I just read Dale & Kim's blog and saw some pictures of the flooding in the Fond du Lac area.  A few days ago I was checking out Tim's facebook pictures of flooding in Watertown.  The water was up over their waste!  Yesterday, Ron sent me this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkfhuvOGbmI&feature=email to check out.  I had seen some of this footage on the news.  It is Lake Delton completely emptying out!  Yep, the whole lake!  All in a matter of about 2 hours!!  Most of you probably heard about that already.  The Tommy Bartlett show is basically cancelled for the whole year and it's going to put a major dent on tourism in the Dells this year.  (They hope to have it back up and running by next year.) 

Yesterday Tim said they were sandbagging all day in their community.  Sandbagging was already taking place at our Janesville library, which is on the river.  The parking lot had a lot of water and some of the streets were blocked off downtown by the river.  On Monday, some of the youth staff and I from church were at a lady's house from church in Fort Atkinson.  She lives on the very east edge of town on hwy 106.  We sandbagged a load of sand for her.  The water had overtaken her long driveway and entered the garage.  By the time I got there, they had a lot of it done and a pump going to remove the water.  (Good call on skipping our mtg to go over there, Andrea!)  The next morning, shortly before noon, Andrea called to say that it was worse.  Early that morning she got a call and a ton of people went back out there.  They bagged 3 more loads of sand!  That's a lot!!  Yesterday we drove through Beloit, and there are a lot of homes right on the river whose lawns are at least half-covered in water.  (Not sure why some of them weren't sandbagging!)

We had some friends as us how we were doing down here in Janesville, across from the river.  We replied we weren't too worried cuz the river was still at least a two feet from the top of its bank right here by us.  Well, we apparently hadn't seen it for about a day or so.  As of yesterday afternoon, it was about 4-6 inches from the top.  On the news, they said the Rock River is expected to crest on Sunday in Rock County.  Tim and Peter called to offer to come down and sandbag for us.  (Thanks again, guys!)  But we had decided to wait and see how things go.  The river would have to crest, and make it over the grass and across the street.  The house across the street, right next to the river, wasn't even sandbagging or anything.

Well, yesterday we drove along the river and one section of the street was blocked off.  There is a bunch of water on the lawns of the people directly across the street from the river (about a block or so away from us).  Ron checked the river last night, and it is more like 2-3 inches from the top.  This morning at about 3AM we were awakened by the city baracading the street by the river (our street, Riverside Drive) at our corner.  So, I guess we'll watch it more closely and see what happens.  If/when the river floods right here, it will probably happen down the block first.  We're hoping most of that will run down the street, into the sewers, and not rise too much.  If it really starts to overflow more directly across the street, then we may be in a bit of trouble.  I'll try and post some pictures later, as I don't have my camera.  I had to take it in to get fixed.

 I just put pictures on facebook from our vacation in Naples.  If you don't have facebook, you can view them here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26460&id=510698921&ref=mf

and here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26463&id=510698921.

 

Well, it looks like we have decided to try and do the "one vehicle" thing again.  This can be quite difficult since we live in Janesville and go to church in Fort Atkinson (30 minutes away).  As of last year, though, the kids go to AWANA in Janesville, so that makes things easier.  Now we are only at church about three days a week.  Ron was not a fan of having only one vehicle before.  He doesn't like being at work without one, because he needs to be able to go to the bank or run other errands if needed.  Plus his job description (or whatever) says he needs to have one.  However, I think we have resolved that issue, along with my going to church every Thursday.  Ron is going to take Thursdays off.  That way I can have the car, the kids can stay home with dad while I'm at youth group and the two days we are at church regularly (Sun & Thurs), he'll be off from work.  The only tricky thing will be when he goes to Oshkosh for 2 or more days at a time.  He travels out of state at least once every three months for work, but that's as simple as us dropping him off and picking him up from the airport.  The good news is that in about a month Ron will be able to use the motorcycle when the weather is good.  (He says in about a month, but this is Wisconsin, so I'm not counting on it being that soon.)  So, we will see how this goes!!