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June 11, 2008 at 5:38 pm · Filed under Chris' Posts, Nicole' Posts, Puppy Posts
The floods definitely came up!!
From Chris’ Perspective:
So this Sunday morning started with quite a start. Nicole let the dogs out at 6:45 and came running up the stairs to wake me up! I didn’t really hear what she was saying, but when I got to the window, I found out…
More Pictures
As you can imagine we were a little worried about how much further the water would rise. As the day went on we kept a close eye on it. The water raised a little higher than our pictures show, but not too much. By the end of the day the water had receded and we again had a yard. The very strange thing was how the entire valley was filled with water. If you’ve been to our house you know that the “river” ran right over our fire-pit. The water washed away a 4 foot tall pile of wood, our railroad tie benches, a few cinder blocks, lots of bricks, and a BIG tree that we used as a bench.
A little bit of water came up in our crawlspace. We didn’t have too much stuff down there, and nothing was ruined. We pulled all the boxes out and moved their contents to Rubbermaid containers. When all was done, our storage was more organized, the dog poop was cleared from our yard, and our fire pit was cleaned out.
From Nicole’s Perspective:
6:40 is our typical wake-up time, as determined by our dog’s bladders. Sam nudged me awake, and then persisted until I complied and stumbled bleary eyed down the stairs. As I opened the front door, a foreign sound assaulted my ears: shooooooooooooo. I rubbed my eyes open to see Lexi catapulting toward a HURTLING RIVER…in our front yard! I suddenly realized I was NOT tired, and ran up the stairs 2 at a time. I shook Chris awake and ran back downstairs to make sure what I had seen was, in fact, a reality…and it WAS! What is going on?!
Now, honestly, it’s quite a shock to go to bed with a football-field-sized yard, and wake up with only the end zone left. After the initial shock wore off, we actually started to enjoy the novelty. It was like having lake (river)-front property, without having to pay for it. And, since we couldn’t do anything about it, why worry? I imagined carrying our big screen T.V. upstairs to watch the flood with my legs dangling off the catwalk as our house goes under water. Of course, if that had actually happened I of course wouldn’t have been so calm…but it didn’t, so I was. It was kind of fun!
It was NOT fun to drive around town and see that this “excitement” was actually severely impacting our town and many people. Since Sunday, I’ve talked to people that had to leave their houses at 2:00 in the morning, and haven’t been back. There are still houses under water, and Webster City isn’t even a high flood zone! It has definitely left me in awe of nature’s strength…and therefore, its Creator’s strength. One night, and our stable, comfortable life could be washed away in the nearest current.
So, that’s my perspective. Here are the blessings that we count from this situation: 1) I don’t have to pick up the last 4 weeks of dog poop! 2) The “prairie” won’t have to be mowed for a while. 3) We were forced to organize the junk in our crawl space…something that may NEVER have happened 4) That huge tree trunk…it’s gone! 5) That old water heater that’s been in the woods for the last 40 years…it’s also gone! 6) Everyone that we care about is safe, and everything that can’t be replaced is OK. 7) I don’t have to come up with “small talk” conversation for the next week! I guess I could almost say, yay for floods!
From the Dogs Perspective:
You spend all your time marking your territory then God pees all over it. We’re going to have a busy week.
May 21, 2008 at 2:30 pm · Filed under Chris' Posts
Every year as the snow melts and the weather starts to heat up, we begin to move out of our stuffy homes into the great outdoors. When this happens we desire “new things” to help us enjoy our surroundings. This year we have some really fun things.
First, in preparation for having a large group of guys over for dinner we knew we needed a grill. After using a charcoal grill for a year at our apartment, I decided that gas was the only way to go. I did my regular rounds of research online and set out to Fort Dodge. After looking at Wal-Mart and Sears we settled on a black Kenmore with 3 burners. I’ve used it maybe 4 or 5 times and I’m very pleased. It has nice porcelain grates and a very sturdy construction. Plus a 5 year burner warranty and I was sold.
Next, we knew that we needed a place to sit as we ate our perfectly cooked meat and admired the grill. After more online research I found that Wal-Mart was definitely the cheapest and had enough quality to make the purchase worthwhile. So we bought an 8 piece set with a large table, 4 chairs, a small table and 2 folding chairs. This gave us the most seating capacity for the money.
Finally, Nicole has long wanted a motorcycle. I have always been interested but never taken the time to learn. So, as summer started and with gas getting really expensive, I decided now was a fine time to get one. I have been looking around on dealer websites, ebay, and on craigslist.com. After reading reviews and articles about good bikes to learn on I had settled on a few favorites. Then on my way home from work, I noticed an older motorcycle for sale. I stopped by and learned that it was an 1982 Nighthawk 450. This was right in the size I was looking for, and being that it was older, I wouldn’t have to worry about scratching it up if I tipped it over. So, after talking to some friends with motorcycles about it and getting their thoughts, Nicole and I talked…and we bought it!! I have been practicing in my yard and have already passed the written test to get my license. I will take the riding test next Wednesday and then I’ll be off and running. Nicole is going to take her time and get really comfortable before she takes her test.
Click these links for pictures:
Grill and Stuff - Including some of the flowers Nicole has decorated our house with!
Motorcycle
May 5, 2008 at 2:23 pm · Filed under Chris' Posts
So lately I’ve been on a breaking streak. Last weekend, I was DJ’ing a wedding for a friend and was testing out the slide show the night before. After getting everything lined up right and looking good I started to put stuff away. I turned off the projector, changed the monitor settings on the laptop and then started to put the laptop in the case. That’s when I heard a loud noise, which was the projector being pulled from the table it was on. After the crash the projector made a noise I can only describe at VERY bad! When I picked up the projector small pieces of mirror fell out…not good. I was felt both angry and stupid at the same time.
So then on Saturday, I decided to be a good son-in-law and clear trees at the Stellmaker’s new property. My brothers, Brian and Matt, helped me out. Just to make things interesting the trees we needed to cutting down were right next to the foundation of their new house. Thus, it is very important not to drop these trees on the cement for fear of cracking it. To help ensure that this didn’t happen, I brought the four-wheeler and winched the trees to pull them in the right direction. For 4 trees that method worked great. One tree was even over the foundation and was able to be pulled in a safe direction. So, when I tree was hanging over the neighbors shed I didn’t think it was going to be a problem. We hooked the winch cable up and I cut a wedge out of the front of the tree. We then tensioned the winch and I started to final cut. That’s when it all started going wrong. As I finished the cut, the tree jumped off the stump and stuck in the mud. At the same time, the top of the tree swung sideways (away from me) and got hung up against the closest tree.
To say the least, there was some yelling and words exchanged and we took stock of the situation. I believe the entire problem was that we didn’t connect the winch high enough on the tree, so we didn’t have enough leverage to pull it straight over. After repeated attempts to pull the tree and break the branches(including an attempt to pull the four wheeler with the truck), we decided to try to cut more off the bottom of the tree, shortening it and hopefully freeing it from the tangle. After two times of me cutting the tree and then running like crazy. (this was scary) We decided to give it a running pull and hopefully be done with this tree. Matt and I sat on the back of the four wheeler and Brian drove it. As the winch reached tension we all heard a loud metallic crack. I soon noticed that only 3 of the four wheels were now spinning. We had cracked the U-joint of the front left drive train. Even with this problem we still had a tree up in the air. So, I began to slowly set the tree down and hoped that it would miss the shed. It slowly moved toward the shed and several branches lay on top of it, but no major damage was incurred.
So all that to say I like it much better being the guy who fixes other peoples little mishaps then being the one who has the problem to begin with. Hope you enjoyed my tail of whoa. Please let me know what you think.
P.S. Pictures soon.
April 1, 2008 at 5:18 pm · Filed under Nicole' Posts
So, yesterday was a wonderful day. I’m beginning to realize, though, that after you turn 21 the world doesn’t think your birthday is quite as important as you think it should…what’s up with that?! Thank goodness for husbands, family and friends!
The day started out with Chris making me breakfast in bed! It was quite a feat, to be honest, because I ordered french toast…and he didn’t know how to make french toast! He learned, was the first one out of bed, and woke me up with a slightly in-tune birthday song. Great way to start the day! Then I got a fun birthday call from my parents, another from the parents-in-law, and then off to school!
Now, this is what really miffed me…I still had to do all my regular work, even though it was my birthday! I guess I got over it, but I wasn’t happy. 
Chris had a birthday cake waiting for lunch, I finished the day, and then came home. I chose NOT to work out…birthday treat…and got ready for a fun date with the man!
So Chris comes home, and has a GOURMET dinner planned! Okay, so not quite gourmet, but pretty darn close for a guy that doesn’t even like to make his own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! He made chicken breast covered with dijon mustard and sun-dried tomatoes, french bread and green beans. I opened presents (tae-bo videos to work off the excess I gained from eating so much birthday cake!) and then we went to “Fool’s Gold”. Surprising, very cute! I give it and the day two thumbs up!
And then, back to work the next day. Whoever decided life should continue on our birthdays?!
March 28, 2008 at 8:10 am · Filed under Chris' Posts
I’ve found a little program that makes my life a little easier and I thought I would share it with all of my adoring fans (Mom). I have often wished that my web browser had its own volume control. That mostly comes from listening to music or podcasts and playing addicting flash games. These games often have music that is very loud and annoying and drown out my music. One day I got fed up with it and found FlashMute. This program loads to your system tray and gives you control over flash music from your webbrowser. FlashMute has a volume slider as well as a mute button and a few other small features. This is really helpful if you want to talk on Skype or listen to iTunes and still browse the internet. You can get it from Softpedia.com. The program is spyware free and very stable. An editor at Download.com gave a review here. I hope you find this as helpful as I did.
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