The BIG 3-0

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!!

I was planning on writing about how much I love you, what an amazing dad you are, how you are my best friend and will always be my Mr. Wonderful...but frankly...I'm too tired!

I think once our home is all straightened out we will have to have a 'do-over' for Father's Day & your birthday! :)

Drying Out

Instead of having the wonderful Father's Day morning of breakfast and church before family gatherings that I was hoping for...Mark was hooking up our new sump pump. The water was finally under control about 11am this morning. We had been fighting the water since the rain started Friday night.

We are SO thankful for all the help we have gotten from our families and our neighbors. Without them...I don't even want to think about it. We got about 18 inches of water in our basement. It could have been SO much worse and we are feeling so bad for everyone else that is dealing with this too.

Things are looking better...the pump is working, the water seems to be slowing down, the basement is basically empty, and our hot water and internet are back on. Tomorrow a big dumpster will arrive and hopefully the smell will go too. :)

Today wasn't the Father's Day I was planning, but it was still wonderful. Mark got the pump working, we had lunch with my family and dinner with Mark's. It was really nice to get out of the house and not think about the basement for a few hours. (We also took naps today which helped everything not seem so bad.)


As the storm came in, I did what I do...I took pictures. When Mark & our neighbor Greg put our couch up on our nesting side tables, I thought they were going overboard. In the 5 years we've lived here there is one basement window that has leaked twice.


Thank goodness they did...the couch was just saved.


I had no idea that this could happen. None. When we went to bed about 2am Saturday morning the rain had stopped and the water had subsided outside and there was no longer a lake in our yard. Our basement had about 8 inches of water and we expected it to go down like outside. It was quite a surprise when we woke up to another 10 inches that came up through our floor.


We are so thankful that is wasn't any worse. Our neighbor had 4 feet of water!! We are so grateful for all the help from our families and our neighbors. It was kind of cool, (not really because flooding isn't fun, but from the community aspect) during the storm, neighbors were wading to each others' homes to help.

The stuff we lost is just stuff. What really matters, our family, is safe. We thank God for protecting us.

Do you like my party hat? Yes I like your party hat.

When I was growing up, the book that my sister Emily & I requested night after night was "Go Dog Go." We would always catch my parents if they tried to skip a page. It's about a dog that is trying to find his way to a party. A few years later when Audrey came along - she wanted the same book. My dad has been joking that he is going to read that book over & over to Little Feet so that it is asked for every night.

For Father's Day we got my dad a new copy of the book. Our family copy is falling apart. We also got him a copy of the book that Mark would make his parents read - "Fish Out of Water. " Dad hasn't read that one yet - so he is going to save it & read it to Little Feet so that they can both be surprised. So sweet.

In the afternoon we headed to a combination of Father's Day & Grandpa Keen's 80th birthday party.


It was great to see the Keen family again. We didn't end up staying for the whole party - contractions started up again & I was all around uncomfortable. I did begin to hope that this would be Mark's first father's day...but Little Feet is still enjoying being inside.