JULY 29

Happy Birthday Jamison, Sam and Eve. Four years ago I was sitting in the hospital waiting for Jamison to come into the world. How different our life would be if you weren’t here. Campbell still might not be riding a bike. I might be odd man out all the time. Now I have you to vote for spicy with me on occasion. We didn’t know your name but KAYAK was on the list because who knows you could have looked like a Kayak! You are some thing kid!

JULY 24

How am I going to entertain 20 people at our house? All the fun stuff is up at the cabin. Speaking of the cabin there was 4 more inches of rain last night. YIKES!! The Marina is flooded. Some of our neighbors have water in their cabins. The current is super strong and up the lake there is massive flooding. This looks like it is going to be a bigger clean up than the flood of 2008. The news says record flood stage!

Okay boys party without Brian we can handle. The kids will just mostly entertain themselves with something. Deep breath. . . we can get through this. We are having lunch meat sandwiches, fruit and chips for lunch (so we are hungry for cake). Received a text from Brian – the DNR boat just floated by, he got some video.

Time to open presents! Campbell got a new Star Wars Lego Set. Jamison got cars and a car wash. Two Water guns each, we will have fun trying those out.

Mom, Dad, Shawn, Dirk and Nathan went up to see the Lake while Andrea and I took the kids to play miniature golf. We had a great time at Lost Island but I have never seen a miniature golf course this busy in my life. Usually we are the only ones on them and this one had people on every other hole. Crazy!

Lake Delhi Dam just broke. Soon no more water in the lake just a 7 mile mud flat. Our water crafts are all still there but have some damage. Our retaining wall caved and we now have a foot wide fission in our yard. No lake for the foreseeable future, hmmm what are we going to do on the weekends?
Birthday party successful. Lake Delhi no more. Happy but sad day.

July 23

Happy (?) Birthday Brian! Okay I know you don’t really care if you celebrate or not and today was NOT a good day. You had to start the day fixing a flat tire on your truck. Then you found out that Oelwein received 10 inches of rain Thursday night and that was flooding Lake Delhi. After supper at Bishops you took my dad up to see what needed to be saved or could be. With strong currents and large branches floating you recommended that no party be held at the cabin. No sleep on this night. No not a happy birthday.

July 22

We just spent $200 on groceries for this weekend. Could have been a lot more but we already have a lot at the cabin. We should now have enough flotation devices for ever kid and half the adults that come this weekend. The boys didn't even complain about shopping because they new it was for the birthday bash.

Happy Birthday shout out to Janet and Kathleen. Hope it was a good one.

The Big Black Bus

Coming home for the Creating Keepsakes Convention we stopped in Ankeny for supper. After a very successful weekend we were happily tired and a little on the cash depleted side so we stopped at Burger King. Now don't get me wrong BK is one of my all time favorite places to eat but memories are being made here and BK is not the background you would first choose for those memories. Or so we thought. We are sitting down with our meals in a window booth when I see a big black bus pull up. Then about 30 guys getting out of the bus. Based on the black school bus with the tinted window my first thought is prison work release. No guards. My next thought is Bachelor party but seriously would you stop at BK for that? Again the memory thing. Then they are all pretty much wearing jeans and t-shirts or khakis and polos, work crew that is just starting? It is driving me crazy that I didn't ask. Rachael puts a remark similar to this on Facebook. "Heidi wanted to end our weekend partying with the guys on the big black bus but I said if we want to come back that might not be a good idea." Great laugh and a great memory so maybe we should picture some of those memories at fast food restaurants. Who knows maybe those guys in the big black bus already know that and were starting out the bachelor party there for that reason.

CK Convention - Des Moines

This was such a great weekend. I can't believe how much fun I had. Most of my classes were wonderful. I got to meet one of my favorite designers from Creating Keepsakes and my traveling companion was totally AWESOME. We stayed at the Embassy Suite where you get free breakfast and free HAPPY HOUR every day. The beds were so comfortable that if I wasn't so excited I could have slept until 8. But excited I was so I was up sometime after 5. Not sure when because the Alarm clocks at the Embassy Suite would be the only thing I complain about from this weekend. 1) We never figured out how to set the time so it was ahead by about an hour and a half. 2) The clock face didn't light up so you could not see it in the dark. Now I know what you are thinking - There is a button for setting the clock. If there was we did not find it. We pushed every indent and button there was. There was a button for Alarm set but no button that said clock or time.

But I digress, about the convention. If you are a scrapper or card maker you need to go to this next year. Yes they are coming to Des Moines again next year. You learn new techniques, you meet great people, you can shop in multiple stores all at one place. I got to start 2 great mini albums that I can't wait to finish. I did some layouts. I made some cards. I found out about some great products and got to see demos that helped me understand them better than if I would have just read about them in the magazine. I also receive lots of free stuff! I got the idea and product for the boys' birthday invitation which are now done and ready to mail. I could gush for hours on how great this was. So I want to thank Brian for not even hesitating about me going when I asked. It was a weekend he had to work and daycare was closed but him and the boys didn't even miss me they had so much to do. Thank you Rachael for going with me and if Kansas City was later I might have bugged you to sign up for that one too but I won't be ready for new techniques by October.