Flood!

One of the interesting things about working on Peoria's beautiful riverfront is the occasional flooding that takes place. The company I work for moved our office to the riverfront in April 2008. Since then this is the third time it has flooded. This past year has been unique in that it doesn't usually flood this bad in a period of just one year. Our building is thankfully up on a platform (next to Joe's Crab Shack & Old Chicago) whereas the River Station is not. So our office is safe from the flooding, but our parking lot gets covered in a couple feet of water.

Back in September we couldn't come to work for two days because the water was covering the lovely and somewhat scary scaffolding that is set up for us to walk on. Yes, scaffolding. It is set up so we can get in one of the stairwells. When it flooded after Christmas, we were off for the holidays anyway so we weren't affected. When we came back our parking lot was like and ice rink.

Anyway, here we are again this morning with a flooded parking lot. Thankfully it doesn't smell bad like it did in September (the smell of nasty river water and dead carp). It wasn't in our parking lot last night when we left work, so the river came up very quickly last night. You would think that people would be smart enough not to leave their car parked where it is going to flood, right? But there are two cars parked by River Station that have water up to the headlights.

The good news is that there is a possibility of a day off tomorrow depending on the rise of the river levels! Here are some pictures of when it flooded in September; it's not quite this high yet, but it's getting there.

It's been quite a while since I made my last post. Although I admit nothing real exciting has happened since then to make me rush to my computer and write.

Last weekend was a good one, lots of family time. Friday night Mike and I went out to eat with Mom and Dad Fritz, Michelle, Abbie, Emily, Lynette, Nate, Laura, and John at Olive Garden for Michelle's birthday. It was quite fun, although with all those cute kids how could it not be? I got an absolutely hilarious picture of John sitting on Nate's shoulders with this huge grin on his face. The funniest part of it all is that is holds onto Nate's hair for support. Then we stopped by Mom and Dad Fritz's for a few moments before returning to Mackinaw.

Saturday we had a baby shower for Mike's sister, Rachel. Mike's other two sisters and their families came for the weekend. That evening we all gathered at Mom and Dad Rasmussen's. It's quite a house full with two new babies and one on the way. It's going to be quite noisy at holidays and family from now on!

It was a good relaxing weekend! Although I admit I'm a little tired and I miss that hour of sleep. I need a vacation! Too bad it's still two months away!

Beauty

Mike and I visited Glacier National Park in Montana last summer. Since then I have been checking their webcams that they have linked to their website. It's really neat to watch the scene change throughout the day. They especially have very dramatic weather changes in the winter. Here's a couple of the images that I captured from the webcam. Here's the link if you want to check it out. http://www.nps.gov/glac/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm

My New Toy

I'm so excited because I finally got a treadmill!! I looked for a used one last winter but decided that we shouldn't be spending the money to buy one. This winter I didn't even look for one, but I just happened to be reading a small newspaper that we receive weekly, and I saw one for a really good deal. It was owned by an older couple the next street over from us. Hopefully I can keep myself motivated because so many people buy one and then never use it. Mike is really good about motivating me so hopefully we can both push ourselves to work out.

A Trip To Remington

My husband, Mike, and I went to Remington, Indiana, this past weekend to visit my sister and her family. My sister, Michelle, and her two girls also went too. We left on Saturday morning and got to Remington about 12:30. It was so fun to play with all the kids!

I got to give Brittany and Ashley their birthday presents. Brittany turned 13 and Ashley turned 10. They grew up so fast! They all showed us what they are learning in school and all their projects. Brittany showed me all of her beautiful art projects, she is very talented. She takes an art class at the AC church school.

It only took me a little while to win Natalie, who is 2 yrs. old, over this time. She's a little shy at first but if you read her a book, she will love you forever. She even let Mike read her a book! Mike had a lot of fun playing with Brendan. They played Brendan's racing game on the computer and some wild games of basketball in the basement.

It was so nice to be able to spend a little time with all of them! We wish we could have stayed longer!

My New Blog!

Hi! This is my first blog so I'm kind of excited. If you know me, you know that I am a terrible writer, so don't expect to much when it comes to my posts. I created this blog for anyone who is interested in my rather boring daily life. I love to read people's blogs, so I thought why not create one myself. I love to share my pictures with people, so there will probably be quite a few. Feel free to leave comments; I would love to hear from you!