Ally's Graduation

I am going backwards, but I have to document all the important event in our life. Someday I will get around to making a scrapbook and it will all be here - right Sandy?!?!?

Ally graduated from pre-school. Big deal huh? Really has anyone flunked pre-school? She wore caps and walked in to Pomp and Circumstance. It was very cute. We have a great pre-school and I will be sad that Drew will not get to go through the Pre-K class. (We will move our middle school to a different town closer to our hourse that year.)

They sang many songs that they have learned thoughout the year. Getting Ally to repeat the songs for us at home is difficult. For some reason she "forgets." Instead she makes up annoying ones that get stuck in our heads - momma ducky momma ducky please saaaaave us....(we can have her sing this annoying little tune for you someday) Ally is in the second row on the far right - click on the picture to make it bigger.

These are a couple of her good friends. Izzi (right) will not go to CCA next year which will be sad. Avery will be in her class.

All these girls will be in the same kindergarten - scary!

Drew has the ability of pesuade any girl to think that he is absolutely adorable. This is one of his girlfriends at school - Amanda. She is his favorite teacher. I know that teachers can't have favorites, but this might be an exception.

When we left school on the last day, Amanda told him not to pick on his sister. In the car, Drew was annoying Ally (great start to summer vacation). I reminded him that Amanda told him not to pick on Ally. Drew's response - no mommy, she told me not to pick on my sister! Great and now he thinks he is smart.

Trip to the Farm

A few Saturdays (before the flood) we headed up to Parkersburg to help clean up. Ally and Drew went to Grandma Janelle's house. They must have had a blast because they smelled bad and were completely covered with dirt. I don't know if they spent more than 10 minutes in the house, but they did sleep very well that night!

I don't know if they realize this but they are sitting on Jason's old truck. Most don't know about this beast - Black F250 stick that I could hear him pulling into the apartment complex. I was so embarassed to drive it - especially when I killed it in the middle of an intersection!

Chocolate Ice Cream

In order to save a few bucks this summer, we have bought cones and fill them with our own ice cream. Did you know that they have colored cones? Drew and Ally each picked a favorite ice cream and the colored cones. As you can tell my adorable little guy loves his chocolate!

22 Minutes

From start to finish our swimming time lasted 22 minutes. The water is a whomping 66 degrees and Ally is still shivering beside me. Drew had a heart-attack and would only stand on the ladder and splash. I was the mean mom who threw him in once but he clung to the sides once he got back screaming. Ally jumped in and played around for a few minutes. Swimming lessons are next week - hopefully we can get Drew confident by then!

Brrrr Cold

On Monday we started putting the pool up. It was easy this year since it was going back on the flat spot from last year. I am not complaining about our temperatures, but it is going to take someone throwing me in to get me in that water. But for the kids - they will probably take a dunk tomorrow and be blue in 3 minutes flat.

Of coarse you have to get your goggles on and water wings to fill up the pool. Ally didn't blow them up with her mouth. Instead she got the air compressor out - hummm she might be around tools too much.

Drew thinks that he needs this to keep him afloat. Not always the sharpest crayon in the box.

Today we headed out for errands and got some new swim toys. Come on over for some fun!

Father's Day

Here are my three favorite people after some kabobs (and jello cake for Jason) at my mom's. We had a good day resting and celebrating.

Storms

This week I have talked a lot about storms and trials. We each have our own storm that we are going through and we get to choose how we are going to respond. I know that our church is heading off giving the glory to God. A lot of people are watching in the community and around the nation to see how this church - who may have lost the "building" will respond. Will we hold together?

If you haven't looked at Parkview's website - do it for the pictures, videos and articles. There is a video (Hold On) that shows the flooding and the tornados but also the church history. Drew has been featured in many videos/pictures sandbagging. (He is also very cute!) Ally and Jason are also in there, but you have to know what they were wearing. Ally has on a pink shirt shoveling with her back to you and Jason in a gray and green shirt on right watching a sand bag getting filled. He is in there more in the groups of pictures. I managed to escape most cameras which is good by the way I looked by the end of each day.

Even though we have not been at Parkview for long, it has become our home and family. I can't wait to see what God will do with all of us in the future as we live missionally in Iowa City and the world.

But speaking of physical storm we had another one go through on Saturday afternoon. It only left us with a little more than a half inch of rain - those of you outside of IA probably don't have rain gauges, but all of us do here! The sirens were going off and we were under the stairs for awhile. Most of the storms has come at night so this was a rare chance to get pictures of how much water was everywhere in just a few short minutes.

It's a comming! I love black storm clouds rolling in.


Our friends had to pull over since they couldn't see the road. You can barely see the backyard neighbors.

So much water so fast out the rain spouts

No wonder no grass grows there!

Showing the kids hail for the first time. Ally tried to save it like all kids do!

Trip from H*ll

I know that a long time ago I mentioned our trip to Memphis, but we need to document this trip. This trip is bringing many memories - fond and well let's leave it at that for right now. The occassion was my cousin Andy and Ginni's wedding.
We left for a "relaxing" trip on Thursday after work/school. We didn't get out quite at the time we wanted, but that is how it goes with kids and sub plans! We got the kids supper at their favorite Golden Arches and we were off.

I was against stopping since I knew that would add on to our trip to STL for an overnight stop at the McLaren's. I was so excited to visit where I call home since it is where we started our family. Our plans were to take our time on Friday and maybe stop at the zoo and get to Memphis late afternoon for the wedding rehearsal.

(relaxing at Auntie Melody's)

Jason told me that we were going to have to stop to let the kids go potty - I think it was his excuse so that he could go. I kept pushing it off a few more miles. I was half asleep when I felt the rumple sticks as we call them. Jason slammed on the brakes and yelled for a flashlight. In my half daze slumber, I start searching trying to figure out what the HORRIBLE noise is. The engine sounded as if a huge chunk of rocks was flying through the fan.

If you know us well you know about our engine problems. But really can the fourth engine in this van be bad? Yes - Amy K I know your opinion! According to our GPS we were 19.8 miles south of Hannibal. We weren't too excited about leaving our kids on the interstate while we tried to figure out what was wrong, but we didn't know anyone and it was 9:30 p.m. After many frantic phone calls, Randy called a tow truck for us and told us he would come get us. The tow truck was going to take it to St. Peters where all the work had been done on it. Thank the Lord for friends that were willing to help us!

Randy let us use his car so we still got to go to Memphis! We didn't get to take our time since we had to mess with the dealership - we have an extended warrenty on the van which "should" cover it - hopefully there are no loop holes.

When we got to Memphis, we headed to the Pig and Wiggle restaurant - sounds a little weird, but it was good BBQ. We got there about 30 minutes early and called Chris and Amy to see if they would meet us early. Amy told me they were there. Hummm I don't see you. After both asking if we were at the wedding rehersal, we found out that we were at the WRONG wedding rehersal. The right one was 30 miles away. Rats for being on time. Can this trip get any better?

After settling into our hotel the girls head over to Ginny's for a personal shower. No mishaps and turns out to be a lot of fun with lots of stories. Girls love to chit chat.

On Saturday my family headed down to Beale Street to eat lunch and see the sights and sounds. We had an awesome lunch and headed back to the car to find a parking fine - what? Jason paid at the entrance in the box. Well we needed to get going so I just handed my credit card to him to find out that he charged me $75. Many of you have never seen Jason mad or angry - we saw both that afternoon. We had no choice but to pay it or we would never leave Memphis and probably get towed. Calmly I said I would work on it when we got back. After a week of calling the parking company and talking to many nice people, they decided to refund the money because we handled it so nicely. In reality they couldn't prove that we didn't pay. The parking guy wasn't doing his job correctly with pictures and stuff.

The wedding was beautiful and we had fun at the reception. Ally and Abby sang karoke.

So did Jason and Chirs - Sorry it sounds like blah blah blah oh boy and it dark but we were laughing hysterically. I wish I would have gotten the one of Andy and Ginny singing "I Got You Babe."

Van Update: After several weeks without the van, we picked in up in STL on May 23rd. A couple belts were making this sreeching noise and our dealer fixed them As of June 5th, it has been running great.

Today's Update...

Hotel Willis is open for business. Some friends that lived by the church are staying with us until the water receeds to their road. We have been working hard today in the basement and almost all the trim is up except for the closet under the stairs and the bedroom.

We did spend a few minutes today in the closet under the starts as we had the tornado sirens go off. We once again got another .6 inches of rain and HAIL! The new stations have been on all day talking about the floods. The anchors look awful since Cedar Rapids is under a no water use unless absolutely necessary. We have officially hit the 500 year flood.

The interstates around us are closed due to water over them - duh. Cedar Rapids is just 13 miles north of us, but in order to get there right now we would have to trek over to Des Moines on I-80, then past Ames on I-35 to Hwy 20, past Jason's house and Parkersburg and through Waterloo and turn south on I-380 and come down to Cedar Rapids. Sounds easy enough.... It is like a 250 mile detour. At it is probably the only route still open except for the part between here and DM closed :( Oh well - stay home.

The Univ of IA told all non-essential employees to stay home. Jason is just one of those people - but he still gets paid! Yipppeeeee!

I will close out tonight with some heart wrenching pictures of the church taken at about 2:00 today. You can visit all of today's picture here.

Taken by two pastors this afternoon.

From the stage looking up to the sound booth. The doors lead out of the worship center.

Doors that lead into the worship center.


We haven't even crested yet. We still have about 3 days til it levels off and that is without any new rain!

At 3:00 pm today...

This is the northwest corner by the parking lot closest to the road.

Drew Provides!

I need some positive stuff on this blog! God is showing off today by making the waters rise and rise. I have heard more ark jokes than I care to hear about. The water is at the sandbag level at our church. I am trying to clean the house and get ready for some friends that will be evacuated this weekend. Their apartment will be okay but they will have no way out. It took Jason just under 3 hours to get to work this morning.

A few posts ago I commented that Ally was providing plenty of quoting materials and that Drew wasn't. Times have changed! Ally's games have been cold. I know that he looks like Richard Simmons - it will make a great wedding video someday!

Last week while discussing the names of a baby (there is not one on the way...), Drew came up with a couple for the baby if it was a boy - Superman and Spiderman. Ally piped in that MaryJane could be the name of the girl then. Once again we have added to the list of "mmmmm NO." Those are better than "Dumpster" though!

While sandbagging, Megan (his girlfriend) was telling him that he was strong. His response - Stronger than a dragon!

Drew was crying the other day because something got in his eye. I pulled out an eyelash. I showed it to him and told him it was an eyelash. Then showed him mine. He said - ohhh those are part of my "winkers."

I know there is another one but I can't remember it. Maybe Jason will remind me!

Another Day at the Church...

Today we spent another afternoon and evening at the church but this one did not have the hope and happiness as the days prior. The Corps of Engrs changed their predictions on the water and decided that we will probably have water up to the roof on the church - meaning our 5 foot wall will be absolutely no help. So many people, so much work. I feel like I have lost my home. God tells us not to hold onto "stuff" but it is still hard to lose your things.

At about 2:00 after getting the message from the city, they started to get semis at the church to pull out as much as possible. We got text messages to come and help as soon as possible. I packed up the kids and headed out and were there by 2:30 - who needs a nap anyway? (Drew is showing some great signs of exhaustion - he fell asleep during songs tonight!)

We were pulling out anything unreplacedable or over $100. We were getting it to the doors and walking through water or loading to a loader to take it out to one of the four semis - even the fish were saved. I guess we will now just have to watch and wait and pray.

The parking lot is the best indicator of the creeping water. This is the first third gone on Sunday night.

Middle third getting taken over. It stayed at this point for quite some time until Thursday after the trenchal downpour in the north. Sad part - we only got 1.6 inches of rain today and now it is POURING again....

As I pulled away from the church the parking lot is gone. Notice the aeriel picture in the previous post. You can't see the parking lot anymore.


This is the emergency spillway that they talk about in the news. The water flow is suppose to exceed 1993s by far. I guess I have something to tell my grandkids - Floods and Tornados of 2008.... (did I mention Chris and Amy had a tornado rip through their neighborhood in Omaha - Houses close to them have damage but they were spared!)

Tuesday afternoon

Wednesday morning

Where are the Willis's

I am sure that is what most of our neighbors have been asking the last few days. We drive in, park for a little while and run back out. We have been moving from one disaster area to another. I just read on CNN that ANOTHER stinkin' tornado struck Iowa killing 4 Boy Scouts at camp. Good Grief - we want OUT of the news!

We headed up to Parkersburg with our church on Saturday to help clean up. I felt so useless even though I know that we did a lot. The task at hand just seems so huge that the little we did barely scratched the surface. The pictures don't do the devestation justice. Literally nothing but debris everywhere for blocks and blocks. The stories of community members are amazing that only 8 people died in the two communities hit. We helped two families pick up debris and cleaned up to the best of our abilities the city park. All debris had to be sorted into piles of wood, metal and brick. Poor Parkersburg has since continued to get hit hard. Thunderstorms have raged through and then their levee broke leaving access to town limited. The other town (New Hartford) hit by the tornado was evacuated this week with flooding. Pray for these people!

These pictures are from Jared's blog a week after the tornado. Most of the houses had already been take off their foundations and put in big piles of wood.





We got back with our attitudes of our stuff and family changed. I cherish my family and am thankful for the things God has given. I am learning to realize that I can't hold onto these things in my house because tomorrow they can all be GONE.

The midwest continues to be on the news for flooding and water water water everywhere! On Sunday afternoon we got a call saying that they needed sandbaggers at church immediately. Drew was woken from his nap and we were in the car within 15 minutes. We stayed late getting a wall built about 2 feet up completely around the church but that wasn't nearly high enough according to the Army Corps of Engr. They are expecting about 3 feet of water above the floor level as long as we don't get any more rain - hummmm it has rained everyday since then.

On Monday we reported again to church at 9 and left at 7 with people still going strong but we were beat and our kids were filthy but enjoying EVERY minute of the fun. They built the wall up to 5 feet tall and two bags wide. They are guessing that there are about 100,000 bags. We have averaged throughout the peak times 60 tons an hour of sand. I am not at all interested in going to a beach this summer anymore. Drew on the otherhand was enthralled by the biggest sandbox in the world. We have been back every night and come back sore and with blisters. We have made some new friends and you know they are friends when that will stand and talk to you when you STINK really bad.

Drew and one of his MANY girlfriends that he made - This is Dericka holding the bag. He spent most of his days with Megan and Jen. No matter when we got there he hung out with Megan a grad student that always held his bag and talked to him!


Here Ally is helping fill bags using the "sand-filling machine." Jason was on the end filling three bags while others held. The sand-filling team was made up of four people - one shoveler, one bag holder, one tier, and one mover. Once you got too sore doing your job you switched. You became good friends with your team!


As for the weddings this summer at Parkview (sorry Betsy and Luke and Jonna and Andy) - plan on either getting married in a boat or find a new place. In 1993 when the last flood occured they left the building about July 1 and returned in September. They are expecting the water to be at least 2 feet higher than '93 and to be out of the building for 6 to 8 weeks!

This is the church building. Half of the parking lot is under water already.

Tomorrow I hope to add some pictures of the emergency spill way that went over today which should add some more damage and water.

When Did That Happen?

When did Daddy become so popular? I have been asked several times in the past hour - When is Daddy coming home? I want to sit by Daddy at supper. We are going to blow our whistles really loud and hope that Daddy hears them and comes home early. (sorry neighbors!) Blah Blah Blah...

I know that some of it is for personal gain on their part. They want the pool up and based on today's humidity - I am all for it! They probably won't remember saying this when he does get home though!

Slowly but surely I am getting things in "order." Closets are cleaned out to make room for summer clothes and winter clothes head to storage. The office has piles of papers with their appropriate action on top. Kate is taking me up to get my van which it better be fixed for the final time. I am getting used to having it squeal and people give me wierd looks. I am so thankful for all that I have and know that at any point God could take it all. I have to remember to treasure the time with my kids this summer. They are growing up WAY too fast!

More Ally Quotes

The summer is going! It doesn't really feel like summer and I will take that until we decide that we want to swim! I know that Drew says thought provoking/humorous things but for some reason not many get written down....

Dad: What did you do at school today?
Ally: Well I couldn't sleep.
Dad: Why not?
Ally: Because I was thinking about me and Trippy's wedding and I was thinking about how much I love Trippy.

I know that we are getting close to stalking but he is such a special friend and I do know his parents and I think that they are all right - or at least his momma his dad is getting cheap in his old age!

Quotes that Make Me Old

I know. I know. I have been a terrible blogger and you will be disappointed to know that I don't have much tonight. I really do have lots, but I am crazy tired and have school stuff to get finished up before the morning. We have "All-American/Celebration" Day tomorrow. We are each having educational but fun class. I am setting up a Survivor game that was on the show this year. Hope it turns out fun. They are going to race to a puzzle table, solve a problem, locate the coordinate based on their answer. Then they will take their coordinates and criss cross ropes to discover some letters in a missing saying.

School is out soon which means that I will have lots of posts next week. They might show up this week if my house gets cleaned, laundry put away, papers graded and basement finished. I wouldn't place any bets that blogs will make the list.

I will leave you with a couple quotes.

First from Corey at school - I have been using my laptop for several days with a project that we have been doing. They have been quite impressed by my ability to type in formulas and make numbers magically appear. They asked where I had learned it. I told them in my 8th grade computer tech class. More awes from the crowd and then I said something about learning to use Bank Street Rider in 3rd grade. Corey exclaimed from behind me They had computers when you were in 3rd grade???? Thanks Corey - do you really think I am as old as dinosaurs?

Drew tonight during bedtime -
Mom: Drew, do you know who loves you?
Drew: Grandpa, Blake, Oliver, Banjo (yes that is the real name)...Daddy, Ally,.... and Jesus.
Mom: Who loves you the most?
Drew: Jesus, do you know why mom? (a little curious from me) Because he is the God of Lords.
He is my sweetheart!!!!

This is the longest quote in Jason's book from Ally on Monday morning when talking about the previous night's tornados (or tomatoes - as Drew calls it)
"When I'm married to Trippy and our house blows down, we'll probably stay with Trippy's parents, or my cousins, or with you guys. Actually we'll probably stay with you guys because you make good pancakes. And we'll probably stay with you while Trippy builds us a new house. I'll probably tell Trippy to build our new house out of bricks so it will be stong."

The conversation continues as Jason prods more info out of her.
"It will be two colors. I will have Trippy make it pink because that is my favorite color and he can pick his favorite color. It will be those colors because of our love."

Huh???? Where does she get this stuff?

Go Grizzlies!

Here is Ally in her uniform. She has had two games, but was sick for the second one. We had the throw-up/butt bug go through our house. It ended with Ally getting strep also. Strep was never a huge deal to me before, but now we have had it several times in our house. From experience I don't wish it on anyone!

Games are fairly uneventful. Each kid gets three pitches and if they don't hit it the tee comes out. Everyone bats and takes one base. We play two very long innings! None of our team draws in the dirt or picks the flowers, but they also don't really move towards the ball until someone points out that the ball is next to them. It is fun and Ally loves it. Drew begs to play - next year...

4 Generations

Ah this is back from Rachel's wedding when Grandpa Klaassen was here, but it is still worth posting. I thought it was a fairly good picture considering we had to try and get my dad to hold still. His phone did go off - and he answered it.

Family Picture

I know that I am a mad woman on blogging tonight, but wait til our fun stories of Memphis. Hopefully I can get back on tomorrow night and post them, but this is back to our Omaha trip!

Ally took her camera and all weekend she kept asking - when do I get to take the family picture. Everyone is dreading this and can't imagine what we will have to do. I wish that her camera took a little better pictures, but she doesn't hold still very well.

I just downloaded another 200 pictures - that make over 400 since she got it on her birthday - watch out Grandma Janelle - you have competetion!

Drinking Man

This is Henry Obrien. He is only 6 months and has good taste! His momma wasn't willing though to let me open the bottle for him to take a swig so close to bedtime!

Projects

Many of you don't know the big changes in the Willis family. Jason quit his job in February due to great unhappiness. It wasn't the company that we thought we would be working for when we moved to Iowa. He has a great passion for hospital construction and has been on the job hunt very dilligently. Since then when not networking or keeping our family inline he worked on the basement.

Right before he started his new job, he had the opportunity to remodel/add to this awesome deck. Many of you know the Lapoints. This is Allie's parents house. It was a big project that too some long hours and a good sunburn to finish, but in the end it is absolutely beautiful. I can imagine the fun that they are going to have with their families on it. Nick graciously helped Jason on the last day finishing some last touches!

Back to Jason's new job. He works for the University of Iowa. Yes he is a Hawkeye and will say it with a cough on the end. He officially works for the U of I hospitals. He flipped sides of construction. He now manages projects from the owners point of view. It is fairly humorous when he comes home and tells me about working on the jobs that he worked for while at Miron. Jason is a man of little emotion/excitement but I think that he really enjoys the job. Here he is supporting his new wardrobe. He is now a tie man which meant that we had to go shopping. So if you would like to donate to the "Dress Jason Fund" we are taking donations and ideas!

He now has to ride a bus to work since their is only EXPENSIVE parking at the hospital!

Career Day

Schools are required to connect school to work. Makes sense doesn't it, but it is sometimes harder than it looks. This year our school connected with a local community college and set up some job follows. We took 106 eighth graders to different locations to see what they did and the education that they needed to do their jobs.

One bus went to Cedar Rapids to visit the culinary school at Kirkwood Community College and then to the Roughriders arena (hockey). Another bus went to Monsanto and then to the Iowa County Courthouse/Jail. My bus headed HyVee grocery store and then to either West Music or Centro. At first I think the kids thought this would be a stupid trip, but in the end they learned a lot! I am excited that next year we are going to expand this to 5-8. Kids need to be introduced to lots of ideas so that they can start to see not only what they might be interested in, but also how their school work is needed to meet the requirements of future jobs!

This is an oven baking probaby about 30 dozen cupcakes and several cakes for the bakery. It roates around.

Jill wants to eat this HUGE barrel of frosting. The girl we watched decorated a cake in less than 5 minutes. It was beautiful too!

This is inside Centro. They make plastic parts of John Deere Tractors, CAT equipment, Rug Doctor Machines, etc. This is very close to our house. We looked out their dock and could see our house.

We looked awesome walking around with our safety glasses and ear plugs. I would hate to wear them all the time though!

Bubbling

Dear Mrs. Willis,

Congratulations! Based on the proposal submitted for the HP Technology for Teaching Grant earlier this year for the project titled Bringing Learning to Life: Using HP technology to promote active student learning and higher math achievement for Clear Creek-Amana (CCA) middle school students. HP is pleased to offer Clear Creek Amana Middle School the K-12 grant award! You were identified as the lead for the team of 5 teachers working on this grant, and we hope you will share this message with each of your team members.

I know that this doesn't mean much to many of you but I was absolutely THRILLED when I got this email last night. I was home by myself and was jumping frantically around. I have worked my tail off in Dec-Feb to finish this grant up with the help of a grant writer. It is a huge opportunity and will allow our kids some great opportunities!

Each of our math rooms gets:
• HP Compaq Notebook/Tablet PC with Microsoft® Vista Business Tablet PC Edition with OneNote
• A digital projector
• An HP digital camera
• An HP Officejet printer, scanner, copier
• A $500 stipend
• Customized online professional development opportunities to support the use of technology in teaching and support from a mentor with experience integrating technology in the K–12 environment
• Free Software from Microsoft

YEAH CCA!!!!