Thanks and Snow and Floods

Thanks to everyone who commented on the post about the short story writing class. You all helped give me clarity and a balanced perspective and I am grateful. I also had an email conversation with the teacher and we didn't agree but she was very understanding and ended up asking to forward our conversation to her mother, as the two of them have often discussed that very thing, and I gathered we two moms were of one mind.

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We've had some wacky weather this last week, first snow and then lots of rain and then flooding. The worst flooding was north of here but we had our share of high water, including a bit of drama at school when the Calapooia River flooded the play shelter and then when Paul sent the kids home early but the roads were blocked. You can read our friend Justin's take on this here.

Steven ran out to the road for the newspaper in his bare feet.

Jenny made a snowman with a proper storybook nose.

Here's Muddy Creek, with the old bridge under all that water somewhere, and our warehouse in the background, thankfully high and dry.

Here's Jenny out paddling in the ryegrass field. She so badly wanted to go boating on all these "lakes" and if you know her, you know how determined she is once she gets an idea in her head.

First it was an air mattress, which buckled in the middle and she got drenched. She tried a round galvanized tub and a green Rubbermaid tote that also dumped and drenched her. She begged Paul to bring the canoe home and talked about paddling it down the creek herself and then hauling it across the road. Muddy Creek is about the size of the Mississippi right now and I said absolutely. not. are you canoeing on Muddy Creek.

Someone suggested an inner tube. Paul said he had one at the warehouse so today he took Jenny over there and pumped the tube up for her and brought it home. Steven helped her haul the inner tube and a half piece of plywood across the road. Jenny brought a canoe paddle, and soon she was off on Lake Ryegrass, as pleased as if she was sailing the Seven Seas, headed for Australia.

Meanwhile, others in Oregon have lost houses and property and even lives. We were spared the worst and are thankful.