After the flash flooding last week, Jordan & I took a drive around Frederika and found a few "flood funnies". These flamingos seem to be on their own island.......

....hoping that "dry" land will be around for awhile.....

How about a "water side" picnic.

by Jeni

Photo says it all.....

Jason took this picture yesterday, 4-25-08, at Alcock Park in Fredrika.

by Jeni

Iowa Weather!

WOW!

The weather around here lately has just been ........... strange.

I can hardly believe that it is the 25th of April and our furnace is on tonight. Last night we were kept awake by lighting and thunder, ALL NIGHT. We even lost electricity for a few hours. The drive to Tripoli to take Jordan to daycare and me to get to work in Waverly was very interesting. The ditches were full of water and you could see where the water was over the road at some time during the storm. During the drive to Tripoli I noticed something really strange in the ditch, upon closer observation this is what I noticed.......

This is a culvert that once went under a field drive along side the road. Notice in the second picture how the grass is still on the top of the culvert...

There were even places that I couldn't drive because the road was still covered in water. Somebody, in wonderful wisdom, placed a sign on the edge of the water over the road to warn drivers as to what was ahead...... the sign stated very clearly

"WATER OVER ROAD"

Gee, I didn't know that was what that was. I was going to get a picture, but there were about 3 cars behind me that were also trying to turn around to get to work.

On a nicer note, I took this sunrise photo about a month ago and would like to share it also.

This was taken just south of our house, once again on the way to Tripoli one morning. It was WONDERFUL!

Enjoy the Iowa weather!

by Jeni

Night of playing with Grandma & Papa

Grandma & Papa came up to our house tonight to see us. After supper, Jordan and Grandma built a tent in the living room and played. Even Papa got to visit the tent for awhile.

Above: Grandma & Jordan playing with LEGOS.
Below: Papa & Jordan staying "out of the rain".

by Jeni

Jordan's Saturday Activities

Well, today it was at least not raining so Daddy and Jordan decided to clean up the shop and be outside. Daddy charged up the battery on the four-wheeler and Jordan took a ride around the lawn.

While riding around, Jordan found pine cones in the lawn. He decided that he should pick them up and his bucket was the perfect place to put them.

Careful, here he comes to show me his finds.

The bounty of the day, lets go inside and show Daddy.

Last year when he was riding the four wheeler, he was having troubles remembering how to stop. This year, he has that figured out as well as how to put it into reverse.

by Jeni

Katie, the dog of "Hope"

Every meal we have, Katie sits either under the table or beside Jordan. She is just waiting for food to fall, and sometimes it does fall. The other night I shot these photos of the "dog of hope".

"If I sit here, maybe I can catch some supper"

"Alright, I'll move over here, maybe better luck here."

"He just doesn't want to share tonight"

by Jeni

He is growing up....

Jordan has been sleeping on the floor in his room since around Christmas. A couple of months ago we finally realized that he was probably sleeping on the floor because his toddler bed felt to small for him.

The far left picture is the baby crib, mommy had a very hard time the day we took the crib down and put the toddler bed up. We made this change when Jordan decided to get out of the crib on his own, fell to the floor and WOULD NOT sleep in the crib after that.

Now, with the toddler bed, he wants to sleep on the floor instead of the bed. Must be time to change to a bigger bed again.

So today we took the little bed apart......with Jordan's help.

Mommy made a run to Wal-Mart for some "big boy" sheets and we put the "big, big boy bed" into his VERY small room. For the first time since Christmas, tonight Jordan is sleeping IN his bed and not on the floor on sleeping bags.

Why does he have to grow up so fast????

by Jeni

A Weekend at Grandma & Papa Nielsen's

A couple of weekends ago, Jordan spent some time in Waverly with his Grandma "Mir" and Papa. As usual he had a great time and wore the adults out. Grandma of course had the camera in hand to get some great shots of the activities.

Jordan is practicing his fishing techniques.

Let's try riding the horse......have to get my hat on tight however.

Hey, I bet I can fish and ride my horse at the same time.

Alright, time for snuggles before going to sleep. I love my Papa!

by Jeni