Shopping, Baseball, and Home!!!

I'm currently sitting in my apartment in Plano and LOVING it. While I enjoyed being in Iowa, I'm happy to be home and settling into my life here. Can't wait to see my friends!

Speaking of friends, I had the most fantastic weekend with Amanda in Kansas City! Amanda is one of my dearest friends in Texas. We met four years ago, within the first month of me moving to Plano. We were in the same singles group at church, and got to know each other better through a Bible study. We've been close friends ever since! She's my football buddy! :) She's a counselor and is counseling kids at a military base in Kansas for the summer. So it was easy to plan a random weekend in Kansas City!

We had a great time....ate lots of good food, saw Mamma Mia (fabulous!!), shopped at two different malls, went to a Royals baseball game, got pedicures, and talked and laughed like crazy! It was absolutely delightful, and the perfect weekend before heading back to Dallas.

After Amanda and I said goodbye, I drove to Joplin, MO where I spent the night and finished the drive today. I did a lot of thinking and praying during that time, trying to decide what I learned over the summer. Several things came to mind. I'm mulling them over and may share in time.

Have a great week!

Goodbye Iowa!

After nearly six weeks in Iowa, my bags are packed and I'm about to starting heading back to life in Dallas. It's just been a strange summer. I'm not sure how else to describe it! The six weeks have flown by, but at the same time, I feel like I've been here long enough that I'm living here, not just a visitor. I'm sad to leave, but very happy I got to stay as long as I could. I'm ready to move on and get back into my life. I miss my friends, church, apartment (specifically my closet!), and the routine I have there. I've realized that while Iowa will always be "home," Dallas truly has become my home. I'm not sure how I got to this place in thinking, but I can go back feeling very satisfied being planted there, and for a long time. I've always had wonderings whether or not to move back to Iowa or somewhere in the midwest. It's good to be content where I am and know I'm right where I'm supposed to be!

Not much new going on the flood front. The water has not receded any more. FEMA still has to inspect our house. A note.....Oakville and most of the area that was flooded is in Louisa County. About 25 homes, including ours, is in Des Moines County. This is significant when it come to FEMA, because counties appeal to FEMA to start the buyout process. Louisa County has said they are not going to pursue a buyout for Oakville, which is causing problems with people. Des Moines County is going to pursue a buyout for those of us. This does not guarantee a buyout, only begins the application.

What would a buyout mean for us? It would mean that FEMA would pay about the value of our house before it was flooded. Mom and Dad would get a check for it. In return, FEMA would have possession of about an acre of land and we would not be allowed to rebuilt a house on that site. Dad would still have the farm, including buildings, and be able to farm. They just could not live there. For a lot of people, especially those without flood insurance, this is a good deal. However, it could take a year or more before the process is completed.

I went and visited the Big Ditch once more yesterday. It was strange to see it for one final time. Hopefully, the next time I'm back the water will be completely gone. There's a spot on the Big Ditch where I can stand and look straight towards our house. I would go every few days, stand on a particular sandbag and see where the water was on the farm. I took that sandbag yesterday! I felt like the sandbag and I had bonded. :) It had supported me (literally!) as I viewed my home and I felt like I should have it as a little memento of the summer.

Thanks for reading this summer! Even though I am leaving, the posts will not end. I'll continually update with things happening, and I have some ideas for stories about the house. I've been encouraged to keep the blog, so I'll probably turn it into a more personal blog, too. Keep reading if you'd like!

Goodbye! I'm off to a baseball game, shopping, and pedicures in Kansas City. Will be home in Plano Monday afternoon!

Walking through the house....

Well, I got my wish today, not that it's a wish I've ever wanted. Mom, Dad, Nikki, Nate and I all went to the house this afternoon to walk through it for the first time after the flood water has receded. Actually, it hasn't fully receded quite yet. The water is gone from the house (other than the basement of course!), but the driveway and the rest of the farm still has a few inches to a couple feet of water around it. You still aren't able to drive to it with a car because there's still water over the road. Dad hooked up the tractor to the boat (on the trailer) and we rode to the house that way. Once there, we were able to get out and walk around a bit.

We already knew what the house looked like, so it wasn't a complete shock, although very surreal. The walls are gone, but the floor is still intact, so we walked around the house just like we normally would. Only this time, we had to watch where we stepped and looked at everything. It was a complete mess. The new kitchen cabinets were gone or in different places, the countertop was on the floor and sinks were in rooms other than where they're supposed to be. The old couch that was in the living room somehow made it to the kitchen, as did the piano, which is now smashed. Everything that was familiar was unfamiliar. Everything about it was my house. But everything about it was not my house.

Something that made us chuckle....we were in the garage looking around and Dad went up the back steps to open the door. It was locked!! We had to laugh because when they left the house before the levee broke, they intentionally left the garage door up to let the water in. But out of habit, someone locked the door! So Dad pulled out his keys and had to unlock it. I guess it was nice to use that key one more time!

Dad went out to look at the grain bins. All four of them are either down or leaning, which is crippling to a farming operation. He was hoping his newest and biggest bin was salvageable. He went check and it looks like it's just been moved off the foundation a few feet. He's hoping he can lift it with a crane, repair the bottom and restore it. Pray that works!!

Here's a couple of pictures, but there's 70 of them on my shutterfly site. Feel free to look through them. I'm so glad I was able to go out there today. While it's something I wish I didn't have to see, I'm glad I got the chance to before I leave. Only four and a half days left in Iowa! Crazy!

The Den:


Kitchen Sink:


Living Room:

For Christy! :)

So I have this friend, Christy, who I've known since elementary school. She was on my school bus route and one of my earliest memories of her is that she had this really cool esprit bag and I was determined to have one just like it. I got one for my next birthday! (Christy, I'm not sure you know that! Do you remember that bag?). She was a year ahead of me in school. We were also in the same 4-H group, the Huron Peppy Pals, together. It was in high school that we started becoming good friends, as we had a couple classes together, played sax in band, and were in the same youth group at church. Because she was a bit older, she was the first to get her driver's license. I remember there were several Friday nights that my dad would allow me to (illegally, I might add!) drive to Christy's house and then she and I would hop in her little white Grand Am to go to dinner or to the movies. She went off and did that whole marriage and baby thing after college, and because we lived in different places, I hadn't seen much of her. Thanks to Facebook, we've been able to reconnect and had dinner together a few weeks ago for the first time in YEARS. Yay!

All that to say, the house my parents are moving into is where Christy's grandparents lived. Christy grew up right down the road from the house so she knows what it looks like. Christy doesn't live in the area, so she's been asking me to show her pictures of the house since I've (we've) done some painting. So, Christy, here's a few! It's all the same color - a basic cream. Hope it's ok! :)









Funny story about painting. I've been painting everyday since Monday. Mom was also helping on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On Thursday, Mom and I were painting one of the bedrooms. I was painting the ceiling using an extension rod. As I was painting, the rod snapped, sending the paint roller down. The end of it hit me squarely on the head. Later that evening, I noticed I had a PERFECT round circle of cream paint on my scalp! That spot is still a little tender... :)

One Month Later...

This past Monday was the one month mark of when the levee broke. I have now been in Iowa for a month. Hard to believe!! One month later most of the area is out of water, Oakville is cleaning up, we still can't get to our house, and my parents are slowly moving into another house.

On Tuesday, I took a drive through the bottoms and on up to Oakville. It was the first time I have been to Oakville since it flooded. It's so strange to see. The homes look like they've been abandoned for a long time with windows out and water marks on the siding. Every house has a huge pile of trash in front of it - wallboard, cabinets, insulation, and any other destroyed item. There's not a blade of grass to be seen. Every thing is dry, brown, barren, desolate, and dusty. But it was BUSY!! There were people working on almost every house, and lots of traffic. I saw church trailers from Mississippi, the Red Cross disaster recovery truck, and several dump trucks bringing rock in to repair highway 99.

I took every possible road to our house to just see how close we could get. The closest I could get was a mile from the house, which is good, but not good enough (in my opinion!!). I leave in about a week and am really, really hoping to get to the house before I do. I asked Dad last night and he wasn't sure, but hopeful. The river had gone up a bit, enough that the bottoms weren't draining into the Mississippi. The river has gone down now, so it's draining again. Hopefully it will drain enough to go. If not, Dad said he may try to find a way to get there. :)

STRANGE sighting - I was on top of the Big Ditch yesterday. As I was standing on the bridge, I looked on one side of it and saw fields still covered with water. I stood in the same spot and looked on the other side and saw lush, green cornfields - with an irrigator going! (for you non-farm people, that would be a large contraption that sprays water on the fields - think enormous sprinkler! :) It was weird to see too much water and not enough water within a quarter mile of each other. Couldn't we have balanced this out a bit?!

This week I've been working in the new house most of the week. We've been cleaning and I've been painting a couple rooms. Mom is off today and I'm about to go out there and the two of us are going to work there all day again.

I took several pictures of Oakville and the surrounding area. I don't have a lot of Oakville right now. I felt a little guilty driving around taking pictures without helping! You can find them on my Shutterfly site.

Some fun, non-flood related news...I'm about to start my fifth year of teaching in Plano, which I can hardly believe. Time goes so fast! The first three years I taught elementary special education, and last year I taught regular third grade. I enjoyed it, but realized special ed is more of my niche. I took a job at an early childhood school in the Plano school district as a PPCD teacher, which stands for "Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities." In other words, preschool special ed. I'll have a morning class and an afternoon class. I thought I was going to have all four-year-olds. I emailed with the speech therapist that I'll work with this week and found out my morning class will be THREE-year-olds and my afternoon will be fours, all with special needs. woo hoo!!! I'm really excited to have the three-year-olds and the fours will be a nice change in the day. I'll have about 10-12 in each class, and yes, I'll have a full-time aide with me all day! It's going to be so much fun!!!

The week!

Sorry for going so long without an update! Time is just FLYING by. I can't believe we're almost to the middle of July! It's been almost a month now since the levee broke.!

Going back just a bit.....as I had previously mentioned, I went to Cedar Rapids on Monday to volunteer with the Salvation Army. Cedar Rapids was one of the hardest hit areas. The Cedar River came up so quickly people didn't have time to get their belongings out. Plus, it flooded a bigger area than what was expected. 24,000 people were displaced and ten city blocks of homes were destroyed.

The Salvation Army took over an empty grocery store and filled it with all kinds of donations. Those registered with FEMA can come in, fill out a short form, and receive lots of items - for free. We loaded up shopping carts (buggies for you silly Southerners!) with a variety of items - a mop, broom, gloves, masks, bleach, scrub brushes, sponges, pine-sol, toiletries, and a box of food items. I would meet someone, grab a cart, and we would walk through these three long rows of other items. Each person was able to take any ten items from the tables. The tables were filled with any kind of cleaning item you could imagine, plus flashlights, batteries, toiletries, baby items, paper products. It was incredible how many things there were! We also gave them a 24-pack of bottled water and they were on their way with a very full cart of free items!

One thing that I noticed right away was the attitude of these people. Most of them only got out with their car and a change of clothes. They lost everything. Makes you feel just a tad lucky that at least we got all of our household items out. But they were simply grateful. Some teared up at what was being given, others were speechless. They didn't expect anything, they didn't try to cheat the system and get more. They took what they needed. Some didn't even take ten items. Others took out items from the pre-filled cart that they didn't need, "for someone else to have." There was not the slightest bit of selfishness. Only gratefulness and humility. I loved it. In the seven hours I was there, over 60 people came through, all with hearts of gold. These are Iowans!

Here's a couple pictures from the day - the pre-filled cart and the rows of donated items:





As for us, we're still hanging in there! Mom and Dad have a house they can start moving into and we're going to start cleaning and slowly move things in. We're thankful for that and it help restore some sense of normalcy.

I can't believe how quickly the water is being drained from the flooded bottoms. Mom and I drove down there yesterday to take a look and we're able to travel quite a ways on the gravel road. The houses are a mess. I had a full memory card, but am going to go back today and take some pictures. We still can't get to the house. We stood on top of a levee across from our house and could see the gravel road in front of it starting to poke out. There's probably a couple feet of water still around. It will still take quite awhile for ALL of the water to be out of the bottoms, but Dad thinks we may be able to get to the house within the next couple of weeks. I'm personally glad about that because I really want to be able to get to it before I go back to Texas, partly just to be able to see it for myself and some sense of closure, I suppose. I didn't get to see the house one more time before it was flooded and I'd like to see it once again before it's torn down.

Speaking of going back to Texas, I will be back in Plano on July 28! I have a dear Texas friend, Amanda, who is counseling at a military base in Kansas this summer, and we're going to meet up in Kansas City the weekend of the 26th for a little girl time! This will be a great tiny vacation before getting back into life in Texas. Can't wait Amanda!!! :)

Thanks again for keeping up with me. There's so, so many stories and I just need to take the time to get them all down. Hopefully soon!

stephanie

The Weekend!

Hope you all enjoyed the holiday weekend! We did! Mom, Dad, Nikki, Adrian, and myself ended up staying in a motel for the entire weekend, starting Thursday and ending today. We had a couple of rooms and while it wasn't a lot of room, it was great for them to feel like they had their own space and just relax. We stayed right in Burlington, so we didn't travel, but it felt like a getaway, and was a much needed refresher!

On the 4th, we took the boat out on Mississippi. It was still technically closed for recreational boating (oops!), but we went to check out our cabin. (More on the cabin later!). On a typical 4th of July, we'd probably go out on a boat ride and either take the boat to Oquawka, IL to eat, or else we'd dock at the cabin and cookout. This year, we took the boat to see the damage. We went up several miles on the river, and it was really an odd feeling. Here we were doing something we all loved and enjoyed, yet it was the exact thing that destroyed our farm. Weird.

The water is still continuing to go down. In fact, it's quite amazing how much it's gone down. We went to the area where the Mississippi levee had been cut to drain the flooded part. The water is still roaring out and into the Mississippi. We stopped the boat on one part of the levee to get out and explore just a bit. It was interesting to see the farm from that angle. On our farm, we have a dirt lane that runs from the house to the Mississippi levee. We have a landing, and we were able to cross over the levee and put the boat in there. A lot of that levee has now washed away, but there was still sand to walk around on.

When we were kids, we would do all kinds things on the levee. Walk up and down on it, ride the four-wheelers all over it, sit in the back of the truck and ride down. A couple of winters we even sledded down it. Now when you stand on top of what is left of it, all you see is water, and trash. There was lots of stuff that had floated there and stopped. Even the roof to something. We saw probably 10 - 15 propane tanks that had floated and gotten caught in the trees. But the weirdest find of the day.....

Our deck. Yep. Somehow, it come loose from the ground and house, floated a mile (pretty much intact) and rested here:


A few feet away - the steps to the deck (our farm is behind the steps in the distance):


More pictures on my Shutterfly account.

Tomorrow (Monday), I am going to Cedar Rapids to volunteer. Cedar Rapids is about an hour and a half's drive north from where we are. If you remember, it was one of the hardest hit areas, with about 25,000 displaced from their homes. The Salvation Army has opened a warehouse in an old grocery store. Flood victims come and can get groceries and other household items they need, free of charge. I'm going to spend the day helping those people pick out items. I'm looking forward to it. It should be a good opportunity to help out and just hear people's stories from that part of the state. I'll blog about the day tomorrow night!

Have a great week!!

Waiting...

There's really not much new to report at this point. We're kind of in this in-between stage of the destruction and recovery. We can safely say the Big Ditch held now and those that evacuated south of the Big Ditch are moving back in. The river levels on the Iowa River and Mississippi have been falling fairly quickly. As of this morning in Wapello and Burlington, the river was within a foot of flood stage and is predicted to fall below flood stage by this weekend. That's obviously great news on many levels. The Iowa River is no longer flowing into the flooded area by our house, and since the Mississippi is down, the flooded area can drain even more.

The town of Oakville itself is pretty much dry. The problem is getting to Oakville! Highway 99 is the only main way to get to the town. A big section of 99 south of Oakville has been washed out. A section just outside of Wapello (north of Oakville) also needs repairs before it is drivable. Officials were shuttling in residents earlier this week, and yesterday, the residents were able to return on their own, with a 8:30 p.m. curfew set. There's plenty of talk going on right now as to whether FEMA will try to buyout part of Oakville. We won't know that for quite awhile.

It's still very possible the water will not be gone from our farm until August. We are in the low-lying area of the flooded area and right next to where the levee was intentionally broken to let the water drain. So, all of that water has to come by our house on its way out. At some point, the water that is left will have to be pumped out by the drainage district, which is who Dad works for.

For us personally, that means we're just playing the waiting game. Essentially, all the major damage is done, although as we saw last week, a good wind or storm can change that. But for instance, the barn is still standing, and will probably stay standing. There's not much physically that can be done until the water is gone. It's different for Oakville and some others who are out of water, and recovery efforts are being organized and started now. It's going to take a LONG time.

That's it for now! It's still busy around here and plenty to do! Thanks for reading!

Des Moines Register Article

There's a really great article from the Des Moines Register about Oakville and its current state. It's written by columnist John Carlson, who grew up in Iowa. It's a fantastic description of what it's like here, including the spirit of the people.

Read the article HERE.