Anyone have a solution??

Okay, I seem to have a little bit of a problem.....We made a clothes line from our deck and the first time I hung clothes out there, it was so windy and the clothespins were so cheap that the weight of the clothes pulled the pins apart and they broke or fell off, leaving my clothes either just hanging on by one pin or they fell down. So we came to the conclusion that we needed to get those 'old fashion' clothespins that just have the slit down the center so the wind couldn't twist them apart. Well....I was at a garage sale a couple days ago that had a whole basket of these 'old fashioned clothespins for sale!! So I scooped them up and proudly brought them home showing Nathan my sweet buy! Since today was an extremely nice, hot and sunny day, I thought it would be a great time to do a load of laundry and hang them out to dry. Well, the good news is the pins worked great for keeping the clothes on the line and we had no problem with them breaking!! The bad news is that the pins left big brown spots on our clothes!! So I'm asking if anyone knows why they would be doing that?? Is it because they are too old and the wood is starting to wear off of them, or is it because maybe they haven't been used in a while so they are dusty and need to be run through some water before I use them again, or what?!?! Thankfully it was a dark load but there were a few lighter-blue stuff that have some nasty marks on them. I would appreciate ANY ADVICE anyone would have on this matter....thanks!!

Can we be normal, please??

We are enjoying being back at our own place and getting a little bit of 'normalcy' (if there is such a thing with us!!) Nathan called his supervisor today to see where he is supposed to show up for work on Monday and the supervisor said that they aren't working until at least Wednesday!! That's 2 more days that we can enjoy having Daddy home!! It is just still so wet around here that their work can't be started yet. We heard tonight that Mason City might have to shut their water off again too! It's crazy.... This job was supposed to start on June 2nd and now it is maybe going to be starting on the 18th, so they will have to work lots right away to get caught up.

We rented a movie last night and I just have to say that I miss Luverne's movie prices... :( It was a whoppin' $3.50 to rent a movie!! We are not used to that. Luverne was the good 'ol $.50, but what do ya do I guess??

I am starting to like Garner more than I did a couple weeks ago. It is starting to feel more like "home" (although it won't come close to Luverne!!) and our apt is suiting us just fine! We just giggle a little when we have to kick the fridge shut to close it and when our oven door falls off, but we know that we are making these sacrifices now so we can have a better future!! (and stay as a family in the process) Those things do really make us laugh though....oh, and 2 of our burners don't work (AND they are the front two!!) so that's not too fun....And I'm sure that it would be a sight to see when we are trying to walk/jump/skip over to the places in the floor that don't creek (super loudly!) when our kids are sleeping so we don't wake them up...but all in all this place is just peachy :)

For those of you who like to camp and maybe would like to visit us as well....we hear there is a great campground in Clear Lake (next town over) and it's right on the water so that would be something worth checking out!! Also, Clear Lake is a very touristy town in the summer with tons of cute shops and a nice big central park and stuff like that.

OH, and one more thing....WE'VE GOT MILK!!! :) We were able to get a hold of an ORGANIC dairy farmer in Garner (praise the Lord!!...and thank you Google) who has agreed to let us get milk from them!! We haven't been out there yet but plan to go tomorrow. I will make sure to let you know how it goes. We feel very blessed that there is a source for us to get milk and that it is close by! We need to find eggs yet, but I hope the farmer's wife would have an idea for that since the farmer had no clue. Also, there aren't any organic products of anything at our local grocery store so we have to get all that from Mason City when we go there.

Grab your hammer, I think we need to build an ark!!

We went for a walk around the town the day after all the flooding and every driveway pretty much had the same thing at the end of it....LOTS of soaked carpet, padding, rugs, furniture, etc. It was amazing at just how many houses basements were flooded!! House after house after house had piles of garbage sitting out! There were LOTS of sump pump hoses draining down driveways and onto the street, most with water gushing out of them! We couldn't do anything buy feel bad for the people.....(Oh yeah, and we saw dead CARP in the parking lot of the grocery store! They were huge!...like mini whales! It was from the river over-flowing and them swimming around the flooded area and then getting stuck when the water started to receed...interesting..)

We heard that Mason City (about 15 miles East of us) got about 10 inches of rain from that last big rain fall to give a total of 20 inches in the past couple weeks! Mason city's water was shut off due to flooding, which meant all the restaurants and stores were closed b/c of the unsanitary conditions without being able to wash your hands, etc...so no toilets could flush, no showers, no water was running..period. It was pretty bad! Plus to top it all off...we got ANOTHER 3 inches of rain last night!!

One kinda good thing that came from all this water was that when Nathan went to work on Monday, they told the crew that the whole operation is going to be shut down for the week b/c everything is flooded and there'd be NO way of getting into the fields (which are pretty much lakes as of now!) So Nathan has the whole week off!!! And to make things even better, he got PAID for the whole week too!! He has NEVER received paid time off, so it's been a treat to have him home and still be getting paid!!

Since we have this whole week with not too much to do, we decided to make a quick trip to St. Cloud on Tuesday, and we were at my parents house by 3pm. We wanted to get in a quick pontoon ride before the rain came! (My dad just bought a pontoon a couple weeks ago so we needed to test it out!) The boys LOVED it!!....even "I'm scared of the water" Caedmon was walking all over the place and throwing leaves into the water! We were very impressed! My mom's cousin Sylvia from Washington state came to visit so she was at my parents house too. It was fun to see her since it's been a good 8 years since we've seen her!

We didn't do too much else in St. Cloud (besides looking at the finished road out on the development and visiting the chiropractor) and we left by the morning on Wednesday. On our way home, we thought it would be fun to stop by our good friends house, Wade and Michelle, who live in Hanover (by St. Michael/Albertville) for a couple hours since it has been a YEAR since we've seen Michelle and the kids! Wade has stayed with us in Luverne while working in Sioux Falls, but it was nice to see him again too! Once we started gabbing and enjoying each other's company, we were convinced by Wade to stay the night! We had a wonderful waffle breakfast this morning and we left shortly after that! It was a great time!

Sylvia and Brayan (doesn't she look like my mom?!?)

Giddy up cowboy!

Lovin' the pontoon....except it was COLD!!

One of the endless piles of carpet.....

People's stuff being aired out

More 'reckage'

The loading dock at the grovery store!!!

More...


and more....

When it rains, it pours!!

Well, we just got back from driving around town and taking some pictures of the crazy amount of rain we got! Garner got about 10 inches of rain last week and right when it started to dry up, it rained and rained yesterday, last night and today. It's actually still raining out now but not as hard as before. It poured, and I mean down-poured all afternoon....straight down, no wind...just a heavy heavy rain for hours! The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.....(reminder: where ever you see water, it is NOT supposed to be there!)...no these are not picture of lakes that are normally there :)

This is our welcome sign in front of the golf course....(notice the light is underwater)

Someone's backyard....

Water gushing from someone's yard OVER the curb and into the road

Feed mill place.....

Used to be a planted field.....

Used to be grass.....

Parking lot of Alco's

This is why our grocery store is closed today....and probably will be for a while....

Some other business.....

Wanna buy that truck?

From our deck looking into our neighbors yard....

The road going to the grocery store....

The golf course...what a mess!!!

More golf course.....

One more golf course picture....

Hello Garner!

Much to my surprise, Nathan and his crew finished their work last night and they were able to come home today! That meant that I also finished the last things left to do in Luverne, turned in my keys, and left there around 11:30am. We were back in Garner 3 hours later and Nathan followed us in the house 10 minutes later! It couldn't have been better timing! The boys were SOOO excited to see their daddy and I was SOOO excited to have my husband back!! We had a nice supper here and all the kids are in bed. I just thought I would post an update quick and let you all know that we are all here in Garner getting used to our "new" place. Nathan has the weekend off (which will probably be the only weekend this whole summer) so we are going to enjoy eachother and being a family before he starts work on Monday. I'll post more later but for now I'm going to go hang out with my husband :)

So where does the family sleep???

Since I have had friends that have been asking me to update the blog more often (you know who you are! :) I will post tonight and show you a few pictures of what life is like in Luverne when all of your belongings are in another state. :)

We have been back in the absolutely wonderful town of Luverne for a few days now and I'm enjoying every minute of it (minus the packing part!). We haven't done much except hang out with Jen and Harley (her 3 yr old), pack, watch dvds on the computer (the kids do), pack, change our address at the post office, pack, get the oil changed in the van, pack, try to find stuff to cook on (thanks Jen!), pack, move stuff to storage, pack, try to get as little as I can for groceries, and oh yeah, did I mention pack?!?!? Okay, so I have been pretty busy since getting here on Monday, but it's been nice to have some help with the kids (thanks Jen!) and also have a few days to do it in so I don't feel so rushed. There is still a few more things to do in town before we leave but I'm sure those things will be taken care of soon.

We have all been sleeping on the floor on blankets that we left here, except for Brayan...he is sleeping in his pack n' play, which we all have thought about trying to climb in there with him but then I thought that it might not hold us all! :) The floor is not too bad, although I wake up a few times a night when my hips go numb. :) Eating is a real challenge when I don't even have silverware (Jen borrowed us a few spoons this morning for breakfast....oh yeah, and she gave us the cereal too!...how pathetic we are...). You can see in the picture of our living area that it is basically a complete disaster area in here with all my piles of stuff that need to go to storage or back to Iowa with us, etc...not to mention the kids' toys that they like to spread all over the room as to make sure I trip on them at least 8 or 9 times a day!

Tiernan has had a fever since Monday evening so he is actually been a very good boy. Today was better and he was up more than the last two days but he is still slightly warm to the touch. Pretty much all day monday and all day Tuesday he just laid down on his blankets and slept or just laid there staring at the ceiling. Every once in a while he would tell me when he had to go potty or ask me for something to eat. The picture below is of him eating pistachios with a cold wash cloth on his forehead :)

A little bit about Nathan....He is working with a storm crew in York Nebraska. He is operating machinery all day knocking down bad poles. They start nice and early at 6am and they got off late at 9pm. He is working 15 hour days (but getting paid for 17, so that's a plus!) He said last night that they said that the job should be done on Friday night so he would be back Saturday. So we'll wait to see! And yes, this is the longest time that we have been away from each other since we've been married (4-1/2 yrs!!). The longest before this was from a Monday morning to Friday evening when he moved to Luverne before the rest of us. So that also means that this is the longest that I have been in charge of the kids by myself! Yikes! That is another reason why I had to come to Luverne....thanks Jen! :)

This weekend is Buffalo Days in Luverne. There is parade on Saturday morning that I think we will stay for so I'll try to update as often as I can and post some pictures from that.

Tiernan with his pistachios

Happy Happy Bray Bray

The storm area...I mean, my living room

Could we get this pack n' play in a king size please??

Caedmon's corner

This is how Tiernan and I have been sleeping....super comfy (not!!)... Notice how I don't even have a pillow?? Thankfully there was one more blanket in our place that I could put my head on!

This is my life-saver Jen! (and me) right before posting this blog...she comes to keep me company at night!

Hello Luverne! (I need a nap!)

Watching a movie--yes, they were all sitting still for a few seconds so I had to get a picture!

This is what we ate supper on back in Luverne since all our stuff is moved!

Hallway from kitchen area/front door looking into living room

Door and dining area

Living room

Front of building --we are in the apt on the upper left (behind the tree :)

Buddies

The bathroom

Tiernan and Brayan's room

Tiernan's bed

Their closet--just to give you an idea of the bedrooms--our bedroom is just like this, just on the other side of the apt.

Our kitchen area

At our friends the Forsmans' when we were in St. Cloud.

Diane and I, and Brayan

Tiernan feedin' the baby calf

Tiernan and Caedmon throwing straw....so fun!



Wow! Where do I begin?!? Well, I can start by saying that the 24th grandchild on the Legatt side was born on Saturday night!! Jeremiah (Nathan's younger brother) and Elisa welcomed their new baby boy, Eli Thomas to this world. He weighed 8 pounds and was 20 inches. They also had a home birth assisted by Joy and both mom and baby are doing great! So Congratulations guys! We can't wait to meet him!


Okay, so Saturday morning we woke up, ready to pack for the day. Our plan was to pack and load the trailer that my mom was bringing from St. Cloud on Saturday and then Sunday we would move to Garner. Well, since our plans have a way of changing at the last minute, Nathan got a call Saturday morning to go on a storm crew to Nebraska for a week, leaving from Clear Lake IA Sunday morning at 7am. Yikes! So we starting packing really fast, which ended up not really being that fast since we have 3 little kids who need breakfast, lunch, naps, etc. But we packed and hurried around and my mom showed up with the trailer around 2:30ish. Nathan started loading the trailer while I kept packing and we left Luverne around 6:45pm and got to Garner around 10pm. We unloaded everything (with the help of our landlord) and got to bed around 12:30-1am-ish. Whew! I said in the last post that we would have a two day move...I was wrong, it was ONE!


It went pretty smooth, except for a few glitches when we got to our "new" apt. One thing about this apt is that it is on the second level. The way that you get up to that second level is on these very narrow, very steep deck steps that don't have a railing on one side (safe, i know!). And the stairs don't go up the side of the deck like any other normal persons would, these go up the middle of the deck thru a cut-out (which nathan hit his head on a few times while moving...not fun!) I will have to take a picture and post it since that was the only thing I didn't take a pic of. But yes, we moved all our stuff up through the small opening in the deck. Well, all except the bed since it wouldn't fit!! We had to manuver the bed up and over the side of the railing and onto the deck to get it into our place. And when I say 'deck', don't think of a nice stained wooden deck and railing like typical decks are, nope-not here, this deck is like a few boards painted gray with metal railings and spindles wide enough for my kids to fall through that wiggle back and forth when you touch them! Lovely.....


So anyway, we unloaded the stuff, went to bed and then Nathan left at 6:15am the next morning for Nebraska for a week....leaving me alone with my kids in a town where I don't know anyone or where anything is without a phone and without interent!!! (If you are bored with your day-to-day tasks, come live with us, I promis you won't be bored!!) Our cell phones don't work in Garner so we will be getting a land line. And this week internet will be in too... I will leave our contact info at the bottom of this post in case you want to send me a nice letter (I love mail... hint hint!! :) My mom stayed over-night with us and stayed until about noon on Sunday which was SO nice to have her help in the morning since Nathan had already left. We couldn't have done the move without my mom willing to drive the trailer to us and back and help moving, we appreciated it greatly Mom, THANK YOU!!!


So after the rest of the day by myself and the kids, I decided to take a long walk with the kids. We walked by their brand new water park just a block away from us, wow it is nice! It's got TONS of slides, big ones, small ones, you name it, it's there. There's water foutains and things that spray water, diving boards, just about everything. It was fun to walk by although I don't know if we will ever go since two-thirds of my kids are scared of water! Maybe Tiernan and Nathan can go if he ever gets a day off. (Funny story about Caedmon and water....most of you know how freaked-out he is of water, well when we were staying at the holiday inn, we were walking through the lobby towards our room when we passed this small water-fountain thing were water was trickling down some stone....caedmon saw it and started crying, loud..we were like 'caedmon, you are just looking at it! you don't have to go in it!' It was funny...poor kid :)


Since Nathan will be gone this week and we still have a bunch of stuff left to do in Luverne (finish putting stuff in storage, clean, etc) I decided to drive back here today and stay most of the week here. I figure I feel comfortable here, I have a phone, internet, JEN NEXT DOOR!! :). It really hit me when I drove back here today about how much this feels like home to me. I love everything about where we live(d) in Luverne. I love the views, the apt, the apt building, the stores, the people, my egg lady, our milk farmer, the tress, our laundry room! (the laundry room that we have in Garner is located in the basement that you access from outside that is down these cement steps into this icky, dirty, wet, cement room with spider webs and there's this dark hallway-like thing that leads to a single guys apt in the basement....not exactly where I want to spend my time. I think Nathan will be coming with me to do the laundry :)



Just for the summer...that's what I keep telling myself :) I hope and pray that once we are all settled, that we (I) will adapt to Garner like we did Luverne and it will turn out to be a great summer! So for now I am back in Luverne, enjoying the last few days here. On saturday there is a parade in town so I think I will stay for that and go out with a bang! :) Our kids have been such troopers during all this....and are getting very good at sleeping where ever they are. In the last week, they have slept and stayed in 4 different cities! Last Monday and Tuesday we were in St. Cloud, then we went to the hotel in Clear Lake IA for Wed, Thurs, Fri and then went to Garner for Saturday and Sunday and now Monday in Luverne!! They are also good in the car, which is a huge blessing! Caedmon is the most restless but as long as he can eat something, he's fine so he gets a lot of snacks in the car :) Tiernan is very surprising since he's such a busy boy, but once he gets in the car it is very unlikely for us to hear a peep from him! He just sits there and looks out the window. For those who are curious, it is about 3 hours (actually when I drove here today the timer on my van said exactly 3:00 when I pulled into our parking lot) from Garner to Luverne. It is also a little over 3 hours from Luverne to St. Cloud, and I think it's about a little over 3 hours from Garner to St. Cloud, so basically it's a nice triangle to all three cities!

Our contact info is:

1190 Division St. #4

Garner, IA 50438

641-923-2184 (this will be hooked up on June 5th)....this week you can get a hold of me on my cell since i'm in Luverne and it works!!

Well, I think I'm going to go to bed. I'm tired!! My kids have all been in bed since 6:45pm so I think it's time I join them!