Raising them right:

Ruby's boots

They're just like Uncle Roy's. Pink, glittery stars and all. :)

Her first ponytail!

It's sort of like a bunkbed

Good thing Cora was on the lower bunk, she rolled off. :)

Maybe I can be a hairstylist...

If you've read my blog since the beginning, you may (but probably won't, and that's okay) recall my attempts at putting a cute little baby mohawk curl in Cora's hair. I failed miserably. So on Eda, I didn't even try.

After Eda's bath one day, I rubbed her hair a bit with the towel and pulled it off. This is what her hair looked like:

The baby mohawk curl comes naturally to Eda's hair. :)

Four Inches of Standing Water

This spring, (which was a while ago, I know) we got a lot of rain. So much rain that many places around us flooded. During this flooding time, Lil needed to get to the airport. No big deal, it's a two hour drive on the interstate. I offered to give her a ride.

Two days before her flight, the interstate was closed due to flooding. Lots of flooding. In the pictures you couldn't see the interstate at all. All of a sudden, instead of four hours driving time on interstate we were looking at eight to ten hours driving time over a mountain range. I still agreed to take her.

We left with plenty of time. A friend of mine watched Ruby and Cora so they didn't have to spend all day in the car. It was a cloudy day, rain was predicted. We got over the mountains without any difficulties and stopped for gas. A lady at the gas station asked us which way we were going. She was headed the opposite direction and wanted to make sure the roads were open. Then she warned us that we had a twenty-mile stretch of dirt road ahead of us where we would only be able to go ten miles per hour.

We actually made it past the point where she had said the dirt road was and no dirt, so I wasn't too worried. Maybe she had taken a different route. Then we hit it. The highway was under construction and the pavement was gone. Due to the rain and all the extra traffic the road was in horrid condition. It wasn't dirt. It was mud. Some of it was very deep mud. It was no exaggeration when she said 10 mph, that was about all we could go most of the way. For at least 15 miles, maybe further. It was a very, very long 15 miles. Good thing we had planned on Lil having time for lunch before catching her flight.

We eventually made it to the airport. Lil was there in plenty of time. I took a break to feed Eda and call Ray. While I was talking to Ray he got another phone call. It was a friend of ours calling to say that he'd heard the road over the mountain was now closed due to a slide. Ray decided to check it out for me. I sat there looking at my atlas figuring out how much farther I would have to drive to get home. It was suddenly looking like a seven or eight hour drive to get back and I would still have drive through the miserable road construction again.

Ray called back. He couldn't find anything about the road over the mountain being closed. What he did find was this: the interstate was open. They said there was still four inches of standing water, the road was open, use caution. We talked about it and I decided to give it a try. It would mean a two hour drive, no construction. My car could clear four inches easily.

The drive was great. Not much traffic since most people didn't know the interstate was open again. About two miles before the flooded section they had us narrowed to one lane of traffic and speed reduced to 35 mph. As I reached the water I was a bit nervous. There was a flagger standing there with a SLOW sign. I was definitely going slow. I got into the water. No big deal, my car was doing fine. I was just starting to feel like there was no issue when I hit the deep spot. Four inches? Are you kidding? The water was coming up onto the hood of my car. That was NOT four inches. About the same moment I also realized the water was not standing it was moving. Moving rather rapidly across the road, pushing on my car, which suddenly wasn't doing so fine. I gunned it a little and got through the worst. My heart was pounding by the time I got to the other side of the water. Now might be a good time to note that the interstate was lined with emergency vehicles: state patrol, fire trucks, ambulances. Lots of them. Just sitting there waiting for someone to get washed off the road. Very comforting indeed.

The rest of the drive was smooth. One funny thing, the only part of the drive where it wasn't raining? Right where the interstate was flooded. I don't know that I would recommend it, but I was glad I didn't spend as much time driving as I expected.

I also hoped the water had washed some of the mud off my car. No such luck:

This is what my car looked like when I got home, and for a couple of weeks afterwards until I finally got around to washing it. Almost has the wood paneling affect, don't you think?

Story Time