought her excellent peanut brittle and I think some other desserts. In all, we ate well and enjoyed the company.

Gift exchange proved to be interesting yet again. Audra had fun opening all the gifts from family. Here's a shot of her with the purple socks that have a penguin on them and say "Chill Out" that I bought her. Last year, I bought her some socks with princess frogs on them and she liked them a lot. I thought I'd made it a tradition to get her a funny pair of socks each year. In this picture, she's decided that the socks are more fun on her hands.

During our other tradition of the "white elephant" or "bring something from your basement" gift exchange, we all laughed when some interesting gifts came out. People started the game off right by stealing gifts from others. My nephew Josh got a gold purse, which Missy promptly stole. Then someone ended up with a singing/dancing woodchuck from the movie Caddyshack which Scott stole away. I ended up getting a Yogo ball first, but Josh's girlfriend stole that from me and then I ended up with a half broken blender. Ken walked away with a tool box that had a bunch of old baseball cards in it. We all had some good laughs when Jeff brought out an old wig that he'd been given as a gag gift when he left his job at Musco Lighting (Jeff shaves his head). He tried it on and then so did Ken. It's interesting to see what he would look like with curly hair.

Christmas eve found us at Oelwein with Ken's family. A funny event occured when it turns out Lisa and I gave Ken and Matt the same gift: the Scene It Seinfeld edition. We tried to play the game later in the evening, but we experienced some DVD problems, so we settled for just watching a couple of Seinfeld reruns on TV. That's one thing you can always count on: somewhere in the world there's a Seinfeld episode on.

Ken and I were excited to give his dad an engineer's hat we found for him. His dad has been working a lot with his model railroads/trains, so we thought that would be a fitting gift. We think he liked it as he wore it the rest of the evening!

And finally, here's one of Teresa, Elizabeth, Lisa and me on our way to the local thrift store for our annual Christmas eve thrift store run. (Linda had to step out of the van to fill up on gas.) That tradition started a couple of years ago (for reasons I cannot remember), but we've made it an annual event now just because it was so much fun. We had a lot of laughs on the way there and back.

And now that those major holidays are over, Ken and I are trying to figure out a way to get out of town. We've planned a trip to Tennessee, but so far have been unable to make it out of Iowa. First there was the fog that engulfed Cedar Rapids and now we're dealing with an Ice Storm. We're going to try to get out of Waterloo today, but we'll see. I'll post the details as they become available.

The Semester is Officially Over!

Big sigh of relief! My grading is done. Or, for my English-majory friends, to take it out of the passive...I am done grading!!! I finished yesterday at 1:00 p.m. to be exact. I had no problem getting through the Hawkeye portfolios. The papers were shorter and fewer students actually made substantial revisions. The UNI revisions much more time. The papers were about 5-7 pages, with the exception of the overly ambitious student now and then who would think that s/he'd have to write 8-10 pages to get that A. Ugh. Anyway, more revisions on all 5 papers meant those suckers took way too long for me to grade. But I finished 1 hour earlier than expected and was able to start handing them back to students who were still hanging around campus on Thursday of finals week. Today I finished everything by posting my grades online.

Of course, we had a major snow storm come through here last night. We even had "thunder snow!" Apparently this is when it's like a thunderstorm outside so you hear the rumbling, but no rain. Instead....snow and lots of it! I believe we had a total of 8.5 to 9 inches around Waterloo. Here is a picture looking at our driveway.The entire end of the driveway was covered as high as the piles you see on either side. Thank you Mr. Snow Plow. We live on a hospital route so our road is always pretty well cleared, but we pay the price with terrible icy frozen snow drifts.

Hawkeye's classes were, of course, cancelled as is the case there so that meant a snow day for me! Ken stayed home from work until about noon so we could dig ourselves out. There would have been no way he would have made it out of that driveway by 8 a.m. We started by using the shovel, but soon realized our efforts would allow us to leave the driveway sometime next Tuesday at the rate we were going. I seriously began to question why we had NOT purchased a snowblower for this year. I think we thought global warming would have us receiving little snow. Fools. Neighbor George offered us the use of his snowblower in exchange for using it on his driveway as well. And so in a mere 3 hours we were all cleaned out! And just in time as our next storm is supposed to come through on Sunday. Ah, Iowa.

And so, after posting grades and then digging us out of snow, it is actually sinking in that I am officially done for a few weeks. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. I wrapped a couple of presents and determined that I'm a little short on what I need to purchase, so that will mean a trip to the store in a little bit. I'm also tasked with making Zuppa Toscana for Christmas at Melissa's on Sunday so will need to get a few things at the grovery store. I did manage to start my very first load of dishes in our new dishwasher which we have had for a week or two now! (Ken ran the first load.) Isn't she a beauty?!

I've been meaning to get this picture posted for a while. This is a picture of my friend Lynsey and me from our Thanksgiving meeting in Cedar Rapids. She, her husband Jeremy, and son Jack were back in IA from WI visiting family over the holidays, so Ken and I took a short drive to CR so we could see each other. It was a great visit and a lot of fun to just catch up. Before we knew it, almost 3 hours had passed and we figured we should probably let Lynsey get back to her family.

In other pictures, here's one of Tucker. On Black Friday, Menards had pet beds on sale for $5 and now that I'm feeling slightly better off than I did as a grad student, I decided to splurge and by the boys (Tucker and Artemus) each a bed. Tuck warmed up to his within a few days and now is a petbed "regular", but Arty has turned up his nose and deemed the bed no comparison to our bed witht he down comforter or the back of the couch in front of the window.

Oh, and yes, Tucker really is that big! That and the bed was actually made for a small dog. Shame on me thinking that a bed made for the size of a small dog would fit my cat!

I See the Portfolios... They are a-Comin'

Well, here I am sitting in my office up at UNI waiting for students to turn in their portfolios. Me, the diligent teacher, has been grading some as they slowly come it, but now my poor brain is feeling fried and I can go on no longer. I've graded 8, some of which had only minimal revisions, but I felt pretty good about those 8 until the other 41 started making their way into my office and on my bookshelves, making my small grading accomplishment seem extra small indeed.

Because it's been over a year since I officially taught a first-year composition course, I'd forgotten just how daunting the task of grading so many portfolios with so many revisions could be. Why does it seem like it took no time at all to grade those English 101 portfolios back at ISU a mere 4-5 years ago? I seem to remember getting through them so fast that I was able to return them to students during finals week (within days of them submitting them). I was often one of the faster ones among the other teachers, getting them graded and returned well before finals week was even over.

And as I think back on this, I begin to wonder if this experience is at all similar to the childbirth process I hear my friends talk about. Indulge me for a moment as I try to make a comparison. I've heard stories from mothers who agonized during the labor and delivery process only to claim that they "forgot" the experience and later wanted to have more children because of the joy of the experience, etc. etc. Have I in turn "forgotten" the pain that accompanies portfolio grading simply because I wanted to get back into teaching and leave my job this summer? Am I now all of a sudden starting to remember what the process was really like?

That said, I'm terribly behind in posting to this blog, but soon I will have some pictures to post from my fabulous dinner with Lynsey in Cedar Rapids as well as some church and flower pictures from the wedding planning. It's been a busy couple of weeks to say the least.

Ken and I had our engagement pictures taken last weekend and I just picked up those proofs today. I'm happy to report that there are some good candidates and so I think we'll have a fairly easy decision. Our Christmas cards are finally out too after weeks of struggling to get people's addresses and realizing that the postage required would cost me an additional $0.17 per card. Sigh. Nothing's easy these days.

Our dishwasher also pooped out on us last week, but I'm happy to report that we have a lovely new one in our kitchen ready to be run and we just had soft water installed today to make our usage easier. Talk about living in the lap of luxury! Cable TV, a new dishwasher, AND soft water! We're definitely movin' on up, Weezie. Oh, and I also had to take a final exam for my "teacher course" at work. Fingers crossed that I passed. Of course, add all to this the ice storm we had on Monday night, and it's been a busy week!

Tonight, at 6:00 p.m. sharp, I'm leaving my office with a box of portfolios for the weekend and am off to watch little Audra's first Christmas program. She's starring as an Angel. My camera's ready to capture the moment. Things like this make me happy to be close to home.

Black Friday Fun

After a lovely Thanksgiving Day with both families, Ken and I made it up by 6 am to do some Black Friday sale shopping. My mom and niece Nicole picked us up and we went to Younkers, Menards, Wal-Mart, Kohls, Sears, and finally a fabric store. The one with the worst lines was Menards. There was this one entrance to all the check-out lanes and you and to snake your way around the store. At various points were sales people who then told you to get into one long line or another where you then proceeded to snake your way around more of the store until you got to the checkout lanes at which point you met up with all the other people in all the other lanes that were separated from you at an earlier checkpoint. What seemed to be a system of reassurance that you were making progress was indeed a system of just shuffling people around to different parts of the store. Along the way, many "impulse buys" caught your eye. Proof: My mom ended up with two fleece balnkets for $1.99 each that someone left behind on a nearby rack. She wasn't planning on buying them, but the waiting in line convinced her she needed them.

Ken and I like to use this shopping day to stock up on new bedding for the year. Last year we got the most amazing flannel sheets for our bed for about $20 at Younkers. I love them! But to buy flannel sheets -- or sheets of any size for that matter -- for a King size bed at other times during the year is a bit pricey. Today, we made out with one new set of flannels ($24.99), one set of cotten sheets ($14), and a new down comforter ($20) for the bed. I think we're set for the year. I also picked up a new lovely light blue quilt plus shams for the guest bedroom for about $35.

Other purchases included gift items for Ken that he picked out throughout the day and some new items for me as well. No surprises here. Ken's already in "deployment planning mode" so we're trying to think of things he'll want to take to Iraq with him next year. He wants a digital camera of his own plus a small MP3 player for music (not an expensive one as one never knows what will get lost while over there). There were several good camera deals but we got to the stores too late to get them. I'm sure they'll be more sales later so I'll get him one soon.

Tonight, we're driving to Cedar Rapids, which is only 40 minutes away (people in Iowa speak about distance in terms of time, not mileage!), so that we can visit with my friend Lynsey who is in town with her husband and son for Thanksgiving with his family. They live in Wisconsin. Lynsey is my friend from my first year at UNI (1996) -- she lived across the hall from me in the dorms!

Well, I better get moving so we can get on the road! I have some wedding flower pictures to post sometime.

Thanksgiving On My Mind

I'm not thinking about Thanksgiving for food purposes -- I simply can't wait for the break! I have to teach on Monday this week, but then have the rest of the week off. Monday will be a busy day with grading and meetings in the morning, but students are working on revising now, so the ball's really in their courts, so to speak. I also have to go to my "new faculty" class tomorrow afternoon which is seriously a bore, but there's really no way out of it. It'll just make for a long day. The piles of grading on my kitchen table seem overwhelming, but just knowing I don't have to teach all week makes them seem much more bearable. I should have done more this weekend in terms of that, but I just didn't feel like it.

The weekend was pretty typical except my Aunt Beryl came in from Chicago for a visit, so we spent Friday night and Saturday afternoon at Grandma's visiting. Today after church, Ken and I did some errand running and then pretty much spent the day inside doing odds and ends around the house. He's been "working", i.e., watching football, and I've prepped class for this week, did laundry, graded one set of journals, and well, that's about it. Oh, I guess I did write the Xmas letter we'll send out this week. I just need to get it printed and get the envelopes mailed.

We had some light snow Friday night, which we awoke to Sat morning. I even had to clear off the driveway! That was kind of fun to have. Of course, it melted by late afternoon, so it wasn't a blizzard by any means. That's about it for things around here.

This weekend found us at home -- both of us at home. Thank goodness too because we've been running around like crazy. Friday night we just chilled at home with Sister Kathy who was in town. She and her daughter Kristina came by for a chili supper. Then Kathy left to take Kristina to her father's, returning later to stay over at our place. It was nice to catch up; plus having company forced me to clean the house Friday night instead of my usual Saturday morning deep clean. It was nice to wake up to a clean house on Saturday.

Having a Saturday at home meant trying to get projects done. I set Ken to work on cleaning out the garage that still hasn't recovered from our last summer garage sale. We really wanted to get it ready so that come the first big snowfall, one of us can park it in. We finally got the landlady to get Larry the Maintenance Man to get us a remote for the garage door, so we can enter without having to go into the side door first. After 5 months of waiting, she finally got him to do it and we now have a remote! Seriously, we probably should have just done it ourselves!

Anyway, Ken cleared out the remaining no-sell items and set them in the basement for next summer's sale, and we can now park in there. The only problem: it's a 1 stall garage, so we'll have to take turns. Ken says well each take it for a week at a time. I told him I get it the weeks that it snows! :)

A few weeks ago, Ken and I took a short overnight trip to Pikes Peak, IA -- a spot that's great for hiking and overlooks the Mississippi River near the Iowa/Wisconsin border. Here's a couple of pictures from the absolutely beautiful day. This is a black and white one I like of Ken walking toward the steps leading away from teh waterfall. It's a cool shot though you can't see how nice it actually was outside. The next picture is better for that.

And so, wedding plans continue to progress. Last week, we met with Pastor at church to discuss some of the details and this weekend had an appointment with the cake lady and met with one photographer. We still need to settle on a photographer and invitations. I'm planning to make some real "save the date" cards and get them out over Thanksgiving when I have more time. I feel like I'm saying that all the time! Well, I will meet with the person doing the flowers next Saturday, so hopefully, I'll get some good ideas for that then.

Who knew there could be so much work involved in getting one of these things ready? And to think that Ken and I are actually trying to do things on a much smaller, more simple scale!

Yay, Election!

So this was the first time I really truely remember being happy about an election! I was so excited to go home on Tuesday night after my UNI class to watch the coverage. Seriously, that has never happened before! Ken and I hunkered down at home in comfy pants with popcorn and watched the results come in. We stayed in the living room until about 9:30 at which point we decided to lie down and watch it all unfold. At that point Ken fell asleep, but I stayed up for another hour. The next thing I knew, I'd fallen asleep myself around 11, waking up long enough to decide that I really should turn the TV off and go to bed.

I wish I would have stayed up a little longer though as it was shortly thereafter that they called the election in favor of Obama! Yah hoo! I really wish I could have seen his speech and felt the excitement of the moment. I got up super early on Wednesday though and managed to catch most of the highlights on TV before heading to work.

It was such a good feeling to know that our country is starting to move in a different direction. Like so many others around me here at school and at home, I really feel hopeful that things will get better. And while we know the war isn't going to end anytime soon and Ken is going to have to go back to Iraq in May of 2009, at least I feel better knowing that someone is in the White House (or soon will be) that really and truely wants to get us out of these wars.

On my drive into work on Wednesday morning, it was a dreary rainy day, but as I made it up toward campus, the clouds broke and the sun peeked out. As I sat at a stop sign and looked to the right watching for oncoming traffic, I saw a rainbow -- a perfect rainbow! It stretched across the whole sky and even had a double band to it. I took a picture with my cell phone to remember it; now I really wish I had a picture for this blog. It just made me feel somewhat better about the state of things. I hope it's a good sign of what is to come with the new administration.

Wedding Update Info

So, only 7 weeks to go until the end of the semester. My goodness...will it ever end? I'm so tired I can barely stand it. And the grading...oh the grading that never ends. Just when I get a large stack done, another comes in. Seriously, the UNI classes on top of the newness of the Hawkeye classes is really doing me in. Add to that the gradiose task of thinking about planning a wedding and I've been one grouchy cookie. I have to give some serious props to my sister Melissa who is working as my wedding coordinator. She has been wonderful: calling places, people, asking questions about pricing, and just plain keeping things organized for me. If you can think of any good gifts that I can give her for doing all of this, please share! I owe her big time

Regarding wedding: things are going slow but steady. We think we've settled on Saturday, March 14 for the day. Consider this your early "save the date" blog. (Official cards to follow in the future.) It will be at the beginning of my Spring Break, but I'll deal with it. We've been working on finding a reception hall, and I think we may have finally scored on getting the Slife Ballroom at the UNI campus. BEAUTIFUL!!! I am so happy with this! Now that that is almost set (see a couple of paragraphs below), I think we'll be able to book the cake lady, set the flowers with my flower lady, get the photographer and then get the invites ordered.

The good news is that I found a dress! Can you believe it?!?! The one major thing I was freaking out about took less than 2 days to settle. The weekend before my birthday, Holly and I did a marathon shopping day around Hudson, Waterloo, and Cedar Falls. I am not crazy about shopping for such a dress and a strapless gown is so not me, but that seems to be the ONLY thing that bridal stores carry these days. I was freaking. Anyway, at the last store we went to, I found one that has straps, but is essentially sleeveless. It's really beautiful. The best part...it fit as is and was actually half off because the store was trying to reduce some of it's inventory!!! I took my mom there the next Tuesday to show it to her and we decided to go for it. So that's the dress. Check that off the list!

Ok - so what does it mean to be "almost set" Well, we're still dealing with the possibility that Ken will have to go overseas again next year, hence the fast planning for the wedding. He is in Atlanta right now at a military conference hopefully learning more about dates and timelines if in fact he has to go. We've been hesitant to plan anything (and put deposits down on anything) until we know for sure if/when he'll have to go. We're hoping March will be safe. Anyway, so that's why the rush on wedding planning.

Egads. I better stop writing. It's getting late and I have to get some things ready for class tomorrow. More later!

Early Frost, Soup and Grading

So it's freezing cold in our house! Yes, really. The thermostat in the hallway said 60 degrees this morning, but it felt like it was 20...probably because it was only 35 or something outside. I forgot to bring the plants in last night, but I think they're ok. They seem to still be green at least if that is any indication of their health.

I spent the morning making soup for a potluck we're having at school today. Like I needed one more thing to do, seriously, but I felt bad because I haven't taken anything in lately and boy do people in my department like to eat. I think that should have been one of the questions during the interview: can you cook and how often can you bring food in? So I made the Zuppa Tuscana that I made for the open house in July. It seemed to be a big hit then, so I thought it might score me some points with the department people too. I may even make some breadsticks to take along. We'll see.

Not much new otherwise. Tomorrow is our midterm break for students. This means students don't have to go to class and we don't have to teach (thank goodness!). However, all faculty have to go to in-service meetings all day. Poop. So much for my day off. Oh well, at least there's a free lunch and I don't have to teach.

I have been swamped with grading lately. I forgot how much time grading actually takes. I should be working on it now, but I was taking a break to respond via email to students' drafts for my classes this evening. I'll get back to it soon. In the mean time, here is a picture of Ken doing his sword line at a wedding we went to last month. Sharp huh? Can you find Ken? He's wearing green. Actually, he's the third one back from the front on the right. Did that even make any sense? I have no idea.

Here's shot of the cat perch Ken hung up in the basement for the cats. It used to be in my apartment in Normal where Tucker would lounge on it constantly. We don' have a good place for it upstairs right now, so he hung it downstairs. The cats now get to sleep downstairs each night because their knocking on doors at 3 a.m. was starting to get a little annoying. They can get to this perch by jumping on the Rubbermaid totes which are located beneath it. It's an adventure. Tucker likes it already, as you can see. It's amazing to me that he can even fit on this thing anymore.

Quick Update

This is a quick post as things are incredibly busy around here. Not only have I been grading non-stop for the past 2 weeks, but there is no end in sight. I have had 50 UNI papers sitting in the back of my car since last Thursday's class waiting to be graded and will receive 60 more papers from my Hawkeye kids on Monday. I've been grading as fast as I can (with some much-needed break in there of course), but I have this conference in Illinois that I've been trying to get ready for at the same time not to mention other regular course preps to attend to.

Though we spent Saturday morning working from home, we did manage to sneak away for a little bit in the afternoon. We headed downtown Waterloo for the 90th anniversary celebration of the John Deere Waterloo Operations. Planning this had been part of my job when working there, so I had to see what it all ended up being. We also had some free "Deere Bucks" from Ken's work, so we went down there for a free lunch and to see the tractors. We only stayed for an hour though as we had to get home and get ready for a wedding in West Liberty, IA (down south toward Iowa City). Ken was part of a military sword line for the bridal party. It was interesting though we had to drive 2 hours down and back and spent too much time away from home and work. Pictures to come in a future post!

Sunday found us at Sister Melissa's for a small birthday celebration for Mom. We enjoyed beautiful weather and grilled out on the patio. Afterwards, some of the gang (Ken, Josh, Jeff, and Dan) tossed the ole football around. Overall, a lovely afternoon. Then it was home again to more grading and getting ready for the week.

That said, I have 5 more Hawkeye papers to grade for Wednesday and then it's time to get started on the 50 UNI papers. Ugh. I may have to haul some of those to Illinois with me for the weekend, which does not thrill me. I need to give them back next week as I'll collect another whole set of papers from them then. This whole 6-class, 3-prep thing is wearing me down. I will have 6 classes next semester at Hawkeye, but there should only be 2 preps and I'll have already taught them this semester, so less busy work then. Sigh. I am looking forward to seeing friends in Illinois this weekend though!!!

Field of Dreams and a Polka Mass

Last weekend, Ken and I journeyed East to Guttenburg, Iowa, home of the St. Mary's fall festival and polka mass. As a first time polka mass-goer, I was treated to the interesting experience of a Catholic service with a bit of a twist: all the music is sung to the tunes of polka songs such as "Roll Out the Barrell" and "In Heaven There is No Beer." It was an interesting service, nice, though a bit surreal. You see, it was sort of like a strange dream. Some parts were normal: the priests walked out in all their adornments holding crosses, Bibles, and the like. They said traditional church-like things, such as various Creeds and blessings and whatnot. Then all of a sudden a German polka band in the front of the church (complete with people in lederhosen and dirndles) would start playing "Beer Barrel Polka" and we'd all be singing a churchy song. People were swaying and enjoying the music and the experience, including me. It really was quite enjoyable -- just something like I've never experienced before.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a wonderful German lunch of fried chicken, potatoes, corn, salads, rolls, and various dessets. We all ate too much, but it was worth it. Then it was off to look at the craft tents and play BINGO! Lisa, Ken, niece Elizabeth and I partook in a few $0.25 games of Bingo. Matt chose to watch but did help Elizabeth with her cards. We were all very excited when Elizabeth got the only win of the family, yelling "BINGO!", scaring many people nearby. I think she won about $7.00. Not bad for a 15 year old drug to the Bingo tent with a bunch of adults. Here she is after her glorious win.

After Bingo, we headed to the Mississippi River to the Lock and Dam to watch the boats go through. Here is a picture of Ken and Lisa in their almost-matching sunglasses. It was a beautiful day to be on the river, and we got to see a couple of smaller recreational boats pass through the Lock. Then Ken had to make his way up to Ft. McCoy, WI where he's been for the past week and will be for the next week for a military class. I rode home with the Wilsons and slept much of the way back.

But before I forget, on the way up to Guttenburg for the polka mass, Ken and I had a few extra minutes so we took a turn and quickly stopped at the Field of Dreams movie site near Dyersville, IA. If you haven't been there before, it's basically just the farm house and the baseball field where the movie was shot in the late '80s. Still, as fans of the movie, we were impressed! Here are a few shots of us around the site. It sure seems a lot smaller than it did in the movie. Note that the white fence wasn't around the house during the filming of the movie. They had to add that to keep people from wandering up to the house. It's an actual residence and people do live there.

Ring picture

I really should be doing something like grading or getting ready for class this week, but I'm pooped and need a break. Plus, I just don't feel like doing any of that right now. So I'm going to try to post a picture of my ring. I've been trying to get a picture posted for a while not, but every time I take a picture, it seems blurry. Finally, I had Ken try to take one farther away and then I zoomed in on it. It might actually look ok now. My ring is white gold, with three stones in the middle and four smaller ones along the side. When we have my wedding band made, it will be all small stones in white gold so that it lines up with the stones on the engagement band.

So there it is!

Thank goodness for 4-day weekends at the beginning of the semester

Week 1 is done. It was certainly quite the busy week. It's going to take some time for me to adjust to 4 classes at Hawkeye and 2 at UNI. It's very interesting seeing just how different the two populations really are. Case in point: I have 2 students at HCC who told me the first day that they are pregnant and several more who already have children (they are younger than I am). At UNI, non of my students have referenced having children or families other than their siblings and parents.

I teach at Hawkeye on MWF and UNI on TR, so at least I am not running all over the place. That will make it nice, I think, when I can go sit up at UNI on TR and grade during the morning for those classes or even work on HCC stuff for class as well. I got all my preps done for 3 of my HCC classes this week as well as my UNI one. I still need to get ready for Wednesday's HCC other class. That's on my agenda for tomorrow.

The good thing is that all of the people I work with at HCC are really nice. I was kind of worried that they might not accept me or would be snooty or resentful toward me for taking the job, but so far, so good. Of course, I haven't really interacted much yet with the adjuncts or RPT writing teachers since we have very different teaching schedules. Soon our meetings together will begin though I think. Starting the week after this one, I'll also be taking a new faculty course called Linking Teaching and er...something or other. We're required to take it as new faculty and we get "graduate credit for it"...ohh...just what I want. At least the tuition is reimburseable through the college. It's weird to think they require us to take these courses and give us credit for it. I hadn't exactly been planning on taking more classes right away, but at least they're teaching courses, so hopefully they'll be interesting.

We had a nice Labor Day weekend! We had our last garage sale of the season on Saturday. Sister Maria came and helped out all day, and thank goodness she did because we we're busier than I ever imagined we'd be on a holiday weekend. We made over $200 on a 1-day sale, which will be divided between Maria, Lisa, and Ken and me, based on what items we each sold. Ken and I plan to use garage sale money for house-related items. Right now we're thinking about either putting the money toward a nice clock for the living room or a rug for the living room floor. We haven't decided yet. The best part is that our garage is just about cleaned out again. We'll be able to put one of the cars in come winter!

Well, the night is drawing to a close and I want to get some sleep for the week. More later!

Developmental Writing Instructor, am I (alt. title: Kiss of JD!)

I did it! I got a different job! And not a moment too soon, I might add. I was going crazy in my other job (and I secretly think Ken was too just having to deal with me). I just couldn't handle any more nights of coming home from work, feeling said, hurt, frustrated, and then falling into fits of crying. You see, they hired me to be a Communication Specialist, but they gave me so little to do. Most of my day consisted of trying to look busy. One of my "projects" was in fact reading the local paper for articles written about the company. How's that for a Ph.D. coming in handy?

Of course, I would get the occasional article to write for the newsletter or to proofread, but seriously, those things just don't take very long. I don't know whether they thought writing a 1-page article on some dude's visit to the tractor plant should take 2-3 weeks to write or whether I was just writing fast, crappy articles. It also hurt a lot that the student worker (who is completing her BA in PR at UNI) got to take on cooler projects than me. Case in point, while I'm reading the newspaper, she's designing cool posters for the 90th anniversary celebration. While I'm responding to emails from people asking to have their name added/removed from a listserv, she's designing handouts for the managers' meeting. Add to that the many times she bossed me around by saying, "If you're bored, you can run these AA batteries down to recycling" or "If you're bored, you can organize the paper drawers next to the copying machine." Pu-leeze. WHo did that girl think she is?! Then, of course was the general feeling of being the uninvited guest to two BFFs' sleepover. Aforementioned student worker and our supervisor were obviously BFFs from the time before I arrived, so I clearly was a most unwelcome addition. They would sit behind my cubicle chatting all day long while ignoring the fact that I was even in the same dept (there were only 3 of us in the dept). My personal favorite was the day the 3 of us were sitting at lunch when student worker asked boss if she wanted to split an ice cream cookie ignoring the fact that I too am at the table with them. Then she proceeded to bring it back to the table, make a big deal about cutting it in half for the TWO of them, and then stared me right in the eye while she ate it, of course making a big deal about how good it was.

And so, in the midst of dealing with this hellacious work environment, I applied for a different job, and my prayers were answered when I got the call Friday night at 6 pm that Hawkeye CC wanted me! Yes, it's a little late in the season considering classes start in only a few days, but I'll take it, and take it I did! Gave JD notice on Monday at 8 am and promptly left for new faculty orientation at 9 a.m.! I had to go back half a day yesterday to work at JD and then all day today since I wasn't giving them a full 2 weeks notice, but like it even mattered. Seriously. They were all fake nice to me as I left, and I'm sure they'll be snarky now that I'm not around. But who cares, I'm outta there! They can have their little chit chats and their ice cream all by themselves now. Plus little student worker can run her own freaking batteries down to the recycling.

So, that said, I have a ton of work to do and need to get busy on some syllabi! I have a faculty in-service tomorrow. Oh, wow, this will be a busy weekend! Oh, and did I mention that I'll get paid more at Hawkeye and will actually have the college pay for my benefits! Woo Hoo! It's about bloody time this degree paid off. Yay!

Playing Hooky

I'm home from work today because I hurt my back on Sunday. I wish I had a better story for how I hurt it, but unfortunately it was just "one of those things." I had come home from church and a quick trip to the grocery store with mom and was just about to sit in the living room and have a little lunch. I bent over to get a pillow off the couch and oops, something hurt. I guess I've pulled a muscle or something, but the amount of pain that comes with such an event is enough to make me think I broke a vertebre or something. I was flat on my back for the rest of Sunday afternoon and evening, and when I awoke, I knew there was no way I was going to make it into work today. As the day's gone on, the pain has lessened somewhat, but it is still there. The worst times are after I've been lying down and want to get up or when I'm upright and want to sit/lie down. That doesn't give me much choice. Either get down and stay down or get up and stay up.

I've managed to walk around the house a bit more this afternoon and have found that sitting in the computer chair is actually more comfortable than the bed or couch because it sits up higher and takes less effort to get up or down. Great -- now if I could just sleep in this chair and wheel myself to work tomorrow. I want to be able to go to work tomorrow at least for part of the day. I guess we'll see come morning.

Mom brought me a veritable medicine cabinet of creams and lotions that are supposed to ease muscle pain. Thankfully most of them don't make me smell old. I just can't really tell if they work or not. Ibuprofin doesn't seem to do a darn thing, let me tell you. But I am now a firm believer that all households must have at least one heating pad!!! Thank goodness, due to a Christmas miscommunication, we own two. I had Ken position one on the couch before he left for work this morning and I had one in bed with me. The thought of having to bend down to plug one in was more than I could stand this morning.

I think I'm now going to try to work on my syllabus/assignments for the comp classes I'm teaching in 2 weeks. That was supposed to be on my calendar for yesterday, but as you can imagine, that didn't happen. I have to take breaks when sitting here as my back gets more achy the longer I sit. Here's hoping this goes away by tomorrow!

If anyone has any good/interesting bachache remedies, please pass them along. I'll try anything at this point.

July Updates, House Pictures & A Special Event

It's hard to believe that July is almost over, but it's been a pretty good month overall. Ken and I took a trip last weekend to Minneapolis to see the Twins/Rangers game. It was good game and the Twins won. It's always nice to be at a game when the home team is winning, especially when you really don't care which team actually wins. After the game and a late-night trip to bail my nephew's car out of the impound lot in downtown Minneapolis (the short story is that he and his buddy parked in a bad spot and got towed for a grand fine of $280), we spent some more time in and around the city.

We also hit the Mall of America on Saturday followed by a trip to the Como Zoo (which of course included animals, cotton candy and more fabulous summer mini-donuts). Then off to a lovely Italian dinner in a small town outside of the big city. On Sunday, we went to Niagra Cave (picture is of me in the cave though it's hard to actually tell that I'm in a cave. The bad hair is blamed on the 90% humidity and the water dripping from the cave ceiling.) and then made our way back home by way of Burr Oak, IA where we decided to check out the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum (not very impressive I must say). We were going to hit the Beanpod Candle outlet store in New Hampton, IA, but made it there 30 minutes too late and they were closed. We'll have to save that for another time.

Oh, and I finally had a chance to get some pictures taken of our place. Here is the front and side.

We have a 1-stall garage and a driveway that conveniently allows us to park side-by-side. In the other picture, you'll see our garage (note all flowers were planted by a former renter not us). At the very back of the yard, it slopes downward toward a little creek. We even have ducks!

The other pictures are of the inside of the place. As you can see, the living room opens up into the kitchen and is divided by a bookcase/bar. We had wanted to get some bar stools to sit there, but we just haven't done it yet. We really like how open the whole main part of the house is. It's so much easier to see and talk to each other, not to mention it makes the whole place feel bigger. Ken was busy relaxing on the couch.

In other news, this weekend, Ken and I had some guests from Illinois. My friend (and former boss) Lisa from the Heartland TTC and her husband came through with some donations for the Kleins in CR. They brought several boxes of kids' things that I'm sure will be very useful. After a quick lunch at Peppers in Cedar Falls, they were off to head back to IL and enjoy some of the scenery by way of HWY 20 and Galena.

Friday night was a rather special night as well. Ken and I went to dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse up the street from us called Tokyo. This was a major event considering that Ken doesn't eat Chinese food or Japanese food, but he was a trooper and really enjoyed the rice, steak and chicken. He even ate some of the miso soup. I was very proud of him!

Afterwards, Ken really wanted to go mini-golfing, so I said ok and off we went to Airline Highway's mini golf center in Waterloo. There, on the 4th hole, I received my engagement ring, a beautiful 3-stone ring in white gold. For those of you thinking the location was an odd choice, you should know this was the site of our first date (oh so many) years ago in May of 2001. As is our fashion these hot summer days in Iowa, we grabbed ice cream on the way home and had a lovely evening overall!

Work, weeds, and a clogged sink

This will be just a quick update as it's been a long week already and I'm pooped. Things here are fine. The new furnature arrived and is loved by all. We kept it covered for a bit during the days when we weren't home until we could figure out how the cats would react to it, but all is well there. I'll get some pictures up this weekend I hope.

Ken and I are headed to a Minnesota Twins v. Rangers game on Friday night. Our friends Kelly and Jeff gave us 4 free tickets and supposedly they're pretty good seats--about 20 rows up behind home plate...at least that's what the internet tells us where they are. We're going to stay the night at a military base for a whopping $33/night! Wowsa! We gave the other two tickets to my nephew Josh who's bring his buddy up for the game. I think Ken and I will go to the Mall of America on Saturday for a while then home again to complete more house projects. We're planning a little housewarming at the beginning of August and there's still a lot I want to get done around the place. I've been putting landscaping bricks that we got from sister Kathy's place in Parkersburg (the house that fell apart in the tornado), so that looks nice. I can't get any flowers to plant though because, unbeknownst to me, there are only certain times of the year where you can get the cheapo gardening flowers. Oh well. We'll make do. The landscaping still looks nice though with the bricks.

In other news, we bought a lawnmower with our garage sale earnings, which I tried out last Sunday. Works great! We also just finished dealing with a little plumbing issue - the kitchn sink majorly clogged and even after a bottle of draino and me tearing the pipes apart underneath, we couldn't fix it. So we had to call Philly McGilly, the landlady (no that's not her real name - we just liked the sound of it) to get a plumber in here. Surprisingly, one came out today and all is restored. Of course, this would have to happen the week we have a houseguest staying with us! My friend Tina whom I knew from UNI is in town for a youth theatre thing in CF, so she's crashing here in the evenings. That's what spare bedrooms are for, after all!

Work is, well, work. I can't say much right now about my job that I love. So far, I don't have enough to do and am bored much of the day. When I'm writing, I'm good. But I find that I have to find ways to get busy or at least look busy. People keep telling me that it's the "slow season" and that it'll pick up. It's just not very intellectually stimulating at the moment, and I feel sort of out of place right now. It's hard to get to know these people, and it's so different from teaching/academia. I feel a bit like a square peg right now. It's also hard being in a small department -- there are only 3 of us, which if I do my math right, makes me the third wheel. I'm still looking for other jobs (this is a contract position) and have applied for a full-time teaching job at the local community college....fingers majorly crossed. I keep trying not to get my hopes up, but I think it's too late for that. They're up and I'm hoping. I submitted my materials last week and the deadline isn't until this Friday. It'll be ok if I don't get it, but I know I'll be disappointed.

I do plan to adjunct at UNI this fall though in addition to the regular job. They've asked me to teach 2 composition classes, which I'm actually kind of excited about. First, more money, and second, a chance to get back in the classroom after a year off. It will be interesting to teach and not be a student at the same time.

OK - better run. I want to pull some more weeds before the sun goes down.

Sturgis Falls and other things

Llamas for Obama! That says it all, doesn't it? For me, this was the best part of the Sturgis Falls celebration parade that Ken and I went to last weekend. For those of you who don't know what Sturgis Falls is, it's basically the summer town celebration put on my the town of Cedar Falls. It's their way of paying tribute to William Sturgis, the man who founded the town and for whom the town was originally named (hence Sturgis Falls).

We went to the parade in the morning with Ken's sister Linda and family, Lisa and Matt, and his sister Maria and her family. We're definitely back in the swing of being around lots of family now, let me tell you! After the parade, we went down to the bandshell part for some food (MINI DONUTS!!!) and music. Because of all the flooding, the Sturgis Falls activities were greatly slimmed down this year. Normally, we'd have been running all over parts of the town to hear different bands and dine on such select items as the Turkey Leg, a Matt favorite, and grilled sweet corn. Given that there's no corn yet (thank you very much flood of 2008), we settled for, did I mention, mini donuts, tenderloins, strawberry smoothies, and kettle corn. All still very enjoyable. So, back to mini donuts, apparently Illinois does not believe in them. I haven't had mini donuts since I left Iowa in 2003. Man, did they taste good this year!

You may notice from this parade picture that Matt and Lisa are wearing matching NY Giants T-shirts. That's because they were fresh off their most recent trip to NYC. I believe this year they went to a baseball game of sorts at a famous ballpark, but ever the Giants fans, they show their support for this team before any other.

Here's a non-Sturgis Falls picture. A couple of weekends ago, my side of the family all got together at the Farm -- the commonly accepted term for my Grandma and Grandpa's farm out near Dunkerton, where Aunt Sheila and Uncle Roger have lived and farmed for as long as I can remember. In our family, it's just affectionately known as "the Farm." This is a picture of Audra near some flowers. She and I took a little walk around the grounds to look at trees and flowers while the grown ups talked.

To the right is a one of my favorite pictures. This is what we think is the oldest tree on the farm. I don't even know what kind of tree it is, but the cool thing about it is the one branch extending to the left. It's grown so low that it grew into the ground and then came up again. There is actually grass growing over it . Here's a shot of Audra hamming it up near this spot.

So, we're getting in some good family time since we moved back home. This 4th of July finds us enjoying some much needed time at our own place doing some house projects. We'll be meeting friend Jeff and Kelly in Dysart tomorrow morning for a parade and then a grill-out. Tonight we have fireworks in Cedar Falls and then fireworks in downtown Waterloo on Saturday night.

Back to house projects...this morning, I hacked away at a horribly overgrown and deadly rose bush in our front yard. I call it "devil bush" and Ken calls it "vile weed." No kidding on this one folks, I have scars on my hands, arms and legs from the thorns on this thing from trying to mow around it. It was so big that it was hanging over our driveway and Ken had to tie ip up with rope and a stake so that it wouldn't fall sideways. I was done with it, so I chopped it up and we hauled it away. I did leave some new growth though so that maybe we'll get roses in the future. Hopefully the landlady won't be mad. Pictures to come soon.

While I was busy with this, Ken was behind our garage desperately trying to use a pitchfork to load old dead lawn clippings into Mom's truck. Apparently the people who lived here before us liked to just dump their lawn clippings behind the garage. Here they've steadily festered into a pile of stinking grossness. Finally sick of it, I put Ken on the task of using a pitchfork to get rid of it. All had been going fine until he discovered a huge bees nest buried within it. Then, of course, he had to stop until we could purchase a can of RAID to kill them. I've never seen anyone go through an entire can of RAID in less than 5 minutes. Needless to say, the boy doesn't like bees.

In the end, the space behind the garage looks (and smells) much better and the vile weed will taunt us no more. My final words as I hacked the last bit of into smitherines...."I win devil bush." My next house project is to remove the old ugly bricks around the back flower bed and replace them with the lovely ones I got from Kathy's house post-tornado. Should be fun. Will include house pictures soon. Promise. Good news...new furnature's coming next week!!!!

Flood of 2008

As many know, Iowa experienced some terrible flooding in the past few weeks. While much of the water has gown down since then, there are the remains of the destruction the flood caused. Because I was gone for much of that time (Florida), I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures. But I did want to share a few of the old railroad bridge in downtown Waterloo.

Before I left for Florida and before the worst of the flooding, Ken and I went downtown Waterloo to look at the high water in the Cedar River. The water was at the very bottom of this railroad bridge. By the time I had arrived in Florida and called home to let Ken know I'd arrived, the bridge was gone. Here is a shot of the bridge as one drives across the 6th street bridge in downtown. At first all looks fine, but then...

You can see how the high rushing water pushed the bridge over and it is now sitting in the river. The picture doesn't do it justice really. It's much more impressive when Ken's driving over the bridge and I'm gawking out the passenger-side window.

To the left you can see the view looking directly across the bridge. Of course, the entrance to the bridge is completely barracaded. Overall, much of downtown Waterloo is fine now. There was some flooding in the area, and many of the downtown John Deere buildings had to be evacuated due to water, but I think things are mostly returning to normal now.

Things go on as normal here as well. I'm back to work after two weeks off. Ken and I had our garage sale a week ago Friday and made some good money (over $200). We're pleased and are ready to now look at what we can get in terms of a lawn mower with that. Hopefully something decent. We still have some items left (I did end up donating some items to a friend who works for a new parents' organization who could use certain items) and we'll probably have another sale sometime soon. I'm beat though and not in the mood to sit outside and do that again anytime in the near future. We do know now, however, that we have a good location for such sales. We threw up a couple of signs on nearby corners, but really didn't do any other advertising.

In other news, the new furnature we ordered on Memorial Day weekend was supposed to arrive last week, but didn't because of flooding and transportation problems. I've bet Ken that it doesn't arrive before the 4th of July. He thinks I'm wrong. I guess we'll wait and see.

Well, the week's just hitting her midpoint which means I still have to go to work 3 more days. I'm beat. I need a vacation. :-)

From Florida to Iowa

I'm back from the AP Reading in Daytona Beach, Florida. This was a hard year to be away as while I was gone most of Iowa was flooded something terrible. I would like to get a picture or two from downtown Waterloo, but as I just got back, I haven't had time to do that. Thanks to all of you who've asked me how we're doing. I'm happy to report that we're good. Ken and I have no water in our basement or home, and all of our family is dry too. I wish I could say the same for the others in Iowa.

I have 1-2 pictures of Florida on my camera to get off yet, but I thought I'd share a couple of fun ones from Ken and my Memorial Day weekend camping trip to Backbone State Park with Mom, Melissa, Jeff and Audra.

These were taken in the few days before the big Parkersburg tornadoes hit. Here you see Ken (ever the child himself) playing with my neice Audra in the sand at the swimming lake. Ken was trying to make a small castle and, for a short time anyway, Audra was helping. Then she discovered it was more fun to let him build it and then she would smash it. The next picure shows her demolishing the castle as Ken tries desperately to save it. It's a good thing he likes rebuilding. And no, the man in the background is not passed out or dead...that's my brother-in-law Jeff, Audra's dad, enjoying some downtime while Ken entertains Audra.

In other news, Ken and I are going to try to have a garage sale tomorrow. In the process of unpacking, we've discovered so much stuff that we really just don't need. And so, we're going to try to make a little money in the process of getting rid of it. Everyone says were' crazy and it's so much work. Well, yes, they're right, but We're going to try it. We may never do this again. More news on the garage sale and Florida trip later.

Here's a final shot of a big strawberry in the small town of Strawberry Point, IA. And who said Iowan's aren't fun?

Communication Specialist

That's my new title. Apparently I am now supposed to be a specialist in the art of communications. Well, only time will tell on that one, I guess. It's mid-week and I've had three full days of work. The biggest adjustment so far? Not being able to surf the internet, read & update blogs, and check my non-work email during work hours. You see, we're not supposed to go off the Deere intranet really. That's considered getting away from work. Welcome to the corporate world. I mean, it is ok to do this sometimes and it's necessary in some cases to do work-related work by researching things online. But the company actually monitors how much time people spend on the internet and will talk to you about things if they get out of hand. I've been watching other people though and it seems like no one else is surfing the internet. Everyone I meet or see at their cubical is always very busy, so I guess I should be too.

So far my first three days have been good. I was exhausted the first two days, but am feeling pretty good tonight. This was the first day I got to try my hand at some of the tasks I'll be doing pretty regularly. This includes updating the Waterloo Works intranet site and editing/writing articles for various publications. Having real work to do made the day go a lot faster. We also had a division lunch meeting at a really fancy new restaurant in Cedar Falls. One of my sister Melissa's friends (Shelly) was there and sat with me, so that was a lot of fun. She's the one that passed my resume on to the Deere people in the first place.

The first two days basically involved me shadowing the other two women in my department and taking notes of some of the things we do (web updating in particular). Thank goodness for that web experience at ISU!!! At least now I have an idea of what they're talking about. I don't know where'd I'd be if I hadn't created a teaching website or worked on the ISWP website for the time I did. I do wish now that I'd taken the Hypertext course like I'd originally planned on doing at ISU. Oh well.

I also now officially have my work badge that I have to scan each day to get in, and I have to wear it all day. I haven't had to do that since working at the Postal Service headquarters in DC. I have to confess that much of the working experience so far reminds mea lot of The Office. When you walk into the building, there's a big sign that states how many days different departments have gone without having an accident (remember that episode when Michael took the office people down to the warehouse and they had to change the once-good accidents sign?). And today at our lunch meeting, people were talking about the people who plan the Christmas parties and fall parties, etc. All I could think of was the episode of The Office where there was the Party-Planning Committee and the Committee to Plan Parties. Fun huh?

Time for dinner. More on the working world later.

Beginning a New Job

It's been a very crazy week. We spent Monday at Parkersburg helping in anyone in any way that we could. Then Ken worked the rest of the week while I was at home preparing for whatever it is I'm preparing for. Starting a new job I guess is what I'm supposed to be preparing for. I was supposed to start my job on Wednesday, but they called and asked that I come in on Monday (June 2) instead. It seems that the people I'd be working with would be in training and unable to work with me. So I got an extra three days of at home time.

We went back to Parkerburg on Wednesday night to help some more. All we were able to do was loan a wheelbarrel to Ken's friend to help clean up debris around his house. All the home owners now have to separate the debris from their house into wood and metal piles so that the clean-up crews can begin removing it. Ken went back for about 8 hours with his sister, brother, and other friends to take care of sorting the debris around Kathy's house. I went to lunch and then bridesmaid dress shopping with my friend Melissa and her other 3 bridesmaid for Melissa's November wedding.

Here is a picture we took on Wednesday night heading out of Parkersburg and back toward Cedar Falls. As you can see all of the power lines had been knocked out by the storm and here were the dedicated power company people all lined up fixing them at once. This was taken about 8:30 p.m. Now that's what I call overtime.

The tornado is all that anyone around here is talking about. I went to church this morning with my mom, sister Melissa, and her family. Tornadoes, bad insurance companies, and where to go in our own homes in the event of a tornado was the topic of conversation over coffee and cake. The truth of the matter is that everyone knows someone who was affected by this. We all have a story to tell.

In other non-tornado news, my post-graduation vacation is somewhat over. I begin my new job tomorrow, and I confess I'm a little nervous. It's sort of like the first day of college. I have a vague idea of what it will be like, but in reality I know it's going to be a whole different world than I've been used to. It's weird thinking about what I should wear, not knowing if I'll be touring the facility or sitting at a cubicle the first day. Should I take my lunch or eat in the cafeteria? What materials should I take with me? Where do I park? Oh, so many things to think about (read here "worry about" since I'm obsessing over all the little details I refused to think about all last week).

On the home front, we ordered furnature which should arrive in about 2-3 weeks or so. Finally...no more futon! We ordered a lovely light brown micro-fiber couch, loveseat and rocker/recliner over Memorial Day weekend. We'll at last be able to enjoy cable TV in comfort. The futon's been good for me these past 5 years and has accommodated many a friend and family member who's come to visit me in Illinois. She was a good futon, but it will be so much nicer to have a couch that people can sink into, lie down on, and stretch out on. Never the ones to throw good things away, we'll keep the futon in the basement for now.

Also on the homefront, we finally put up our living room curtains and Ken assembled our own little charcoal grill. Our Illinois friend Keely had given us a monetary present to purchase one when we had our Romeoville apartment, but we just never got around to getting one. But now we have it and we even tried it out on Saturday night. Here are pictures of Ken in our living room setting up, assembling, and then demonstrating the mechanics of the grill. This is the only real shot of the house I have for you right now. As you can see, we have hardwood floors in our living room but plan to get a large area rug soon to help protect them (hopefully we'll have time to get that when we get our furnature).

And so, just wanting a low-key night on Saturday, we invited Mom over to throw on some brats she had left from camping. She also put some yams in foil and steamed them on the grill. We contributed some chicken a noodle side. In all, a FABULOUS dinner. We hung around for a while after that, and I shared pictures of Parkersburg on the computer with Mom. Afterwards, we took a drive up the road to our little ice cream place called "Moo Roos" (has a great cow theme!) and enjoyed a cone. A delightful evening.

More on the first day of work after it actually happens. Wish me luck.

Tornados in Parkersburg Pt. 3

PARKERSBURG TORNADOS PT. 3

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, my friend Holly just sent me a "before" picture of the house in Parkersburg where we lived. Here is the complete before and after.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Parkersburg Tornados Pt. 2

PARKERSBURG TORNADOS PT. 2

Ken, his sisters Kathy and Maria, and I went to Parkersburg on Monday (Memorial Day) to see the devastation of the town and her house firsthand. When we learned there wasn't much we could save from her house (she did have a few boxes of items in the garage, but nothing too major), we moved on to the home of a soldier in Ken's unit. His home was pretty much destroyed as well, though we were able to help them save a lot of their furnature, clothes and dishes.


This is the home of the soldier we helped. He lived here with his wife and two young children. They survived the storm by getting to their basement. When we arrived on the scene, the two adults were trying to get out as much of their stuff as possible from the house. They shared with us that their families couldn't help because two sets of them (wife's parents and her brother's family) had also lost their house in the tornado as well and were busy cleaning theselves out -- doing the same thing. What you see here is the back of their house. The rubble in front where the car is sitting was where their garage stood. You can see the roof of the garage to the right.

This is the side view of the soldier's home. This RV trailer was originally located at a lot across the highway at least a mile, I believe, away. The tornado picked it up and molded it to the side of their house. People were constantly driving by and taking pictures of this. It surrounds the window to the family's dining room.

We spent the whole day here working on their house: from about 9 am-6 pm. (The town is being evacuated each night at 8 pm to maintain safety and keep people's possessions safe as well.) Only residents are allowed in as the town was trying to keep gawkers away.



Throughout the day, the streets were crowded with people and trucks that were working to help residents salvage their belongings. One of the things I noticed was how the people of Parkersburg, this soldier and his family in particular, remained upbeat throughout the day. Everyone kept repeating, "It's just a house. These are just possessions. Everyone is safe." It became sort of a mantra that people repeated, I think, to just get through this. Though their own homes were in disarray, and in some cases completely gone, people all over the town were checking on each other, hugging each other, and asking what they could do for each other. I only saw people get teary a few times when talking about places around the house where their kids would play, when they wondered aloud where they would live now, or when thanking each other for all the help and support that was given.


By midafternoon, several people made their way into town bringing vehicles to help load household items. It was really touching how many people gave up their holiday weekend to travel into town (some from as far as Cedar Rapids) to help this soldier, his family, and other townspeople out. The Waterloo-based National Guard was also there along with the Red Cross and several church groups who graciously made sandwiches for lunches, bringing them to each house so people didn't have to quit working. Here are some soldiers talking with a fellow soldier who lost his home. They were busy packing household items in the truck in the background.

Here is a picture of the main highway (57) running through Parkersburg. On the left would have been the town's grocery store and on the right down the road, the Kwik Star. The amount of devastation is indescribable.

This final picture is one I took from the back yard of the soldier we helped. While taking a moment to look around at the town around us, we were surprised to see a familiar sign in the background. We all agreed that it was almost as if we were being told that everything will be ok. Judging from the response of the people I met and worked alongside yesterday, I believe it will be.