Washington County Flood, 2010

In 2005, a very warm week melted a lot of the snow in the mountains of So. Utah causing the melted snow to come down the mountains and quickly fill the rivers. The rivers filled so fast and moved so quickly that it tore apart the banks and overflowed onto property. Homes were literally moved off of foundations and floated downstream. Many homes were lost and a number of lives as well. The floods made national news.

Since 2005, the county has been preparing in case of another flood. The banks of the rivers were enforced with large rocks and built up to hold a large volume of fast moving water. It came in handy this week as we have seen rainfall that exceeds that of our average rainfall for 2 years worth of time. It is still raining as I write this and many of our communities are facing serious damage. With that said, the preparations that were made have shown to be successful. No homes have been lost in So. Utah and not one life has been lost either. The water is higher then it was in 2005 but it is a lot more controlled. There was a scare that a dam would break which would have devastated the area, but experts declared the dam safe and we are just holding on now until the storm ends tomorrow. Christmas Eve should bring some sunshine and hopefully some drying out of the saturated Earth. A rainbow shown this morning and a woman was on the radio talking about how beautiful it was. She lost her husband in the 2005 floods and she felt that the rainbow this morning was sent from God to let us all know it was going to be ok. That made me smile.

These pictures were taken today of the creek that runs by a park in our neighborhood. Usually you have to climb down a rather steep hill to get to a very small creek at the bottom. The creek is usually so small you can jump across it. Today, the "creek" was at the level of the trail and in some places it completely covered the trail.

These photo's were taken yesterday of the Virgin and Santa Clara Rivers. Keep in mind that both of these rivers are usually only about a few feet deep (in this area) and the width of a trucks length.

Virgin River by Wal-Mart.

Again by Wal-Mart

Santa Clara River

Fast moving Santa Clara River

The water is at the height of the bridge. Many bridges have been taken out in surrounding communities while some homes in Arizona have been washed away. Two pedestrian bridges were washed off a golf course down the Santa Clara River yesterday.

The Nutcracker

I wish I had actual photos of the Nutcracker, but since it's a copyrighted production, I have to purchase all pictures and videos. Bah humbug, but I did cave and spent way too much money so I could have a picture of my little girl in her baby mouse attire. SO. DANG. CUTE. I don't have the pics yet, but these will have to do. She was on stage for about 30 seconds of the 1 1/2 hours, but she was a star :) She was one of the 14 baby mice that ran across that stage. She had a lot of support from family (including her proud Papa Titus that drove round trip in one day and even dressed up to see her). We appreciate EVERYONE who came to support her. They did a good job putting this together. Anna had a great time running around backstage with the other little girls. She will remember this forever. She never was nervous and she loved seeing the other dancers on stage performing. She REALLY wants to be one of Mother Hubbard's children in the production next year. I'll cross my fingers that she grows a little! She got to pick out her very own Nutcracker after her last performance and she got flowers! One thing MOM won't miss is doing her hair every night but other than that, it was a PERFECT experiance.

Even the boys saw the show!

Another Addition of the "Mystery Photographer"

Question: Who likes to watch tv, plays with legos, and LOVES to torture the cat? Have you guessed yet?

Julianna Banana is 6!

My little, baby girl is now 6! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! She has always been such a light- brightening up every room with her smile. I love her self confidence, her love for singing and dancing, her willingness to try anything, her happy view of life, her pretty eyes, the sweet things she says to me and Mike (not always to her brothers), the notes and pictures she writes and draws for me, and just the wonderful gift she is in my life.

If you know my little girl, you'll know that she LOVES crafts! We decided to do a party at Michael's crafts for her and her friends. It was easy, the clean-up was great (because we didn't have to do it), and the kids were very cute! They made their own little boxes. Aunt Krista watched Brayden for us and Grandma Winslow came and helped out! Happy birthday to the best daughter in the world!

Thanksgiving

We had three Thanksgivings this year. We had Mike's dad and siblings over on Wednesday for a lovely Honeybaked Ham. It was fun and I got to hold Krista and John's baby (that is the most important thing to report after all).

On Thursday we went to Cedar City for a dinner with the Bradshaw side of the family (Mike's mom). We were at Mark and Stacy's home. The kids all played downstairs and were spoiled by the older kids and we ate a LOT of food (except for Tyson of course) and then we played a game. It was fun hanging out and talking to all the cousins!

Right after dinner we headed to Salt Lake. It was a fairly uneventful trip and I slept a lot of the way so I can't tell you much :) We stayed with my parents in Salt Lake and the kids played the whole time. I went shopping with Mandi for Black Friday (which started at 10 pm on Thursday). It was fun, although the 3 hours in line at Toys r Us made me NEVER want to go back there again. We were up until 6am shopping. I got the best stuff at Kohls. I had a good time and I might consider doing it again :)

I got Mike an early Christmas present- 2 tickets to the Jazz/Lakers game!!! Oh my gosh! We had so much fun! The game started bad and I was afraid it was an omen for the rest of the night, but the team turned around and the Jazz were ahead the majority of the game. They played SO well. Towards the end it was SO close and I had no idea who would win, but the Jazz pulled it off and Mike was thrilled! Merry Christmas hon!

On Saturday the kids played in the snow and with their cousins (along with a girl Mandi babysits that might as well be a cousin). We just had a really good time. We came home on Sunday during a really bad snow storm. We stopped in Orem to visit one of my college friends and her husband (Devi and Jeremy). It was good to see them! When we got about 20 min. north of Cedar, the traffic was at a standstill and it took us 2 hours to drive those 20 miles into Cedar. Grrrrrr! It was nice to stop and have some leftover Thanksgiving dinner with Mike's mom, his cousin, and his Grandpa.

We ended up getting home much later than we had hoped, but it was a good trip. Here are some pics......something I know you've been waiting for :)

Zorro/Captain Hook?

A bunch of cute kids. Ava, Alex, Tyson, Brayden, and Anna. Don't know where Darek had gone....

Mike's favorite drink of the season is hot chocolate.

Yep....nose bleed section, but WHO CARES!! It was a great game!

Warming up

The game is SO close!

Ahh...so cute... AND the JAZZ WIN IT by 6 points!

Much needed update

Hi. I know....it's been awhile. Every time I've thought about updating, it seems like way too big a chore so I have avoided it. I figure I better get my fingers typing and some photo's up before Christmas or I will be too overwhelmed to do anything on here.

I guess I'll do a quick brain update since that is the most boring and requires no photo's. This little device has been on for a couple of weeks and they started it with the electric current being at the lowest setting, .25. I was on that for 1 1/2 weeks and it didn't really help. The magnet that I swipe across the device when I feel a seizure coming on was set at .5 and that did help stop a few seizures. The device has been increased twice so this week I am adjusting to .75, and although it is not very comfortable when it turns on every 5 min., I have had NO seizures for 1 1/2 weeks! I am so happy about that. Today is the first day that I have felt seizure-ish at all. I am hoping for continued success.

The biggest difference has been my energy level. I have not had to sleep as much which is HUGE. I think Mike is really the only person in the world that knows what a toll this has taken on me and I can't explain how I feel about this. I consider it to be a miracle- really. I almost broke into tears at my doctors office on Monday with joy and gratitude. I try to put up a front that all is well and that I am just pushing through but I haven't been. I have have been one seizure away from quitting everything- I mean EVERYTHING. I couldn't keep going, and I CAN'T keep going like I was. I try not to think about "if this doesn't work" because it HAS to work. There is nothing else out there and I am so hopeful that this is the answer to my prayers and the priesthood blessings I have been given. What am I doing pouring out my emotions like this to a screen? I am overwhelmed by hope right now.....that's all I can say to explain how I feel. Hope and faith.