Flood of '08 Revisited

It is crazy to think that this week marks the anniversary of the flood. We are all just praying that it won't happen again this year. A couple of small towns near the river have flooded some, but thankfully we didn't get enough rain to cause the river to rise here. Here are some pictures in memory of last year. It is weird to think that it all happened, but it did. It is sad to drive down the main strip through town and see that so many business never opened back up from the flood.


The view at the top of our street.



Our apartment mid-flood.



The view of the main road through town.



Jonathan's precious music building. They had to have classes all over the city last year. It was rough.



Where we lived last summer. Rough.


This is about a block away from where I work.


THis is a bad picture, but this is our old street now. They have demolished half of the buildings and it doesn't look like they are planning on rebuilding any time soon. Glad we moved.

Needless to say, I am glad that it is over and that we now live on higher ground, so if it does flood again, we will be safe. Now, lets just hope there are no tornados this year!

The Wedding

Sorry that is has been so long! A lot has happened. We went to Las Vegas for Nick and Margaret's wedding and had a lot of fun! The wedding was really nice and we had a blast hanging out with family. Here are just a couple pictures from the event.


The whole family



The girls having fun.



The guys being boys!

It was a fun trip. I am really getting to the point, where I am tired of saying goodbye to family and knowing the next time I am going to see them is far away. Its time to live closer!

Fun Fun.

I am determined to post more often! Not too much in news lately. Jonathan and I are off to Las Vegas on Thursday for Nick's wedding. It will be a fun weekend! Work is finally slowing down! Ya Hoo! Very excited about that. The weather is getting warmer. Life is good. So the past few weeks the girls from work and I have been going to Karaoke night and this local place. Tons of funs. Here are some pictures of our most recent adventures.


um... yeah


Amanda and I





Me, Amanda and Allison





Fishy face with Al!

Good times. For anyone in the area Karaoke is Thursday night in North Liberty! Come one and all!!!

Hey All.

Been a while. Been busy. Jonathan had his recital this past week. His parents and 3 of 6 siblings were here. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them and just chill. It was also my first Saturday off since Christmas. Much welcomed! It is always sad when family leaves, but this time wasn't so bad because we were able to say "see you in a few weeks" as we will all be in Vegas in 2 weeks for Nick's wedding. It will be fun to hang with everyone! Welp, the real reason that everyone reads blogs is for the pictures, so here are some pictures of recent Allen's goings on.



I was leaving the mall and the "Red Hat" club was in front of me. It was kinda sad because the lady with the walker got stuck in the sliding door, it closed as she wasn't fast enough to get past it. So I had to take a picture. They were cute old ladies.




We went to a Rough Riders hockey game in Cedar Rapids and they were selling these horns. OF COURSE Jonathan had to have one I mean come on! It was awesome!




Being the prefectionist that he is, Jonathan is shaping the mouthpiece so he can get a better sound. It was a 5 dollar horn!


And yes, this is him tuning the horn. He has a tuning app on his phone. I love my tromboneing husband!









There is an Oregon Trail app for iphone. You can now get attacked by a bear!! It is nasty looking too! Kinda funny though.

Seriously?!?!?!?

I am completely speechless. All I can manage to say is SERIOUSLY!? Needless to say, here is why...

So I went to work on Saturday thinking that it was going to be your average long, busy day. Well, it was that and so much more. SO they day went fine and then about 10 minutes to closing a rush of people decided that they wanted help. I was working with a couple on an invitation order, Amanda was helping a couple girls gets bridesmaid dresses ordered, LeAnn was vacuuming and Julie had greeted these 2 prom girls that had walked in. We were all in a hurry and just wanted to get home. After the craziness subsided and everyone left, we were all noticing that the store smelled a little funny. Thinking that someone was just a little funky, we shrugged it off. It continued to get worse and we thought maybe it was the prom girls. So a couple of the girls went back to the room that they were in to see if the smell was there. Welp, sure enough there is was. Poo. Diarrhea on the floor, the curtain, the pillow, and the cushion on the bench!!!! Apparently just because you are old enough to shop for a prom dress by yourself, does not mean that you are old enough to know when to go to the bathroom. I mean COME ON!!!! Who does that? So Jonathan went to the store and bought gloves and carpet cleaner and I then had to proceed to clean it up. Yuck. Not how I pictured spending my day. I think I used almost a whole bottle of Febreeze to try and get rid of the smell. We then bagged up all the poo-infested stuff and took it to the dry-cleaners.

There is just no way that happened. Also, if one more person tells to wait until I have kids because I will be cleaning up poo all the time, I will freak. This is SO not on the same level as cleaning up your own child's poo. This is not in my job description. So enough ranting. All I have left to say is to the girl that poo'd in the room and well at least we know that "you can really work it out" Thank you Wesley WIllis for that marvelous quote. Who is Wesley Willis you ask... Here is a little clip to introduce you if you don't know him.

I Love Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! I love this Holiday. Even when I was single I loved it. Jonathan was super sweet and sent flowers to work on Friday. Tulips. My all time favorite! Then I came home on Saturday from work to a nice home ooked meal, that we don't do often enough and the most amazing chocolate cake ever! I am calling it my better than anything and everything cake! Loved it! Now we are watching Be My Valentine Charlie Brown. So Fun. Here are a couple pictures of my way pretty flowers. Also notice the super cute vase he bought for them. I have the best husband ever! Happy Hearts Day All!

Late Christmas Post...

Over due on a new post. Surprise surprise. Jonathan and I had a killer time in Colorado for Christmas, minus that fact that a grand majority of the time was spent trying to help whoever had the flu bug at that particular point. We stayed in a cabin in Woodland park, and by cabin I mean a large house that is in the mountains. At least on person was sick each day. Sad. I was the only one who didn't end up sick. Not quite sure how that happened. Poor Jonathan got sick our last day there and so we left to come home a day later. Yea for me for getting an extra to spend with my parents, and Kim and Chris and the kids, but sad for Jonathan. We stayed at the cabin Sunday-Friday and then crashed at my parents house until we left on Monday. It was so fun to get to see and spend time with everyone. Jonathan and I really are enjoying Iowa, but being in Colorado and spending time with family, made us really wanting to be closer and see family more often. We have a year and a half left, and then who knows? We want to go out west. I will tell you one thing, I don't think that I can handle one more winter here than is absolutely neccesary. It is frigid here. Tonight the low is -36. Yikes. When you have to close the schools just becasue of cold, that is a bad bad sign. Anyway, back to Christmas, Jonathan's parents were extremely generous in their gifting...When I was making my list this year I was putting a bunch of stuff just for the heck of it, totally not expecting to get most of them...I was wrong in that assumption. They got me my Kate Spade flatware! I was shaking when I unwrapped it, once I new what it was, and then was in super shock when I opened the second place setting. So amazing!!!!! Here is a picture! They are super cute!



Before...


After...



My parents also got us a kick butt food processor. We are having a fun time figuring out things to use it for. If anyone has any suggestions or recipes let me know! The presents were wonderful, but the best part was being able to see family and just be around each other, even if everyone was sick at some point. We wanted to split up the cooking for the week being that there were 12 adults and 2 kids, so we decided to do a cook-off. Each couple was a team and then the singles were a team. Jonathan and I made Gyoza. It was awesome and I am so glad that we learned how to cook it. Everyone made really delicious food, but the single team brought the heat and smoked everyone! Who can compete with game hens for everyone, with that many people, appetizers, 3 side dishes, homemade cookie ice cream sandwiches covered in magic shell, AND a freaking murder mystery dinner?!? No one could and so therefore, they took home the Allen Goblet of Awesomeness, and rightfully so. No need to fear though, we fully intend to bring our A game next time...mwah ha!!

Here are some pictures from the cabin. All the rooms had a theme. Jonathan and I stayed in the tent room. That's right our beds were inside a tent on the floor. It was pretty much awesome!

The Cabin

Our Killer tent room!

The view to downstairs.