Three Things Thursday

1.  I've mentioned it before, but it's worth revisiting.  I love getting comments on my blog.  Don't feel like you have to.  I certainly don't want a fake or forced response.  I always read your comments.  I may not always reply to them, but I read them and they mean a lot to me.  In return I try to comment on other blogs too.  Because I follow/read many other blogs it's hard to always comment every time.  Sometimes I really mean to, but then, usually due to business I don't.  I tend to put this self imposed "I've taken too long and now it won't matter" rule that after a week or so I don't bother trying.  Of course, that is ridiculous.  Most bloggers I know (including myself) value (positive or constructive) comments in any way shape or form.

2. We've have a very interesting weather week where I live.  We are *this close* to breaking an over 100 year old record of the most rain in a spring (considered as March, April & May).  Even before this week many have already battled flooded basements and yards.  We have been very fortunate (In terms of our basement) and have kept dry.

What seemed like a typical rain storm on Tuesday night completely wreaked havoc on our town.  We were all at home and (some of) the kids had a great time playing out in the rain.

After it stopped I joined them outside and took SEVERAL pictures of them & their antics.  I also paused to capture some of the beauty in my yard.

 Peonies are one of my favorite flowers, I love to sit and smell them over and over.

For some reason I'm intrigued by raindrops and always try to capture them on camera.

We began to hear via fb the full extent of what had just happened.  Pictures were being posted and stories being told.  In essence many portions of our town were completely underwater.  History was being made all around us, things that people who lived here their whole lives have never seen was happening right in their back yard.  Jim & I took a drive around town.  It was tricky because you could only go a few blocks before coming upon another section that was submerged.  Major highways were closed around us.  Thousands without power.  It was very unreal to drive around and see things and we didn't even see all of it.  Here are a few shots I took from driving around & these were about 1 hour after the rain had stopped:

 You can find many more pictures on our local newspaper's website: Register Mail or on their facebook photo page.  I know there are a lot of other great pictures out there, it would be great to have them all in one place.  The most popular happening though was a video footage from the local community college.  Take a look.

At first you may think, no big deal, but wait until :36 on the video.  This video has been seen all over national t.v.  Good Morning America, The Weather Channel, etc.  Jim, had a friend from Louisiana call us last night because he saw it on the nightly news and wanted to check in on us.

3.  Mommy Matters:  We had a big moment here last night at the Peterson Family Zoo.  For the last time, we took the training wheels off of a bike and our youngest learned to ride on her own.  At first it included a lot of short rides with dad close by:

With a lot of practice and confidence it didn't take long to see her doing this:

taken this morning & having no problem keeping up with her big brother

One might think that I'm all tore up about my baby getting so big.  But not really.  Oh, I'm sentimental about it, but I'm fully ready to be leaving somethings behind.  Maybe it's because for almost 18 years I've had someone in the "little" stage and I've just had my full of it.  I treasure these moments, I really do, but I'm just as happy to be moving forward and going onto the next stages.