2nd Annual Hundred Year Flood

Do you all know what a Hundred Year flood is?Term wiki defines it as this…
A flood so large that experts believe it has a 1 percent, or one out of 100, chance of occurring in any given year.

That definition being presented, this small community of Pearl City, Illinois just experienced their second “hundred year flood”  exactly one year and one day after the last one. 

You can read about and see last years flood pictures here.

We’ll be helping the town “mud out” and “gut out” homes and businesses with approx. 20 other people from our church.  I can’t imagine the discouragement these poor folks must be feeling with flooding of this magnitude two years in a row. 

We took a drive last night to have a look and see what we were getting ourselves into.

They were expecting the water to recede enough this morning that most of the houses would be accessible to start pumping out and cleaning up.  Some were already good to start last night and clean-up had begun.

 
DH will be here helping more than I will due to schedule conflicts on my part.  This kind of outreach is most definitely where his passions lay.  Love that man for stepping up and helping out wherever and whenever needed!  Makes a wife proud!

Isn’t the sun setting beautifully over this lake?  Too bad it‘s not a lake and soybeans are underneath all of that water. 

Praying for the people of Northwest Illinois and Eastern Iowa.

Sunday night ride

Do you ever have a weekend that doesn’t go as planned?  That was this weekend for us.  We were supposed to be gone for a couple of days riding motorcycles up into Wisconsin.  The weather had other ideas.  We finally got some  much needed rain so I was really ok with the plans being altered because of it yesterday.  Then we were going to take a day ride instead today so it was all good.  However, we woke to thunder this morning.  We finally went out for a couple of hours at 6pm this evening.

Just a couple of quick pics from our ride tonight.

I’ve always loved this old barn.  They’ve kept it up very well.

As a teenager did you paint anything, like this viaduct?  This is true redneck graffiti, not gang graffiti as it’s on a back road that only the locals know about.  I have to confess, I did just once, the night before my high school graduation with two girlfriends.  It was along a state highway so every time a car came we would drop into the weeds.  Little did my girlfriend know but where she was dropping was a patch of poison ivy!  Doesn’t everyone want itchy welts for their high school graduation ceremony?

The crop dusters were working tonight.  They just fascinate me, the way they dip and dive.  It’s one time they can barnstorm and get paid well for doing it.  In the picture below I swore he was going to crash coming straight down like that.

Have a good week everyone!

A bit of randomness…

Lately my brain seems to be on random fire so I thought why not share some of this randomness with you so you can know what its like to live inside my head on a daily basis.

On the way to our local “big city” yesterday morning we saw these clouds. 

Pretty and strange all at the same time.  Do you see the wavy layers in them?  Does anyone know what type of cloud that is?  I’d love to know.
By the time we arrived at our appointment in “big city” they were dumping much, much rain and where was my umbrella?  In the trunk of the car.  Not real helpful there.  Note to self: keep the umbrella in the back seat, not in the trunk.

Tonight I took a walk about.  I waited until it was almost dark as it’s been so hot and sticky here like much of the rest of the country.  I.do.not.do.humid and that my friends is an understatement.  If I didn’t work in air conditioning all day maybe I would be more conditioned for it, but I’m not.  Nuff said. 

Anyway, for years I’ve wanted to plant pumpkins and finally this year, we did!  I was so excited when I finally got approval from the Pumpkin-nator who just so happens to live with me. 

Never mind that they are in the furthermost corner of the yard away from the house, so they’re really on their own when it comes to watering, etc.  but they seem to be fairing pretty well.

We planted the “Big boys”, the ones that get gigantic.  I hadn’t look at them for a couple of weeks and they’ve grown a bunch since I saw them last.  They are full of blooms.  I picked a few of the blooms so the other ones produce better pumpkins.  My goal is for each of the grandkids to have a giganto pumpkin for themselves. We’ll see how it goes as all I have yet is blooms.

And for my last random thought…have you ever had a shirt that you got a stain on this first time you wore it?  I do!  The first time I wore this I splattered bacon grease on the front.  Grrr!  Someday I will get that apron made.  Anyhoo, I saw a post on Pinterest about bleaching a design on an old cotton t-shirt.  My shirt wasn’t old but I wasn’t going to wear it anymore with the grease spots so what was I out?

Take a Clorox bleach pen and draw a design on the shirt, let is set for 15 – 20 minutes, rinse, launder as usual and wallah, you have a new shirt, kind of.  I don’t think it’s too bad for a first time try.  I can see where the outline is and where I painted it in but now I know what to do differently should I need to do this again.  At least you can’t see the grease spots anymore and that my friends, makes me very happy!

Three generations playing in this park

We so enjoy our three grandchildren.  While babysitting over the weekend, we took a drive into the local small town so they could play at the park.  This is the same park I played at as a child and the same park their Dad played at as a child.  The playground equipment has changed over the years but the small park remains pretty much the same.

The grands seem to especially enjoy the long wooden train.

We had a discussion about how the bigger around a tree is the older it is and why it has those big bumpy fingers (roots) that come way out into the grass.

They also played on the elementary school playground equipment which is right next to the park.  The school that I went to as a child.

Baby sister was pretty unconcerned with the sentimental history stuff and slept the entire time. 

By this time next year, she’ll be running and playing with the other two and really wearing Grandma out chasing three instead of two!

Have you ever bargello-ed?

What’s that? 
It’s a style of quilt that I’m really hoping isn’t over my head.    We’ve picked one of the easier projects in the book but there might still be more ciphering than what this ol’ brain can handle.  Time will tell.

I was able to get the prep cutting and sewing done over the weekend and three weeks in advance I might add.

One of the best parts of this whole project is – I was able to stash bust the whole thing.  I don’t have to buy any new fabric for it.  Now that feels good!

In the meantime, I have to get to work on something that should have been done for a wedding gift back in April.  I’m really excited about what I’m making for the new couple but for obvious reasons I can’t show it on here yet. 

So, back to the original question.. have you ever bargello-ed?  How did it turn it out?  Loved it or never again?  do share. 

Family Room re-do

Like I mentioned in the last post, the time for a large project just hasn’t been there these last weeks but I have managed to eek out a few minutes here and there to work on a couple of quickies.

We have a houseguest coming to stay with us for awhile, so we have all but emptied out one of our upstairs guest bedrooms to accommodate her things.  The challenge is going to be her name is Kristin and we have a daughter-in-law Kristen.  I can only guess the confusion this might cause from time to time.

Anyway, as I was emptying the room, I needed to find a place for some of the things from her room. 

Our family room is upstairs right outside of Kristen’s bedroom so it was a natural place for some of the items to end up. A little re-arranging later and our often neglected family room is looking pretty good.

I moved the old radio to the top of the stairs, and added a shutter to it.  Love that look a whole bunch.

The tall white cabinet on the far wall is what was at the top of the stairs.  I like it so much better over on this wall.  I also used an old feed sack and made a new curtain tier for the window.  I changed out the quilt hanging behind the couch to a bit darker one and like it so much better.  You know how it goes.  You change one thing and then there’s that domino effect.  Yup, that’s where I was.

DH brought this old stove home one day and surprised me with it.  It’s in such wonderful condition and looks great right where it is, plus it’ was too heavy for me to move.

I made new pillow covers.  I’ve been looking at this chicken fabric at a local chain fabric store for over a year and finally had a place I could use it.  Birds creep me out but I love this fabric – go figure!

Our family room room has two dormers, each about 4’ wide and are so incredibly hard to decorate.  I’ve got a start on this one but the other one hasn’t gone anywhere yet.  Any suggestions?  I’ve already went the small table route and really don’t want to do that again.

All in all, I like the family room better than I ever have since we built the house 12 years ago.  Maybe that chicken fabric is what was needed all along.  What do you think?

Now that I have some of these smaller projects out of the way, I’ve got to get started on a bit bigger one.  I still owe my nephew a wedding gift from April.  At the rate things are going, it might get mailed with their Christmas card!

Time for a new “do”

I haven’t had much time lately for a big project but have managed to squeeze in a few little ones.  This is one project I completed (there is something to be said for completing something) and I’ll post about another one in the next day or so.

My ironing board cover had seen better days.  I’ve washed it to the point the stains weren’t coming out and it was getting pretty thin.  I have an extra wide board so you can’t just find covers anywhere and if you do the print just didn’t do it for me.  It didn’t make me all happy inside.  I absolutely do NOT like to iron.  However, I don’t like wrinkles either so I do iron and need all the help I can get to feel a little happiness in the process.

Here’s the before..boring!

I made my own pattern.  It wasn’t too tough. 

The challenge was finding something wide enough and long enough without having to tape a bunch of paper together.  I asked DH for a suggestion and out he came with a roll of Tyvec left over from building the house.  It worked wonderfully.  I highly suggest it.

And here is the after.  Ironing is a much happier place for me now. It doesn’t take much for me.  I really am an easy keeper.

btw – not my toys.  I share my sewing room with the grands, a sacrifice I am more than willing to make.

So, what are your feelings on ironing?  I have a friend who loves to iron.  How about you?  Love it, tolerate it or hate it?

Grilled pizza? who knew?

Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed more and more recipes and articles on grilled pizza.  I have to confess, I’ve been a scoffer.  Yes, I’m Lori and I’m a scoffer. [sigh]  I am so ashamed. 

I finally decided tonight was the night to give it a try for lack of other interesting supper ideas.  Do you call it supper or dinner where you’re from?  I have lunch during the day unless it’s a nice sit down Sunday dinner and we have supper at night but sometimes go out for dinner.  But breakfast is breakfast no matter what.

Sorry, back to the point of the post.  have I said lately that my concentration is off?  Can you tell?  Sometimes I feel like a dog that just noticed a squirrel.  Know what I mean?

Anyway, I cheated and bought pre-made crust, a must after a long work day.  This particular crust was “ultra thin” and even came with a package of sauce, purchased at our local “mart” store which by the way I detest going to especially after work, not that it matters but I do.  The whole “mart” thing is a necessary evil in my book.  The only tolerable time to go is at 6am and there’s not very many times that happens.

We fried up sausage, went to our little garden and picked fresh basil and banana peppers, used up some leftover tomatoes and mushrooms, added cheese and wallah!  the most incredible pizza was had!

And the best part of it was, DH & I made it together.  I love that!

The moral of the story is…don’t scoff until you’ve tried it. You may not know what you’ve been missing.

Garden update

We picked our first beans & sugar peas out of our little garden today.  There’s just nothing better!  Sautéed in a little olive oil and salted with coarse sea salt.  Oh yea!

that is until the tomatoes start coming on.  If the amount of tomatoes is close to the blossoms we’ve had, we’ll have them coming out of our ears.

Look there’s a little guy now.

When I was a kid, we always had a garden and they usually had a row or two of flowers.  My Dad had an incredible green thumb. 

We’ve got some kind of ant eating the leaves on the zinnias though and they’re starting on the beans. 

Bachelor buttons were always one of my favorites in Dad’s gardens.

If we ever get more than a sprinkle of rain, this view will be loaded with yellow sunflowers by early September.  We grew some last year to use in our niece’s wedding and loved it so much, we decided to do it again.  It sure beats mowing it all!

How’s your garden growing?

It wasn’t Santa Claus!

 

As I was coming out of the doors to my building tonight after work, I looked up and what to my wandering eyes should appear but a miniature (not so much) funnel cloud…

I stopped by our maintenance shed and watched is with a couple of the guys.  It was interesting seeing it move around.

I don’t typically do storms well.  Ask anyone who knows me.   So I was pretty proud that I was able to stand and watch this thing and not wet myself.  

Of course, I had to be strong as the maintenance guys wouldn’t have ever let me forget it if I acted scared.  Momma always told me “never let ‘em see you sweat”.

The weather later on said the funnel that was sighted didn’t have enough strength to reach the ground and cause damage although we didn’t know that at the time.

Not something I would want to see everyday but interesting just the same.

Hangin’ with Ella Rae

Some people cook with Rachel Ray, I got to do something even better…today, I got to hang with Ella Rae!

There just isn’t much of anything more delightful than a squealing baby.  If that doesn’t bring a smile to your face, I don’t know what will.