And so it begins....

And so it begins...the month from hell. OK just kidding. I love this time of year but at the same time I HATE this time of year. Hate? WHy? because starting today I will be working 20 shifts in the next 23 days, all while praying that the money I make this month will make up for the lack of money I made this year. It has been a sad year for all I know in terms of the economy, and that means the country club was hit as well. Yet surprisingly the club got new wine glasses and dishes this year, and no one got raises. Something to ponder later I guess. hahaha!

But onto why I love this season...The house looks beautiful, the kids are excited, the shopping is done and it caps off the year. I am forturnate enough this year to make Meghan's folk dance, handchimes and choir concert this year. They scheduled it on a Monday this year. The one day I don't work. hahaha! I get to go with Ryan to Santa's Village again with his preschool. FUN! Chris takes extra vacation days so we can be home together and the family is all coming at the end of the month.

I am hoping for a wonderful Holiday season this year. The year has not had many bright spots and we are definitely in need of one soon. What better than Christmas and Jesus's birth.

So Happy Holidays everyone and here's to a fabulous 2010!

And now for Halloween depression

HAHAHA! I work so hard on costumes for 3 months and then in one night it is all over. LOL Next year I think we should do a haunted house the night before Halloween. Oh what fun that will be. The costumes came out great and I am really happy with them. Aaron and Katie were especially cute! Wahoo...till next year!

Anyone dying to see Halloween costumes????? Only 3 days away! hahahahahahaha!

"and they all come tumbling down!" Boom Boom Boom!

I don't know why I picked this title. Just reminded me of an old camp song we used to sing in 4-H and the fact that everything just keeps building up, and then tumbling down in our lives lately.

Halloween is right around the corner and of course I am still scrambling to get the costumes done. Ryan had to sacrifice his cow costume and go as a chef as I really don't see myself getting to the dang cow. Maybe after Halloween. But the chef costume is pretty cute and maybe Aaron will be a cow next year.

Here's what IS done:
My skeleton costume - a different twist on the typical
Meghan's Hippie costume
Ryan's chef costume
Aaron's Elvis costume - this took forever due to all the detailing that needed to be done. But it is stinking cute!
Katie's owl body - I was working on the headpiece today but the neighbor must be cutting down bushes or something cause I can hear a weed whacker thing going and it was driving me CRAZY!!!!!!!
Chris's breast piece for his werewolf costume.

I know I am pretty close, but DI starts this week and I am not ready for that meeting, My friend Kyle is moving to the cities and his going away party is Sunday. We are a doing a yearbook scrapbook thing and the pictures I ordered are not here yet and now I have to do the whole things myself, so starting to freak out about that too.

Meghan and Ryan's birthdays are right after Halloween too and do you think their fleece blankets are made yet?????? I guess not!

But I do truly love this time of year. It has to be my favorite for sure. Anyway... time to fly!

Tidbits and more...

This last weekend was Homecoming at NDSU and the Gold Star Band Reunion. Chris and I had a total of 16 people staying at the house and it was great. Although 10 kids and 6 adults aren't great odds, we all had a blast and there was no bloodshed.

Friday night I met upn with my sorority sisters and some I met for the first time even though I have been chatting with them on Facebook for months. April and I met for the first time last month and eerily so... we are exactly alike. Watch out. Dani, whom I visited in Denver in Feb made a surprise visit as her dad has been in the ICU in Grand Forks for the last week. Although her trip to ND wasn't exactly a pleasant one we were happy she could take a break and come and see us.

Saturday was band reunion day! It has been quite a few years since there has been so many from out years in the band attending Homecoming so I was completely thrilled to see so many old friends. Our honored Band Alum was Kurt Witt who I shared piano duties with my first year in Jazz band when I came to NDSU. Our guest conductor Todd Stewart was one of our drum majors in college and he was thrilled to have such a huge band under his direction, although slightly bummed about the beer not being sold at the Dome. He swears I told him he could get beer at the Dome...only reason he took the gig. HAHAHA!

We had the Beach's stay with us as they do every year but this year we had my old percussion buddy Ryan and his wife Chureen and their 4 kids stay with us as well. The kids immediately blended together and what a blast they had.

The Bison however did not have such a great day as for a bullshit call which has now left us 1 in 4 this season. :(

The alumni assoc hosted a taco feed for the band but at $20 a head we opted out and had pizza at our house. Todd joined us as well and many stories, drinks and laughs were had. We hope he brings his kids next year. He was amazed that we just walked down to the field with the 10 kids in tow and no one questioned us. That might have part to do with the fact that I tend to ignore all authority and act as I own the place. Jane laughed when I walked right by the guy checking purses at the entrance of the dome. I figure pay no attention and they leave you alone. LOL Which means my 3 bottle of water in my purse were not confiscated!

Chris and I bought a Family pak of game tickets this year as did our friends the Rustad's. They too have 4 kids and we have been sitting next to them at the games - we have general admission tickets of course. Well for two of the games this year we have assigned seats - what are the odds that both our families have tickets right in a row???? Apparently pretty good odds as we found ourselves in section 26 row T seats 11-14, the Rustads, same section , row and seats 7-10.

I also got to see my old band director Orv this weekend and we got a great shot of the two of us together. Chris and I also took quite a lot of shots this weekend in terms of how large our family has gotten. Considering that our friends the Tibors whom were also in the band just had child number 8, I think they can cut us some slack. Although we are the ones that always show up.

The marching band is up to 186 members and we love the new director. He is just great!

So that was our weekend. Halloween is just around the corner and costumes are going well. The kids are loving school and Aaron is still an evil spawn. Today he threw a pot lid and hit Ryan in the head with it because Ryan was trying to steal his Barbie. I would let them pound each other to get it out of their systems, but I am afraid Ryan would lose. *sigh*

OK, I know....

I officially have sucked at keeping up with this blog this past summer. Seems like we are always on the go and when we're not, we don't want to do a dang thing. This month alone I/we have made 3 trips to Minneapolis and will be making two more in the next two weekend. So 5 trips in 7 weeks? Ouch!

OK, so the girls went to camp in July - Loved it and even survived being in seperate cabins. Meghan did the ropes camp this year and was able to do the climbing wall and all sorts of different activities. Katie did basic adventure camp but looks forward to doing Horsemanship camp next year. The girls barely saw each other all week - which annoyed Ryan on the trip home from picking them up. He just wanted to talk with them and they were yaking each other's ear off. They had a cold and rainy week, but it didn't seem to bother them at all.

They were home for a week and finished up going to playground center, had a sleepover with their friends and then they were off to Grandma and Grandpa Koester's for a week. They got to take a boat cruise and do many other fun things. I am still waiting on the album to see what things they got into. They boys hung at home and got to go to a Carnival as well as a bike ride to Lindenwood park and ice cream for supper.

The first weekend of August we went to pick up the girls from grandma's and the off to Litchfield to visit Katie's Godparents. Maggie and Laura showed us their projects at the Meeker County Fair where the girls got a free ride, visited a country school, won books and saw a puppet show that might inspire them in DI this year. We roasted hotdogs and smores back at their place while Aaron ran around after all the cats. Man was he tired after the day.

The next day we went down to the Science Museum of Mn where we viewed the Titanic exhibit. That was very fascinating, although no pictures were allowed. :( We also saw the Imax film Titanica and played with all sorts of different things.

Back home for a week where Ryan attended his second week of Busy Beaver Camp. He looks so forward to school this year. Being at home is just no fun anymore. At the end of the week, I took off for my friend Andrea's house to plan our 20 year class reunion and partake in some outlet mall shopping. We had dinner at Granite City and made it home just in time to dodge a tornado that night. Great fun for me and the 8 month pregnant girl. The next day was nice out and we checked out the Uptown and Loring Park Art fairs before I headed home. Chris at that time was taking the girls to Walker MN to meet up with his parents who would take the girls for their summer week.

Am I halfway through Aug yet? Close enough...Stay tuned more tomorrow!

What we've done this summer!

Since school let out on June 3rd, we have done the following:

* Ryan played three soccer games to finish up his season. He missed one game and one practice due to rain
* The girls and Ryan have been going to playground center 4 times a week. Ryan goes in the morning, the girls go in the afternoon each for 2 1/2 hours. Great sanity saver for mom as it only cost her $89 for 9 weeks for the 3 of them
* We had our final DI party of the year. The new year will begin before we know it
* Meghan enjoyed a day at the spa getting her nails and hair done at Josef's salon and being driving around town in a limo. This was one of her rewards for selling over 500 boxes of cookies this past year
* Meghan also enjoyed a pizza party with other Girl Scouts. This was the reward for selling over 350 boxes of cookies
* We had our garage sale which netted over $1300. It is a recession you know.
* The three older kids spent 4 weeks in swimming lessons. All passed their classes, Ryan passed two levels.
* Katie got her last Hep A booster shot... her pysch out was way worse than the shot
* We ended up donating over 90 boxes of garage sale items from our sale and the remanents from the DI garage sale in May. The majority being from the DI sale.
* Chris took the older three to the first movie in the park at Island Park in June. They saw Kung Fu Panda
* We have enjoyed two Sundays watching our minor league baseball team the FM Redhawks play at Newman Outdoor Field. Thank you Mike for the free tickets. We hope we get to enjoy another game before the season is through.
* We took family pictures with my parents at the Fargo Country Club. Now to decide what to order.
* The river crested at 27.5 ft in June... the very day the FCC was going to reopen the last remaining holes making us an 18 hole golf course again. We are still waiting for all 18 holes.
* I edited and put out another GSAB newsletter. I am praying to have the strength to say "no" next year.
* Katie attended JFK dance camp again this summer. She really enjoyed it and can't wait to go next year again
* We took the girls to Camp Cormorant again on July 12 for 5 days. Meghan did the ropes course this year and Katie did the adventure camp. They had a cold week and probably both froze, but neither thought to buy another sweatshirt in the camp store.
* I went to the Turf and met my friends Dani and Troy when they landed in Fargo. We used to go to the Turf all the time in college. Good times.
* I went to a gathering of my friends from work celebrating the graduation of our friend Kayleigh who is a cocktail server at the club. For the second year in a row... we got busted by the cops. Jerks. They even stopped me saying I hit the car behind me when I backed up. I never did, they were just checking to see if I was drunk. Give me a break.
* Ryan went to Busy Beaver camp the same week the girls were at camp. He went from 9-12 everyday. He had a blast. Ryan will be going again for a week in Aug.
* I got to go to the street fair on Thurs and Fri while Ryan was at camp. That was fun
* Saturday we took the girls to see Harry Potter 6 at the Ultrascreen. What a great movie. LOVED IT! and we all want to go again.

Well... that should catch you up on our summer so far. Run Run Run is all we do, but we love it that way! So what if the weeds aren't pulled, the lawn not mowed or the house clean. It's SUMMER!

A bunch of swimmers!

The kids have been taking swimming lessons for the last 4 weeks. Ryan was in Beginners for the first two and passed that level and moved on to level 1 for the last two weeks. Well today he came home and he had passed level one and can move on to level two next summer once he gets a little taller. Guess all that swimming at the Y this past school year helped him out.

Meghan was in level 5 and passed to level 6. Katie was in level 3 and passed to level 4! Wahoo! Way to go Andreachi kids! And next summer Aaron can start swimming lessons. Yeah!!!

Flood Protection!

Yesterday Fargo voted for a .5% slaes tax increase to pay for permanent flood protection. The votes came in and it was approved by 90.7% to 9.3%. WOW! Do you think Fargo wants some permanent protection??? I would say so!

HMMM....

So I find I am not blogging as much any more. It's not that things aren't going on, it's just that there are too many things going on. AH Summer!

And so on...

I just want thank the Safety Patrol in KY! What a wonderful department that was. They were there within 5-10 minutes of us stopping on Sunday and stayed till we were all safe and where we needed to be. Oh and of course the lady found us a mechanic to fix the van.

Thank you also to the Michigan DI team that stopped that Sunday to see if we needed anything.

Thank you to the semi that stopped to help in MN when my wheel came off.

Thank you to Chris for coming to rescue us. And I hope he gets better cause now he has streph throat.

Thank you to the wonderful DI kids we had this year. They were awesom and so good on this trip. They worked hard and know that they can achieve so much more. I, Chris and Kelsi are SOOOOOO Proud of them!

Busted Part Three...

OK, I might actually get this finished today. Don't hold your breath though. HAHA! Closing ceremonies were just as great as Opening ceremonies. Most of the kids were able to get their MudDI waters pin sets finished when some boys from Wisconsin showed up to trade with them. They were super nice and the girls were thrilled.

Ceremonies started out with the huge Power Cube! When opened it revealed six different puzzles that were completed by 2 elementary teams, 2 middle level teams and 2 high school teams. Each set of team competed against each other for the chance to win a $1000. It was so much fun to watch and to cheer the teams on! After that they announce the winners in each category of challenges. The girls actually sat on the edge of their seats to see if they would win. It was sweet. Kelsi and I knew better. HAHA! Private DI was last and before announcing the winners in each challenge that would show some of the challenges up on the big screen. Well Katie who hates loud noises and was pretty crabby through the whole ceremony saw her clip of her running around like a crazy flower. She was so excited and we were all screaming for her. Of course neither team won anything, but we were so proud of them. The 3rd graders took 36/43 and the 4th/5th graders took 52/54. At least neither team finished last. :)

After Closing ceremonies we went back to the dorm and dropped off our stuff and then made our way to the after party. There was pizza and drinks and tons of snacks, nachos, candy anything you could want. There was a DJ and Games to Go for the kids to play on. We danced, and ate and had a blast. Only downfall was when Katie got lost. It was scary but we found her soon enough and she learned her lesson. Party ended and midnight and that was when Meghan finally hit the wall and melted down. She didn't get to do the face painting that the other 3 girls had gotten done because the lady had to be finished. Katie cried too. They were all exhausted and they needed to go to bed.

I think I got to bed by 1 that night after packing everything up for the trip home the next morning.

Day six:
We hit the road at about 8:30, got coffee and breakfast and were ready to go home. Sheri was driving my van and we had Kaitlyn, Meghan, Lauren, and Mikayla with us. Well about 40 miles into Kentucky my cvan alarm goes off and the van is over heating. We called Bob and stopped on the side of the road. I am freaking out thinking we are never going to make it home. Tracy went walking up to find the mile marker and Bob investigated under my hood. At that time Kentucky's Safety Patrol pulled up behind Tracy and us to see what we needed. Apparently my Serpentine belt had come off, and my air conditioner pipe was cracked through. Sara the Safety Patrol called her mechanic and he agreed to stay back from his trip to Gaitlinberg to look at the van and fix it but he was in church and couldn't do it till 2 PM. It was like 10:30. So I am upset and crying because this is my van. Chris is at home freaking out cause he wasn't there etc. Finally the tow truck guy shows up with a flat bed trailer and gets my van loaded up. We had put Tennessee or BUST on the back and it was definitely BUST! The tow truck guy gets it loaded and off he goes with Tracy who said he was smoking, talking on the phone and crossing 4 lanes of traffic with my van on the back of his truck. He literally took us to some backwoods shop in KY! Bob was laughing that it was a scene out of Deliverance. We ditched the van at the shop and went off to have lunch in London, KY! After lunch we went shopping at Walmart till the guy called about the van. Good news was that we could drive it home without the a/c, but that would need to be repaired when we got home. Funny thing is it was new as of the day before we left ND.

So the mechanic put in a new waterpump because there was some play it int - that was a new pump as of Feb, and reset my serpentine belt. Taped up my A/C and we were off. We got to Seymour IN, where we had stayed the first night at 6 PM. Took us 9 hours to go 5 hours. UGH! No swimming for the kids in Madison that night and no comfy beds at the Marriot either for us adults. We pulled into Madison at 1:30 AM! UGH! Oh and in that time I thought my Ipod was stolen too. It was a stellar day.

Day Seven:
So Memorial Day was a beautiful day. I found my Ipod! Thank God. AT least it wasn't stolen. We hit the road at 8:30-8:45 and didn't stop till we hit Maple Grove, MN. We were making great time and would be home by 4:30 PM. YEah!!!!! So we took our lunch to go and hit the road. Around the St Cloud exits the van started feeling like we were driving on a really bumpy road. It was get better than worse, then better than worse. Sheri called Bob and asked if the road was bumpy. He said yes, and you're not losing your wheel. So we said OK and continued to drive. I let go of the steering wheel and the van wasn't pulling or anything. But it kept getting worse and Sheri and I decided to pull over. Sheri called Bob and told him. We were about 1 1/2 miles from Avon, MN. We looked at the wheels, they were all straight and seemingly not falling apart. I called Chris and told him and he said go to Avon and meet Bob and have him look at it. We relayed that message to Bob and started driving. We literally drove two feet and the van went Thunk and tilted off to the right front! I thought I had driven in a hole. Sheri opened the door and said the wheel fell off! OMG! Are you fricking serious!

Yep there it lay with two lug nuts on the side of the road. I flipped my hazards on. and Sheri and I just hugged each other. Katilyn was crying, Marissa was crying and I was flipping out. I called Chris and he flipped out. We called Bob, they turned around and came back. What f'ing luck! I was just floored. We were all laughing at that point cause what else could we do. State troopers showed up, got us a tow truck and we hauled half the kids up to Albany at the DQ. I know the troopers thought we were nuts. Chris gave Lhonda the boys and headed out to pick us up in Albany. I was just thanking God that we had decided to pull over when we lost the wheel. Had I been going 75 in the left lane like I was it could have been awful. We could have been hit by another vehicle etc. I am just sick thinking about what could have happened.

So the van got towed to Albany, Chris came and picked us up and the girls were all thrilled to see him. They were talking non stop to him. Bob joked that my St. Christopher medal didn't work, but then I told him that St. Christopher is the patron saint of safe travel, not the patron saint of your van won't break down. So it did work. We were all safe. We made it home at 7:30 that night. THANK GOD!!!

So the story with the van. When my a/c was replaced it needed to have three screws tightened down. One in the back and two in front. The back is supposed to be tightened first, the belt set then everything is tightened down. Apparently the mechanic never tightened down the back bolt and we lost that. The system then tilted and the belt came off flying up and taking out the a/c pipe. As for the wheel? 3/5 posts that my lugnuts screw into were rusted through and the remaining 2 snapped. Why those three were rusted we have no idea. Maybe it sat in a snowbank too long, we don't know. It should be fixed by the end of today and Chris and Bob will go pick it up on Sat. I refuse to drive it and I have a feeling it will be traded off in the next couple of months.

So overall the trip was an awesome one. At very least it was one the kids or adults will ever forget. WE all had a blast and we are all home safe. I am still very tired, but we are getting back in our routine and guess what???? We are very psyched for next year's DESTINATION IMAGINATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Busted Part Two!

So other things happened on Day Three: The girls did some pin trading in the afternoon. Kelsi and I also got to go to the Team Managers room for treats and massages. Oh and my credit card got declined. Apparently they flagged it after I charged $400 plus for Dollywood tickets. Oh well got that cleared up though. When I got back to the girls trading pins, Katie was crying because it was hard for her. She is shy and didn't like going up to the kids to ask to trade, well some guy must have seen her crying and came up to her and said "I don't like trading pins and I don't want to take these home." and he handed her a bag with 10 NH pins in it. She was just thrilled! And then that made it easier for her.



Day Four: We went to Dollywood!!!! Oh the kids were excited. We got to see the Smokey Mountains and ride all the rides. Meghan went on her first roller coaster ever and it was called the TN Tornado and it went upside down three times. She was so excited! She wanted me to go but I said no way! I don't do the upside down thing. AHHHH!

The 3rd graders went off with Tracy to ride rides that were a little less scary and the other four adults and 5 kids went to ride more thrill rides. We decided to go on Mystery Mine. Didn't look so bad from the outside and looked like a ride I had been on at Valley Fair so I talked Meghan into going. Bob, Sheri, myself took, Meghan, Mikayla, Kaitlyn, Lauren and Zoe on this ride. Apparently Kelsi was the only smart one and she stayed behind. OMG!!!!!!!!!! It was the worst ride I had ever been on. Inside the building were two spots where the ride went straight up vertically and then dropped back down past vertical at 100 degrees. I swear I opened my one eye one and promptly closed it. We got off the ride and Mikayla was crying, and Meghan looked shell shocked like a bomb went off in front of her. My hands shook for 1/2 hour. Yikes!!! SO we all agreed to come back and get Mystery Mine t-shirts and wear them when we got back to Fargo.

We then met up with the younger kids for lunch and a couple of rides then split off again. We rode the Thunderhead - Meghan went twice and that was fun too. We ended the day with the Dollywood Express which we took around the park. It was a great day! Oh but what an awful ride that was. HAHAHA!

Day Five:

This was an early day as well. The Dotties had a ton of work to do on their set and to practice and it didn't go very well. My 3rd graders had their Instant Challenge and while they didn't completely complete the challenge, they never gave up, for which I was proud. After the IC they performed their TaDa! and did an awesome job. We then went to the University Center to see another Challenge in their catergory and they were amazed. It was a middle level team, 6-8 graders, but WOW!!! I taped it to show the others later. What a great job they did. They then went out and did their Chalk art and completed their health survery to recieve another pin. We then went to the KCC to trade pins while waiting for the other team to finish working.

Lunch was in the World's Fair Park again and we had pulled pork sandwiches. Food was awesome, you never wanted for anything as there was plenty of everything. Meghan was stressing about pin trading but I told her not to worry and I would help her out that afternoon. I had my own pins to trade too but I had been helping Katie with hers as well. The hardest was finding all the states participating in the MudDI waters pins. They were a set of 9 guitars from MT, ND, SD, IA, IL, IN, NE, MO and MN. You started out with all 9 from your state and then you traded the other 8 to complete the state. MT was extremely hard to find and our AD's were able to get 9 for us. I think only a couple of kids didn't complete their sets. But the hard thing was other people not doing MudDI waters wanted the set too, so they were trying to trade you for those pins.

So the 3rd graders traded pins while the other kids got ready for their performance. We went and saw another team perform the INstinct Messaging as our kids were and man was our team in trouble. Oh well. They performed and it was great. Their set stayed up, thankfully and they got through it. The experience alone was worth the trip and they are all pumped for next year. The parents on the other hand need the summer off!

So more pin trading while we waited for scores. The hot pin this year were the set of 8 California Hard Rock Cafe guitars. Meghan got one and Katie I think got two. Pins from other country were hot items too. Katie got one from Guatamala. Meghan and I both got ones from Korea. There were people lined up trading pins every where. Just kept going on and on. So we traded pins. Katie got upset again and not even 30 seconds after she started crying again another guy came up and told her "I don't want to bring these home. I think you should." and he gave her 10 CO pins to trade. And one of those was the one I had been searching for so yeah for me!!!!! I looked at Sheri and said, maybe I should start crying and I will get pins too. hahahaha!

But pretty much all the pins got traded. We came home with a few ND ones left but over all the experience of pin trading was worthwhile. After dinner we got all ready for Closing ceremonies and off we went.

Part three later...

Tennessee or BUST!!! It was more like BUSTED!!!

OMG!!! what a week! This will be the longest post ever I swear! First and foremost we made it to TN safely and thank God we made it home safely too despite a few extra stops along the way. But we'll get to that later!

Day one: Tues the 19th. We took off at about 8 AM after getting Starbucks and stopping to plug the DVD player back in in Bob's van. Bob's van had Katie, Marissa, Brenna, Lauren and Kaitlyn. Tracy and Bob were the adults. They led the pack. My van had Mikayla, Meghan, Zoe, Kelsi, Sheri and I. We drove long and hard the first day and made it to Seymour, IN that night about 12:30. That left us about 4 hrs and 45 minutes left the next day. The girls were all awesome or assume and Chris would say and they spent their time playing their Ds's, and watching movies.

Day two: off to KNoxville at about 8 AM. We arrived at about 1 PM. Kelsi and I got the teams registered and then it was off to the dorm rooms. We came out of registration with so much stuff. Holy cow! It was all very organized though and we were lucky and got our Dollywood tickets for Friday. Got put in Hess Hall on the 4th floor. Which unfortunately for the 11 of us girls was a male bathroom floor for Globals. So the 11 of us had to go to the 3rd or 5th floor for bathrooms and showers. UGH! but we got everyone settled and Sheri, Bob and Tracy took the kids and their pins to the Global pep rally while Kelsi and I tried to find where to bring my props for our challenge the next day. That's when the trouble started. We couldn't find out where to take my props. I got yelled at for driving where I shouldn't have in front of the convention center. No one could tell us where we were supposed to go. We finally started talking to the cops instead of the UT people cause they had a better clue. So we ended up at the loading dock at the KCEC building where my kids were supposed to perform at 11 the next day. The guys at the loading dock had no clue where I should put my 2x2x2 box and when I went in there was no other 2x2x2 boxes so I knew I wasn't supposed to be there. SO that was when I first started crying and called our AD Roxanne. She came down and we figured out where I was supposed to go. Meanwhile Kelsi and I are missing our team manager meeting. Got the props stored, got hugs from Roxanne and from big barrel of a guy from NY and then Brian took Kelsi to her meeting and I got to mine.

So after our meetings we made it to supper then I went off to the dorms to get our opening ceremony tickets and met up with Brian our other AD for ND and turned Mikayla, Meghan, Lauren, Marissa, Brenna and Katie over to him so they could march in with the other ND teams for opening ceremonies. And all I can say is WOW!! All the kids and people. The Stadium was packed! It was so awesome watching our kids walk in opening ceremonies carrying our State Flag! They had a lazer show and speeches. The kids were on webcam and then they dumped confetti on them afterwards. They were so thrilled and happy and what a cool experience!

Afterwards it was back to the dorms and showers for all 8 girls. What a chore that was! But got it done and was in bed by at least 11:30 PM. Right? UGH!

Day three: The Dotties - 4th/5th graders had their instant challenge early that morning so they were off to breakfast by 7 I think. They did a good job and their ending TaDa was awesome. Mystery Inc which is the thrid graders and my team ater breakfast and then headed up to the KCEC for their main challenge. They went through their box again and then we chilled till challenge. We got checked in at 9:50 and they showed their appraisers their stuff in their box and then it was off to the Studio to prepare their challenge solution. They got 30 minutes in there and it was the longest 30 minutes of my life. Sitting there not saying anything or reminding them to check their notes again was nerve racking. But we made it through and then they got to make sculpture out of playdoh for another appraiser while they waited to go in for their challenge. They made a question mark, octopus and a few other things the appraiser hadn't seen that day so that was fun for them.

So in for the challenge they went. I was extremely nervous for them. It was a big room and there were lots of people. The Dotties all showed up to see their challenge and they thought it was great. Their detective was Nate the Great played by Marissa, Brenna was Annie and Katie played a crazy talking flower. Their superstition was flowers on a ship bring bad luck. Their surprise element was a invisible padlock. I was so scared they wouldn't know what a padlock was, but they did and figured out how to put it into the play. They didn't go over time, and they had a blast, were loud enough too. The appraisers talked to them and then we all went upstairs for team pictures.

We had lunch at the World Fair Park and it was great. Pulled beef sandwiches. The food was endless at every meal, tons to eat, tons of drinks, water everything you could want and more. And there was hardly any waiting to get your meal. Very well organized and managed. After lunch Sheri, Tracy and Bob took the girls swimming while Kelsi and I attempted to drive to the convention center to pick up my props and drop hers off. That went a little more smoothly than my props trip went. We got the scores for Mystery Inc. They almost earned half of the 300 points they could have gotten getting a score of 147.96. I was very proud of them. The appraisers loved Katie's flower character. Kelsi picked up the pictures, I got the scores and props and then we made our way over to the KCC, where I realized I had been driving with my parking break on. UGH! I swear I am so stupid sometimes. But Chris assured me I would be fine. We dropped off the props and were dumbfounded by the other props. OMG!!! They were amazing compared to ours. Our teams have a lot of work to do next year. WOW!

We had dinner next and then went back to the dorms to let the kids work on what they were going to do for their Improv skit at the Improv Fiesta that night. They fought and disagreed, cried and finally got something together. They dedicated it to Chris because he couldn't make the trip. And they were great, again another proud moment for us. They then went over to the other Improv stage where they did challenges with a college Improv team. And what a blast. They all got to go on stage and perform and recieved a pin for doing so. They also got a pin from doing their skit too. Man were they excited.

Another late night and they made it to bed by 11 PM, Kelsi and I a bit later. Sigh!

Posting part 2 of the story later. Stay tuned!!!

Two days left!

Two days left till we leave for TN!!!! We are leaving Tues morning between 7:30 and 8. I am really excited. I have the team box packed and laundry is almost done. Tonight I will pack the bags with the clothes while I watch 3 hours of Survivor. yeah~! Tomorrow will be spent running around and doing odds and ends before the trip and at 7:30 PM everyone should have their bags here and we can pack the van. Hope it all fits. We have a total of 13 people going and hopefully it will be a smooth trip. Only bump being that tomorrow my van needs to go in to get a leak fixed in the air conditioner compressor or something like that. Chris assures me the mechanic, KNOWS it has to leave for TN on Tues. ASSURES ME IT WILL BE DONE! UGH! We shall see.

The garage sale was yesterday and with the silent auction we raised about $1700. Overall fundraising efforts have earned us $8400. Our goal was $10,000, but I am pretty happy with what we raised. I think everyone is.

Opening and Closing ceremonies will be webcast live. They will start at 6:30 PM CST on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Click here to get to the link. Maybe you will see us. Both Katie and Meghan will be walking in opening ceremonies. And both teams including Kelsi and I should be walking in closing ceremonies! We'll try to wave!

Anyway wish us luck. Wahoo!

One week left!

Well we leave in one week! Are we ready??? Um??? highly unlikely! But we will go and make the best of what we do. The list is long this week of things to do. AHHHHH!

Katie got her hair cut for Locks Of Love last Saturday. It is way cute and she is so happy! The girls and Ryan ran in the Fargo Marathon. The girls ran the mile and Ryan the half mile. It is always so much fun to watch all the kids run in. Chris didn't run this year though. It was so cold too and we had a lot to do of course.

I am going to bring Chris's laptop to TN in hopes that I can get on here and keep everyone posted with how things are going. Katie's team has their main challenge on Thurs and their instant challenge on Sat. Meghan's team is just the opposite. We have Friday off to go to Dollywood. Wahoo!

Well better start working on that list. UGH!

WOW!

OK! Holy crap! It has been a long time since I have updated this blog. Hope you didn't think we got sucked into the river and washed away.

The river crested about 2 1/2 weeks ago at about 34.1 ft. Lot lower than the first time around. We did find out that we get to claim all our hours of flood prep and repair on our flood insurance claim up to 150 hours. We probably put that much in... NO? We did finally get the furniture back in the basement for Katie's 1st Communion and Confirmation last weekend. What a relief!

So anyway... Katie's 1st Communion and Confirmation was beautiful and it was nice spending time with everyone. If you are looking for pictures don't hold your breath. I won't be getting to them anytime soon I am afraid.

Things are winding down???? Maybe. Dance is done, but soccer for Ryan is kicking up. Faith Formation is done, but we are still working every week on Destination Imagination. Meghan has two more meetings before we go on May 19th, and Katie has 5 more. UGGHHHH! We were going to travel on a coach bus with the Casselton teams, but they raised the price and we decided to drive ourselves. So we are taking our van and the Lewis's van, filled with props, luggage and 13 people. hahaha! Fun fricking trip! hahaha! Fundraising is going fairly well. We are gather silent auction items and rummage sale items for the May 16th Fundraiser. Donations have come in from the donation letters we sent out. We don't have a number yet of what we have brought in, but it has been rumored that we recieved two $1000 donations. The kids have worked 2 Bingo Nights at the school and are to receive the $$ for that.

Last night Chris and I went to the Billy Joel/ Elton John concert. It was amazing. I am dumbfounded how those two can just fly across those piano keys. It was an awesome concert and we had a blast. I have loved Billy Joel since I was 8 and my parents took me to see my sister's band the Flyers play at the Monti Club. The drummer Keitzel would play "It's still rock n roll to me!" everytime we would go.

The Fargo marathon is this weekend. The kids are running on Friday night for the kids race. Not sure if Chris is running the 5K, but we are going up to Tanie's house to watch the marathoners run by. Typically we would have just walked over to the neighbors house, but because of the flood and the clay dikes, the marathon had to be re-routed. Now they are running a big loop twice. Fun!

The girls and I went out and bought flip flops and shorts today for the summer and for the trip. I also let them buy their Nintendo Dsi's today too. So now they will have something do to on the 20 hr trip to Tennessee.

I can't remember if I covered everything. I am hoping to get caught up by the 4th of July. This spring has been extremely nasty to us, and the trip to Global Finals is taking up all our time. So I apoligize for not keeping this updated, but it has been INSANE. No other word for it. *sigh*

Another Flood!

So as of next Thursday they, the NWS, is predicting that our friend the Red River will rise to 38.8 feet. After that who knows, could raise higher or crest and go down. The Sheyenne river which feeds into the Red is already shooting toward a record crest of 20-22 ft. So again we wait.

Easter is this weekend and I am so not insired. I don't feel like getting the kids dressed and take pictures, the baskets and eggs haven't been done, and I am just not in the Easter mood. I am sure all the kids will come home muddy from church and the house of course is still a disaster zone. And we have over 360 people coming to the club for Easter dinner where I will be all day long, starting at 9 AM. Oh Joy! But since we don't know what that river will do next week and whether we will be open by next weekend, to work I must go.

The parents from DI are having a meeting on Saturday to discuss our fundraising efforts. We are helping with Bingo Night next Friday at school and the PTA has said we can have the profits from that. I have written the donation letter to businesses and am getting prepared to send that out next week. We have also talked about doing a rummage sale in May and try to have everything donated. Since most people have pulled all their stuff out of the basement we are hoping for a lot of donations. The Forum is putting an article in the paper this weekend talking about the opportunity the kids have been offered and where donations can be sent. I will post that here once it is in the paper.

So a lot of things going on and I am exhausted. This trip is huge and the responsibility of planning it is wearing on me. And the disorganization of the house is driving me nuts. I just want the river to behave and go back to where it belongs and then maybe life can be a little more normal. Whatever that means I guess! LOL

Back to school!

So my kids went back to school yesterday. ASSUME! as Chris would say. (long but funny story) They were excited, I was excited. Ryan gets to make up his three missed days of pre-school and that is ASSUME too.

We have no bus service now for the kids which is a huge pain in the ass for us, but we will make due. Because of the dike down our road the bus could get through, but there wouldn't be enought room for the kids to get off the bus and safely around it to get to where they need to go. And since that dike is going no where for a while, I am picking the kids up from school. Walking home for them isn't an option either as the dike from the school blocks the side walk that they walk on and for them to get to the other sidewalk they would need to cut across the parking lot. All in all it isn't safe. In addition to that I left our neighborhood 5 times yesterday and saw three traffic violations at the intersection by the school. Our road is a one way now due to the dike, and the people that live on the first two turn offs think it's OK to go down the street the wrong way even though there are DO NOT ENTER signs posted. So that is 2 of the violations I saw. The third one was a lady that ran the blinking red lights right in front of our school. I am so irritated with the stupidity of people these days it isn't even funny!

SO the first crest is over and I am back to work fulltime this week. Just waiting for the second crest now which will probably come sometime at the end of next week. Forecasters are predicting another high crest, possibly higher than the first. So we are all sitting here waiting for that to happen. Dikes are in place and are being looked at to make sure they will hold another crest and people haven't put anything in their basements again. I am sure at one point I will get a call from work telling me we are off again because they have closed up our dike in the parking lot. What a mess. We are far from being back to normal. We are just maintaining till we know what we need to do next.

Chris and Kelsi are going to the PTA tonight to get support for the DI trip and I need to get the donation letter started. The paper has also been contacted in terms of getting some media coverage too. We are very excited about this, but there is so much to do yet. AHHHH!

Anyway... off to get something accomplished. Hard to do when your main floor and upstairs is filled with boxes and furniture. haha!

Go Shopping!

Mayor Dennis Walaker says GO Shopping! and rest and relax this weekend. Well damn it that sounds good. The NWS has issued a new crest level for the Red River to hit anywhere from April 15-22nd. They think the river will crest above the record set last Sat. Anywhere from 41-43 ft! Are they kidding me????? Seriously I just want to go back to work and stay back at work. But Walaker is the man and he has watched this river many,many times and he thinks it will crest much lower than that. 37-38 ft. I can do that! I have met Walaker a number of times and he is so nice. He just is such a sweet and genuine man. He says don't worry, I'm not going to worry. Dikes will remain in place and if they need to be topped to 44 ft then we top them, but he is urging all residents to take a break from the flooding and relax. Relax for the next round I suppose. haha!

Anyway, I go back to work tonight and hope we stay open for longer than a night. Chris is at PRACs this weekend and will be back tomorrow. We might actually get all of Meghan's girl scout cookies delivered this week. Don't want to foot that bill till we do get them delivered. I am leaving the house tomorrow afternoon for alone time and will probably start moving some of the stuff into the sunroom till we figure out what this river will do. Good news is as of yesterday we are now covered by flood insurance! HAHA! Wahooo!

The 3rd and 4th grade teams have decided to go to Globals in TN for DI. So now the fundraising begins. I will be working on a donation letter this weekend to go out to businesses, and Chris is working on handouts to present to the PTA on Tues in hopes that we will get some support, as well as some $$. And lucky for me the week we go falls in the middle of a pay period so my checks won't suffer. The kids are excited. We are too. So DI meetings start up again on Thurs. Yeah!!!

I took the kids to see Monsters vs Aliens yesterday at the theatre. We took advantage of the free popcorn refill and brought the extra home. Love that theatre popcorn. They were pretty good. Aaron of course was a pain for a bit but then passed out the last 15 minutes. It was good to get them out of the house. School starts Monday and I cannot wait. They can't either.

Can't believe Easter is in a week. Have no idea where the kids' Easter clothes are and have bought nothing for their baskets. I guess that is what I will do tomorrow. I am letting Meghan help me with the baskets this year as we let her in on the big secret a month ago. Huge blow to her at first, but now she is excited.

Anyway off to rangle the children!

More video

This video is really cool. It is an aerial view shot from a Blackhawk. You can see the Rose Creek area and the dike that Chris helped to build. We went out to dinner tonight and Ryan's favorite place, Buffalo Wild Wings and then to Target to pick up some things. It is messy and dirty and muddy out. Oh and now I remember why we don't all run errands together anymore!

Another one

Things leaning toward normal?

Well Chris went back to work today. Good for him. Promises to pick up my mail. I think he should just bring it home at noon. lol The girls go off to piano tomorrow to start making up the lessons they have missed. Right now they are at the neighbors where they spent the night. I keep pretending it is a school day and they stay away till 3. lol

Aaron has been especially naughty today. I may have Chris bring him out side to shovel when he gets home. He has between last night and now has ripped part of the pillow on our couch, broke a stand off the back of a picture frame, Figured out how to get the canister off the vaccuum and dumped that, ripped the remaining part of a plug off our lamp in the living room. That lamp hasn't worked in weeks, cause the plug part started tearing off and Chris hadn't fixed it yet, well Aaron ripped the rest off today. Has gotten into the kitchen and messed with my espresso machine which is a HUGE no-no! On and tried to order a Penthouse movie on our tv and locked that up so I needed to remember the code to unlock it. That was after he took the batteries out of the remote and lost one. I don't know if he will make it out alive after this flood.

The city is starting to open spots in the contingency dike today. That is the clay one down our street. So it is noisy with trucks again. And I just noticed a Bob Cat clearing out our driveway! I don't know who that is but sooooo cool! We have some heavy snow here.

Haven't heard about the situation at work. Since they are closer to the river than here, not sure if they will open that dike. We shall wait and see.

That's it from here. We might actually crawl out of this mess!

The Red River became NASA's Image of the day. Here is a satellite image of the Red River on Saturday! COOL!

Flood Video #9

Blizzard today. We got about 6 inches yesterday and more today. We haven't gotten our mail since Friday. Paper is hit or miss depending on the weather and no milk delivery since Tues.

I an struggling with the fact that I might not ever go back to work. Defeatist attitude? Sure, but we were told yesterday Easter. The dike won't come down till the river hits 36 ft. Ok, but that was before they predicted the river could crest again at 37 ft to 40 ft again. So does part of the dike come down so we can work or do they leave it up for a month? The second crest could come mid April.

The kids are doing well and for the most part keep themselves pretty occupied. They play Wii in the afternoon and have been playing with their Ello set. Every room is trashed and I have no idea how I will be ready for Easter or Katie's confirmation at the end of the month. Stir crazy has a whole new meaning here.

Chris is home from work today as all non-essential businesses have been asked to close. Oh and then there's that blizzard outside. GRRRRR!

GRRRRR! So today marks the umpteenth day I have been stuck in the house. Chris went back to work and thankfully doesn't have to use his PTO for fighting the flood last week. YEAH! We're gonna need that. I found out today that we probably won't be going back to the club till Easter. Yep 2 more weeks of unemployment. Double GRRRRR! The city won't take the dike down that is in our parking lot till the river hits 36 ft. Well we are going to get up to 12 inches of snow today and tomorrow and they are expecting another crest of 37 ft mid-April. We are sooooooooo screwed. I mean at least $$ is coming in but hard to think about fundraising and saving money for the kids to go to TN when I'm not working. Oh well we will see what we all think at the parent meeting we are planning this week.

I did get out of the house for an hour and a half today as we took Meghan to get her hair cut for Locks of Love. It looks sooooo awesome and she is extremely happy! Pictures She loosk so grown up now. scary!

Not much else going on. Chris will probably stay home due to the blizzard. They are worried about the winds creating waves and knocking down sandbags. I dont' think this is ever going to end! lol

Chris and I played cribbage yesterday. Haven't done that in ages. He thinks he is awesome and can play so much better than I. I am only one game behind him. What a dork.

Anyway still hanging in there. What an adventure and long from over. Should take 2 months to clean up the mess in town. hahaha!

Flood Pictures

New Problem

Now this is a good problem to have. As you know both Meghan and Katie are in Destination Imagination. Well their tournament was canceled this weekend because of the flooding in this area. This tournament was the State Affiliate tournament and would decide who would go to Globals in TN, May 20-23rd. Well since we didn't hold our tournament due to uncontrollable circumstances it has been decided that all ND that can and want to have an invitation to Global Tournament! WOW!

What an incredible opportunity for these kids. In talking with the parents of Katie's team, 2 have opted out for other reasons and the remaining three and strongly leaning toward going provided we can come up with the resources to go. It would cost a little over $800 per person to go on this trip. Yes the team would be down to 3 girls from 5, but the beauty of the Improv challenge is that anything can happen. And there are 55 more days to work with them.

Hoping to hear more from Meghan's team today. It would be a shame for them not to go as well. They have 6 team members and one has opted out. They could re-write for 5, maybe even 4. We shall see.

In terms of the River? Well it is down to 40.4 ft and slowly declining. There was a dike breach last night at Oak Grove school up north and at least 2 of their buildings were flooded. We got out papers today so we can catch up on the coverage. Chris continues to take walks and check things out. We as the neighborhood all take responsibility.

Today I guess I will be working on this trip and seeing if we can make it work. Fundraising is not my forte, but it will be needed. The kids will need to get together as much $ as they can. We will go to PTA for support as well. Any help would be great. I just fear Katie's team will go and Meghan's won't and Meghan will be devastated. *sigh*

Flood pictures from today.

More video:
Fargo Flood #4

Fargo Flood #5- in this video they talk about digging up the Centennial soccer fields. This is the girls' school

Yeah!

Prediction line is going down. The map now says we have already crested! 40.82 ft! WOW!

Saturday

HMMM Saturday huh? Hard to remember what day it is now. haha!
The trucks and backhoes worked all night and they are still out there now building our dike. The river has slowed and has even dropped a tad to 40.76 ft but they are still predicting that 42 ft crest. We shall see.

The boys fell asleep before 9 last night and Chris and I actually got to watch a movie and were in bed by 10:30. That was nice. We may let the kids go out and play in the yard today since there is no one working anymore and that dike is pretty much done.

However we feel pretty cut off as we have no paper or mail service to us now and not sure how much road there is left in our street to drive out on. lol Not that anything is open for us to go to.

Chris and I are going to take some pics of me by the huge dike this afternoon. YOu won't believe how big it is.

Cheers!

Videos of the F-M area

Fargo Video #1

Fargo Video #2

Fargo Video #3

Sandbagging video

Just click on each link and it will take you to You Tube to see the video. Our neighborhood is shown in many of the frames.

These are awesome!

Chris took these from a couple of the houses he helped dike this week.
Flood Pictures

This is at 40.86 ft. River is slowing. We feel good.

Damn straight we are confident! Screw you Red River!

Fargo's mayor still has confidence in flood fight
Posted in: Valley News Live Local/Regional, Valley News Live Local/Regional Mobile, Valley News Live Flood Watch By Daron Selvig, Valley News LiveMar 27, 2009 - 9:38:17 AM
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"Am I confident? I have nothing but confidence," Mayor Dennis Walaker said at a news conference Friday morning. "We've already played the fear card, to some extent."Fargo's mayor says the city's flood dikes will remain built to 43 feet. He says he is confident that level will be enough to contain the Red River's crest.
The river is now predicted to crest at 42 feet Saturday night.
"Am I confident? I have nothing but confidence," Mayor Dennis Walaker said at a news conference Friday morning. "We've already played the fear card, to some extent."
Walaker said the main focus in the flood fight up until this point has been to expend every possible effort to build the earthen dikes. Since that's been completed, for the most part, crews will be patroling the dikes, checking for leaks, and reenforcing them when needed.
However, there is still a great need for volunteers at Sandbag Central. The city is asking people who live near the Dome to walk there, not drive, to cut down on traffic, so trucks carrying sandbags have a clear path. The city is also telling people who don't live near the dome not to go there.
The city is also asking people who are helping neighbors sandbag to walk to the homes in need, instead of drive.
Around 2:00 am, Fargo issued a mandatory evacuation of all homes east of 4th Street South between South River Road and Lindenwood Drive. The city said it was a precautionary measure after finding a crack in the dike. Engineers will be working on the dike today.

Stupid people!

CNN journalist, others arrested on Fargo dikes
Posted in: Valley News Live Top Headlines, Valley News Live Local/Regional Mobile, Valley News Live Flood Watch By The Associated Press - FargoMar 27, 2009 - 12:12:08 PM
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Fargo Police Sgt. Ross Renner didn't have many details of the journalist's arrest, but said the man appeared to be taking pictures at the time. APA CNN journalist and seven other people have been arrested for standing on top of sandbag levees in flood areas in the Fargo area.
Fargo Police Sgt. Ross Renner says officers made the arrests Wednesday and Thursday after seeing people climb up on the dikes.
Renner says police will continue to arrest anyone they see on top of a dikes out of concern for people's safety and the integrity of the levees. He says it's likely all those arrested have been released.
A CNN spokesman said the cameraman who was arrested was shooting video at the time and was unaware of any restrictions on climbing the dikes. The journalist was released on bail.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

River is at 40.66 feet. And Schools have canceled through April 3rd!

More pictures of our situation. We had pasta for lunch and some french donut thing our neighbor made for us. Starts with a B but I know I can't spell it right now. Very good. Beneights???

This pictures are of our clay dike being built. It will be done soon. Kids are playing Wii this afternoon. Aaron has a cold and cough now and his schedule is SOOOO out of whack. We are all out of whack. River is slowing down so that is good. Chris went to the store for more food and some lady was bitching cause the drive thru pick up wasn't available. Dumb bitch! Go home and fight the flood.

I have been keeping up with my friends and the country club family on Facebook. What a God send that has been. The support there has been great. We have all been checking in with each other.

Anyway... Check out the Pictures

AHHHH A brand new day! Our secondary dike is nearly complete. They will finish it once everyone is out of the screwed zone. Some are choosing to stay, but most are leaving.

This morning we will pack the van and finish moving the important stuff. Treadmill is lofted but could end up being a loss. What can you do. Chris and I were up to 12:30 last night. He was sandbagging, I was moving stuff.

The river is at 40.37 ft which is a new record. I mean if we are going to flood let's break a record, no?

Dennis Walaker has issued evacuation of two South Fargo residents and Moorhead had evacated two parts of their city.

Looks to be another long day, but we will keep fighting.

The Lewis family came over and Ryan and Noelle came out where we were sitting and started hugging each other. Then Noelle says "We love each other!" Ryan - Yeah " we love each other!" It was a riot! This went on and on till finally we sent them downstairs to run in the empty basement. OH boy!

Cheers!

We are hanging in there. Chris is out helping to dike to 44 ft now. And thank GOD the clay has started to arrive and they are building our secondary dike. We have a place to go if we need to leave...our bags are packed other than toiletries. We will pack the van tomorrow just in case. But for now we are staying put and will wait and see. If the Lewis's across the street decide to send the kids and Lhonda, then I will leave too and Chris and Bob will stay to fight it off.

Meritcare has decided to evacuate and parts of Fargo and Moorhead are being evacuated as well. Majors roads are being closed tomorrow so that the trucks can get back and forth. And they are going back to the FCC to dike it to 44 ft as well.

Keep the prayers going. We are going to make it through. Oh and all the Girl Scout cookies we have left to deliver and in suitcases and on the 2nd floor. haha!

I don't know what to think now.

SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT: Red River crest in Fargo raised to 42 feet, could even hit 43 feetIn a stunning blow, the National Weather Service has raised the crest prediction to between 41 and 42 feet and potentially as high as 43 feet for the Red River at Fargo-Moorhead by Saturday.


In a stunning blow, the National Weather Service has raised the crest prediction to between 41 and 42 feet and potentially as high as 43 feet for the Red River at Fargo-Moorhead by Saturday.
The weather service said the crest could continue for three to seven days.
The service’s Web site shows the river hitting 42 feet late Saturday. The current record is 40.1 feet in 1897.
Fargo and Moorhead had been racing to add another foot to their dikes, trying to build them up to 43 feet to prepare for a crest of 41 feet by Saturday, after the weather service bumped up the crest from 40 feet on Tuesday.
The crest, once it reaches Fargo, could continue for three to seven days, according to the weather service.

OMG!

We are now expecting a crest of 42 feet on Saturday night.

Almost there...

We are almost there. Volunteers have spent all day trying to reinforce the primary dike in our neighborhood and the secondary has not been built yet. All the sand bags we saw this morning went to the homes that will be between the two dikes and to the first dike. The secondary will be clay. And we are praying they start that tonight as the river is already over 39 feet.

All the furniture is out of the basement and I have packed clothes for the kids and I if we need to evacuate. I do not want to leave Chris here, we all stay or we all go. We shall see who wins that battle if the time comes.

I have been copying pictures off Facebook today of other neighborhoods in Fargo Moorhead. It is scary. Some of our friends have left or have sent their kids out of here. Our GM at the club climbed the dike to check on things there and was told he better leave or the police would arrest him. Stupid.

So the crest is almost here. Will just wait and see now. We are prepared as we can be, so we will just hope for the best.

More news

I have added more Flood Pictures to my Shutterfly Share site. Some were taken last night and some were taken this morning by Chris. We have to be extremely careful as they are arresting anyone on the dike that shouldn't be on the dike. And we don't need that! They are building a secondary dike down our street. We are the second house off of Rose Creek Dr in our cul de sac. The street was lined this morning with pallets of sandbags, so I guess that is what they are using for this dike. Last night we were told it would be a clay dike, but they they may not have enough for that. However I think maybe they decided to use the clay along River Dr, since last night residents there were told that the city would not be building a secondary dike for them because supplies were short. However we get our dike I will be happy.

You can read up on our Flood flight at the Forum's website. I think you have to register, but it is free. Evacuation plans should be out today or tomorrow. I will get some bags packed in case, but we plan to go down with the ship. Chris said last night he won't leave till the Mayor tells him and that seems to be the case for most of our neighborhood. These are our homes and we will fight as hard as we can for them. We got lots of peanut butter and bread just in case. hahaha!

Anyway off for another day. Kids are going to be watching a lot of TV this weekend. lol

DI tournament was cancelled!!!!

Yeah I don't turn out to be the bad guy after all! I just emailed the DI director and told him Centennial wasn't coming. He emailed back to say they canceled the tournament and are looking at ways for the kids to compete so that they can still send teams to Globals in May. YEAH!!!!! Our kids will still have a chance to do their challenges. Thank GOD!

Yeah! We are getting a secondary dike!

Chris and our neighbor Bob went to the neighborhood flood meeting tonight and found out that they are putting a secondary dike down Rose Creek Drive. Thank God! This will be a second barrier to protect our house if the first dike should break. However in 97 they had 3 weeks to get that secondary dike up and in 09 they have 2 days. They may however use the Hesco containers instead of using clay.

The sand bag dike isn't quite done yet. They are almost there and starting again in the morning. There is one house that has a walk out basement and they are really having a hard time getting the dike solid there. A neighbor told me they are talking about getting another 5000 sandbags and diking from their patio door to the main dike in hopes of bracing it better. So Chris is going out in the morning to #1 snowblow, #2 go take a bunch of pictures of the dike and water, and #3 sand bag till noon.

And lastly, I made the decision tonight to not send the Centennial teams to their DI tournament this weekend. It is in Casselton and the DI directors are not canceling it. We could drive out there sure, but no one wants to be away from their houses on Sat when the river crests. I don't think it is safe, and I would hate to see something happen while we were out there. Further more DI is a school sponsored event and Fargo Public schools are cancelled including all after school activities. This would include DI. So we will do a big party for then in May and then there's always next year! Did I say that????

SO off to bed, Bob and Chris are moving furniture tomorrow. We have plenty of bread and PB and I will post more pictures tomorrow. God Bless!

New crest level!

They are now predicting the Red River to crest at 41 ft! All dikes are being raised to 43 ft. They are predicting the crest to hit at 1 pm Saturday.

Holy crap!

Chris just called and told me the engineers came out and want the Rose Creek dike raised to 43 feet. It is at 42 now and has plastic on it already. They are taking off the plastic putting down a layer of 3-2-1 sandbags and the laying the plastic down again. Yikes!

Finally some logic

Just got the call that the club is closed till further notice. Guess it looks like a warzome over there. Hoping I can stay on unemployment. I think I should be able to, but I don't know the logistics. Let's hope I can.

On other news... Di tournament still on. WTF!

More news

'Big push' under way Major effort needed today in flood fightFargo officials are calling for another massive volunteer effort from area residents to get sandbag dikes finished by tonight in backyards threatened by rising water in drains and creeks.
By: By Mike Nowatzki and Helmut Schmidt, INFORUM


One of Doug Stensgard’s dogs, Annie, looks out Tuesday over what used to be a 5-acre yard and an outbuilding that is now flooded by the rising Red River in Fargo. Stensgard built an earthen and sandbag dike around his home in the hope of holding back the floodwaters. Associated Press

Volunteers build up a wall of sandbags Tuesday along the amphitheater at Trollwood Performing Arts School in south Moorhead. The stage was moved from north Fargo to south Moorhead to bypass spring floods, but because of the rainy fall season the current landscaping is not far enough along to prevent flooding. Carrie Snyder / The Forum

Fargo officials are calling for another massive volunteer effort from area residents to get sandbag dikes finished by tonight in backyards threatened by rising water in drains and creeks.
With cold weather expected to follow overnight rain and snow, Mayor Dennis Walaker said at a news conference Tuesday that the window of opportunity to build strong dikes is small, but doable.
“(Today’s) our big push,” Walaker said, adding that he wants all areas of the city protected to a flood stage of 42 feet by the end of the day.
“We’ve made a tremendous amount of progress on the south side of Fargo. We need one more day,” Walaker said.
“We need to go another 24 hours” of delivering and making sandbags, he said. “We need a really good day.”
Dike and levee construction in most of the vulnerable areas of Fargo was 70 percent or more finished Tuesday, city figures indicated. But some spots, such as along Drain 27 in southwest Fargo, and North Terrace in the northside Oak Grove area need to be addressed today, officials said.
“We’ve had two great days in a row,” Walaker said in calling for another big effort. “The confidence comes with what we saw today.”
If sandbagging takes too long, overnight temperatures in the teens through the weekend could “create havoc” in placing sandbags, Walaker said. If there is a positive with the cold, it will slow the flow of the spring melt and the rise of the river, he said.
City engineers expected to inspect all dikes overnight to see where they needed to be bolstered, with sandbagging starting in earnest again today at 8 a.m.
Walaker said a contingency plan in case of dike failures will be released Thursday, as will an emergency evacuation plan. He did not elaborate on those plans.
The river at Fargo surpassed major flood stage of 30 feet at about 8 a.m. and had risen to 32.8 feet by 10:15 p.m. Tuesday. The National Weather Service’s Web site shows the river hitting a crest of 40 feet at 7 a.m. Sunday.
Thousands of college, high school and middle school students responded to desperate pleas for volunteers Tuesday in Fargo and Moorhead. They passed sandbags so quickly in spots in Fargo and Moorhead that at times they outstripped the ability of officials to get finished bags or bags and sand to them, Walaker said.
“The kids did fantastic,” he said.
North Dakota State University President Joseph Chapman said there won’t be school today or Thursday so students and staff can continue to volunteer in the flood fight.
Fargo middle and high school students will also be allowed to continue sandbagging, said Dan Huffman, assistant superintendent for business services. Huffman said more than 2,100 students volunteered Tuesday.
Fargo Oak Grove Lutheran School students will also be joining the flood fight again today.
About 700 to 800 students from Hatton and Grand Forks, N.D., also volunteered to sandbag Tuesday.
In addition, about 800 North Dakota Army and Air National Guard members were taking part in the flood fight on the Fargo side of the Red River, and hundreds more were working on the Minnesota side.
So far, Fargo volunteers have made 1.3 million of the 2 million sandbags the city needs, said city Enterprise Director Bruce Grubb. He said sandbag-making at the Fargodome and the city’s garbage facility will continue 24 hours a day until the goal is met.
“We’re diking where we’ve never diked before,” said Fargo City Engineer Mark Bittner.
Fargo is looking at building contingency levees near City Hall, the Oak Grove neighborhood, at South River Road to protect the water plant, River Drive south of 32nd Avenue South to about 40th Avenue South, and along Rose Creek south of 40th Avenue, Bittner said.
Officials were encouraged that the Red River at Wahpeton, N.D., appeared headed for a crest of about 18 feet, which would be almost 1½ feet lower than the 1997 crest.
National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Riddle said the river at Wahpeton barely rose from 17.49 feet to 17.50 feet from 8 to 9 a.m. As of 9 p.m. it had fallen to 17.3 feet.
Still a major concern for Fargo, Riddle said, is water from the Wild Rice River at Abercrombie, which was at 27.43 feet at 9:15 p.m. – just over 17 feet above flood stage – and is projected to hit a record 29 feet Thursday morning.
Fargo Police Chief Keith Ternes asked motorists to yield to truck drivers who are transporting sandbags, and also to slow down to avoid sandbags that have fallen off trucks into the roadway. He also asked residents with non-emergency questions not to call 911.
In the Oak Creek and Meadow Creek and Rose Creek areas of south Fargo on Tuesday, lines of middle school, high school and college students snaked from streets, through side and backyards roiled with churned-up muck, passing sandbags to build dikes against flooding expected as the drains to the Red River start filling.
Preston Brekhus, 15, a Fargo South Campus II student, was covered from head to toe in mud by 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. He’d been sandbagging for three hours before taking a break.
The best part of it? “That’s probably getting out of school,” Brekhus said.
The worst part? He picked at his mud-slicked pants and jacket. “The worst part is getting muddy, and it’s all cold.”
Oak Creek residents were grateful for the help.
“I think the people who’ve come are just amazing,” said Marion Harris, 4404 Oak Creek Drive. “I think everyone is just glad to have them here.”

***** So I went to the club last night for work and yes we did actually have some tables. The clubhouse looks beautiful but I don't see us working much more this week. I have tonight off from work and today the City is starting to build a dike that will run from the maintenance shop all the way across our parking lot and tie into the Southwood Dr dike. They are protecting the city, clubhouse be damned. So we will be sandbagging the clubhouse and hoping for the best. The city is using the Hesco containers that were used in new Orleans. They are big rectangular sections that can be hooked together and filled with sand. We will be able to get into the parking lot until they decide to close the entrance to the club.

We woke up to snow this morning. That will slow the river a tad, they are pushing to get as much done today. School was canceled for the elementary kids, so the kids are home today and they are going to be working. The scariest thing now is that the cities are getting ready to release evacuation plans just in case they are needed. That thought just terrifies me right now. But as with everything in life, you take it in stride and go with the flow. We will be as prepared as we can be I guess. lol We are signing up for Code Red so that we will be notified of neighborhood emergencies.

Chris's project is still a go so he is at work trying to work when he would rather be out helping with the sandbagging. Crystal Sugar apparently doesn't care if there is a flood. His deadline is Monday. I am waiting to hear if they are going to cancel the DI tournament on Sat. As of yesterday it was still on.

It is just absolutely surreal to see all of the helping hands. People are coming here from the cities to help. If even for a day. Concordia College in St Paul is busing up 103 people today - their football team, their basketball team. They left at 6 am this morning and will be home again at 11 PM. Just to help save our city. A friend from college came up yesterday to help. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

So off for the day. I plan to get all the boxes and stuff up today, Furniture tonight and the we will assess the garage I guess. Don't know what to do about some of that. There is one tote in particular I need to find and loft. It has our wedding album in it I think. Don't ask me why it is out there. I don't know why. Oh and I have to get my nails done. Priorities. Have to look good for this flood no? haha! Cheers. :)

Pictures

Flood pictures - hopefully you can get to these pictures. They were taken this morning and were taken through my van window. Semi's with sand bags are receiving police escort through the city.

FROM BAD TO WORSE: Forecast flood crest earlier, higher than first thought F-M area steps up efforts upon hearing news Fargo-Moorhead and surrounding areas were inundated with bad news Sunday with a new predicted Red River flood crest that now could reach 39 to 41 feet and arrive as early as Friday – a foot higher and day earlier than originally forecast.
By: Patrick Springer, INFORUM

Fargo-Moorhead and surrounding areas were inundated with bad news Sunday with a new predicted Red River flood crest that now could reach 39 to 41 feet and arrive as early as Friday – a foot higher and day earlier than originally forecast.
Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker pleaded for stepped-up volunteer efforts as the city races to prepare for a flood that now appears likely to surpass the flood of 1997, which crested at 39.57 feet.
The worst recorded flood in Fargo’s history was 1897, when the Red River climbed to 40.1 feet.
“Volunteers – it’s time to take this thing seriously,” Walaker said in a news conference Sunday afternoon, as a light rain began falling – the beginning of several days of forecast heavy rains falling on ground already saturated from fall rains and a sudden spring thaw.
To handle the higher crest, the number of sandbags needed to protect Fargo has jumped to 2 million – a daunting task given the next couple of days of rains turning to snow expected to hamper efforts at a critical time.
The higher projected river levels also mean more Fargo neighborhoods will be threatened and will require protection, in most cases a layer or two of sandbags, city officials said.
Engineers on Monday will issue a list of threatened neighborhoods in addition to the approximately 13 originally slated for protection.
The most immediate focus in Fargo: neighborhoods along the river between 32nd and 40th avenues south, an area that will require an estimated 350,000 sandbags.
“Our first line of protection is along the river,” Walaker said. Truckloads of sandbags began pouring into southernmost Fargo Sunday.
Besides the ongoing plea for volunteers, city officials made multiple appeals for residents to cooperate, including a request for gawkers to stay away from areas near the river or areas where dikes or sandbagging operations are under way.
Issues area officials addressed Sunday:
E A major concern is traffic that will intensify today as thousands of people return to work. Police Chief Keith Ternes urged motorists to choose north-south routes as far from the river as possible and to use Interstates 29 and 94, if possible.
E Code Red alerts will be broadcast via telephone to areas of town that are not threatened, with a request that neighbors walk to nearby areas to help in sandbagging.
E Worsening weather conditions, with heavy rains turning to snow, will compound an already daunting task of protecting the city.
“What’s scary right now is the weather,” Walaker said, noting that the city’s past flood fights generally occurred in favorable weather.
Conditions will become especially difficult after temperatures fall below freezing Tuesday and Wednesday, making sandbags rigid and resulting in a porous barrier.
“You can’t place frozen sandbags,” Walaker said.
Despite the mounting challenges, the mayor said he remains “cautiously optimistic” the area will be able to beat the flood, as it has in many years past.
He estimated earthen dikes were mostly complete late Sunday, with some nearly complete. The higher crest, however, means dikes now must be raised another foot or so.
Still, the mayor said contingency plans are being made for an evacuation, in the event that becomes necessary, and people should take precautions, including moving valuable possessions upstairs.
One fear, Walaker said, is that the Sheyenne and Wild Rice rivers will flood overland and merge with the Red River – a confluence of water several miles wide that would have to make its way through the narrow funnel formed by levees in Fargo and Moorhead.
“It’s like an hour-glass that we’re forcing all this water through,” city manager Pat Zavoral said.
Officials emphasized, however, that the focus remains doing everything possible to beat the flood, and urged people to redouble their efforts.
City officials have been notified that at least 25 employers are releasing their employees to join the flood fight, along with Cass County Jail inmates, North Dakota State University football players, and public school students in grades 9 through 12.
Police are escorting trucks delivering sandbags, and people are urged to go to staging areas and take shuttle buses to the sandbag barricades.
“What we want to do is avoid any kind of chaos,” Walaker said. “To win this battle, we need your help, even more so.”

***Chris has sandbagged one window well and will be finishing the second tomorrow. He is off sandbagging and we will move furniture tomorrow I think. I have most of the stuff toted up but will pick up more rubbermaid containers on my way home from my photograpy class. Should have been canceled but for whatever reason it wasn't. The treadmill is the big issue. I think we are going to fold it up and lay it on the bed and hope for the best. HAHA!