A PRIMER ON LIFE IN SOUTHEAST IOWA

Some of you reading this are from SE Iowa, so you would know most/all of this. But many of you are my fantastic friends from Texas, and I know I've been throwing around a lot of names of people and places. So to put it all together, here's a little glossary of life here. (not in alphabetical order!). :)




24034 30th Avenue, Oakville, IA - our address (location marked with red star on map). We live in Des Moines County.

Oakville - a small town of about 400. No stop lights, not even a blinking one! Has a huge grain elevator, bank, post office, and a restaurant that changes hands every year or two! Our house is about eight miles from this town, but it's officially "our town." The levee broke right outside of Oakville, just to the west.

Mediapolis - about 12 miles from the farm. This is where I went to school, all the way from kindergarten to my senior year of high school, with pretty much the same 75ish kids in my grade! We are the Mepo Bulldogs! I claim Mepo as more "my town" since it's where I went to school (the kids who actually lived in Oakville went to Wapello). It has about 2,000 people and boasts three flashing stoplights!! This is where my Grandma Stoller-Rowell lives, as well as some other family.

Wapello - One of our biggest rivals in high school. Where I did part of my student teaching.

Burlington - When we say, "we're going to town," Burlington is where we go. It's about 25 miles away and has 25,000 people or so. It has many stoplights! :) My parents go to church here (Oak Street Baptist), it's where my Gramma Mack lives, as well as Nate, Kim, and Peyton. Most of Burlington is on a hill, so it wasn't flooded, except for some businesses downtown. It has the only Walmart, Target, etc. in the area. We're getting our FIRST Starbucks in ten days!!!!! I'll be there the morning it opens!!! :)

Gulfport, IL- right across the river from Burlington. This is where a major levee broke a couple of days.

Keithsburg, IL - just a little north and across the river from the farm. In the summers, we would take the boat over there quite often to eat at the Lighthouse or their Dairy Treat. A major levee broke there last weekend.

Highway 99 - a highway that begins in Wapello, goes through Oakville, and ends in Burlington. This is how you get to the farm.

Family



Christmas 2007 (our final Christmas in the house!) - left to right - sister Nicole, her son Adrian, Mom (Paula), Dad (Steve), me.




The Stoller Siblings!- left to right - Kim (Nate's fiancee), Nate (younger brother), Gramma Mack holding Peyton (Nate and Kim's son), Nicole with Adrian, me



Grandmas! On the left is my Gramma Mack, who is my mom's mom. She's the Gramma that comes and visits me in Texas occasionally. On the right is my Grandma (Stoller) Rowell, my dad's mom. She is my grandma that built the house that flooded. Love them both tons!!

So I've been helping take care of my two nephews this morning and it's taken me about two and a half hours to finish this!!! Guess that's what it feels like to be a mom! I'm going to try to get the aerial pictures posted this afternoon. We might also be taking a boat to the house today. I can't believe I just typed that sentence. "...take a boat to the house." Unreal. Even after seeing it with my own eyes last night, it's still surreal. For some reason, I still expect to be able to drive home this weekend. That won't happen for a couple months, if ever.