Downtown Davenport

Rising water still remains in Davenport.

Downtown Davenport

This is the enterance to the Baseball Stadium. There is a boardwalk going to the stadium but now the boardwalk entrance is now flooded. This is taken with zoom.








This is taken with out zoom so you can see how far away I was standing on the waters edge.











The builing that you see here is where we took a picture last Saturday in the parking lot where Dave tried to throw water on me by spinning the tires. Now you cannot even get there.






Last Saturday we were able to drive up to this building. All these pictures were taken Wednesday, four days later than the previous ones that I blogged on the 14th. The water has really risen.

June 14, 2008

Cheyenne looked so cute today and usually I take pictures of Cheyenne in jeans or her camo pants. Riley didn't like it that I asked him to stand against the tree to pose.

Here comes the rain again...

The first picture is of LeClaire Park in April and the second picture is LeClaire Park In June.
Obviously I couldn't get as close as I did in the first picture. The flood waters had receded in since April and now the flooding is much worse now. A lot of downtown is blocked off.



This picture of the Figge Museum.











Dave thought it was funny to back into to the flooded parking lot and try to peel out. He thought he was going to get me wet but it didn't work.
This is at the Visitors Center downtown. The Center was sandbagged with a sub pump pumping out water.

I think the slogan goes...Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow nor shine shall keep the postman from his rounds. Didn't say flood though.

Just three miles from our townhouse we saw people with all their belongings at the side of the road for the trash men to pickup. Cars covered in mud up over the roof. Roads caked with mud. I was trying really hard not to cry. It was just devastating. Did not take pictures, thought that that would be heartless. Several streets of houses with mud caked streets, sub pumps pumping and furniture, mattress, and boxes a ruined items curb side.

Dave called his mom who lives in Cedar Rapids where the levy broke to see if she had been evacuated. She was still in her nursing home but that at one end of the hall way there were a couple rooms with water coming up through the floor. Dave's nephew Phillip and his pregnant wife Amy had to evacuate because of lack of access to their house and went to Clinton Iowa at her parents house. Amy is due in September. Dave's other niece Laura and her husband live in Ames, Iowa and she too is pregnant and due in December is pumping water from their basement.

We are okay. We went to the basement for a tornado warning Thursday night. We heard really loud wind and then the tornado siren went off and to the basement we went. Dave got the kids out of bed and we stayed in the laundry room for awhile. We had some seriously bad thunderstorms. The worst I've heard in a while. It was hard to sleep, wondering what was going on outside in the dark and hearing clash after clash of lightening and booming thunder. We prayed and sang "Jesus songs" as Riley would say. The Lord was with us and calmed us.

Suzette's Eye Surgery

Tuesday, June 3rd I had the hydroadenoma on my right eye removed. It started growing about six months after I had Riley and gain momentum after I had Cheyenne and then practical doubled in size after my hysterectomy. So hydroadenoma is just a fancy word for a growth filled with water and sweat, are you glad that you know that? So, everyday it gets a better. I have five dissolvable stitches. My eye itchs a lot. The doctor said that what was seen on the out side was only 50% of it and the rest was inside. So before I go on and gross you out I will stop. I can just hear my brother saying stop, stop! Dale always hated my "medical" stories. So I will spare all of you the details, but here are the pictures if you want to see them, their not gross.

Day of surgery - Hydroadenoma 7 mm (the biggest Dr. Fries has ever seen was 11 mm)

1/2 hr. after surgery, with 5 stitches.

Today, June 7th. You missed the next morning when was eye was about swollen shut. I had to put ice on it for 5-10 min. every 1/2 hr. for the first 24 hrs. I have an antibiotic orientment that I put on three time a day. The doctor said in ten days the bruising, swelling will subside and within a month I won't be able to see much of a scar.

Boy Scouts Family Weekend Camping Trip

This past weekend we went camping with the Boy Scouts of Troop 43 at Scott County Park. It was pretty warm. We did have a severe thunder storm while we were there and was locked down in our tent. Praise the Lord the rain tarp worked well. The older Boys Scouts and Eagle Scouts did demonstrations such as, knot tieing, splitting and chomping wood properly, building things out of sticks, putting up a tent, first aid in the outdoors. We ate dinner together and after dinner Riley took off with some of the other biys and their father's to play and he quickly came back injured. He fell straddling a bar injuring man land and was screaming as he went down and hit his mouth and chipped off his front permanent tooth. He said man land hurt until he saw his tooth flying out of his mouth. He did find the piece. We called the ER adn they said that since he wasn't the whole tooth that there was nothing to be done. So we stayed and Riley was able to participate in the "Bridging Ceremony" He earned his Wolf Badge. He got to see what he looked like in the mirror and thinks he's cool. He shows it to everybody. We are going to the dentist much to his dismay. We all had a good time. The family next to us, LeAnn and Jody we found out were born and raised in Traverse City, Michigan and go back every year. They have a family cabin in Kalkaska County. They have been in Iowa for 11 yrs. We had lots to talk about in our old stomping grounds. Cheyenne really enjoyed the mud and dug her toes in and made a mess.